An action-packed luxury glamping weekend in Shropshire

This family-oriented caravan and glamping site offers lots of luxury as well as plenty to keep the kids occupied.

There’s been a big increase in the number of glamping options on offer across the country, but Love2Stay’s has definitely raised the bar when it comes to mixing creature comforts with canvas and campfires.

Located just outside Shropshire’s county town of Shrewsbury, Love2Stay is trying to evolve the traditional caravan site beyond the ordinary. The site is geared around outdoor family fun without a reliance on the sun, a sensible move given the notoriously fickle British weather, and with little touches that set it far apart from the more traditional sites around the land.

You’ll find all the amenities you’d expect, just with a twist. There’s an outdoor swimming pool that’s fed by a reed water garden, a walking trail that encourages you to kick off your shoes (and go barefoot over different surfaces from stones to mud) and a lake that isn’t just there for show, but offers paddleboarding and kayaking for the more active and fishing for the more sedate.

Love2Stay

In fact the activities are so plentiful that you might find it a challenge to leave the site and explore the lush green hills around you. And the luxury glamping safari lodges are more than alluring too.

Inside the lodges

The safari tent exterior doesn’t prepare you for the almost hotel-like interior, with wooden flooring throughout, complete with under-floor heating in many areas, spacious bedrooms with proper beds and snug duvets and a den area for the kids to play in with a bunk above for adventures at bedtime too.

The camping stove here is actually a fully-fledged cooker with oven and a family-sized fridge/freezer; no putting your milk outside your tent overnight. If you don't fancy cooking, there's an on-site restaurant serving wood-fired pizzas. The lodges do come with heating but there’s also a wood burner in the lounge area to give you that campfire glow in comfort.

The bathroom has a roll-top bath, allowing you to have a luxurious soak just a canvas-width from the outside world.

Love2Stay

But for a really decadent touch you can jump in the lodge’s hot tub and soak up being under the stars. There’s also an outside firepit if you want to toast marshmallows or gather round in the night air on the veranda.

The lodges really do offer the best of two worlds – the modern home comforts and cosiness coupled with the simple joy of being under canvas and gathering round a real fire.

loveEXPLORING/Simon Ward

On-site activities for all

As well as paddleboarding, kayaking and fishing on the lake and swimming in the outdoor pool there’s a huge playground that has something for pretty much every type of child.

Love2Stay

If that’s not enough, then boot up and tackle the army-style assault course. Based on my experience, parents may find it much more challenging than the kids do. Kids with even more energy to burn off can also have a go at zorbing on the lake.

There are more sedate indoor activities too, including tie-dye T-shirt making, which offers a colourful souvenir for kids to take home from their trip. And there are regular blockbuster movies on the big screen in the special Cinedrome tent if rain has spoiled play.

loveEXPLORING/Simon Ward

For adults who want a bit of an escape from all the action there’s a spa with treatment rooms where you can have a warming massage (highly recommended after falling off a paddleboard into a cold lake). Or you can take a yoga or pilates class.

Out and about

Surrounded by the lush green hills of the Wrekin and south Shropshire hills, you’re in prime walking territory. The River Severn winds its way west through Shrewsbury, offering restorative walks along the banks.

Love2Stay

There’s also plenty of history to explore, with the town’s castle home to the Shropshire Regimental Museum’s collection of military artefacts.

The Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery has exhibitions dedicated to Roman history, most of which has been uncovered at the nearby Wroxeter site, and the town’s most famous son, Charles Darwin.

Just a couple of minutes’ drive from the Love2Stay park is the 18^th-century mansion and estate of Attingham Park, which offers a fascinating story of a family that experienced its fair share of tragedy.

Essential details

For a family of four to stay in a glamping safari lodge at Love2Stay with use of park amenities;prices start at £420 for three nights or £1,260 for seven nights in low season, rising to £780 for three;nights or £1,820 for seven nights in high season. All activities, with the exception of swimming and fishing, have an additional charge.

The park is open all year. For more information see: www.love2stay.co.uk