ETHICAL TRAVELLER:GREENIES DON'T always get brownie points for going camping. Especially if they fly to a Spanish campsite, hire a car and swim in heated pools all day.
Driving to the south of France, then spending the day at the hypermarket, stocking up on imported beef for the barbie and Belgian beer for the boot, isn't too carbon-friendly, either. But there are campsites with excellent eco-credentials. As well as being eco-friendly they put the cool back into camping and take the stress out of packing, as most of them provide everything you need, cutting down on the necessity to have a car.
Top of my list are Huttopia's sites, in France. We rented a tent with everything provided, down to the stove-top espresso- maker. These cream canvas Canadian-style tents are beautifully designed. Raised off the ground on wooden decking, they have two sleeping sections, solar lights and proper tables and chairs.
At Huttopia's site outside Rambouillet, near Paris, the eco-friendly pool is filtered by sand and reed beds. Not a hint of chemicals, and no stingy eyes at the end of the day. The sites are car-free, so the children were never off their bikes. Neither were we, with only a 20-minute cycle through the forest to buy supplies in Rambouillet's boulangeries and boucheries.
Huttopia's childrens' activities are low-impact and low-key; nature treasure trails in the forest, horse-riding, tree-climbing and night-time storytelling in the woods. Getting there by boat and train is possible, too, so be brave and leave the car at home.
You won't get a sniff of chlorine at Hoopoe Yurt Hotel, in Spain, either. Its natural pool sits among olive and cork trees. The yurts are covered with bright Mongolian rugs, with throws and cushions spread over the double bed. You are quickly taken back to nature's basics, though, on your trip to the outdoor compost loo or bamboo-bathroom shower. Fit in a massage or yoga session, eat home-grown food and swim in local icy rock pools. It's camping, Juan, but not as we know it.
For snow bunnies, it might be hard to beat the geodesic domes at Whitepod, in Switzerland. Toast your toes by the wood-burning stove as you peek through the portholes across the Alps. You won't run out of food here, either, with an on-site chef who cooks only local and organic produce.
If you don't fancy a night under canvas, La Rosa, near Whitby, in North Yorkshire, is caravan cool. But bring your sense of humour, as the campsite takes recycling to the point of kitsch: vintage caravans full of flea-market and charity-shop oddities; lighting only by candle or fairy lights; and composting loos.
You can find trendy tents closer to home, too. Just follow the smoke signals over
Co Fermanagh. They'll lead you to a tepee on Orchard Acre Farm, where we tucked up together under a traditional North American Indian canvas with a wood-burning brazier.
As if this wasn't enough excitement for our two young boys, they got to bottle-feed the pet lamb, collect eggs, harvest rhubarb from the kitchen garden and forage for wild garlic on the banks of the brook that babbles through the farm.
We left mucky, smoky and extremely happy - and with a home-made rhubarb tart that the boys made in a cookery class with Orchard Acre's owner, Teresa O'Hare.
She lays on all sorts of extras as family activities, from cooking and gardening to basket weaving. Oh, and canoeing, of course. You couldn't have a tepee without a canoe, after all.