The earliest mention here (that isn’t the name of a fictional character) was in 2011.
Yeah. I was a traditional camper. I don’t anymore.
Well, I don’t even ‘glamp’. But I suppose I have.
Colorado 10th Mountain Division Ski Huts. There is wood there. But you have to melt snow for water on the wood stove (more of a pain in the ass than you might think). And well you have to get your butt there on x-country skis. But it’s a stove and a roof and bed.
Another time at State Bridge CO. It looks like they have upscaled a little bit. But this was an afternoon of music food and… other substances. For myself and my friend - beer. We stayed in a yurt. I think it may have had a mini fridge. But it had a bed and a deck. Had to bring sleeping bags.
actually, the first time i heard it was on a K-drama, and thought it was a translation error … later found out it wasn’t
glamping originally meant the people who pretty much had a 2nd house on wheels and had hot tubs a full kitchen widescreen TVs with PlayStations and such in their “campers”
other than being in the woods or at a campsite they couldn’t tell the difference between being there or at home …
I don’t really mind the concept as such.
I don’t go camping to go camping anymore. I go camping because that might be the best/only accommodations near the activities I actually want to do (nearby hiking, kayaking, etc). My days of “roughing it” as the main attraction are now long behind me.
Of course, it’s possible to take it too far, but that’s true of anything.
QFT. “Roughing it” these days means staying at a resort that only has 4 stars.
Or 4 bars. Whatever.
There is a manga about camping that has mentioned glamping. This thread made me wonder what the actual Japanese word for it is: it is Guranpingu (グランピング). (Which I would have guessed to be “big penguin”.)
I’ve heard of it mostly as a commercial offering – a company offering tents on platforms with amenities which could even be breakfast in bed, spa facilities, etc. But there’s wilderness-adjacent scenery, and relative quiet.
I have enjoyed sleeping in hiking/skii huts in summer, a nice break from squatting in the dirt. And once my whole family plus two dogs stayed three days in a sweet little Swedish-inflected cabin complex in the Sierras which had an excellent restaurant. The most luxurious accommodations I’ve ever experienced on a hiking trip. I’d do that again!
I’ve done what they call “glamping” at music festivals quite a few times. We fly in without needing to try to carry camping supplies on the airplane, drive to the venue, walk in to a spacious, actually waterproof tent with real beds that is already set up, enjoy the festival, and then leave without needing to take down the tent and pack everything up. There are also usually private bathrooms and showers for the glamping people. It’s expensive but totally worth it to me.
Tbhe concept of pitching a tent over a semi-permanent platform goes a long way further back than that. People have been pitching yurts over platforms for hundreds of years, and Western mining “camps” that became towns like Butte, MT, Telluride, CO, and Deadwood, SD all started as basically a collection of A-frame and Sibley tents pitched over platforms. Pitching a tent over an elevated platform has numerous benefits, including ventilation and minimizing dust, preventing snow drifts from building up against the side of the tent and freezing it to the ground, providing at least some measure of protection against rodents and insects, and of course offers a stable platform for tables, benches, et cetera.
“Glamping” (a neologism combinging “glamour” and “camping”) means different things, but in my book as long as you aren’t running a diesel generator all night to power floodlights and an air conditioner, or blasting music loud enough to be heard a quarter mile away, you’re camping. Not everyone enjoys the challenges of cooking over an open fire or has the experience and skills to pitch a tent on an uneven or sloped site, and just getting people out into nature so they can appreciate that the money spent on maintaining National Parks and Forests is a genuine public benefit is a a positive. Some of the ‘glamping’ operatings are a bit over the top for my taste, but for many people without the skills, experience, or desire to go out and suffer through the misery of making all of the mistakes that you have to make to learn to be a good ‘rough camping’ expert, it’s a way to experience some degree of nature without being miserable or feeling frightened.
Stranger
Just finished reading Ian Frazier’s Great Plains, and apparently there’s documentation that explorers/travellers in the West in the 19th century used a form of air matresses – eg. Lewis and Clark.
Yeah, I think I saw them first in some kids book I read when I was maybe 8 or 9 which was published in the 1930s. Then, there was the awesome campsite in the original 1960s Parent Trap with Hayley Mills.
Mainly I’d be concerned about having to carry extra weight around. If you can manage an air mattress, feel free. My back would love having one if the hassle didn’t literally outweigh the benefit. I just don’t see the point in using these sorts of activities as modern day penis measuring contests.
So I gotta carry a yardstick along with the air mattress?
If it works for you. I find a tape measure more appropriate
I dunno, my air mattress/sleeping pad weighs less than a pound and rolls up just a little larger than a beer can.
Back in the 80s when the children were small, we stayed at a French camping site in a pre-pitched tent with all mod cons. There were two bedrooms with folding beds, a well-equipped kitchen area and chairs and tables.
“Glamping” was not a word back then, but our tent would certainly have qualified.
Being a bit younger than some of you, I’ve come across the term in the mid to late 2000s, used in my presence first by my wife. That was during the tail end of her taking the time and energy to go to Burning Man every other year or so.
It was used in a very pointed way about how some celebs or wannabes would show up at the burn with people to do everything for them, set up their stuff, and/or people who flew into Reno, rented oversized RVs and spent the entire burn doing nothing but drugs, booze and parties (which wasn’t her thing, she was originally an artist before giving up on art and getting her PhD in Physics).
For her, Burning Man was about the artistic community, the exhibits of creativity, and the fun of a non-commercial community (no cash). And yeah, even by the mid to late 2000s when she stopped going, it was already getting pretty far gone into the party / there-to-be-seen thing, but she’d gone for 5-6 burns for over a decade, and could see it getting worse each time.
So, that’s my experience with the term.
For the side conversation on camping, my folks would do the car-campsite thing once or twice a year during my youth, mostly because my step-mother enjoyed it, although I grew bored quickly since I couldn’t read after it got dark.
I also did a good bit of Scouts camping for a few years before I had a major disconnect with certain expectations - and I was the closest to being a “glamper” there, because my family had a two burner Coleman stove which I was always encouraged to bring (dear god it was heavy) because camping in Southern NM means a LOT of the time there’s nothing to burn to cook with. 
Yes, desert camping in California’s the same. Plus, there are so few area you’re allowed to have an open fire.
Well, there is this Monk, living in a cave in Outer Mongolia. 
We have done a LOT of SCA car camping. You dump your stuff out near your camping spot, maybe a cot or just a big pile of sheepskins for a mattress (not much power available, back in my day few used inflatable mattresses.). But yeah it is a big tent, camping chairs, a table etc, etc. Not quite “glamping” but a far trek from hiking in camping also. Toilets are usually porta potties.
And back in the day, safaris that had a huge train of supplies were pretty 'glamp" also.
I went camping a few weeks ago. The battery in the remote that starts the fireplace was dead, so I had to walk across the RV and push the button manually. That’s as close to “roughing it” as I intend to get.
Or a great semi-autobiographical book by Mark Twain.