UK glamping for foodies

Best UK campsites and glamping for foodies

Pop-up glamping in Bedfordshire

Turvey House Estate in Bedfordshire is hosting a pop-up campsite for 25th July-27th August with Wild Canvas. Sleep in traditional tipis or contemporary tipi tents, both of which are pitched in riverside meadows (you can bring your own tent, if you prefer). There's a relaxed family-friendly festival vibe, with daily yoga sessions, guided paddleboarding and a kid's nature club. At the onsite café, tuck into wood-fired pizzas, nourishing veggie bowls and BBQ dishes, accompanied by local ales and ciders. Down the river you can find award-winning ice cream and sorbet from Riverside Dairy for pud. wildcanvas.uk

Camping in Devon

Westland Farm in Devon offers DIY old-fashioned camping and glamping on a working farm, overlooking a small lake. There's a yurt (sleeps six), a shepherd’s hut (sleeps four), and a grass-roofed drover's hut (sleeps six) with its own private hot tub and kitchen, complete with wood-fired oven. You can collect eggs straight from the hens' nest boxes, during the summer there's a small farm shop run on an honesty box system, and children are welcome to help feed the pigs, lambs, hens and horses.

If you'd rather somebody else did the cooking, you can sample some of Westland Farm's produce at The Pyne Arms nearby, which during lockdown ran a takeaway menu and a drive-through option on Friday and Saturday evenings. It also offers a Sunday roast – starters such as beetroot chutney and local salad leaves, followed by BBQ pork belly burger with smoked cheddar.

A grass pitch for two costs from £50 per night, westlandfarm.co.uk

Wildlife camping in Kent

Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve is set in 600-acres of beautiful Kent countryside and is home to many rare and endangered animals. There’s a wide variety of accommodation on offer for different group sizes and budgets, you can choose from luxury treehouses to clear lookout bubbles for star gazing in bed.

Each glamping area also has its own vantage point on the wildlife, within a whisker of big cats or with a bird’s eye view of roaming rhino. All accommodation comes with out-of-hours access to the safari park as well as a safari truck tour which takes you on an adventure through the South American, Asian and African experience zones. You’ll find plenty of locally sourced Kentish ingredients at the on-site restaurants, Babydoll (named after the park’s beloved gorilla) serves up wood-fired sourdough pizza topped with fresh veggies from the kitchen garden, or there’s a great-value curry night at Bear Lodge overlooking the spectacled bear habitat.

Accommodation prices start at £139 per night, Port Lymne Hotel & Reserve

Glamping in Wales

At Fforest, a 200-acre farm in wild west Wales, you can stay over in a geodesic dome (complete with wood-burning stove and Japanese-style onsen bathing area), an original Welsh crog loft, or simple 'garden shac'. All have private shower and toilet areas, to try and create a coronavirus-safe environment. Fforest is also home to the smallest pub in Wales, Y Bwthyn, once an old farmworker’s cottage. Here, you can buy take-out beers and gins created by Fforest alongside local producers such as Mantle Brewery in Cardigan (craft lager Cwrw Fforest); and Crafty Devil in Cardiff, who helped create Fforest Haf, a hazy pale ale with a hint of mango. The Boy Ashore Gin has seaweed, coriander and cubeb (an Indonesian pepper) botanicals. Food-wise, there's a takeaway kitchen that provides barbecued local meat and fish, as well as wood-fired pizzas. coldatnight.co.uk

Bell tents in Sussex

Crackling campfires, stargazing and toasted marshmallows: Wowo on Wapsbourne Manor Farm specialises in old-fashioned family fun. You can stay over in a yurt, an original gypsy wagon, shepherd's hut or lotus flower-shaped bell tent. The Wowo shop is packed with local produce (the website even lists the food miles) from Paynes pure English honey (one of the hives is on the farm) to organic eggs from Grassington Farm (1.2 miles) and The Sussex Kitchen's award-winning artisan bread (0.2 miles).

Curry Love's pop-up tent serves a moreish menu, featuring Punjabi chole masala (chickpeas, caramelised red pepper, onion and courgette in an aromatic tomato and onion-based curry), lentil samosas and smoky pineapple pickle. Not that hungry? Curry Love’s street-food snacks include loaded polenta fries and queso frito – fried halloumi sticks with smoky-sweet tamarind and maple syrup dip. wowo.co.uk

WildLuing, Isle of Luing, Scotland

Good food tops the agenda at this luxury remote holiday bolthole in the stunning wilds of Western Scotland’s Inner Hebrides. The beautiful slate Isle of Luing (pronounced Ling) is the perfect place to switch off and reconnect with nature, home to plump seals, curious otters, birds and magnificent deer. It’s also a haven for foodies, with farm fresh produce and foraging galore at WildLuing.

Comprising eight luxe self-catering ‘Wild Suites’, the cabins – more like palatial pods – are perched above a slate beach with fire pits for barbecues on the terraces overlooking Torsa Bay. Zero miles produce is the order of the day at this working farm, set amid emerald heather-clad hills. Think farm fresh eggs and beef from the island’s own Highland cattle, just-fished-from-the-Atlantic langoustines and chargrilled squat lobster served with salads of foraged greens and edible flowers from nearby hedgerows. The fridge in your kitchenette is filled with farm eggs, fruit compote, home-made granola, yoghurt and freshly baked bread.

Spend your days paddle boarding in the shallows of the Atlantic Sea, or attend a foraging day led by experts like The Wild Cooke. Lucy introduces guests to the art of foraging, collecting wild fins and herbs to make fresh teas and offering tips on harvesting, preservation, and cooking techniques. Back at the Observatory lodge, in-house chef Kitty cooks up a feast where guests savour the spoils of the day’s collecting (some herbs are kept for creative cocktail-making).

Check rates and availability at wildluing.com

By Renate Ruge

Off-grid glamping in Yorkshire

At Camp Kátur on a 250-acre woodland estate in North Yorkshire, you can choose to snooze in a unidome, safari tent, tipi, hobbit pod, geodome or bell tent – with at least 10m between you and your nearest neighbour. This is glamorous off-grid glamping. The two geodomes, for example, come with candles, a wood-burning stove, outside barbecue, fire pit – and fairy lights (as well as private toilet and shower). Optional extras include not just breakfast hampers, but also delights such as a ‘nibbles and fizz hamper’ and ‘winter warmer tipple’ (hot chocolate, miniature Baileys, marshmallows and dunking biscuits for two). There's also a cute, Norwegian-style BBQ cabin in the woods (booking required). Sit in a circle around the fire and watch your steaks sizzle on the flames. For the ultimate indulgence, add on the ‘fondue dessert hamper’. campkatur.com

Glamping pods in the Lake District

Grasmere Glamping's two bespoke 'pods' are on Broadrayne Farm, which dates back to the 17th century and is also home to The Yan, a bistro with bedrooms. The en suite pods have wood-burning stoves and fitted kitchens – but why cook when you've got The Yan next door, offering a hot takeaway service and a click-and-collect heat-at-home Sunday roast? More specifically, slowly braised shoulder of lamb wrapped in cured ham; or half a spatchcock chicken roasted with lemon and thyme, with a white wine gravy on the side. Takeaway options include beef brisket in a ciabatta bap topped with bacon, cheddar cheese, jalapeños, mustard mayo and Yan ketchup; or the YFC (Yan Fried Chicken) with crispy fried chicken breast, spicy beans, roast corn on the cob and bacon slaw. grasmereglamping.co.uk

Treehouses on a farm in Scotland

Alongside Harvest Moon Holidays' treehouses (which sleep six), you can now stay in an eight-person beach cabin overlooking the dune-backed Tyninghame beach. The working arable farm that the cabin sits on has been in the Dale family for more than 150 years, and as well as growing crops they have hens (collect your own eggs for breakfast), alpacas, goats and sheep. The welcome pack includes a list of local producers, there's a farm shop nearby for supplies, or you can head to the harbour in nearby North Berwick for lobster and chips, crab, sea bass and line-caught mackerel at the Lobster Shack. harvestmoonholidays.com