The Collective retreats don’t offer glamping, during a recent visit to their campsite in Colorado, we learned they offer something far more meaningful.

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In my little apartment in Brooklyn, I have a littler closet overflowing with camping gear: four-season tent, ultralight sleeping pad, headlamps, bug sprays. I didn’t think to bring any of it to Collective Vail. They don’t like the word glamping here. No one in this industry does (including us).

For Collective, it’s too reductive a term for the kind of outdoor hospitality they’ve spent six years perfecting. But I’d seen photos of their tents, and I was prepared to come unprepared. I knew to expect more glamour than camping.

I just didn’t know what else to expect.

I unzipped the entrance to my tent and found what can be best described as a Western-inspired canvas condo. I’ve never been able to fully stand up in a tent before, let alone on vintage rugs over hardwood floors. I sat my notebook down on a wooden table between two armchairs and peeked inside my private bathroom, its own tent connected to mine and stocked with premium moisturizers and bath products. I thought of the magic tents in Harry Potter, the ones that open into entire multi-level homes.

Here, there’s electricity and charging stations for your devices, a necessity for your impulse to Facetime every person you know to show off the novelty.

The basic accommodations are a bit more down to earth, but even in the best tents, the charm of the outdoors seeps into the experience — as it should. The bite of cold air through the tent after dark; the sound of the canvas rustling against the wind; the occasional interloping insect. Don’t head to Collective Vail unless you have at least nominal interest in camping. You’re not roughing it in the traditional sense, but you are more or less outside, which is presumably the reason you’ve gone with tents over some glass tower in Denver.

I didn’t mind the odd bug here and there. I came to Collective by myself, and welcomed the company. True to the name, Collective’s retreats are most commonly enjoyed as a communal experience. Couples and families come to relax and enjoy this peaceful plateau among the Rockies, sampling an activity or two, stopping in at small towns along the way. I took a more pioneering approach. A man alone, facing bravely into the frontier. Unsure of what I’d encounter — outside of the king-sized bed.

I signed up for as many activities as I could and began my sprint through Collective’s creative, camping-adjacent itinerary that mostly involves eating, drinking, and fire. Each is a delight, but not necessarily designed for a thirtysomething traveling solo.

Did I feel a little self-conscious, waiting for my turn to brand a cutting board with my initials, while a full bottle of champagne sat sweating by my side, happy couples sipping cocktails all around me?

Maybe at first, but I soon found myself in a gleeful discussion with my hosts and fellow guests, chronicling all the best hikes just outside the ranch, and all the charming small towns nearby we liked better than Vail.

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