In 2020, it seems that back to basics, and less is more - type off-grid holiday experiences are becoming more and more popular as people seek to unplug from day-to-day hurly-burly of life's busyness. Today, this type of experience is being provided by the glamping sector now. Glamping today offers holidaymakers a wide range of glamping adventures, ranging from the luxury end right down to off-grid.

Back to basics

Josephine from White Peak Shepherds Huts wrote about setting up an off-grid glampiste way back in 2016. Back then, she remarked, 'for that eco-friendly, basic glamping holiday, you don't need mains utility facilities to set up an outstanding 'glampsite' that people will flock to, in fact, quite the opposite is true.' We, at Glampsan, think that 4 years on she is still right.

If you're like me, from the baby boomer generation, then you may recall that your childhood might have been spent making dens, climbing trees, fishing for Waterboat Men and running wild all through those long summer holidays. How times have changed. Josephine also remarks that the ability to create one's own entertainment and explore nature has been lost to many of today's children.

Having said all that, it seems that many early learning preschools are coming back to kids putting on their wellies and enjoying the great outdoors. Many of these preschools are reintroducing young children to letting their imaginations run wild by playing outside. The idea is to create a more active and positive mindset through physical activity to enhance wellbeing. This is hopefully a long term solution to dealing with the mental health-related issues facing many adults today.‍

Eco-friendly holidaying‍

Back in 2016, Josephine quoted the world tourism organisation saying that 'ecotourism is the fastest growing sector of the tourism industry expanding by 20% to 34% year on year.' She suggested that this demonstrates our desire to unplug and get back to basics.' Today, in 2020, we, at Glampsan, agree with Josephine. We are noticing a sharp rise in interest for waste sanitation solutions from glamping businesses. From our research, in 2019, traction for people seeking to take short breaks in the countryside is increasing. People are enjoying glamping in shepherds huts, treehouses, yurts and so on. So, we believe that there has never been a better time to use that spare piece of land and set up a simple off-grid glamping venue in a remote field or woodland. For example, we spoke to many farmers and landowners looking to diversify at the FBI show at the Birmingham NEC in November.

Setting up that off-grid experience

In the last few years, glamping utilities have come a long way. Light can be easily provided via trendy designer type lanterns and many other means. Heat and cooking can be delivered via a fantastic selection of wood-burning stoves. Power can be supplied from solar-powered batteries too.

Water and waste do remain the most challenging of all of the services to think through though. And that's where we come in. We, at Glampsan, are specialists in this area, and we advise many glamping businesses as to their effluent waste options.

For example, water from a local water source or from collecting rainwater can be harvested stored in a specialised tank where it is filtered and passed through a filtration and UV-sterilising system. This makes it safe for drinking. It would help if you liaised with your Local Planning Authority as well as the Environmental Agency on such matters.

If there is no access to mains water on your site, then fret not. When it comes to dealing with sewage waste, then waterless Composting Toilets have gained considerable popularity for that authentic off-grid experience. These eco-friendly toilet systems need to be managed correctly but are entirely odourless and easy to use and maintain too. The separation of liquid and solid waste is an essential factor. Wee, is usually channelled to a soak-away and can later be diluted with rainwater and used for garden fertilisation. Sawdust or mulch needs to be added to the solid poop part to allow the waste to break down naturally into compost.

Check out our recent exciting and useful blogs on Composting toilets.

If you have mains water and want your holidaymakers to access flushing toilets, instead of the composting variety, then that is an excellent option too. At Glamspsan we are specialist providers of Flat-Tanks that can be located under, or nearby your glamping units to collect effluent waste. We have various sizes of tanks that can be appropriately sized to optimise when waste requires removing via a tankered waste sewage service and disposing of it for you at the local municipal sewage farm.

So, if you're looking to set up an off-grid glamping experience, then please contact us at Glampsan. We will be delighted to help advise you.

Social Media

One of our passions is that we love using social media like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in quirky, fun and useful ways to inform you. For example we have an awesome blog site aimed specifically as glamping businesses to help to inform you of waste sanitation solutions. So, head over to our blog website https://www.glampsan.com/blog.

We do regular videos too to help get useful messages across to our customers, and we'd love you to tell us, in the comments, what you think too people.

Sincerely, JT

0800 999 6010

https://www.glampsan.com (Part of Plastic Solutions based in Aldridge)