What am I missing about glamping?
Now, before anybody sends me an email extolling the virtues of both camping and glamping, yes I am fully aware of the subtle differences between the two. My disagreement isn't about those.
Glamping is just a poshed-up word for camping in little huts, or 'pods' to be a little bit more accurate. To me, they are just huts, pure and simple. Like a garden shed filled with somebody else's furniture instead of gardening tools.
Occasionally you might get a glamp site that has unusual little buildings to stay in, such as shepherds' huts, sort of old-style gypsy caravans, often with wheels on.
But what gets me about glamping, and the same for ordinary camping in a tent, is that it is self-catering. So, you arrive at a site that is maybe knee-deep in mud if you're lucky, or in horse or cow manure if you're very unlucky. On a camp site you have to struggle with putting up a tent, something I've not done since I was a boy scout over 60 years ago.
Yet here's the big no no about glamping. If you go to a glamp site, you invariably have to do your own cooking. And that is the hang-up I have about it. Why go to somewhere like that, which is generally in a field that is nowhere near a seaside or areas of outstanding beauty, cook your own meals, make your own bed and so on? It just makes no sense whatsoever. You may as well stay at home, save money and do the cooking in the familiar surroundings of your own kitchen.
Plus, with me, I have the added duty of looking after my wife, wherever we are. So, unless I have missed something glaringly obvious that "it gets us away from the house for a week" is often used to justify such a break, going glamping can firmly stay in the realms of 'fantasy land' for those holiday-makers who believe in fairy tales.