Chateau Ramšak Glamping resort

There’s a point where glamping becomes so luxurious you wonder how it ever spawned from the world of camping at all. Chateau Ramšak in north east Slovenia is just such a place. There are no pop-up tents here. No caravans, no motorhomes, no sign of a concrete shower block. Instead, this hideaway in the vine-clad hills of Maribor offers truly hotel-standard accommodation with modern, en-suite bathrooms and king-sized beds.

Don’t get us wrong though, Chateau Ramšak doesn’t fully abandon the world of camping that we so dearly love. As fantastic as such facilities may be, they are all housed under the canvas of pre-pitched safari tents. In the evenings you can cross by the hanging bridge and kindle a campfire beneath the stars, clearer to the naked eye here than almost anywhere in the UK.

The nearest man-made glow to shimmer skywards comes from the town of Maribor just a couple of miles south of the campsite. Home to a 15th-century castle and a delightfully mismatch collection of town houses from different eras; the city boasts both history and a lively atmosphere. It also caters surprisingly well to tourists, owing to the Mariborsko Pohorje mountain resort a few miles away – it’s the country’s busiest ski resort in winter and a cycling and walking wonderland come summer time.

For those who really want to take it up a notch, Chateau Ramšak’s six safari tents are also accompanied by a treehouse – the most exuberant of all the onsite options. Raised on huge stilts but built in the same canvas style, it offers exceptional views of the surrounding vineyards from its position four meters above the ground. The best place to soak up the spectacle, of course, is in the jaccuzi that’s perched on the treehouse’s private terrace (each tent features a private jacuzzi too). Such comforts may feel a long way from the origins of rough-and-ready camping but you only have to look around the valley to see that there's still nothing quite like a night in the great outdoors.