Double beds, bunting, fluffy pillows… there are always a few things to be expected when you book a luxury bell tent stay. But you know you’re doing glamping right, when the gin van shows up. Serving local tipple from across Sussex, including beers from nearby Horsham, cider from Cowford and gin from Brighton, Chilgrove and the Blackdown Hills, the evening arrival of this mobile bar, housed inside a vintage Citroen horsebox, sums up the quirky, classy nature of Canvas & Stars. This is glamping with a capital ‘G’.
Set in a secluded segment of the spacious and scenic Hale Farm Campsite – a working farm where kiddies can get up close with the animals each morning, feeding rare breed pigs, donkeys and lambs – Canvas & Stars is a new luxury offering (though already being lauded by The Telegraph as one of the UK's top mild camping sites) set within its own private space. Their ‘bell village’ comprises 10 fully furnished tents, with beds for a family of up to five people, and an eleventh, communal tent with board games, books and magazines in case the weather turns. Outside, meanwhile, every tent has its own campfire pit and deck chairs, with access to a pop-up kitchen with all the utensils you need, either for cooking on a gas hob or on your open fire.
While the attention to detail here is excellent – complimentary toiletries provided on arrival; a scavenger hunt and fancy dress rail for children in each bell tent; a gift for anyone celebrating a party – it’s still the more universal charms of the place that make it stand out. The two homely local pubs are a perfect case in point, both eminently walkable from the campsite down the quiet Sussex lane, while National Trust attractions and ancient castles seem to pop-up in every direction you drive.
In all, it treads the ideal line between camping and luxury. Those essential elements of the outdoors are still there – the smell of campfire smoke, the morning stroll to the showers through dewy grass, the morning alarm of birdsong – but you’ve still got an incredibly comfortable bed to sleep in and a minimal amount of packing is required. All that, plus the gin van. Now that's the way to glamp!