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There’s a time and a place for intimate celebrations, but sometimes you need the exuberant feel-good factor of sharing a milestone moment with friends and family. Making memories, creating silly in-jokes, chatting round the campfire and blasting out a few off-key renditions of happy birthday. If you have a group that you normally rough it under canvas with, maybe it’s time to treat yourselves to a glamping upgrade for a special occasion. Whatever the milestone, we’ve got some unique and spectacular places for large groups to celebrate in.
Lofftwen Longhouse in Powys is the quintessential secluded bolthole in the wilderness. Grab five fellow adventurers and head to this 17th-century traditional Welsh longhouse, where you’ll find epic hikes in the Cambrian Mountains, rewilded farmland and total tranquillity. There’s wild swimming, canoeing and fishing nearby and a massive diversity of wildlife, so you can get a bit of healthy competition going as you try to spot birds, weasels, stoats, red squirrels and pine martens. When it’s time to share a celebratory feast, The Drover’s Rest is an award-winning restaurant and tearoom with views of the River Irfon and The Neuadd Arms offers classic pub food, warm fires and ales from their own micro-brewery.
Strum a guitar, play the ukulele or take a seat at the baby grand piano and let the music flow (even if it's just chopsticks) – Candyland Studios in Devon gives ‘access all areas’ to creatively inclined groups of 8 to 12. You can even hire the cabin’s private recording studio and immortalise your glamping weekend with a celebratory jamming session. Perhaps an original song for the birthday girl or boy? If you’re not musically inclined, there’s still plenty to amuse yourselves with. Head to the coast at nearby Bude, hike the local trails or just relax together on the huge deck, loll in the hammock and plan that evening’s BBQ.
A home counties glamping site that celebrates the best bits of outdoor living for groups of six to eight, Kushti Camp in Berkshire boasts an outdoor kitchen, table tennis, sun loungers, a fire pit and, wait for it… yes, it’s got a pool. It’s up to you whether you swim or just dangle your toes in as you toast your milestone occasion. The four quirky cabin bedrooms are bright and cosy, there’s storage for bikes, a gas-powered shower and a compost loo. With plenty of space, total privacy and lots of seating, Kushti is somewhere to celebrate the pleasure of fun times together, outdoors. If you want to venture further afield you’ll find National Trust gardens, the Thames, the Ridgeway and pretty Pangbourne nearby.
Groups of 8 to 14 hankering after the simple life – with some style and flair – should head to the Vintage Vardos in a secluded glade at Fisherton Farm in Devon. Perfect for all ages, you’ll feel like you’ve been transported to a bygone era when you catch sight of lovingly-restored Gypsy caravans set around a huge hand-crafted outdoor dining table. There’s magic in the air, much of it sprinkled by passionate hosts Gavin and Jemma, who have poured their hearts and souls into this rural idyll and welcome guests mucking in with farm life (calf feeding anyone?). Spend lazy, technicolour days playing charades around the campfire, competing at table football in the games barn or exploring the stunning natural surroundings together. You’ll make memories to last a lifetime.
Epic celebrations deserve epic surroundings, and it doesn’t get much more spectacular than Rufus’s Roost in Yorkshire. The huge windows, high ceilings and sheer scale make the beautifully crafted treehouse feel like a permanent party, with facilities catering for six with ease. It’d be easy to stare out at the views all day, but don’t forget to make use of everything left for you! There’s a pizza oven out on the deck for an afternoon crafting increasingly lavish pies in a bid to outdo one another, a slide (just because), a hot tub out on the deck to watch the sun go down, tipple in hand, and a wood burner back indoors for once it finally sets. And with The Yorkshire Dales to your west, the North York Moors to your northeast, and the Howardian Hills to the east – you’ve got all you need to explore on your day’s out.
A staunch belief in the power of food to bring people together is at the heart of the glamping philosophy at Box Barn in Monmouthshire. That’s why the owners have made sure that cooking options abound with a wood fired pizza oven, a Traeger pellet burning smoker BBQ and a large fire pit with suspended cooking pot (for traditionalists, there’s an indoor kitchen too). When you’re not bringing young and old together for a celebratory feast, sample the eight-seater wood fired hot tub, work up a sweat in the gym or try the plunge barrel. In the large hay barn you'll find a stage with a puppet theatre and dressing up clothes, perfect for some group amateur dramatics after a drink or two. A whopping fifteen people can sleep comfortably in the byre and bunk house, and there’s space for ten more to camp.
With a licensed ceremony room, you can say ‘I do’ at The Camping Meadow in Norfolk before kicking off the ultimate glamping wedding reception with 30 friends and family. Call it your very own festival in a meadow, complete with cocktails in the fully-licensed Warehouse Bar, meals in a converted retro bus (also used as a karaoke room and photo booth), and magical nights round the firepit. Set across acres of Norfolk countryside, six bell tents each sleep four people with six guests of honour accommodated in The Wren’s Nest, a gorgeous two-storey hazel bender tent, and space for two in The Little Hut. If you like your celebrations laid back, fairylit, open air and adventurous, this is the place for you.