Designer camping with a conscience.

These high performance, design-led tents are not for glamping; they’re for roughing it in the rugged outdoors, confectionary style.

FieldCandy tents are like the Skittles of the great outdoors, offered in a kaleidoscope of colors and cornucopia of designs. While some might not camouflage your campsite from encroaching bears, others meld into the scenery like bucolic apparitions.

The European-based company (designed in Italy and manufactured in the UK) relies on REI-like standards: a 100% natural cotton inner tent, which protects against condensation; digitally printed waterproof flysheet; nylon ground sheet; all propped up with precision engineered aluminum poles.

Pitching should take less than five minutes for the seasoned camper, who will also sleep easy knowing that the company supports charities including The Prince’s Trust, Movember, Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience, Tropical Health & Education Trust and Greenpeace.

Sweet dreams are made of these.

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A round-up of what we’re reading right now.

Nothing says summer travel like a good glamping tent. Or 16 of them. [Via CasaSugar]

Think global, drink local. [Via Ethical Ocean]

The average American is spending over 20% of their grocery budget on processed foods. [Via Mother Jones]

No one said summer cookouts couldn’t be healthy. [Via Small Kitchen College]

Get thee to an outdoor theatre immediately. [Via Flavorwire]

The latest in internet time-waster… no wait… inspiration: Pinstagram. [Via Mashable]

Nothing goes hand in hand like farming and new media. [Via GOOD]

If you’re simply getting up, eating breakfast and leaving for work, you just might want to rethink things. The mornings are primetime for, well, everything. [Via Fast Company]

The post Link Love: What Americans Are Eating, Tents for Glamping and the Value of Getting Up Early appeared first on EcoSalon.

Overnight outdoor adventure for grownups. 

Granted, the promotional photos on Shelter Co.’s website nullify certain realities of camping, including mosquito bites and outdoor receptacles – and we will show you many of those photos, whereby we will also imagine ourselves as the well-outfitted catalogue characters inhabiting them. What Shelter Co. offers in real life is pop up lodging for the seasoned earth-dweller, campers of a certain age that hold roasted marshmallows and 400-thread count bedding in equal esteem.

Sleeping under a canopy of stars, immersed in filtered remembrances of camping trips past, splayed out on an area rug. Possibly sipping a mint julep.

Shelter Co. provides custom camping adventures (rather glamp outings, considering the starting tent rate of $750) for families, businesses, events and retreats, encompassing everything from ambiance lighting to outdoor movie theaters. Catering is covered, too, as well as big raging fire pits.

The company was founded by camping enthusiasts Kelsey and Mike Sheofsky, “born out of a love for California’s diverse landscape combined with nostalgia for the days of summer camp.” The Sheofsky’s and their team supply fully-furnished European style canvas tents with amenities like toilets, showers, organic toiletries and board games.

They promise pretty much everything – including the stars. Everything, except typical camping.

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Bathed in the spiritual aura of Ayers Rock, Longitude 131 is an ecocamp offering comfortable but conscious tents.

Longitude 131 takes the fine art of glamping to a new level: from your luxury tent, you can watch the stunning sunrise and sunset over majestic Ayers Rock. The camp is delicately placed in the spectacular ochre-tinted landscape of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (Uluru is the Aboriginal name for this sacred site) in the Northern Territories of Australia.

With only 15 semi-tented rooms on stilts, which have a minimal impact on their immediate environment, the glamp ground offers a quiet, secluded spot for reflecting on the powerful forces of the rock, in tune with the outback wilderness that surrounds it.

Under their fabric canopies, the rooms have contemporary-colonial decor, showers (for reduced water consumption), Bose SoundDocks, and electrically-operated blinds. There’s a meeting house in the middle of the camp with a library stocked with maps, books, games, a wide-screen TV and DVD library, and self-service bar with deck.

Guides can show you the native floral and fauna, as well as explain the ancient culture of the Aboriginal people. For relaxation and pampering, as well as the camp’s swimming pool, its nearby sister hotel has a spa with treatments designed for couples. Other additional options include helicopter tours and camel rides.

Dinner is taken under the stars and features local wine. With no children under 12 allowed, it’s the perfect place for a grown-up break to extravagantly reconnect with your spiritual center and get your life into perspective.

Rates from $2135 (minimum two nights) including all meals, drinks and tours; airport transfers; starry nights; and the most memorable dawns and dusks of your life.

Photos: Longitude 131, Asia Rooms

Places & Spaces is a travel guide that will inspire you to carve out a vacation on your calendar. All of the gorgeous locations and accommodations in our guide share our concern for the environment. From tent glamping to lavish built environments, fair warning, you’ll feel compelled to pack your suitcase.

The post Places & Spaces: Longitude 131, Ayers Rock, Australia appeared first on EcoSalon.

For a weekend of space age-style camping in France, fill your bag with comfy pieces that are good for spending a night under the stars.

When packing for a weekend stay at one of these chic white-and-clear sphere hotels – funky bubble tents popping up all over France – bring comfy pieces that are perfect for a night of laid-back stargazing. Think about being warm and cozy, of course, but don’t forget to throw a little something unexpected in the mix too.

Made By… Open Back Party Sweater
Just like staying in a see-through bubble is not your regular type of camping, this is not just an ordinary cable knit sweater. The front is simple and traditional, but the back is gorgeously open and decorated with a snazzy bow. This doesn’t mean it’s any less appropriate for cozying up next to a camp fire. Made By… uses sustainable practices and fair trade labor to produce their garments
$334, Future:Standard

Jensen-Conroy Encased Brass Cuff
This gorgeous cuff by Jensen-Conroy is beachy and maritime-inspired without getting into clichées. It’s tough and craftsy at the same time, and is the perfect way to bring those simple solids in your wardrobe to life. Made from brass and encased with a knitted cord.
$275, Maryam Nassir Zadeh

Hanky Panky Organic Cotton Boyshorts
I don’t know about you, but when I get ready to immerse myself in nature, all I want to do is sit around in comfy knits (see above), fluffy boots (see below) and boyshorts. These cute ones from Hanky Panky’s Cotton with a Conscience Organic cotton collection are made with Supima cotton organically farmed in the United States.
$29, Hanky Panky

Astrological Sign Necklace by Kimberly Baker
One of the best parts of sleeping in a bubble is that you can lay awake all night and just watch the stars. Wear Kimberly Baker‘s astrological sign necklace around your neck and try to find your own sign in the night sky.
$110, Olivine

Frock Los Angeles Kyla Dress
Who says you can’t dress up just because you happen to be spending the night in a tent-like structure? Channel the shape of your sleeping bubble and get dolled up in this asymetrical backless dress by Frock Los Angeles, sustainably made in the U.S.
On sale for $137, Frock Los Angeles

Julian Organic Scarf by Nudie Jeans
A good scarf is a must when traveling, and when you’re spending time on the beach it can double up as a sarong and towel to lay out on.
Made from soft organic cotton jersey, the color is grey melange that is overdyed with strong blue.
$49, Nudie Jeans

EMU Stinger Lo Aust Made
I know what you’re thinking right now – “did she really include UGG-like boots in a fashion post?” Oh, yes I did. I happen to have a pair like this that I wear around the house almost every day to warm my always cold feet. Even if this is glamorous camping (“glamping,” if you will) it may get chilly at night and you’ll thank me for telling you to pack these along. EMU’s Aust Made line is made in Australia using Australian eco sheepskin and 100% pure Australian wool.
$149, EMU

The post Weekend Bag: Le Bubble Blanc appeared first on EcoSalon.

Rasai Jaipur’s sleeping cubes offer elegant minimalism in a vibrant country.

India’s north-western region of Rajasthan is known for its (literally) colorful characters: women in emerald-green and vermillion saris and moustachioed men with saffron-yellow turbans, standing out like jewels against the dry landscape. Its capital city, Jaipur, is replete with palaces and regal splendor, and nearby is the Rasa Jaipur.

Minimalist white cubes should be about as foreign to this landscape as men in pinstripe suits and bowler hats. But at the Rasa, situated in a green valley surrounded by hills, 40 of these 500-square-foot dwellings look strangely at home. The “tented rooms” provide unfussy, stylish accommodation, with wooden furniture and red stone bathrooms; a canvas curtain allows the air to circulate without compromising on privacy. High ceilings accommodate elongated four-poster beds, while rooms also have outdoor canopied pavilions with chill-out platforms.

Your cube feels palatial in a contemporary way; a modern-day counterpart (free WIFI) to the stone palaces and impressive forts of the “Pink City” a few miles away.

The restaurant is an architectural delight in itself, with the lofty vaulted ceiling offering an ecclesiastical vibe; in case you can tear yourself away to look at the menu, food is creative Indian.

For the adventurous, there are camel and elephant rides; for the sybarites, there’s this.

Rates from $200 including tax, and a haven of peace in a land of constant noise and bustle.

Places & Spaces is a travel guide that will inspire you to carve out a vacation on your calendar. All of the gorgeous locations and accommodations in our guide share our concern for the environment. From tent glamping to lavish built environments, fair warning, you’ll feel compelled to pack your suitcase.

The post Places & Spaces: Rasa Jaipur, India appeared first on EcoSalon.

The Treehotel in Sweden features unique, futuristic camp sites.

Imagine the scene: you’re walking through a forest in northern Sweden, when suddenly you come upon a collection of bizarre objects suspended from trees: a mirrored cube, a UFO, a giant bird’s nest. Have you been abducted into a Dadaistic art installation?

Relax, it’s n0t a flashback to a youthful overindulgence of banned substances, a sojourn through William S. Burroughs’ Interzone or even a Trekkie bootcamp. It’s a 21st century designer eco-hotel-camp called Treehotel.

Treehotel’s green credentials are exactly as you’d expect for a Swedish hotel set in a forest: renewable energy provided by hydroelectric power from the nearby river, LED lighting and water-efficient sinks, and combustion toilets. In most units, waste is heat-blasted at 600C; in the Mirrorcube, your poop gets frozen, while the heat from the freezer’s element is used to heat the room in winter. Dead smart, those Swedes.

The five “treerooms,” designed by leading Scandinavian architects, are all different inside as well as out, with simple furnishings. The UFO, accessed by a ladder underneath has spacey print fabrics, while the ultra-realistic Bird’s Nest is circular with tiny round windows in its pale wood walls. The Cabin is much more conventional, but also larger – a rectangular box with huge windows and an outdoor deck, while the Blue Cone overlooks the river.

The Mirrorcube is like a live work of art. Its outer surfaces show constantly changing images of trees and sky, which you can appreciate from a roof terrace, a more zen alternative to watching TV. Another building houses a sauna and hot tub (this is Sweden, after all). The bad news: this is also where the showers are located, since none of the treehouses has its own tub or shower. This is the Swedish idea of glamping: fab interiors offset outdoor plumbing.

Meals are served, and guests greeted, in a guesthouse run by one of the owners named Britta.

Rates from $573, including tax, breakfast and unbeatable dinner table stories.

Photos: Peter Lundstrom, WDO; Frank Updates via Harper’s Bazaar

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One of the decisive trends for 2011 is nature. Pure, rustic nature. The call of the wild and the desire to mingle with Mother Nature will manifest in our homes, travel plans, and urban environments. As technology continues to present shiny little devices to keep us connected, our innate desire to disconnect grows stronger. Here are a few ideas of how the hunger for nature will impact the fresh new year.

Ever heard of glamping? It’s the adventure of camping with the addition of glamour (which, in my opinion, drastically dwindles the amount of adventure). Glamping is the latest five star brush with nature. Yes, I said five star. The overwhelming movement toward luxury glamping destinations over the last few years may be about to shift toward less luxury, think National Parks and outhouses. Nothing takes away the temptation to plug in more than a travel destination without outlets.

As all classes of travelers start to feel the itch, I foresee a respective swing for fresh air. Those dining at five star restaurants and staying at five star hotels may take up glamping in its most luxurious form (butlers who serve s’mores and maids to tend to the ‘tent’ is pure luxury from my point of view). Travelers who danced with glamping and slept in yurts last year may be inclined to brave a simple tent in a simple campground this year. And last year’s campground campers may take to the trails and invite adventure with a complete lack of amenities.

Traditional camping and temporary escapades with the wild isn’t the only way nature will establish a firm hold in 2011. In my humble opinion, the charm of nature will find a significant place in design and décor. Natural materials in natural states will continue to allure home owners with tonal wood emphasizing organic wood grain furniture, green leafy plants and succulents will permanently reside in prominent corners, and photography that captures a glimpse of the great outdoors will dangle on walls.

The inclination of nature in our lives isn’t just intrinsic (the decisions of travel and design), but extrinsic, too. The wisdom of urban planners is about to sprinkle some green in the concrete jungle. The untamed success of The High Line park (click here for more information) in Manhattan is the likely beginning of urban industrial park development in a city near you. Is there anything more poetic than lifeless industrial skeletons being revitalized into green escapes for urban dwellers? JWT Intelligence includes the development of urban industrial parks as one of its 100 Things to Watch in 2011. According to the clever creatives at JWT, Philadelphia, Berlin, and Chicago are already slating projects to rival the High Line (not an easy task).

Catch up with the rest of our 2011 shelter trends while to plan your next trip to the woods.

The post Camping Without a Butler appeared first on EcoSalon.

There’s been a lot of talk about glamping lately. If you’ve missed the boat on that one, it’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like: glamorous + camping. Luxury camping, so to say. An attempt at combining your love for the outdoors, and hopefully greener travel, with the finer things in life. As the second definition in the trusty Urban Dictionary states: “Satisfying your craving for the outdoors and your penchant for a good meal, nice glass of wine, and a comfortable bed.” We’ve already discussed sustainable glamping trips around the globe and glamping on the southern tip of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, but not everyone is a glamper.

Sure, if you’re not comfortable with backcountry treks, and not everyone is, glamping might be your best attempt at spending some time in the beautiful outdoors, which is an excellent vehicle for learning about and appreciating the natural world that we’re all working so hard to protect, but how green is travel of this kind? Well, it depends.

Despite the cringe-worthy factor of its name, glamping does in fact have quite a bit to offer those looking for a more sustainable, eco-friendly vacation. You just need to remember what to look for. Here are a few key things to keep in mind while planning:

Location

Wherever you go, you want to be sure that the facilities in which you’re staying exist harmoniously with the local environment. That means saying no to places that have chosen over development and scaled back on efforts to promote protection of local natural spaces. Choose destinations where the glamping operator gives back to the local environment, either through non-profit programs or the way in which they run their facilities. Think “conscious” and “aware;” since you’re there to enjoy nature you want to be sure that the places you’re staying are doing their part to protect them!

Activities

As with location and facilities, the activities that a glamping operator offers can have a negative environmental effect. Choose places that put an emphasis on carbon-free, or low carbon footprint, activities like hiking, running, cycling, etc. And no matter how much you want to snowmobile, just say no.

Amenities

Solar power, rain collection and permaculture gardens – yes please! There are plenty of glamping locations out there that are committed to running the most responsible operations possible. You can even score yourself an outdoor shower with an ocean overlook, the ultimate in getting back to nature à la luxe.

Food

The joy of glamping is not having to give up the things that make vacation oh-so-enjoyable, like fine cuisine. Many eco retreats offer organic and vegetarian menus, as well as cuisine that focuses on featuring local produce and delectables.

Plan, plan, plan

Above all, do your research. Glamping Girl features a variety of locations that factor in many of the above requirements. Go Glamping is another site with plenty of info and lots of locations to look through. For more ideas on eco-friendly glamping options, be sure to check out our round-up of 7 Sustainable Romps Around the Globe.

Happy travels!

Image: flourishpdx

The post To Glamp or Not to Glamp? appeared first on EcoSalon.

Getting back to nature – same thing as roughing it? If you find yourself loathe to ditch your oh-so-self-indulgent rituals like “warmth”, “being clean” or “eating actual food” you’ll be delighted to pitch in with a hot new approach to the great outdoors – glamping. Luxury without ostentation, eco-tourism without eco-terrorism – and everything catered for so you can enjoy your surroundings without worrying if you’ll survive the night in them.

Solar-powered lighting, rainwater reuse and an organic menu make Canvas Chic an eco-friendly lodging, while antique décor, four-poster beds and oriental rugs make it luxurious. Located along the Ardeche River gorge in the Rhone-Alps region, the scenery is awe-inspiring.

At Ecocamp Patagonia in Chile, you can stay in domes that resemble the ancient dwellings of the native Kaweskar and soak in the stunning landscape of Torres del Paine National Park with activities like hiking, horseback riding and kayaking.

Looking for something a little closer to home? Just an hour outside San Francisco, Costanoa is set in the heart of nature among 30,000 acres of protected wilderness. Their spacious canvas bungalows seem more like cabins than tents with queen beds, windows and hardwood floors. (Image via Jazz Violin)

Built above the ground to catch the breeze off Jervis Bay, the safari style tents at Paperbark Camp in Australia are extravagant and eco-friendly, with spacious verandas, solar-powered lighting, insect screening and hardwood floors. Plus, guests can explore the bay and surrounding forest with complimentary canoes and bikes.

At Clayoquot Wilderness Resort, tents are equipped with their own fireplace, cozy bed, antique dresser and composting toilet. This stunning destination on Vancouver Island provides plenty of activities for its guests with library, lounge, spa, dining and games tents.

The Resort at Paws Up is nestled along the beautiful Blackfoot River in Montana. Lavish tents with king beds, stylish wall art and a personal butler make for a pampered stay, while activities like horseback riding and mountain biking cater to your adventurous side.

Not exotic enough for your seasoned taste? Take a journey into the Gobi Desert and stay at the Three Camel Lodge. Their deluxe gers feature wood stoves, hand-painted furniture and a king bed. Plus, they come stocked with Mongolian-style bathrobes, felt slippers and locally produced toiletries.

Main image: notsogoodphotography

Unless otherwise noted, images are the property of the corresponding, respective facilities.

The post A Guide to Glamping: 7 Sustainable Romps Around the Globe appeared first on EcoSalon.