Four great camping trips in the UK 

Throwing adventure into drive

For some adventurers, self-drive is the only way to go. If you’re driving a Land Rover Defender, even better. Add to this a safari tent (or, more indulgently, a whole set of glamping kit, complete with Nordisk tipi tent, solar-powered lanterns, camp beds and chairs, even a portable Ooni pizza oven, if you want it) and you’re well and truly good to go just about anywhere in Great Britain. Overland Adventures ticks these boxes, furnishing clients with a well-maintained Defender and whatever else they need for a self-guided expedition, including a handful of itineraries across the Lake District and Northumberland.

The Nland 250 is a 250-mile route that takes between five and seven days to complete, comprising coastlines and castles, woodland and picturesque villages, tidal islands and bits of Hadrian’s wall. The Lake District, however, is OA’s sweet spot – they have more than three decades of form here. Defender hand-off can happen at any regional airport or train station, and its team will lend as much, or little, of a hand as needed with planning and ground services.

Last-minute tents (and tipis, domes and yurts) from Sussex to Scotland

If you’re still looking for a July night or two under canvas, Canopy & Stars is a go-to for the country’s top glamping sites, huts and grounds. It’s easily searchable by all sorts of criteria, from region to occasion (honeymooners, this is your aggregator), last-minute specials or type of stay: geodomes, tick; gypsy caravans and treehouses, tick and tick. Find a sheep shack in Devon, a bothy in Argyll and Bute, or only those accommodations with outdoor baths or inside national parks.

For the coming weeks there are various discounts to be had, so if your schedule allows for a last-minute escape, you’d do well to browse here – plus its B Corp score of 122.3 is one of the highest in the travel industry.

More room to (camper) roam across the UK

Wild With Consent was conceived in 2021 to reinvent the way campervanners connect with nature across the UK. By working with landowners to facilitate off-grid camping options on private estates and farms, it’s changing the possibilities map for the self-sufficient adventurer.

In May, it introduced a clutch of appealing new sites online, ranging from grand High Weald estate in Kent to a Dartmoor cottage on the edge of a medieval village, where you might encounter wild ponies on your evening walk. There are also new sites near Dorset’s Jurassic Coast, working farms in Scotland and Somerset, and a Northumberland Tower that’s within a (good) walking distance of Dunstanburgh Castle and some nice beaches.

Wildness pops up in Bedfordshire

Wild Canvas, the five-week pop-up camping experience, is back for summer 2024. This year it’s again taking over the 150-acre grounds of Turvey House Estate in Bedfordshire, and includes an expanded wellness offering. Besides the treatment tent and riverside sauna, there are free early-morning public sessions: from yoga to Pilates to bootcamp HIIT, and smaller classes throughout the day.

The scope of activities ranges from kayaking and paddle boarding on the Great Ouse, crafts sessions for kids, storytelling sessions and Saturday Supper Club in a sprawling tipi tent. Children will have their very own disco, while on weekends the grown-ups have a rotating roster of live DJs (though everybody is welcome). If you don’t feel like hauling your own kit, you can let one of the Wild Canvas yurts or tipis: they sleep four and come with their own beds (and linens), portable fire pits and outdoor seating. However you choose to sleep, there will be plenty to nosh on, from wood-fired pizzas to empanadas – not forgetting a good old-fashioned barbecue.