LRK3DE 2019: Glamping Review

I feel that I am the very definition of glamping. I'm pretty outdoorsy, but I really like taking showers, sleeping in a real bed, coffee and champagne.  Kentucky's offering of glamping sounded like the perfect mixture of all those things, with the addition of horses making it even sweeter. Unfortunately it didn't turn out as sweet as I hoped.

Perk: after hours wanders

The Good

• Convenience. Staying directly on the cross country course was fantastic. There were tailgate spots between our tent and the course, but from our tent flap we could see two complexes really easily. It was super convenient, especially if you plan on tailgating. We were just on the other side of the fence from the regular camping sites at the Kentucky Horse Park.

• The bed was super comfortable. I slept like a rock every night we were there.

• The tent came with a bunch of fun goodies - a little bag, a mug and blankets all with Land Rover branding on them. The mug especially, I love.

The Bad

• It was really freakin' poorly organized. A few days before we got an email telling us we'd be staying in the blue tent, and the combination for the lock that held the tent shut. The instructions on how to get TO the glamping area were not super clear. The parking for the glamping was not well marked. We ended up stuck behind locked gates, in dead ends, and driving through the vendor area/KHP after hours. I can't believe we didn't get busted for driving around past the stadium. Pretty sure a bright red Mini is not standard horse fare, but whatever.

When we finally made it to the campground all the tents were white. No blue tents, no blue cards on tents. They were numbered. I tried emailing the person in charge of the glamping and calling the LRK customer service line with no help. Another glamper saw us frustrated and gave us the cellphone number for the glamping coordinator. She happened to have it because her story was way worse than ours, involving getting to KHP in the dark during a storm and having the wrong number of beds in the tent once they finally figured out which one was theirs.

• It had rained quite a bit Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. We were lucky, but several of the tents took on a lot of water and people were using their commemorative mugs to scoop out the puddles. It was also freezing, and the blanket provided by the glamping company was NOT adequate. Some of the other glampers were able to track down the hippies running the show to swindle some spare blankets, but Sara and I couldn't. We ended up making a pit stop to Walmart to get an extra.

• There wasn't really anything special about the glamping. They provided the tents, which were fancy and canvas, and the beds. There was a huge group of people who had a canopy and seemed like they were having a great time, but when Sara went to introduce herself they were really rude to her. Pretty much everyone kept to themselves. It would've been nice if it had some organized activities or perks. A post cross country s'mores event or a course walk or even a dedicated shuttle to the jogs. 

The view from glamping

For the price, I'd say it really was not at all worth it. The best draw is the convenience, and KHP has a campground with site rentals already available. The glamping uses the same bathroom and frankly, the people at the regular campsite were nicer. It was lit better, there were fire pits, and for the amount you spent on glamping you could get a campground, an RV and like 5 bottles of champagne. If you do decide to camp at the regular KHP site, I highly recommend booking early. Usually all the sites are booked by the time tickets go on sale!