I looked at the white bedspreads, white towels and my 2.5 year old jumping on the 4 poster with his muddy feet and wondered if glamping could ever be glamorous? It’s not a cheap holiday option and the champagne flutes in the cupboard hinted at visitors without children. I wondered if we were crazy to take a 2.5 and 9 month old glamping.

Can glamping ever be glamorous?

We’ve just returned from a week in our own eight acres of private woodland in Devon, called The Wood Life. Just the four of us, a large tent, real beds and a wood burning stove.
The toddler was in heaven with his own tree house, swing, see-saw and woods to run around freely. Our camp was secluded but there was also the comfort of noises from nearby farms and church bells. I don’t think we’ve ever experienced so much fresh air and it was refreshing that you couldn’t put a tv on or mindlessly read the internet as we do at home.

The toddler also benefited from lots of time with his daddy, making fires, collecting kindling, checking the paraffin lamps and watching him light the wood burner or barbecue.

The evenings and nights were cold, and we didn’t enjoy the composting loo, but the only real downside was the lack of light to read a book or play scrabble. Paraffin lamps don’t give enough light to do any sewing so we had plenty of early nights, which wasn’t a bad thing.

We took two luxury items with us which we were kindly given to review; the new EcoGrill, an 100% environmentally friendly and biodegradable barbecue, and a bottle of limited edition summer cordial bottlegreen Raspberry & Grapefruit Cordial. We tried the EcoGrill one night as the toddler had never experienced a barbecue before.  Made from alder wood and filled with alder charcoals and a firelighter, it was really simple to light and use. It gives over two hours barbecue time which was plenty for our little barbecue and burned down over the evening so we didn’t have anything to clear away!