IF the eco-friendly idea of falling asleep under the stars and roasting marshmallows around a campfire appeals to you, but the reality of pitching a tent and sleeping on bumpy ground does not, glamping, the new term being used for upscale  or glamorous  camping, could be your ideal green vacation.

Though dismissed by hard-core leave-no-trace campers (who don’t so much as move a rock for fear of affecting the area), glamping can still be an environmentally sound outdoor experience, even if it does include creature comforts (like not having too many creatures inside your tent). And though it is a relatively new trend in the United States and Europe, with its origins harking back to Africa and even Thailand, glamping sites are starting to pop up everywhere, with prepitched tents, tepees and yurts rising out of the landscape like sailboats on an ocean.

“Think of it like the hip hotels of camping,” said Jonathan Knight, the author of “Cool Camping,” a 2006 book that rated campsites in England by their amenities, locations and facilities, and quickly became so popular (selling second only to the “Good Pub Guide”) that there are now editions on Wales, Scotland and France, with planned guides on Europe and Kids (www.coolcamping.co.uk). “I wanted to correct the misconception that camping is still about leaking tents,” Mr. Knight said.

Guests of Elizabeth Tom and Alan Berry at Cornish Tipi Holidays (www.cornishtipiholidays.co.uk) need bring only their food, a towel and bedding from home, since everything else is provided in their 40 cotton-canvas tepees  from lanterns and Turkish rugs to a camp stove, kitchen utensils and a cooler. “We are not about giving people a trowel to dig a latrine and a compass to survive,” said Ms. Tom, who with her husband runs the 16-acre campsite based in Cornwall, England.