Glamping at Lakedale Resort in the San Juan Islands
My family and I had the opportunity to go "glamping" recently on San Juan Island. We stayed at the beautiful Lakedale Resort near Roche Harbor. This resort and "glamping" had been on my list for the past couple years and this summer it finally happend!
We booked the last canvas tent that was available, and included a king size bed and a futon for our 6 year old. The canvas tent was literally that, a tent with canvas walls and a front door that zipped up. The room includes towels, shampoo and conditioner, linens and pillows, a personal campfire with firewood and free breakfast in the morning. They also offer a great service called "toasty toes" where they drop off hot water bottles that you can place in your bed to warm up your toes. The bathroom is in its own building and is communal, shared with the canvas tent glampers and the actual tent campers.
The property is in the middle of three private lakes and offers fishing, kaying, canoeing and paddle-boarding at super reasonable prices.
My son and husband LOVED this experience. Me? Not quite as much.
It is definitely camping, although you have a fairly comfy bed (always better than the hard floor). However, for the fairly expensive price of this canvas cabin, I thought it would offer slightly more. I would have liked for them to notice how many people were in the room and make sure there were enough blankets and pillows (we had to ask for more), and that they gave us three hot water bottles instead of two (I had to give mine up since I wanted my son to have toasty toes). The other big negative of this experience, for me, was when you check in at the Lodge (which is a separate building people can stay in), there is a sign that says the Lodge was only for guests of the Lodge. It made me feel that as a canvas tenter, I didn't matter. We are not allowed into the Lodge or on the beautiful deck they have overlooking the lake. I wasn't even sure it was okay to check in there on our first night. It rained the whole first day we were there, so it would have been great to go inside the Lodge and sit by the fire or play chess overlooking the lake. It was very disappointing. The second thing that really bugged me was that there are signs that campers are not allowed to camp between the canvas tents, however, there were tents set up between the canvas tent. It made an already crowded area, feel really cramped. These are picky things, however, important to the overall experience for me!
There were many positives of this experience! They included kayaking on the very peaceful lake, the fun floating dock (that I accidentally floated away on), the peaceful greenery beside the lake and the chairs to sit in, the activity booth for kids (we didn't try it, but looked fun) and the great general store! The lake is also great to swim in and there were many kids having a blast swimming.
Would we stay here again? Probably not, at around $250/night, I would like to have a bathroom in our hotel room and be warm at night. Will I try "glamping" again? YES! It was wonderful to be outside and wake to the sunrise and go sleep listening to nature.
Have you tried "glamping"? Did you like it?
I would love to hear your thoughts on it!
With gratitude,
Amisha
