With people discovering the fun of camping and RV living, these outdoor recreational activities that have been the only options during the pandemic would surely live on in the new norm.
But for sure, people who are used to resorts and hotels are missing this kind of amenities. Glamping is not a new concept. It had been gaining popularity even before the pandemic. However, most glamping sites are in popular established outdoor destinations. They are offered as alternatives to hotels in safaris, of natural reserves with high-end tourist traffic. They haven’t been as accessible as hotels and resorts that commuters can easily reach.
But what is glamping? It is simply camping with more luxurious amenities. Could it be done in an urban setting?
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just take a metro, walk a couple of blocks and you could already ‘set up camp’? There are wide spaces that could be turned into glamping sites within an urban center. Here we have some ideas in designing a glamping site that is more accessible to working people who only have short weekends.
Abandoned areas
Cities have arboretums, botanical gardens, large parks. While you couldn’t set up your glamping business in these public spaces, you could create a similar ecosystem given the right space. You don’t have to find a piece of the forest you could buy within the city that would be next to impossible. However, there are abandoned developed properties that could be converted into parks.
In New York, for example, they have the High Line, which used to be part of the Central Railroad. It is now populated with plants and visitors can enjoy walking through along the 2.33 km trail. Similarly, Paris has its Promenade plantée built along a disused railway line. Cities are full of these kinds of spaces. Many have become the haunts of the homeless, and are even used by gangs and criminals. Rather than leave them to shady transactions, they can be developed into a recreational site that could benefit urban dwellers.
If you are skeptical of the safety of having an open camp inside a busy metropolis, you could consider a glass conservatory. Some contractors can help you design your event center that could accommodate an outdoor setup. It could even be a large greenhouse that could be home to plants the whole year-round. This kind of camp can even be set up inside old warehouses for more privacy.
Rooftops
Glamping with the cityscape as your view is another option. There are hotels and resorts in the U.S. that offer one or two glamping accommodations. But few are offering full-scale rooftop clamping sites. Imagine a night not under a sky full of stars but a horizon of twinkling skyscrapers, drinking wine, but with a bonfire and roasting marshmallows filling the night air.
But isn’t glamping a mixture of nature and modern luxury? Well, who says you can’t have a piece of nature on a rooftop? While some people can be contented with enjoying the city view, rooftops could easily accommodate gardens. Large rooftops, fortified and supported well could even incorporate man-made waterfalls and pools.
Rooftop glamping sites are already popular in city centers in Australia and Singapore. The more skyscrapers there are in the city, the more opportunities for finding the perfect urban glamping site.
Mobile glamping
Buying an RV is not an option available to everyone. It’s too expensive. But if you could afford to recondition and overhaul around three buses, then you could offer these to urban ‘campers.’ Many glamping businesses for RVs right now offer only the parking areas. Clients still have to find their vehicles.
You could even establish a route that would get them moving from the city to some suburban area and back to the city in the short weekend they have. RVs are limited in the amenities they could offer, however. The shower and toilet bowl would often be cramped. The living space and kitchen space are often fused, and the bed couldn’t be king-sized. You can make up for this on the camping grounds. Porches could be attached to the RV to offer extended living space, an outdoor tub set up for the campers. Campers can opt to move to different sites for two or three nights. There are too many possibilities for this kind of glamping.
So is there a possibility of making glamping less costly and more accessible? If these glamping sites could be in the urban centers, then possible clients don’t need to pay a fortune for transportation. They don’t also need to be expensive as equipment and maintenance services could readily be available in the city.
