| Four-Star Camping Experiences
Luxury Merges with the Great Outdoors at New Global Tent Resorts
The Signal - Business Section, February, 2006
If you enjoy the great outdoors, but want the luxury and service of four-star hotel when traveling, then here’s something you’re sure to enjoy. No pitching tents, building campfires and catching dinner in the stream to have a camping experience. There is an ever increasing number of high-end resorts now offering fully deluxe and full service camping facilities in remote locations throughout the world, even the most pampered traveler can get down but not dirty with nature.
Leave the sleeping bag at home. Thanks to upscale hotel groups like the Four Season, roughing it has never been so comfortable. These “tent cities” are cropping up globally at exciting destinations like the jungles of northern Thailand, southern New Zealand and in the Australian outback. Travelers get a full-fledged wilderness experience, but without sacrificing any modern conveniences of a luxury resort.
Feather beds, private bathtubs, high-speed Internet access, fine dining, housekeeping services and, in some instances, a butler to do your heavy lifting at these tent villages. Imagine that, having a butler available to build you a campfire. Works for me, because let’s face it, how many of us city dwellers actually remember how to build a fire or pitch a tent, even if we were scouts.
Depending where you are, the campsite may offer everything from learning to ride an elephant to visiting historic sacred sights. Many of these new camping programs are sold as multiple day packages that include meals and activities with the feather bed accommodations.
The deal here is that people have traveled – a lot. They want diverse adventures, life-changing experiences, and certainly to be the first to try something new. By glamorizing camping and taking it to a level of comfort that is fit for discerning travelers, luxury hotel groups have tapped into a new segment of the experienced traveler.
Whether you ever enjoyed camping or not, it is a trip that requires a lot of effort to eat, sleep and stay clean. The thought of going on vacation to work that hard lacks appeal for many people. But a luxury campsite with a deluxe, air-conditioned hotel room “tent,” now you’re talking.
By setting up camp in remote and exotic locations, an opportunity to visit new places has been created for many travelers who otherwise would not strap on a backpack and hike into the outback for several days. The increased demand for all kinds of experiential travel – physical, educational, emotional, spiritual – has helped expand the offerings of many hospitality businesses. Tapping into the “I’ve always wanted to…but” mentality, these camping resorts are bridging the gap between camping and luxury, giving vacationers a travel experience like none other.
Similar to the way visitors experience an African safari, these high-end tent resorts merge naturally into the landscape, providing travelers the lifetime adventure they’re looking for. Camping hardly means staying in a rustic lodge by a river, today’s campers get a four-star adventure with fine food, housekeeping services and Internet access.
And, if you really want to rough it, you can build a campfire. But upscale camping is all about luxury, so allow the butler do it for you.
For more information
contact Nicole Stinson, Public Relations
(310) 312-3368
