Britain’s most middle-class campsites – featuring Turkish baths and llamas

Forget simply staring at the sunset and listening to the birds, camping has become something more akin to a middle-class festival

When you think of campsite fun and games, what do you picture? There is, of course, the traditional “try to pitch your tent with your partner in the dark” activity (takes two hours, but often comes at serious emotional cost). There’s the “get the barbecue lit in the drizzle” workshop (30 minutes, around £50 for materials, but you do get to take a few charred sausages away with you). 
Overall, though, camping has traditionally – sacredly, even – been a low-fi form of break. You might do a bit of walking, or some light fishing if you’re feeling ambitious. Otherwise it’s just you and your thoughts in nature.
Well, no more. A new breed of campsite is emerging. In these places, traditional activities have been banished. You are far more likely to arrive at a pre-erected bell tent or geodesic dome with sheepskins and solar lanterns. And in place of nuked bangers, food trucks and farm shops will be selling Vietnamese bánh mì, or at the very least, sourdough pizza and craft ales. 
I know what you’re thinking: glamping is so 2019. By now, every man/woman/poodle has been there, done that, and got the dent in their bank balance to prove it. But there’s more to it today than just idling in luxurious accommodation; many glamping sites have introduced a remarkable array of stimulating activities to fill your time outdoors. 
Some of these are for the children. Forest school sessions, for instance, are now de rigueur, giving parents a little time off duty. There are plenty of on-site activities for the adults, too. Some are sporty: paddleboarding classes, say, or trail runs. Some are spiritual, such as yoga and breathwork sessions, or involve some level of self-improvement, such as whittling spoons. Others are just plain kooky – anyone fancy a stroll with a llama?
Here are some of the best of glamping’s new breed. 
Pitch your own tent or book a bell tent with views over the ocean – Eweleaze is almost on top of the beach. Once you’re in, there’s a huge amount to do. Morning yoga sessions for all ages and abilities take place near the massage tents, where you can also book a treatment. The Turkish bath and saunas (wood-fired or solar) are free for guests, as are craft demonstrations, beach fossil-hunting, sheep-shearing, storytelling and more. Paid-for activities range from circus school sessions to kids’ crafts. Bored with barbecuing? The restaurant focuses on locally sourced, organic dishes, while the courtyard hosts pop-ups such as Sally’s Fish Camp (try the lobster rolls). 
(Open from July 15 to August 30)
Located in the coastal sweet spot between Padstow and Newquay, Macdonald’s has the full spectrum of camping options, from electric and standard pitches to safari tents, a cabin and “the potting barn” (read: barely camping at all). The activities are wholesome and multi-generational: there’s family yoga, family quiz night, tours of the farm animals (including alpacas), petting sessions and pony trekking. There’s also regular live music and they take their pizza and barbecue nights very seriously indeed (so you don’t have to). 
(Open from April to October)
To call it a campsite would be a travesty. Fforest is far too beautiful, comfortable and cultured for that. And yet… Its lush 200-acre site is dotted with domes, “shacs” and bell tents, as well as a cedar-barrel sauna plus the smallest (and arguably coolest) pub in Wales.
There are guided walks, bookable canoe trips and – in high season – movie nights screened in a tipi. Run by an enormous (and enormously creative) family, the site hosts regular retreats focused around cycling (Gran Fondo) to creativity and wellness (Glow Create). The site even has its own idyllic micro-festival called Gather, at which 200 quick-thinking guests (tickets sell out at lightning speed) learn skills from printmaking to ceramics, via cooking workshops and forest school sessions. 
(Open from late February to late November)
Pitch up to the gorgeous 300-acre Camp Hill Estate in the Yorkshire Dales, and you won’t have to pitch a tent. Camp Katur has geodomes, lodges and pre-erected canvas tents. 
There are plenty of distractions on site for the kids, including a “woodland kingdom” adventure playground, outdoor gym, swing park and a smallholding that is home to some recently arrived pigs. Adventurous adults and their offspring can also book bushcraft experiences and courses, led by Katur’s team of rangers. Every Saturday, from March to October, there are also classes and workshops to book, covering activities such as den building, wild cooking, tool making and fire making. 
(Open from March 1 to October 31)
The closest you will ever come to living in an Ewok village, Campwell is a glamping site like no other. Hidden among the trees, on one side of a wild wooded valley are cabins, yurts, a shepherd’s hut and a cob roundhouse. Some have charmingly wonky green roofs, others are accessed by rope bridges. Most have been handmade by woodworker Tim Gatfield.
Book in for a weekend and you can use the wood-fired sauna, or visit the secret swimming lake. The more energetic can also tackle yoga, breathwork or gong bath sessions in the roundhouse, bag an appointment in the treatment room, or enrol in an activity such as wood carving, foraging or even sheep herding and shanty singing. 
(Open from late March to late October)
With only 26 pitches arranged over 6.5 acres, this one is small but perfectly formed. Bring your own canvas, or book a pre-erected bell tent. Use the Clubhouse and Hangout – two hip and (crucially) weatherproof spaces where you can play table football, use the facilities and cook some grub (though Hawarden’s gorgeous farm shop and restaurant are just across the field, for the easily tempted).
The Hawarden Estate was once home to Victorian prime minister William Gladstone and is now run, in refreshingly hands-on fashion, by his descendants. In the summer, campers can join swimming sessions in the family’s water-lily-strewn lake and take tours of Hawarden Old Castle (a romantic ruin on the grounds). Just around the corner, you will find the Walled Garden School, which hosts regular classes in open-fire cooking, photography, yoga and gardening, but also more taxing subjects such as business management and entrepreneurship.
(Open from May to August)
One (if not the) first campsite to embrace full-on activities, Wowo is a favourite for families. Geodomes, yurts, shepherd’s huts, bell tents and pitches are spread across five main camping fields in the lush southern edge of the High Weald. If the Saturday-night fireside live music lights a spark in you, you can book a workshop in musical improvisation and songwriting. Otherwise, there’s a wild and replete roster of workshops in circus skills, bushcraft, art and more. Book the kids in, then head to the wild spa for a sauna, steam and cold plunge. Or take a class yourself: foraging, wild medicine and potion workshops are on offer from the site’s resident medical herbalist. 
(Open from March 1 to October 31)
Hand-built by the farmer, the off-grid and impressively sustainable shepherd’s huts on this Sussex farm each sleep five people, making them perfect for small families and groups. You can also bring your own tent or camper if you’re feeling brave. 
A walk away from Bodiam Castle, the river Rother runs through the campsite and you can take a dip or book wild swimming, paddleboarding and kayaking sessions during your stay. The on-site shop and café is open every day too. Why not order a hamper of local produce for your stay? Or book into one of the Friday pizza and cocktail nights. There is also a separate wellness hub, hosting yoga classes and treatments. 
(Shepherd’s huts open from mid-March to the end of the October half term; camping from May to the end of September)
Four yurts and two bell tents are sited on this working farm. You can meet the animals (and buy the farm’s meat). A thoughtful schedule of activities focuses on willow weaving, wood carving, hedgerow foraging and forest bathing. You can also book a private chef who will teach you how to cook on an open fire; take yoga, archery and throwing lessons; book a horse-drawn carriage ride through the woods to the pub; or hire a bike for a guided cycle in the hills. Feeling a little more sedentary? Local cheese and wine tasting is an option in a nearby vineyard. 
(Open all year)
There’s something for everyone in this wild and wonderful expanse of Kent woodland. The Great Park Wood is set aside as a child-free site, while family-friendly pitches are focused around the Tudors Spring area. Bear Grylls wannabes can get pretty close to off-grid wild camping, while those looking for more creature comforts can book a pre-erected bell tent, and then learn some skills from scratch at the onsite School of Nature and Bushcraft. It hosts a forest school for kids, Saturday bushcraft adventures, archery and axe lessons, yoga and mindful walking sessions, spoon carving, basket weaving and more. 
(Open from May 1 to October 31)
This tiny gem of a family-run campsite in the heart of the Shropshire Hills has a handful of pitches, pre-erected bell tents and (star of the show) Monty the retro caravan. This year, it launched activity weekends. An onsite artist’s studio runs workshops in silversmithing, crocheting, book binding and more. Outdoor activities from coracle building to climbing can be booked too. This year, the team launched all-inclusive activity weekends in which a host of these craft and adventure activities are available when you book your bell tent (as well as fresh pastries for breakfast and homemade pizza for supper). 
(Open from March to October)