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WHAT'S NEW
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Go glamping! Luxury travel in the great outdoors
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Explore a travel trend that mixes glamour with camping.
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By Dee Van Dyk
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Rockwater Secret Cove Resort/Veranda by Day
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Glamping in Canada
You don't need to travel out of the country for a high-end camping experience. A number of Canadian destinations offer trips to die for.
Clayoquot Wilderness Resort
Clayoquot Wilderness Resort is the glamping option perhaps most readily linked to thoughts of serious camping pampering. Located in Clayoquot Sound, a UNESCO designated reserve on Vancouver Island's west coast, the resort sets its visitors in safari tents complete with Persian carpets, down duvets and electricity. If you're used to frying up the still-wriggling catch of the day over a temperamental camp stove, take heart. The resort's Chef May cooks it up for you in a 3,000-square-foot cookhouse featuring a showpiece kitchen and a floor-to-ceiling double-sided fireplace. His specialties include reduction sauces and organic ingredients, a far cry from a stick of beef jerky and trail mix.
Rockwater Secret Cove Resort
At Rockwater Secret Cove Resort, located 15 minutes from of Sechelt, B.C., 13 treehouse tent suites offer ensuite bathrooms (no more scrambling for the nearest bush), soaker tubs, heated slate floors and private balconies, suspended on a 1500-foot boardwalk.
The evolution of the camping experience
Glamping might be the expected culmination of years of refining and glam-ifiying the camping experience. Where families once piled into the family station wagon, loaded down with tents and sleeping bags, it's becoming more common to pull into a campground featuring upscale dining and Wi-Fi hot spots.
Recreational vehicles, as well, have evolved with comfort and the pursuit of hobbies in mind. From a basic fancy tent on wheels (the tent trailer) to a luxurious 45-foot motorhome, the RV has always been considered the pampered way to camp. Today, roughing it in an RV might mean: plasma televisions, satellite dishes, surround-sound stereos, computer, fax, Internet, washers, dryers, "basements" and storage areas, self-retracting awnings and whirlpool baths.
The bottom line
Glamping, as you might expect, isn't for the faint of pocketbook, though. A three-day stay at Clayoquot Wilderness Resort will lighten your load by about $4,750 (per person, based on double occupancy), and Rockwater tenthouse suites start at $299 per night.
Camping purists argue that you really aren't getting away from it all if you've got it all with you, but it's difficult to find fault with plush luxury offerings against a backdrop of seasonal wilderness options: fishing, horseback riding, kayaking, canoeing, whale watching, bear watching and hiking.
A virtual tour of upscale camping options
• Treebones Resort (Big Sur, California)
• Costanoa Coastal Lodge & Camp (California)
• Fossil Rim Foothills Safari Camp (Texas)
• Falling Waters Adventure Resort (North Carolina)
• Safari West (California)
• Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park & Camp Resort (Toronto)
• Pure West Luxury Travel and Accommodations in the Rockies
Image courtesy Rockwater Secret Cove
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