The trouble with travel blogging is that, when nobody is paying you, you simply cannot always be travelling. I did manage to go glamping this summer though.
Yes, glamping.
To those who don’t keep on top of the Oxford English Dictionary’s latest word additions, glamping refers to ‘accommodation and facilities that are more luxurious than those usually associated with camping’. It’s glamorous camping.
It sounds tragic, but in fact you can get some incredible little places. We came up with the idea when a friend said he’d just been staying on a converted Dutch barge in Cornwall, with a private hot tub. After looking around a bit, we found you can stay on boats, in shepherds’ huts, old-school train carriages, yurts, tepees, belle tents (to many people, these three are the same thing but I am assured that they are all distinctly different).
We considered a converted train carriage in Monmouthshire, a boat in the darkest depths of Wales or a belle tent in the Highlands. However, we settled on a glorious little yurt in Okehampton, Devon. I’ll be honest, we were desperate for the boat, but having left it rather last minute and with very strict requirements of a hot tub, our options were somewhat diminished.
Where to find glamping accommodation
The absolute top trump of all the websites we looked at was Canopy and Stars. We booked through them in the end and everything went very smoothly; you can read previous guests’ reviews, see pictures and contact the host before booking if necessary. However, just type glamping into Google and you get loads of different websites. Airbnb also has some glamping options and we found that our yurt actually featured on a few different websites so there’s clearly a community – you can search for the best price.
Glamping accommodation: the yurt
Our yurt was just perfect. It was set back among some trees in someone’s garden (I say garden but it was more of an estate). We arrived to see smoke chuffing out of the chimney and fairy lights twinkling. The wood burner, fur rugs, large double bed and candles everywhere told us we were in for a rather romantic weekend.
We were then showed down to the facilities hut where we had a fully functioning kitchen (no
ne of this ‘kitchenette’ nonsense), a lovely massive shower, outdoor seating and most importantly, a hot tub.
Glamping usually comes with a lovely friendly host who’s there if you have questions but is willing to make themselves scarce if you want peace and quiet. Our hostess was keen on her guests ‘getting creative’ so left drawing and painting equipment in the kitchen. This was a fun little side note to the holiday and I always enjoy letting out my incredibly creative side!
We settled in and quickly introduced ourselves to the hot tub. Everything was glorious. However, it soon became apparent that there are only so many hours you can spend lying in front of a wood burner, gazing into each other’s eyes. We needed an adventure.
Granite Way cycle trail
The good thing about the majority of these glamping experiences is that they’re set in the countryside. There are many adventures to be had. We walked to the youth hostel up the road and rented some mountain bikes, which we took on the ‘Granite Way’ cycle path. This was a 10 mile cycle each way, which we broke up nicely with various pub stops.
Pubs in Okehampton/Lydford
At this point, I will take a moment to discuss what I have learned about pubs. Before going to Okehampton I Googled the pubs in the town and was distinctly underwhelmed with what I saw. There was nothing that seemed to have any character and indeed when we got to these pubs on the Friday evening, they were your average townie-pubs (these were great for meeting locals and having fun but not a romantic tête-à-tête). The ones we came across on our cycle however, were all absolutely gorgeous. You have to head out to the countryside to get the best local pubs. It’s the case where I live as well.
For anyone actually travelling to Okehampton, we found that Bearslake Inn was lovely for a drink. We stopped there for a sandwich but it was quite pricey… the garden was a bonus though. We then stopped at Castle Inn in Lydford, which was adorable. We just had a drink and enjoyed the real country pub vibes! We also went to Dartmoor Inn in Lydford for Sunday lunch, which was divine; it’s a bit of a cut above so you spend a bit more. It’s recommended for more of a special meal.
Dartmoor National Park
We got back from our cycle, hot tubbed, ordered Indian takeaway and congratulated ourselves on not over-planning. However, when it came to looking at the cycle route for the pub we’d booked for lunch on Sunday, we realised it was the exact same route. Oops.
We booked a taxi and went for a walk in the national park before heading to the pub. This was a wonderful experience and the local taxi driver was a right laugh – the only taxi driver in the area who was working that day in fact. We asked him for pub recommendations in the town and he reeled off all the ones that non-plused us beforehand.
After more hot tubbing and drinking, we trudged along to one of the pubs we hadn’t tried. Here we found a local’s birthday party, with a load of Hell’s Angel-types singing along to Abba. We had arrived. They were so friendly and welcoming so we joined in with the fun. We drunkenly made our way home that evening for another dip in the hot tub before snoring our way to Monday – checkout day.
This might all sound like a distinctly average holiday but I implore you to bear in mind that every time we went back to chill out, we were going back to the cutest, most romantic setting you can imagine. Frankly, nothing about glamping is reminiscent of camping other than that you have to walk 15 metres for the loo and the roof is made of canvas. 