Bruce Wicker relaxes outside his Backcountry luxury tent. View More Images from this story View and ORDER more photos.

"Glamping" offers all the comforts of home out in the wilderness. By Su Clauson-Wicker

By SU CLAUSON-WICKER

Date published: 8/18/2007

For The Free Lance-Star

TOM HANKS, Kate Moss and Sean Penn have done it; Paris Hilton says she's going to. It's time to try "glamping," short for glamorous camping. The same young urbanites who used to favor boutique hotels and posh B&Bs are instead choosing to spend a pampered weekend under the stars in cushed-up campsites. According to the trend-watching agency The Future Laboratory, as well as the 83,400 citations on Google, glamping is the thing to do this year.

No more leaky tents, smelly latrines or musty sleeping bags. No more pebbles under your back or cold showers in the morning. Tours and resort companies from Durango to Timbuktu are offering luxury tenting experiences on fjords, at festivals, even in the middle of cattle drives. Even British designer Ted Baker has ramped up camping accessories with his own line of chic blow-up mattresses, sleeping bags and tents, complete with cuckoo clock and Chesterfield sofa.

Luckily, I didn't have to travel halfway around the world for a glamping experience. Mark and Tracy Mitchell started their own luxury tenting business in Southwest Virginia in 2003 before it became trendy. The Mitchells enjoyed safari-style camping while living in Zimbabwe; after they came home, they put up six luxury tent/lodges in the forest and started Backcountry at Damascus not far off Interstate 81.

Fortunately, I didn't have to pay celebrity prices. While many resorts charge upward of $1,000 per person per night for walk-in tents with crisp linens, down duvets and meals served on bone china, Backcountry sets you back only $125 per tented cottage. You'll have to bring your own china, though.

The pleasures of a night in the woods are the same. We went to bed inhaling the scent of wood sage from the nearby meadow and awoke to the hoot of an owl. Toward morning, a herd of deer drifted through camp, communicating their presence with a whistling snort. We could hear the echoing trill of a veery and the howl of a dog--maybe a coyote--far away.

Backcountry at Damascus, Box Box 441, Abingdon, Va. 24212; 276/356-9782; VirginiaBackcountry.com. Tent lodges rent for $125 per night, two-night minimum stay, March 23--Nov. 15. Your credit card Matches (Campfires are a requisite, for atmosphere and for fellowship.) Cell phone, iPod, laptop and batteries are optional, unless you are a dedicated "flashpacker" with high needs for connection.

Date published: 8/18/2007