We had a couple of friends who took their families “glamping” a few weeks ago. They extolled the virtues of lower costs and the fabulous service, and even invited parts of our family to come stay with them for a couple of nights. This was not the first time we were invited to “glamping”, and it still left a bitter aftertaste once we were about to leave.
But all in all. I get camping, where you can pitch your tent in a forest or on a meadow and enjoy the stars, and then (scouting wise) leave no impression other than imprints on the grass that will soon fade. For me, tent camping where you stay a few nights and then make sure you leave nothing negative behind is fairly benign. Except that not all bodies will tolerate camping conditions. And then there are those people who will absolutely pollute their surrondings and leave all the trash for the conscientious to pick up.
But is “glamping” really a thrifty or even environmentally friendly vacationing?
I do a lot of car camping in my truck at state and national parks. That is pretty frugal, especially if you don’t get electricity. A non-electric tent site is usually under $25/night.
I do not get the impression that glamping is frugal at all.
As far as comfort goes, you can use an air mattress in a tent which rivals a regular mattress. All my fat ass needs is a 3" air mattress between me and the ground. Less than that and my back might hurt.
Most campgrounds have a washhouse with running water, sinks, flush toilets. You can go more rustic without that. I’ve done it but cannot say that shitting in a hole is much fun.
It’s essentially just a hotel room outside generally.
It’s not marketed as a cheap alternative to hotels in my experience. In fact it’s usually more expensive.
Sometimes you want to be where hotels aren’t, but you don’t want to dig a hole to poop either…
Not sure about environmental concerns, and a price comparison should be fairly straightforward.
The glamping I’m aware of usually seems pretty permanent, and seems mostly like and out of doors hotel room to me.
I think if I’m going to camp, I want to camp.
Glamping might be good for great views but price wise i think it’s usually going to be similar to a hotel?
Just curious, I wonder, where are you going to shit ? People can’t hold for many day
In most places, there is usually a modern (but shared) loo with running water and black water sanitation. The last one we were at for a couple of nights was with a dry compost loo with wet matter separation. So all the glamping places we were at required a form of infrastructure for sanitation reasons.
On the other hand, when you’re camping traditionally you’re also supposed to use the sanitation infrastructure, which is either basic composting bins or dry/wet separated.
