Glamping?
No, it’s not the latest trend in kink. Apparently, it’s camping for people who don’t like to camp. Which just seems bizarre to me, but whatever.
When 6-year-old Ethan Bondick told his mom and dad he wanted to go fly-fishing in Montana, his well-heeled parents were stumped.
“We looked at each other and said, ‘Oh, God, now what?’ ” said Gigi Bondick, 37, of Massachusetts.
“We’re just not the camping kind of people. We don’t pitch tents. We don’t cook outdoors. We don’t share a bathroom. It’s just not going to happen,” she said. “This is a kid who has never flown anything but first class or stayed anywhere other than a Four Seasons.”
After typing “luxury” into a Google search along with “camping” and “Montana,” the couple settled on The Resort at Paws Up, a 37,000-acre getaway in the heart of Big Sky country. It’s a place for affluent travelers who want to enjoy the outdoors but can’t fathom using a smelly outhouse.
The Bondicks, who live in a sprawling home outside Boston and hire a personal chef at home, shelled out $595 a night, plus an additional $110 per person per day for food.
It’s a hefty price to sleep in a tent, but the perks include a camp butler to build their fire, a maid to crank up the heated down comforter at nightfall and a cook to whip up bison rib-eye for dinner and French toast topped with huckleberries for breakfast.
The number of visits to U.S. national parks is declining, but “glamping,” or glamorous camping, is on the rise in North America after gaining popularity among wealthy travelers in Africa and England, where luxury tents come with Persian rugs and electricity to power blow dryers. …
When the Bondicks went fly-fishing on the Blackfoot River, for example, they caught 20 trout – after a guide expertly navigated them to a great fishing spot, taught them how to cast and selected the perfect flies.
Lisa and Rhyne Davis and their son, Jack, saw a herd of more than 350 elk. But it wasn’t serendipity. Duggan, the butler, sent a scout ahead to track the animals on the sprawling property, then drove the family directly to the spot.
And on one hike, Paws Up guides dropped off Rob and Alison John at a trail head, then picked them up at a designated spot – allowing them to enjoy the most scenic part of the 3-mile hike without having to hoof it past the same view twice.
I just don’t know what to say. I do have to say that the winter camping trip Sebastian and I took on our fourth date was a little on the rough side in many ways. No pillows. (I slept on my gun case.) No heat. (We couldn’t run the car periodically because of gas issues.) No comfort in a 0-degree sleeping bag when it’s below that temp. (Not a good excuse for not having it other than not expecting it to get that cold.) It could have been much worse, which is why I stayed in good spirits about it. I also am happy that I planned ahead and brought like 3 extra blankets and a few of those heat packs marketed to hunters.
I’m up for winter camping again. I would just pack a little differently. And not to mention, we’d take some of our own food. I felt bad mooching off of his co-workers. But at least we provided good beer beverages and dessert.
However, as much as I enjoy a nice resort, I think glamping is something I’ll avoid for now. If you’re going to spend that kind of money, spend it on an experience you can’t recreate with minimal cost.
No obviously related posts.
Now that’s just depressing. I’m a true yuppie scumbag, and I just don’t think I’d want someone else to make my campfire for me.
Most camping facilities I’ve been to had fairly good latrines/outhouses. But dammit, we ate Bisquick for breakfast!
I’ve never been camping during winter, though. The closest I got was late fall when it was chilly.
At what temperature does beer freeze?
Teddy R just rolled over in his grave and puked.
I was going to ask if there was any hope for America, but then read they were from Boston so they were a lost cause anyway.
Still, I thought I was roughing it when I slept in the car and not a tent.
And lo and behold, US Airs in flight mag has an article shilling for this crap.
Blech!
pitiful.
absolutely pitiful.
Nature on a Silver Platter…
I want the dirt, the wood smoke, the smell of pine in the air. I don’t want, nor need, someone else to do the dirty work for me, and I don’t need fleets of helicopters, power boats, or air-conditioned tour vans at my beck and call….
There’s a word for needing someone else to build your campfire for you: emasculation.
Man is superior in nature largely because he can use tools and make fire. That’s part of what’s so nice about camping, hunting and fishing. It’s demonstrating that one is still the dominant critter in the woods. However, these people who are going ‘glamping’ are proving just the opposite. That they are weak, inferior organisms who are unable to survive in the wild. What an embarrassment.