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Glamping it up: A Different Kind of Camping  - by Janey Lee Grace




Bestselling author and Radio 2 DJ Janey Lee Grace travels to Yorkshire with her family to indulge in spot of luxury camping - or 'glamping' - and finds that not even a less-than-glamorous British summer can spoil the fun.

My husband was not delighted at the prospect of camping. "I'd rather check into somewhere with a lobby" was his reaction when I told him I'd booked our holiday. But he needn’t have feared, because as we drove through a delightful woodland approach and arrived at Jollydays in Scrayingham, North Yorkshire, there facing us was indeed a lobby – albeit a huge lobby tent – but it was as welcoming as any chic hotel, for this is glamorous camping or what Jollydays owners Carolyn and Christian Von Outersterp call 'glamping'.

"Where’s the TV?" was my 9 year old's first question as we checked into our luxury lodge tent. "How do I switch the light on?" was the 5 year old's query.  The answer to both questions? There isn't one. But what we did have was a beautifully stylish lodge tent with vintage white wooden furniture, Cath Kidston-style flowery prints, chandeliers and pretty tea light holders. An internal freestanding beach chalet houses a proper Victorian bath tub and shower plus flushing toilet, and a four-poster bed complete with white muslin drapes. There's a lovely, romantic central wood-burner, and old style candlelights which make you feel rather virtuous in the eco department. My husband is now seriously impressed – not at all what he remembers from school camping on his 'Duke of Edinburgh award' days.

The tent is effectively a lodge with a yurt over it. There are two separate bedrooms; one with a gorgeous four-poster bed, one with two single beds (all very welcoming with crisp white bedlinen and white muslin mosquito nets) and there's a double sofa bed in the lounge - so there's room for six to sleep comfortably. The lodge tents are bigger than most hotel suites and were perfect for us, but for smaller families, or even couples (a camping dirty weekend!?) there are the Groovy Bell tents -  two yurts side by side: one decked out as a kitchen and one as a living / sleeping area. No private toilet (there are communal loos and showers for the Bell tents) or four-posters in these, but they have the same gorgeous interiors, sofa beds and a wood-burning stove in the living side - again more akin to a boutique hotel than a campsite.  All the tents are snugly hidden in the woodland and at least 15 metres apart from each other so you never feel intruded upon or overlooked.

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