Occasionally, one comes across a story on glamping, a portmanteau word combining glamour and camping. So, glamorous camping: boardwalks through the forest, spacious white safari tents with beds and plumbing, top-notch food cooked by a real chef—but with the scenery and silence of the wilderness.

 

At first blush, one is skeptical. Many of these accounts read to be trumped-up “trend” pieces, the stuff that travel editors concoct when they can’t face writing another wistful fairy tale about the Tuscan Hills.

 

Also, glamping sounds like neither glamour nor camping. It is not camping: you are sleeping on soft beds, you are not exerting yourself in the pursuit of isolation in nature, you are not simplifying. And it certainly is not glamorous: the jungles of southeast Asia and the mountains of the Canadian Rockies are not Fashion Week, are not the Oscars. The photos make the sites look a bit like opulent internment centers.

 

At second blush, one is less skeptical. OK, so whatever they aren’t, they are pretty and comfy. And they beat staying in a motel by the side of a roaring interstate. If you like to eat, they offer fare that’s far superior to a can of beans or a walking taco. And if you’re looking international, you might hesitate to pitch your tent in a tropical jungle. This might be a compromise you can live with, especially with rates as low as $120/night.

 

A quick search shows a number of promising luxury camp operators. For a quick overview of the kind of experiences that are out there, check out the Go Glamping web site, which lists more than 200 international providers. There is astonishing variety here—Romany caravans in Cornwall, eco-retreats in the Galapagos Islands, a tented beach camp on quaintly named Mafia Island off the coast of Tanzania. There’s also the Hintok River Camp at Hellfire Pass on Thailand’s River Kwai, where your tent comes with a bathroom and air-conditioner.

 

This might not be the trip you take next, but now the notion—a really beautiful getaway, close to nature, that doesn’t cost a couple of house payments—is in your head. You look at Cambodia’s 4 Rivers Floating Lodge, with its very accommodating tents fixed in the slow heavy current of the Tatai River, and you think. You think.

 

Photo of the Hintok River Camp from Goglamping.com