With cost-conscious guests increasingly unwilling to pay

for premium wine tastings, private eco-hikes and five-star hotels, tour operators are starting to offer cheaper, recession-era versions of popular vacation packages to entice penny-pinching travelers.

Take Classic Journeys, an upscale travel company based in La Jolla, Calif., that normally puts customers up in luxury hotels like the Jasper Park Lodge, a Fairmont resort in the Canadian Rockies.

In 2009, for the first time, the company is introducing camping trips for about $700 less than itineraries that include hotel stays. While the tours are designed to be deluxe family affairs (think Egyptian cotton sheets, stemmed wine glasses and chefs who do the cooking), guests must share bathrooms and sleep on air mattresses.

Source [ NewYorkTimes ]