Travel briefs

Did a bad experience turn you off to camping? Maybe your tent leaked in a rainstorm or you shivered all night in a borrowed, smelly sleeping bag. Or that thin foam pad you were trying to sleep on didn’t do much to protect your back from the rocky, uneven ground beneath your tent.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Tour companies and resorts now offer luxury camping, and the term “glamping” – shorthand for glamorous camping – is starting to turn up in reports from the United Kingdom and Canada. The New York Post recently mentioned “glamping” in an article on a new Web site for luxury travel, www.globorati.com. (The story also referred to “jetrosexuals” as a globetrotting jetsetter who thinks nothing of hopping on a plane to Asia for a shopping spree.)

In British Columbia, the Clayoquot Wilderness Resort, a 30-minute boat ride from the town of Tofino, is offering “glamping” on a fjord on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Tents have Persian carpets, down duvets and even electricity. There’s a sauna and hot tubs on site, and activities including fishing, horseback riding, kayaking, hikes and wildlife-watching.

But if you thought camping was a budget vacation option, you’ll have to readjust your expectations for glamping. Three-night packages at the Clayoquot resort begin at $4,100 a person, double occupancy. Details at 888-333-5405 or www.wildretreat.com.

A bit less upscale, but still a world away from the do-it-yourself leaky tent, Maine Family Adventures offers a deluxe guided camping trip to Acadia National Park; www.mainefamilyadventures.com/trips_acadia_camp. html. Meals prepared by the guides, camping equipment and activities are all included in the cost of about $1,000 a person.

New passport rule relaxed for children

In case you missed it, regulations that would require passports for future entry into the U.S. by land and sea have been modified to exempt children.

U.S. and Canadian citizens ages 15 or younger (with parental consent) will be allowed to cross borders, both at land and sea entry points, with certified copies of their birth certificates rather than passports.

The Bush administration said the change is aimed at helping families and school groups.

U.S. and Canadian citizens ages 16 through 18 traveling with school, religious, cultural or athletic groups and under adult supervision will also be allowed to travel with only their birth certificates.

The exemption is a change from earlier plans that would have required passports for land and sea entry into the U.S. for children beginning as early as January 2008.

Children traveling by air are still required to show passports for entry into the U.S. from Mexico, Canada, Bermuda or the Caribbean (except for U.S. territories Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), under rules that went into effect Jan. 23.

Travel classes, seminars

Rick Steves’ Europe Through the Back Door hosts free travel classes from 10 to 11:30 a.m. most Saturdays at the Edmonds Theater, 415 Main St., Edmonds.