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A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County’s history-themed glamping retreat

The great outdoors is even greater when you’re bunking at one of Ontario’s plushest glamping getaways

By Jean Grant
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A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County's history-themed glamping retreat
Fronterra’s Prospecting tent. Photographs by Inge Alberts

How much: From $255 per night Where: 242 Beach Rd. N., Consecon, fronterra.ca
Travel time from Toronto: Two hours, 15 minutes

Jens Burgen is a wilderness nut who has camped on almost every continent, led salmon tours through the Queen Charlotte Islands and operated juicing retreats in Northern Ontario. In 2014, he bought a patch of Prince Edward County and transformed it into a camp, organic farm and hyper-local brewery that grows hops and 130 varieties of veggies, herbs and edible flowers. The place features 10 log-framed tent suites with hardwood floors and indoor bathrooms. Each tent is designed to reflect an aspect of Canadian history: a 1770s-style prospecting hut has deer and elk antlers and a stone fireplace; a WWI-era medical tent features vintage whitewashed cabinets and medicinal herbs in glass vials; and the speakeasy tent has a tufted-leather couch and a shower spout made out of a whiskey jug. The activities are as seductive as the cozy tents: guests can pick fresh veggies to cook for dinner, bike the P.E.C. countryside or enrol in on-site soap-making workshops.

The Prospecting tent features plenty of logs, raw wood and stone:

A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County's history-themed glamping retreat

The Homesteader tent is inspired by 19th-century P.E.C. farmers. The working Findlay Oval stove dates back to 1910:

A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County's history-themed glamping retreat

La Bohème was inspired by the itinerant lifestyle of Upper Canada Loyalists. The clock is a Burgen family heirloom from Germany:

A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County's history-themed glamping retreat

This one’s the Crosswind:

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A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County's history-themed glamping retreat

Burgen buys many of his antiques at Dead People’s Stuff in nearby Bloomfield:

A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County's history-themed glamping retreat
A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County's history-themed glamping retreat
A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County's history-themed glamping retreat

This one’s called the Royal Coachman:

A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County's history-themed glamping retreat
A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County's history-themed glamping retreat
A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County's history-themed glamping retreat

And here’s the Heirloom tent:

A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County's history-themed glamping retreat
A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County's history-themed glamping retreat

Each tent has its own outdoor dining area:

A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County's history-themed glamping retreat

Guests feast on meals made with produce from the on-site farm:

A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County's history-themed glamping retreat
A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County's history-themed glamping retreat

And the tents all have heated outdoor showers like this one:

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A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County's history-themed glamping retreat

Plus, the sunsets look like this:

A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County's history-themed glamping retreat
A look inside Fronterra, Prince Edward County's history-themed glamping retreat

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