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Happy Glamper A longtime camper ditches her rustic tent for a more luxurious take on enjoying the outdoors By Vonetta Logan
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Glamping explained The Fields is the epitome of “glamping,” a portmanteau that simply means glamorous camping. Glamping offers accommodations and facilities that are more luxurious than
Glamp vs. Camp THE FIELDS OF SOUTH HAVEN
$385+ a night
PJ HOFFMASTER STATE PARK
$46 a night
( $10 day pass or a $36 yearly pass to visit Michigan state parks) $5 per wood bundle
“bare-bones” camping. The glamping market in the United States is expected to bring in $1 billion in revenue by 2024, according to Tents Xpert, a glamping tent manufacturer. And there’s no sign of slowing down. In fact, 21% of the 48 million households that camped at least once in 2020 classified themselves as first-time campers, according to the KOA 2021 North American Camping Report. More than half of these new campers stayed at campgrounds with at least some amenities, and nearly half of the new campers tried glamping. Setting up glamp As a longtime camper, I decided to up my game and try glamping. In early June, I rode my Triumph motorcycle the 125 miles from Chicago to South Haven, a jewel of a lakeside town in Michigan’s Harbor Country. After parking my bike in a field overlooking rows and rows of blueberries, I was greeted by friendly staff members who chauffeured me and my belongings to a tent. We drove up a path lined with cedar chips to the spacious and well-appointed tents from Montana Canvas. In front of each tent is a private fire pit surrounded with Adirondack chairs. A cute bistro table and chairs are positioned on the deck, complete with a plaid table-
PHOTOS BY VONETTA LOGAN
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hen most of us drive home after work, the thoughts running through our minds are mundane at best: “Ope! I gotta run by Target real quick.” But for entrepreneur Irene Wood, a drive after work led to the creation of the Midwest’s premier destination for glamping. When she noticed a 30-acre blueberry farm with the Black River bisecting it was up for sale, she knew her after-work stop would cost more than a trip to Target. Wood had always wanted to capture the nostalgic feeling of camping in a way that connects visitors with nature and the outdoors, and that’s how she created an idyllic oasis called The Fields of South Haven, Michigan. Slightly scarred from childhood camping trips with her brothers cooking cans of beans over an open fire, Wood’s version of glamping comes with 400-square-foot luxury tents equipped with electricity, a king-sized bed, an en suite bathroom with a rain-style shower and an electric fireplace for heat. She opened The Fields in 2018 and this year doubled the number of luxury tents to 19. The Fields operates on that working blueberry farm and features a communal food hall, two massage huts, a communal fire pit and a newly planted lavender field.
Luckbox | July 2022
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