The pandemic saw people change the way people interacted and travelled and many found solace in nature. Instagram accounts originally dedicated to rooftop drinks and opulent suites turned full Sierra Club, posting pictures of deserted sunsets, empty hiking routes, and plains covered in wildflowers. Outdoors-focused resorts with tented camp and glamping options, however, step in to remove the discomforts and handle the chores, freeing guests to savour the splendour of nature. For those who feel sleeping on hard ground and rustling up campfire fare isn’t quite “vacation,” these resorts offer options for glamping and tent camping.
Camp Sarika by Amangiri, Utah, U.S.
With ten tented pavilion homes, each with a terrace and plunge pool, and a common pavilion with a restaurant, pool, and spa, Camp Sarika by Amangiri functions as a boutique resort within a resort in southern Utah’s isolated Amangiri. Camp Sarika enables visitors to spread out and immerse in desert isolation, whether actively on via ferrata climbs or more contemplatively by stargazing with provided telescopes. Camp Sarika is named after the Sanskrit phrase for “open space” and “sky.” Amangiri’s resort facilities and restaurants are accessible after a 30-minute trek (or five-minute driving).
Zensu Luxury Travel clients receive all meals and $100 resort credit as Virtuoso benefits.
Nayara Tented Camp, Costa Rica
The 21 hillside rooms at Nayara Tented Camp, located inside Arenal Volcano National Park, each with a roomy 1,500 square feet of air-conditioned space, a plunge pool, and an outdoor shower, frame views of the active volcano. The rainforest is brought inside with canopy beds with headboards painted in botanical designs. Seven warm spring pools, a wildlife refuge reforested with more than 1,000 cecropia trees to support its 15 sloths, morning yoga classes, and an espresso shop with bean-to-brew demonstrations are all available to guests outdoors. Off-site, nature guides take hikes across lava fields, excursions of nearby coffee farms, and canopy tours over hanging bridges.
Zensu Luxury Travel clients receive free daily breakfast and $100 spa credit as Virtuoso benefits.
Longitude 131, Uluru, Australia
At Longitude 131 in Australia’s Red Centre, the 16 white-peaked tents command attention from the sacred sandstone monolith at the park’s centre, Uluru-Kata Tjuta. The resort serves as a gateway to Indigenous culture and provides gorge walks, sunset treks to Uluru, and excursions to see the prehistoric Mala people’s cave drawings. In terms of culture, visitors can take classes in Aboriginal dot painting, and in terms of adventure, they can take Harley-Davidson motorbike trips to explore the Northern Territory’s outback. After dinner, the guides share legends about the constellations of the Southern Hemisphere, and heaters on the verandas of the tents promote solitary stargazing.
Zensu Luxury Travel clients receive all meals, an open bar, a $50 spa credit, $50 resort credit, and round-trip transfers from Ayers Rock Airport as Virtuoso benefits.
Capella Ubub, Bali, Indonesia
According to its architect Bill Bensley, Capella Ubud, Bali, is “a 23-tent camp that tiptoes ever so delicately on the soil,” built without the use of any trees. At the remote retreat on the Wos River, where a Hindu temple performs purification rituals, vintage romanticism and Balinese spirituality collide. One-bedroom apartments and the two-bedroom Lodge are connected by suspension bridges that wind through the jungle highland canopy. Each has a pool and is decorated to reflect the tale of a stranded Dutch crew at the turn of the 20th century. Visitors can help maintain the property’s cocoa and coffee trees or trek the adjacent Mount Batur volcano before spending the evening in the Officer’s Tent, which serves as a social hub.
Zensu Luxury Travel clients receive free daily breakfast and a complimentary 50-minute massage for two.
Elewana Loisaba Tented Camp, Kenya
Elewana Loisaba Tented Camp, located on the 57,000-acre Loisaba Conservancy in Kenya and sustainably managed by The Nature Conservancy as a vital corridor for elephants, is perched atop an escarpment and offers views from its 12 tents, as well as from its dining tent, terrace, and nearby infinity pool, of the Ewaso Nyiro River valley and distant Mount Kenya. A private pathway connecting three family units to two tented bedrooms connects them, and one family suite has a pool of its own. One of Kenya’s most stable lion populations, endangered wild canines, and elephants may all be found in this reserve, which has three square miles of wilderness per bed.
Zensu Luxury Travel clients receive all meals and house drinks, daily game drives, and a guided walking safari.
Chamba Camp Thiksey, India
In the Leh Valley’s high-altitude alfalfa pastures, mid-May to mid-October, the 14-tent Chamba Camp Thiksey is erected seasonally amid ice-capped mountains, glacial rivers, and cobalt lakes, much like the nomadic camps that sustained centuries of traders and explorers in India’s mountainous Ladakh region. The program, run by The Ultimate Travelling Camp, alternates bird-watching, hiking, and whitewater rafting with excursions to the seventeenth-century Leh Palace, historic monasteries, and a village oracle. In the camp, which features a croquet court and a cuisine with international influences, indigenous and colonial traditions coexist.
Zensu Luxury Travel clients receive free daily breakfast and a $100 camp credit.
