Get ready to glamp, East Coasters: Under Canvas is finally bringing its safari-style tent accommodations to Acadia and the Hudson Valley in 2020. The news comes about five months after the company announced that it would set up four new sites in California next year. Together these new openings will almost double Under Canvas’s current collection of eight sites.
“East Coast camp locations have been a long time coming,” says Under Canvas cofounder and CEO Sarah Dusek. The glamping brand opened its first location in Yellowstone in 2012, and right now, most of its locations have catered to outdoors lovers in the western United States with campsites near beloved national parks, including Glacier, the Grand Canyon, and Zion. Its most easterly camp is just outside Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee.
But Under Canvas has had its eye on a coast-to-coast expansion. According to Dusek, the company has received more requests for a camp near Acadia than any other national park location. And the new Hudson Valley spot will bring the brand’s outdoor luxury within a two-hour drive of Manhattan.
Slated to be Under Canvas’s first East Coast location, the Acadia camp will feature 75 safari-style tents and sit on 100 acres of land—75 percent of which will be completely undisturbed. Guests will be able to spend the day exploring the site’s 1,200 feet of rocky Maine coastline, or they can make the 25-minute drive to Cadillac Mountain Trail and Acadia National Park.
The Hudson Valley camp, a perfect weekend getaway from New York, will feature 60 lodging tents spread across 56 acres. And its location near Hunter, New York, offers excellent access to wooded hiking trails and countless historic towns, plus views of the Catskills and Hunter Mountain.
Under Canvas Great Smoky Mountains is currently the most easterly of the brand’s campsites.
Photo by Paul Joyner
After their grand openings, both camps will accept guests starting each May through the beginning of fall, which is especially good news for leaf-peepers. Hudson Valley will be open through September and Acadia through October.
Rugged camping, this is not. As with all Under Canvas locations, both the Acadia and Hudson Valley camps will offer canvas tents in a variety of configurations with West Elm furnishings and wood-burning stoves. Opt for a Stargazer Tent, which features a ceiling window over the king-size bed, or bring the whole family and stay in a Suite Tent with its king-sized bed and queen-sized sofa bed. And like any good hotel, the campsites will have daily housekeeping; fresh, local café-style dining for breakfast and lunch; running hot water; and flushing toilets.
Under Canvas experiences are designed to be immersive outdoor escapes. Each one is within easy distance of a popular national park or monument so guests can book day trips and adventures with local tour operators to explore the area, then relax with s’mores around a campfire at the end of the day. None of Under Canvas’s locations offers Wi-Fi, encouraging glampers to connect with each other instead, and they all enforce quiet hours after 10 p.m. to highlight the sights and sounds of the surrounding landscape at night.
No news currently of where Under Canvas might be looking to set up camp after 2020. May we suggest Denali?
