Girls On Tour Glamping: Pretty wellies, cupcakes and champers

The girls and I are busy making plans for one of my friends’ 24th birthday later this month and although this year the plan is to have the celebrations in London, with plenty of pink fizz and dancing, I will always remember the way we spent her birthday last year. My beautiful friend had a bit of  tough year and so reaching 23 and being happy was quite a milestone – we decided to do something special and with a free trip I organised for a feature for work, we headed off for a weekend of glamping!

We stayed at Pigeon Wood Hideaway in Sedgeford, which is owned by Wild Luxury, and this really was glamorous camping. Although I love camping, trust me, with my friends, glamping was the only option. Especially when I had a call from the birthday girl as she was packing to ask “do I need to pack my straighteners or are you taking yours?” – No there definitely was no electricity. But we were all really excited to do something different and have a relaxing weekend where we didn’t have to go very far beyond beautiful Norfolk and yet felt completely separate from home.

The site was amazing, one my car had bumped and groaned through the fields to get there – we had to leave the road and rough it the rest of the way to the camp site. It was quite an adventure! We arrived and started unloading the car of all our treats and birthday goodies. The site was lovely, literally felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, all you could see was endless fields and woods – not a road in sight! It was so peaceful and the sun was shining – perfect! In front of the huge glamping tent there was a metal fire for us to burn logs in, at the end of the field there was a log shed to top it up. There were also some enclosures at the end where rescue chickens, ducks and goats were kept, with opportunities for us to collect fresh eggs and to feed the animals.

The goats were so nervous because they had been so maltreated at their previous home, they were very skittish to start with, but soon their curiosity overwhelmed them and I actually managed to stroke one and feed them from my hands! They were so cute and the chickens were so cheeky.We made sure to stock up on burgers and sausages from the local farm shop so we could have lots of barbecues – I was given the role of head chef and fire attendant which suited me fine! The girls kept me topped up with bubbly and snacks while I was cooking and it certainly made the food taste even more amazing because it was all local, fresh and cooked outside. We also kept ourselves entertained with lots of silly games, endless gossip and lots of laughs. Outside the tent there was a bat & ball set which had us all getting a bit competitive – bloody tiring I tell you! And we also couldn’t resist getting some bubbles from the shop to play with – just like kids. We had such a lovely weekend and the actual tent was amazingly well-equipped – we had our own warm, power shower and loo, a gorgeous stove that kept the inside warm all night long, a fabulous little kitchen that had everything we could have needed and the cosiest, comfiest beds. It actually slept six so we had loads of room to spread out and really enjoy it. I would really recommend trying out glamping if you fancy doing something a little different, and Norfolk really is the perfect place to do it. It’s really fun getting outside and getting back to basics, plus a hangover is a lot more fun when you’re sitting round the fire with a fry-up the next day. As I said, Norfolk also has so much more just around the corner with gorgeous beaches and coastal towns, plus the woods nearby.

We had lots of fun exploring places nearby and acting like tourists in the sunshine – of course, not complete without fish & chips at the seaside and huge luxury ice creams. I loved being on holiday somewhere so close to home because it meant we knew where all the good stuff was and we knew the great places to go for food. We also discovered lots of lovely pubs along the way! Definitely a brilliant way to spend the weekend, and a birthday. Let’s hope this year’s celebrations are just as amazing!

Have you tried glamping – what did you think? And have you holidayed at home?