As the so called “staycation” seems to be becoming more part of British holiday life, could “Glamping” and the humble Yurt save us from the dark clouds of economic gloom?
It might not fix the banks, but if you want to get away from it all under the stars, just not too far away from it all, then the whole Glamping in a Yurt might be just up your street.
Here are a few suggestions for where best to head for your Year of the Yurt experience.
1) Long Valley Yurts in the Lake District have brought the Yurt to the heart of the lakes without taking away from the experience by cramming lots of these Mongolia tent’s together. In fact there are only two to three Yurts per site (and four sites in total) so you’ll get a much more realistic experience.
As this is Glamping style camping of course there are facilities such as toilets, showers and such, but don’t expect this to be a holiday camp – overall it is still a campsite, just with a posh tent. At least unlike the traditional Yurt, you don’t have to carry this one home.
The sites are currently Great Langdale (near Ambleside), Low Wray by Windermere and two in Borrowdale near Keswick.
2) Yurt Farm in Wales isn’t as the name might suggest a large campground filled with Yurt’s, but simply an organic farm in the Powys region of Wales with two large Yurt’s strategically placed in a field.
The Yurt’s are surprisingly spacious and include wooden floors (appears similar to laminate). All the furniture in the Yurt is made from timber sourced from the farm and even the Yurt’s themselves are made locally, plus there’s a log fire to keep any British chills out. For a very organic Yurt experience, head for for the The Yurt Farm.
3) Really Green Holiday Company Yurt’s also combine the comfort and space of the Yurt with the environmental concerns that seem to go rather hand in hand with this kind of camping.
There are a small number of Yurt’s on the site and although each has it’s own cooking facilities, there is also a central cooking area for those who want to meet the neighbours. With very nice comfortable beds, this is not sleeping bag camping by anyone’s imagination – perhaps more camping for the Guardian reader generation?
There’s even a video from the company behind the site (more Yurt’s below the video):
4) Shadow Woods Yurt’s has set a small number of Yurt’s in 63 acres of woodlands and meadows’ giving each Yurt its own space and really trying to provide that proper rural retreat.
Admittedly this might seem a little far from Glamping, but you still get to sleep out in an environmentally friendly way without having to worry about pitching the tent and building the camp fire safely. Perhaps the Shadow Woods experience is best described as the most rural and rustic Glamping in the list.
A big advantage of the site is its proximity to the Goodwood site so anyone wanting to relive their boyhood or girlhood dreams of yesteryear can also travel back to a simpler time when they camped out in the woods Swallows & Amazon’s style….just without the pirate ship.
5) Annwn Valley traditional Yurt’s address one slight problem with all of the above – they’ve all rather Anglo-fied the Yurt experience and perhaps over concentrate on the ecological side rather than bringing in the real experience of a Mongolian Yurt.
This is where Annwn Valley comes in as they not only provide you with a traditionally built Yurt, but even decorate it to look like the real thing. If your dreams were of being Lawrence of Arabia rather than Swallows and Amazons then this might be perfect.
Conclusion: Perhaps its time we forgot the Costa’s (well except the coffee shops) and took ourselves back out into the open air to re-discover what life is supposed to be about.
Inspirational list of Glamping sites from the Telegraph.
More UK Resources:
Campsites and caravan parks around Britain
Things to see and do in the UK
UK Self-catering cottages
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