Carry on Camping

What with the credit crunch in full swing, plus our rather ideological social conscious when it comes to jetting off long-haul, camping is becoming quite the fashionable holiday option these days.

Long gone are the days of boasting about hitting the beach in Barbados, now we’re all investing in super swish UK holidays under canvas. Well, perhaps not quite canvas, but we’ll certainly consider tipis, eco-pods, yurts, tree houses and traditional gypsy caravans.

That’s right – if it’s good enough for the likes of Jamie Oliver, Cheryl Baker and Margaret Beckett, then it’s all right by me…

Many of us may reach back into the dark recesses of childhood memories and recollect some less than favourable images: leaking tents, rain, family arguments, rain, cold beaches and of course rain. So I suppose one thing we can thank global warming for is a more continental climate? So long as we don’t end up with a Monsoon season for three months every summer, a la 2007.

Now days the whole camping malarkey has turned a corner and in keeping with it’s new cool credentials, the residential options are endless. Take your pick from Mongolian tents adorned with tapestries and pot belly stoves, through to sleek Airstream trailers that hark back to a warm and rosy version of the 1950’s; so long as you got the cash you can live the dream.

Taking the whole thing to an extreme is a company in Cornwall who have set up a venture where you can sleep in a tree for a night – get that. No tent, no canvas, just hoisted up amongst the leaves of a giant oak tree, to teeter on the edge of a branch for a full eight hours. Fancy that? It’ll only set you back £200, or perhaps you’d prefer a fortnight in Benidorm for the same cost?

Alternatively, let’s take it down a notch or two and get back to basics with a bit of wild camping. That’s right. No official sites, no pool and children’s playground, no silk Indian bedspreads and pre-assembled tents, just a small piece of windswept countryside where you can pitch up, cook outside and take in a bit of wilderness right here on your own national doorstep.

See? There really is something for everyone.

For more information:
www.coolcamping.co.uk
www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk