From camping by the Black Sea to a cool Portuguese surf house, these great places to stay across Europe start at just £50 a week in summer All prices are the cheapest available (at the time of going to press) for July/August and calculated on maximum occupancy ..read more

These forest huts near Ullapool are set in a stunning landscape, close to wildlife and give something back to the surroundings and community From the terrace of my cabin I can see through the trees to Loch Broom below. All is quiet, bar the faint sound of the breeze teasing branches in the forest. I close my eyes and listen to the silence, breathing in the coolness of the early evening. A cabin in the woods is the ultimate escape – and mine, Pine Marten, one of two recently opened in Leckmelm Wood, near Ullapool in the Scottish Highlands, scores top marks for its setting. Even better, a stay h ..read more

Marston Park glampsite is a canvas for budding artists, offering tents with a ‘light garden’, easels, guitars, and live music sets Thousands of tiny spheres of light are swaying in a midsummer night’s breeze. They resemble flowers: bright little bulbs on slender stems. Some change colour in waves, from soft pink to rich purple to deep blue. Others are fixed, grouped together in a fiery red sea or a shimmering emerald pool. This is Field of Light at Marston Park, an installation by artist Bruce Munro at a glamping site in Somerset. Munro is perhaps best known for his permanent light display at ..read more

From Scandinavian rustic-luxe to floating eco-cabins in the south of France, we pick cosy and stylish hideaways in forests and lakeland For Big Foot types who want to occasionally come out of the forest to visit the Hendersons, the Stayokay Hostel Apeldoorn offers the best of both worlds: a designer cabin in woodlands on the edge of the small city of Apeldoorn in the Veluwe, a region known for its nature reserves, lakes and Hanseatic towns. The cabin is an off-the-shelf Wikkelhouse – wikkelen being the Dutch word for cardboard – which these sustainable, biodegradable tiny houses with glass fac ..read more

The takeover will add 25,000 pitches and glamping structures to the US website and will enable private landowners to rent out rural space The British camping brand Cool Camping has been taken over by a large US company, Hipcamp, which aims to bring its Airbnb-style model of campsite booking to the UK. From today, all 25,000 camping pitches and glamping structures on Cool Camping’s website will be listed instead on Hipcamp ..read more

A new arts centre in previously overlooked Watchet offers rooms with a view and wider community benefit. Plus six more UK social enterprises On a fine weekend evening, locals gather at the harbour in Watchet, west Somerset. Town crier David Milton, dressed in a gilt-trimmed green jacket and tricorn hat, leads the singing: lusty accounts of drunken and lovelorn sailors and maritime glories past. Kids bob on parents’ shoulders and seagulls cast figures-of-eight against the blue-grey horizons of the Bristol Channel, and soft outlines of Wales’s Barry island beyond. Rather than a nod to the pandem ..read more

Our tipsters’ favourite places to stay in the country and seaside are bound to add a certain frisson to out-of-season UK breaks Hole up in one of two cosy, wooden glamping pods, on Alistair’s beef and sheep farm in the tranquil Devon countryside not far from Launceston, Cornwall. Despite a relentless late-October downpour, we stayed warm, snug and smug inside the pod thanks to a heater and clever insulation. Having an en suite shower room spared us the usual torch-lit scramble across a field, and the heated towel rail felt indulgent. The firepit was a hit on dry nights, as we enjoyed the warmt ..read more

We check out a lovingly restored classic caravan on a quiet farm – but they can also be taken out on the road or to a festival “They changed my life,” says Nick Monckton, surveying his restored Airstream trailers proudly. There’s no doubt the vintage caravans look superb in the Somerset landscape, with barbecue, loungers and fire pits, and some horses grazing nearby. But Nick isn’t just having a pleasant glamping experience – he really has turned his life upside down for these shiny trailers ..read more

With quarantine scrapped for UK holidaymakers returning from France, we select chateaux, hotels and B&Bs across the country ..read more

Campsite bookings are up 233% and tent retailers are struggling with demand. Camping can be magical – but as some hopeful glampers discovered, shelling out big money is no guarantee Name: Unhappy campers. Age: Tents date to the iron age, so this particular form of unhappiness is at least 3,000 years old ..read more