Gear Up for Glamping

Camping Goes Chic

So you like the outdoors, but it doesn't like you-every time you come away looking worse for the wear. Dirt, scratches, bug bites, a million little indecencies. Couldn't this all be avoided?

Or let's say you like Big Sky, but you'd just as soon have a big dinner. You enjoy waterfalls, and also your shower. There's nothing wrong with soft fields of wildflowers, but a cushy floral bedspread couldn't hurt either. And after hiking all day through the forest, loving nature and fellowshipping with all the little critters, the last thing you want is for them to turn on you in the dark. 

The solution lies in glamping-a.k.a "glamorous camping" or "girl camping." It's perfect for those dainty souls who want a wild interlude, but don't want to be driven to the brink. For people who like nature yet want to be nurtured; who'll take a dose of opulence with their adventure; who value comfort in God's creation; who'd rather be pampered than punished. In short, it's for women who want to be in the great outdoors without having to act like men.

Glamping could mean all sorts of things. It could be as simple as taking a dolled-up vintage Airstream to a campground near you, or as exotic as paying thousands of dollars per night for some luxury African safari. It might involve eco-lodges in Belize, geodesic domes in Patagonia, or fantasy tree forts in Thailand. It might mean staying in an earth-friendly hut on an organic farm, or being marooned on a full-service private island. You could glamp in a yurt, a bungalow, a well-appointed teepee, or a canvas tent that's more like a pleasure palace, oriental rugs and all. A glamper's amenities include (but are not limited to) fine china, candlelit dinners, four-poster beds, flush toilets, vintage wine, a claw-foot bathtub in the middle of the forest, perhaps even a spa treatment! There's no excess out of reach for glamping.

But stripped to its essentials, glamping just means whatever's comfortable to you, in company you enjoy. And it also means panache.

"There has to be a glamour aspect, something out of the ordinary," insists Irene Rawlings, a devoted glamper and author of the classic manual Sisters on the Fly. "If you just pitch a tent, somebody has to serve you tea."

A few years ago she joined a nationwide, 3,000-member group called Sisters on the Fly. Founded by two sisters and their intrepid mother, it began as a yearly fly-fishing excursion to Montana with girlfriends, but quickly gained momentum to become nothing short of a movement. One of the Sisters' fun-loving mottos is, "We make girls out of women!", and Irene has characterized the vibe as "Girl Scouts with martinis."

"You're out in the open all day," she explained. "You're rock-hounding, horse-riding, looking at petroglyphs, fishing, antiquing, cowgirling, whatever it is you do. But at the end of the day you get a massage before sinking into a nice soft bed-that's my idea of glamping."

The daring glitter-and-rhinestone sisterhood of glampers is taking over the world. They buy trailers and give them chic makeovers, then christen them with dangerous flirty names: Mustang Sally, Whiskey Rose, Calamity Jane. After that there is no stopping them. Irene recalls the advice given by Maurrie Sussman, cofounder of Sisters on the Fly: a recently widowed woman in Florida called wanting to join the group, but was concerned because she'd never driven a trailer. Maurrie asked, "Well, you can drive forward, right?" The woman said yes, so Maurrie instructed her to just keep going forward until she got to California, where somebody would help her back up.

It's this spirit of cut-loose camaraderie and empowerment that has made women young and old become glampers. Their ranks now include Jennifer Megliore, proprietress of ArtWare on Hilton Head. A few months ago Jennifer came across a Facebook post about glamping; intrigued, she gussied up a little 1969 Shasta 1400 camper, stitched together curtains out of vintage tea towels picturing all fifty states, and has never looked back since. For this year's National Glamping Weekend (June 2-3) she's rounding up some girlfriends to glamp out on Hunting Island. Then in September she plans to take her mother/best glamping buddy to a Sisters on the Fly event in Columbia.

"That's like a visit to the mothership!" Jennifer says.
"These women are
so wildly creative, and such
generous spirits you are guaranteed
a crazy good time."


Even when she's not on an excursion, Jennifer reserves the right to retreat to her Shasta, which nestles in a corner of the backyard. "We give so much of ourselves away during the day," she says, "and we're so oversaturated with things we have to do. This is something I want to do. If I'm having a stupid day, I can go out to my camper, plug it into the house, turn on the radio, work on little projects, or just have a quiet moment to think about things. If I'm out there too long my husband will just unplug me-everything goes dark and that's my cue to come in!"

Between the unscheduled me-time her camper inspires at home, and the possibility of adventure-in-style it gives abroad, Jennifer has become a glamping convert. It doesn't take a heavy investment, she says; you can pick up a camper on Craigslist or out of a field somewhere for relatively cheap. But take it from her, the dividends are priceless-sanity, fun, and girl-time!

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