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52 ESTRAVEL Wednesday, 19 April 2006 Evening Standard
Combine the twin vogues of ‘eco-tourism’ and ‘de-stressing’ and stay at a yurt or tipi hideaway, says Will Gethin.
He checks out the best in Andalucia and meets two London couples who have left the rat race to set up retreats
Present
tents
VALLE DE VIDA
Meandering through olive groves
with panoramic mountain views, a
scattering of conical structures rises
skyward from a tipi valley .
garden, private bathroom and solar-
powered mod cons. Opening shutter
doors, light spills through the
crowned roof, lined with red velvet.
Criss-crossing poles weave lattice
walls, encompassing a luxurious
Having sized up my 21ft tipi —
stylish tiled floor, elegant furniture, double bed, hand-painted Mongolian
electricity — I descend a solar-lit furnishings and shag-pile rugs
pathway for a poolside barbecue with strewn over wooden floorboards (0034
my English hosts, serenaded by 952 117 055, www.yurthotel.com; seven
crickets and cicadas grinding the nights from £300 for a double yurt).
night fantastic. “The rounded structure feels more
“It’s the kind of place we always natural and liberating,” says Ed.
dreamed of staying in but never “Since I discovered them four years
found,” enthuses osteopath Robi, who ago, there’s been a dramatic yurt
opened Valle de Vida with wife Keri revival and we’re lucky we got
last year. “The tipis are close to involved from the start.”
nature but with all the mod cons and Yurts started out as tipis in Siberia
luxuries we like around us.” but the shape changed for ease of
Luxuries include hydrotherapy tub, travel. Robust, portable and popular
steam room, hill-top yoga platform with nomads, they have been lived in
and treatments such as osteopathy, throughout Asia for centuries.
acupuncture and reflexology . Over a tantalising three-course
Reclining in the hydrotherapy tub dinner al fresco, Henrietta expounds
after dinner, my body aches dissolve on their environment conservation
in hot bubbling water as I lose myself endeavours, including composting
in the matrix of stars. loos and recycling water.
Retreats (yoga, Pilates, mosaic After a good night’s deep sleep I am
classes) run throughout the year lulled back to consciousness by an
(0034 951 238614, www.valledevida. ambient dawn symphony of goat
com; seven nights from £450pp or bells and cockerels, as shadows of
from £1,000 per group of 10). fluttering leaves dance across the
Beyond the 18-acre oasis of serenity , translucent walls of my bedroom.
the nearby El Chorro gorge offers Lounging in hammocks and lazing
,
awe-inspiring scenery and the El by the pool, days slip blissfully by.
Tintero Campo restaurant in Cartama Alternative therapies, massage and
Estacion seats 1,000, serving exquisite yoga classes can be arranged on site.
local dishes (Crta Carretera, Local restaurants in Cortes de la
Churriana-Cartama, Km 2; 0034 952 Frontera offer quintessential
Alamy
420 475; three-course meal from £20). Spanish flavours, and beautiful
mountainous countryside awaits
exploration — Unseen Andalucia’s
THE HOOPOE YURT HOTEL walking and horse-riding tours come The wild south: tipis provide accommodation, without a feathered brave in sight, at Valle de Vida and La Semilla, in Spain
Ed and Henrietta Hunt are another with specialist knowledge of the feast, try Tragabuches (Calle Jose the unspoilt Costa de la Luz: an
English couple who traded the area (0034 952 153 330, Aparicio 1; 0034 952 190 291, assortment of wooden cabins, tipis, INTERNATIONAL TENT-SETTERS
London rat race for back-to-nature melytigre@erasmas.com). www.tragabuches.com; £30-£45 taster solar panels and organic vegetable ●Aman Resorts’ Aman-i-Khas (0800
wilds, opening this three-hectare bolt Ronda, the most famous pueblo menu). gardens linked by snaking pathways, 2255 2626, www.amanresorts.com;
hole in the Grazalema mountains, blanco with its historic bullring, begs adorned with exotic flowers and from £332pp pn) in India’s
near Ronda, last summer. a visit. The Moorish citadel straddles plants. Ranthambhore National Park has
Locating the round tents below a the gargantuan El Tajo gorge, where LA SEMILLA My tipi stands resplendent — its Mogul tents for viewing wildlife.
mountainside olive grove, I am civil war prisoners jumped to their Sprawled down the side of a mountain criss-crossing poles rising like a ●Steppes East’s Mongolia tour
escorted to an Aladdin’s cave in deaths, as Hemingway’s For Whom and spread over 2.5 hectares, La quiver of fanning arrows — before includes ger tents in the Gobi (01285
canvas with its own cork-shaded the Bells Toll recounts. For a gourmet Semilla is a nature lover’s paradise on plummeting valleys of azure and 651010, www.steppeseast.co.uk;
green, extending to the untamed 14 nights from £2,250).
shores of Bolonia. (0034 956 236 753, ●Cornish Tipi Holidays have
lasemilla.ourproject.org/index.htm; lakeside tipis near the surf (01208 880
from £14 pp pn). 781, www.cornish-tipi-holidays.co.uk;
“We’re raising awareness from £315 (seven nights, sleeps 2-3).
about sustainable resources,” ●Canvas Chic offers luxury yurt
explains Laura, one of three Italian holidays in the Ardèche, France. The
owners who founded La Semilla yurts are large handcrafted tents
12 years ago. made from oak, ash and natural
I sunbathe on secluded white-sand canvas, with king-size beds, private
coves and soak up the African vibes relaxation areas and fluffy towels. A
and labyrinthine streets of surf- minimum three-night stay costs from
Mecca Tarifa, on the southern most £255 per tent and includes breakfast.
tip of Europe — where Africa’s Riff www.canvaschic.com.
mountains twinkle in the distance ●Fours Seasons Golden Triangle,
and Mediterranean and Atlantic in northern Thailand, is a luxury
oceans collide. all-inclusive riverside camp of
Feast your senses with a fusion 15 tents with views to the Burmese
border. A two-night adventure
meal at Souk (Mar Tireno 64; 0034
package with Mekong River
Comfort in a 956 627 065, www.souk-tarifa.com; excursion costs from £1,338 per tent.
yurt: Hoopoe’s three-courses from £12). www.fourseasons.com.
The first point of Spain’s Moorish
circular tents ●Thomson Al Fresco is a new
invasion in AD711, the Arabesque
come with flavours of Tarifa still pervade, as
venture from Thomson responding
Mongolian to demand for stylish camping, and
aptly described by Paul Coelho in is aimed at young couples and
furniture The Alchemist: families. There are sites in France,
(above), “The wind had brought the Spain, Holland, Italy and Portugal.
luxurious Moors, but it had also brought Seven nights at Les Prairies de la
touches and the smell of the desert and of Mer on the Côte d’Azur, in a Rossini
solar-powered veiled women.” mobile that sleeps six, £286.
Will Gethin
mod cons Departing 21 April-11 May; book by
●easyJet has return flights from 30 April. Call 0870 060 1378,
Gatwick to Malaga from £49 www.thomsonalfresco.com.
(0871 750 0100, www.easyjet.com).