This is a review post.
I have been wanting to go glamping for a number of years now – the tents look so cute and it seemed like a fun time to spend time together as a family. Happily I can now tick glamping of my list of things to do and I can also confirm that it is a super fun way to spend time together as a family!
We have done take in, take out camping before we you have to take everything you need with you, hike in to your camping spot and take everything out with you again. I love this form of camping, but it does take significant thought, planning and preparation.
Glamping on the other hand requires only minimal planning and preparation and allows you to take off for a night away pretty quickly and not have to take half the house with you!
The Big 4 Yarra Valley Park Lane Holiday Park is located in Healeseville and is only an hour drive from our home in the eastern suburbs. This location meant that is was perfect for a one night away trip as there was only minimal time in the car.
We stayed in the Family Belle Tents. This set up has one larger tent for the adults and a smaller one for the kids. The tents are both constructed on the same decking, so it is just a few steps from one tent to the other across the decking.
The main tent is well appointed with all mod cons you need for a night away – small fridge, table and chairs, cupboards with crockery and cutlery, kettle and coffee and tea, towels and basic toiletries.
It also has luxuries like a comfy couch, electric blankets, heater, fan, TV and DVD player! As glampers you have access to private showers and bathrooms through the use of a code. They are only a few metres walk from the tents and are clean and comfortable to use.
The kids tent is smaller but furnished just as nice. As well as very comfortable beds there are also electric blankets, chairs, heater and lamps. The tents do have signs of being in the natural elements for a while now, but despite the markings on the tent itself, they are super clean, tidy and practically set up for families while still being fashionably styled.
The kids and the adults in our family both liked the separate sleeping accommodations – it was nice to be together but also have some space. The zips on the tents can be a little tricky to navigate so if you have very young kids, they may not be able to get themselves in and out of the tent – which of course may not necessarily be a problem!
Big 4 Yarra Valley Park Lane Holiday Park is fantastically set up for kids -there are so many activities for them even in winter:
- recreation room
- giant jumping cushion
- playground
- walking trails
- Badger creek
The giant jumping cushion had a small amount of water on it from rain earlier in the day, but this actually made it more fun with the kids. They ran and slid and wrestled and had such a ball playing on it. They did get very wet, so make sure you have spare changes of clothes to cater for this!
If you were there in summer you could take advantage of the swimming pool, outdoor spa and inflatable water park. The kids still found plenty of fun even without these activities.
You have a water tap located at the end of the deck where the glamping tents are, so you have easy access to drinking water and water for cleaning. The tent has a kit prepared for you so you can wash your dishes.
You could do this near your tent, or like me you could go to the large and very well kitted communal kitchen and wash them there.
We took only a minimal amount of food – something for breakfast, some bread and ingredients for toasted sandwiches for lunch (I brought our toasted sandwich maker from home) and some snacks. We had a lovely meal at a local hotel for dinner.
We did happen to be glamping on a very cold weekend. We knew it was going to be cold though, so packed clothes accordingly – well the adults did. The younger kids as you can see continued to wear shorts like they usually do and they told me they were fine! I found having some thermal tops for light layers worked really well. We also asked and received a few extra blankets for the night which were great too.
The heater did get used when we snuggled together to watch a movie when we came back from dinner on the Saturday night which took the chill off the air for us.
We had a great glamping experience and can highly recommend going. The kids noted it would have been fun to have their cousins in the other tents and it would indeed be a great way to have a time away with extended family. You could all have your own space, but the kids could play and explore together through out the park and the adults could chat!
My lovely friend Aasha wrote a fantastic post on camping with kids last year for the blog which you can read in full here. It has great tips for newbie campers. Glamping would definitely be a great introduction to camping for families.
You find out more information about glamping at the Yarra Valley here – Big 4 Yarra Valley Park Lane Holiday Park