Glamorous camping or “glamping” has officially hit Britain.

It’s out with tiny tents, wafer-thin bedding rolls and camping beds, and in with yurts, AeroBeds and luxurious down sleeping bags.

With the Met Office predicting a “long, dry summer”, and a combination of the recession and the weak pound dampening our desire to go abroad, VisitBritain research has revealed that five million of us are planning to holiday in the UK this year.

The Camping and Caravanning Club is forecasting one of its busiest summers on record.

It seems that hanging out in tents no longer means you’re a hardy, welly-wearing type, but a chilled, eco-friendly, fun-loving spirit.”

The Daily Mail Reporter reports that the supermodel Kate Moss, who is accustomed to mingling with the A-list set, sang and danced ‘around the clock’ with the travellers in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, earlier this week.

She posed on the back of a horse drawn cart with children and even a dog as the photographer snapped away.

But despite shunning local hotels, there was obviously a limit to how far the £6million-a-year star was prepared to go.

Rather than bedding down around a campfire, Kate stayed in a designer camper van, while her crew’s fleet of expensive Range Rovers joined the travellers’ horse-carts and teepees.

Kate opted for the Glamping option and stayed in designer camper van during her trip. On ya Kate!

Here’s this year’s Glamping trip menu. Admit it! You want to come too!

Yip, there’s now a small, extreme group emerging of people who either very rarely or never ever reach for shampoo—“no ‘poo” users!

While some of them are just going longer between washings, the most radical ones have switched completely to rinsing with things like vinegar and baking soda. Baking soda took the place of shampoo while vinegar filled in for conditioner. And although it seems like this is mostly an attempt at improving hair health, there’s also the green factor—less shampoo means fewer empty plastic bottles to deal with.

Fact is Americans love to shampoo. They lather up an average of 4.59 times a week, twice as much as Italians and Spaniards, according to shampoo-maker Procter & Gamble.

But that’s way too often, say hair stylists and dermatologists. Daily washing, they say, strips the hair of beneficial oil (called sebum) and can damage our locks.

Check out blogger Jeanne Haegele, writes a blog called  LifeLessPlastic.

Thank heavens I am shaven bald pip!

Well just as we have now become acustomed to the concept of Glamping, here comes the Flashpacker!

n. A backpacker who travels in style. Also: flash-packer. [Blend of flash and backpacker.]

Europe’s hostels now offer cool upmarket accommodations at bargain prices. There are still the communal areas, but now they are matched by flash, upmarket facilities. Customers include fewer backpackers, more flashpackers: holidaymakers with a taste for the nice things but who are cost-cutting in keeping with the climate and eco enviroment.

Wikipedia defines it as follow, Flashpacking is a neologism used to refer to affluent backpacker. Whereas backpacking is traditionally associated with budget travel and destinations that are relatively cheap, flashpacking has an association of more disposable income while traveling and has been defined simply as backpacking with a bigger budget.

A simple definition of the term Flashpacker can be thought of as backpacking with flash, or style. One school of thought defines the flashpacker as a rapidly growing segment of travelers who adhere to a modest accommodation and meal budget, while spending freely, even excessively, for activities at their chosen destination. Another school of thought defines flashpacking as an incongruous mix of ‘slumming it’ and luxury; of adventurous travel with those on a budget by day and sedate dining and comfortable accommodation by night. Flashpackers have been further defined as tech-savvy adventurers who often prefer to travel with a cell phone, digital camera, iPod and a laptop, although none of these is required in order to be a flashpacker. As with other forms of travel, the term flashpacker is mainly one of self-identification. The origin of the term itself is obscure.

The term also reflects a growing demographic of travelers who are forsaking traditional organized travel, venturing to destinations once the reserve of more adventurous backpackers, and the increasing number of individuals who leave well paid jobs or take ‘career breaks’, using the time to travel independently, but with greater comfort and many of the gadgets they are accustomed to at home. As a result, hostels are evolving and offering more up-market accommodation to those still traveling on a budget in order to obtain their business. The hostels have realized a need to evolve in order to meet the changing demands of travelers.

Visit dedicated new  site, called Flashpacker.com..…

Glamping, cool camping, posh camping – call it what you will, this is Jollydays luxury camping here in North Yorkshire’s wonderful countryside.
Jollydays attracts many people, couples, families, reunions, walkers, non campers, and young and old. If you just want to escape and get away from it all, have a reunion or celebrate a special event (or just life), Jollydays offers all this in a beautiful location.

Jollydays offers two types of accommodation:

The bell tents consists of 2 tents, one for sleeping and one for storage and cooking. Both are on a wooden base. Sleeping is on futon beds which fold up during the day to form sofas. The sleeping tent has a wood burning stove inside to keep it snug.
Luxury tents which are dry, warm and clean, with hot water and a stove, at 75m2 our private tented lodges are larger than most hotel suites, they have wooden floors, rugs, cosy woodburners and toilets. Out go those nasty nylon sleeping bags, in come wool blankets and cotton sheets on four-poster beds, chandeliers and sofas by the fire. All this comes part of unique eco setting.

Western Australia is the first state chosen by Luxury Travel & Style Magazine to feature in a series of travel guides on Australia.

The Editor named 10 off the best Luxury Resorts in the State, two of which are the famous glamping resorts Sail Salis Nigaloo Reef and Voyages El Questro Homestead in the Kimberly.

Glamour Camping is growing in following and WA has many other fine locations that will soon be added to this list of luxury stays.

The mirror has reported the the Cruise’s are off on a glamorous camping trip around the US.

Katie can’t wait to dive into a tent with her husband – who can cook up a spaghetti storm under the stars.

She said: “We love the outdoors. Once when we were camping Tom made his pasta carbonara for me.

Maybe Tom can surprise and spoil Kate by throwing a “shrimp on the barbie” one evening. More romantic than cabonara I reckon.

Spoil the kids on your next glamping adventure, and let them experience Dora and Boots on a new action-packed camping adventure!

New just released Leapfrog with Dora the Explorer goes on a Camping Adventure.

Features are:

• Join Dora and Boots on a bilingual camping adventure!
• Use the binoculars to look for animals around the campsite.
• Hike a trail with Dora and collect fruits and vegetables.
• Rescue the camping supplies before they float down the river!
• Teaches greetings and common phrases, colors, numbers, animals, food and clothing in Spanish.

Available from Amazon for around $20.