Try a Tipi or Yurt camping holiday in the Algarve this summer

STRAW LOGS - Green Energy from the Isle of Wight

Yurt camping - for luxury camping holidays

A couple of years ago one could say with certainty that apart from history buffs (precious few these days) that nobody had heard about Yurts or Yurt camping, what they were, how they originated or their re-emergence into the holiday leisure market, or at least the camping holidays part of it anyway. Yes indeed, Yurts are not only making a marked comeback in the UK but this has also spread to some Mediterranean countries like France and Spain where quite a few of the smaller companies offering the Eco Yurt camping experience. Pause for though here: Are any of the larger camping holiday companies going to involve themselves and offer Yurt camping holidays? The ears are to the ground but I haven't heard of any yet.....Please let us know if you hear of anything.

For those who are still no wiser as to the origins and/or uses of Yurts: A yurt is an ultra strong tent with a wooden frame, most probably originating in Mongolia - probably at the time of or before that chappie Attila or thereabouts, but neither Atilla nor his Huns took proper holidays, unless they counted sacking, looting and murdering half the known world as such that is.

The Yurt frame is covered by a thick layer of felt which keeps in the warmth. Their use in the leisure industry is very much favoured by Eco Brigade because Yurts have a low carbon footprint as the frame is made from wood from renewable sources and the skin has a felt inner. Most of these are also supplied with log/wood burners which are centrally located so that the heat is evenly spread throughout the shelter, not that I would have thought you need any heating in the South of France from Mid June onwards - rather the reverse! I am reliably informed by a charming young lady much Greener than I that wood burners are good to use because they are also Green - apparently this is because wood causes no more damage to the environment when you burn it than it does if you simply leave it to rot away.

I asked, "What about the clouds of choking smoke that these things give off?" In reply I received a rather pretty blush but no comment. Pity that, I would have liked to set her onto one of our neighbours whose idea of a good time is to let his accumulated garden rubbish smoulder all day and night.

Your camping holiday heaven lies in the luxury which Yurts provide, and I suppose that it must start with the flooring which is wooden and raised to keep out the damp, and again the wood is clasased as Green because it is supposed to be locally sourced from a sustainable forest. On top of the floor are carpets! Oh wow! And normally there is a mass of space in the average Yurt, unlike the normal tent you would hire on site. Other than that they have everything that any tent has, cooker, fridge etc, utensils, blah blah, but no John though. The washing/showering and toilet block is located "nearby".

You need to check about cooking before you book because I have heard of one company which banned cooling inside the Yurt because the felt covering absorbed the cooking smells - tell that to Atilla and he would have chopped a few heads! What's the point of having a cooker if you can't use it inside? OK, if it doesn't rain but if you're in the middle of a heavy Med downpour and it's bouncing 6 inches off the floor you could well starve!

Seriously though, Yurt camping is really nice. We stopped in one for a couple of nights in June 2008. It was in a field with a couple of others, and it was obvious that the owners had only just got the sheep out of the field before they let it to humans. We enjoyed it though and have plans to stay in one again, probably in France next time where there have been no sheep there before us.