Flash Camp Pop-Up Hotel: From Glam Camps to Canvas Hotels

The whole *pop-up* glamping thing is old news in Australia. You can hire a standardised and categorised bell tent at most festivals these days, or you can pay one of the many glamping companies to set one up for you at your local campsite – a nicely decked-out canvas-palace ready and waiting for your few days of hands-off habitation. Pop-up glamping offers a step-up from the traditional camping trip, but what if you want an experience that’s even more…unique, even more…luxe than the mainstream? What if you want to have your proverbial glamping cake and eat it too?

Flash Camp’s Pop-Up Hotel, the new offering by Byron Bay based ‘Flash Camp’ founders Cameron Arnold, Brandon Saul and the Hutchings family (owners of Paperbark Camp in Jervis Bay) who started out servicing Falls and Splendour in the Grass Festivals in 2014 with tents-en-masse, might not provide the red velvet but certainly delivers the champagnes at sunset! The roving glamp, which ‘popped-up’ in Winton Wetlands, Victoria and Stradbroke Island, Queensland earlier this year and will soon frequent Kakadu National Park, mixes the inclusive vibe felt by revellers of a tent-city at a festival and the thoughtful, eco-luxe service of a small bespoke hotel, with different locations around Australia that WOW! And with large 5m tents decorated with designer furnishings like leather chairs, throw rugs and sustainable mod-cons, Flash Camp is the pop-up Glamp that keeps on giving.

I was lucky enough to visit both the Winton Wetlands and Stradbroke Island Glamps recently, and while the Winton Wetlands offering was going through some teething issues to be expected during the first crack at any new venture, many had been improved upon when I stayed at Flash Camp on Stradbroke Island. Where Winton was a relatively plain glamp-site, Straddy was a legitimate pop-up hotel with all the bell tents and whistles (pardon the pun) exclusively set-up on Adams Beach in Dunwich. There was a playfully rustic, Robinson-Crusoe-like reception manned by a helpful receptionist 13 hours a day and a communal area with bamboo and million-dollar views, free bikes to cruise around the bay on, and a yummy breaky with fresh seasonal muesli and fruit. With every single thoughtful extra, you could really feel the Flash Camp hotel experience starting to take shape. And I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the future!

Flash Camp Stradbroke Island Jan-March 2016

Flash Camp Pop-Up Hotel – Good To Know

Tents

• 5m Canvas Bell Tents especially modified for Australian conditions – aka, you can stand up in them!
• Beauty Packs provided by Biology Smart Skincare
  Large Queen-size comfy beds with soft linens and doona (can request twin beds)
• Solar lamps
• USB charger
• Torch provided
• Fresh towels daily
• Clean, sheltered shared toilets and showers
• Daily Housekeeping
• BBQ Facilities
• Ice provided for Eskies

Prices

• Range from $110 to $250 AUD, depending on location and time of the year.

Miscellaneous

• Flash Camp hotels usually pop-up in one location for a few months, depending on demand. You can also hire out the entire hotel for private events and weddings and choose the site.
• Don’t forget the Esky and bug spray!
• There is parking on-site close to your tent.
• *A pop-up hotel is a hotel which is temporary, being at a location for a short time before being moved. Such hotels may be built from pre-fabricated modules which are plugged together on site or from collapsible structures such as tents or they may be fully mobile* – Thanks Wiki

Mokoan Flash Camp Winton Wetlands Jan – March 2016

SKA xx

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Stefanie was hosted by Flash Camp at both the Winton Wetlands and Stradbroke Island Pop-Ups. As always, she’s keeping it real and all opinions are her own. 

Cover image via Concrete Playground