Anyone in search of an in-tents summer experience at a price that won’t make them weep might want to look towards the sunny south east, where Ireland’s first pop-up glamp site launches today.
While it will be camping – always a bit dodgy in Ireland, even at the height of summer – it won't exactly be Bear Grylls territory, and the breaks at Summer Glamp in Wexford will be all about the bell tents, food trucks and an al fresco bar area the owners hope will chime with the outdoor summer the country has been told to look forward to.
With the cost of holiday accommodation in Ireland rising rapidly from early in the new year, and availability in most hotspots now in chronically short supply, Summer Glamp, at Slaney Manor in Barntown, Co. Wexford is hoping to fill a gap in the market at a price people won't baulk at.
The site, which opens early next month, will be operational for just eight weeks and will welcome families during the week and will become an adult-only site for the weekends.
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The cost of three nights in one of the bell tents, some of which can accommodate up to six people from a Tuesday to Friday will start at €400 while the price of a three-night weekend stay will start at €600.
There will be a total of 50 tents on the site. People reluctant to spend money to rough it under canvas will be glad to know that all the tents come with double beds, bedside lockers, storage for clothes, while some will even have electricity.
As well as hip food trucks, the people behind the site are also promising fully stocked bars as well as fully stoked wood fired hot tubs. There is a pamper pod, a crucial charging station for devices and even an outdoor cinema.
Summer Glamp is the brainchild of Conor Glennon who said he wanted to bring a "VIP festival glamping vibe" to Wexford.
“I had planned to run some events last summer, mini-musical festival kinds of things but we never got down to Level 2 so that couldn’t happen,” he says. “So during the winter I started to look at some different options.”
He opted for glamping and set out to find the right site in Wexford where he had spent many summer holidays with his family as a child.
“I was looking at various options when I came across a real estate brochure with an ad for Slaney Manor,” he says.
The country house was a popular wedding venue but the couple who own it have had in on the market for around two years.
“I rang them and suggested I use the site for glamping and they went for it. It has two separate fields which gives us loads of space and there are all these lovely laneways and paths which gives it a magical air,” Glennon says.
He decided to split the weeks in two. “By making the middle of the week for families only I thought it would be easier to keep the noise under control so children and their parents will be able to get some sleep and then if adults want to party at the weekends, that option will be there for them.”
He said he had given a lot of thought to the prices. “I didn’t want to be greedy. Everyone is trying to do their best this summer and this way I think people will be able to go away with friends and family and reconnect without screens and all the other distractions.”
There will be food trucks selling fish and chips and burgers and pizzas but he is also hoping to bring a gourmet option in on a rotating basis each week.
He admitted that camping and Irish weather are not necessarily the best bedfellows but expressed the hope that the sunny south east would live up to its name this year. “And apart from anything else, I think we are all owed a decent stretch of weather after the 15 months we have all had.”
Entertainment options will be announced on summerglamp.ie website in the weeks ahead, which Glennon says will allow people have the craic even it the weather gods aren't smiling down on us.
