Reviews,  Travel

Family Camping – Buying the basics.

We are currently in the process of planning this summers camping holiday. Every year we always have one big camping adventure. Plus some smaller weekend adventures too. As a larger family holidaying can become expensive and so camping gives us the opportunity to travel without large accommodation bills.

The Tent

We always look for a tent large enough for our family! This sounds obvious, but you do need to consider whether sleep space will accommodate e.g. travel cots. The living area is also important to us for wet days!

As a family of six, we have limited packing space in the car! So, the pack size of the tent is something we have to consider when buying a tent. Another thing is at the end of travelling we need to be able to erect the tent quickly – especially if we are just doing an overnight stop.

We see buying a tent as an investment, and happily spend a little more to get a better tent. Things like extra waterproofing, blacked out sleeping areas and wind stabilising mechanisms are high on our list of priorities.

We’ve been looking at Outwell tents recently after our friends bought one last year and recommended it. They have many features we are looking for and offer tents with a good bedroom ceiling height too!

 

Camping Life Essentials

A few years ago we invested in great sleeping bags for the children and a double sleeping bag for us. While the initial cost way high, they have more than paid for themselves! Keeping us all cosy overnight and adding extra comfort to the camping beds.

Cooking while camping, this is something we all look forward too. It doesn’t have to just be beans or BBQ food every night. This year we are taking the Outwell Jimbu stove  with us, kindly gifted to us by Simply Hike. The Jimbu has a gas ring and separate grill. The grill plate can be removed for ease of cleaning.  We like the Jimbu as it packs up neatly, and has built in wind shields – so easy cooking whatever the weather. It feels really well made, and I can see us taking it on holidays for many years to come.

We take a folding washing up bowl with us, and we have a cool box which when travelling stores our camping utensils and crockery. We haven’t invested in an electric cooler, but many campsites in Europe rent out mini fridges – something worth investigating when you book.

Tables and chairs, these we have yet to finally decide on what we all like. We have tried a camping picnic table, it folded up well but wasn’t great for the children. So this year we are looking to buy separate chairs and a table – suggestions welcome!

So, those are our camping basics we’d recommend anyone who is thinking of a first camping holiday to invest in, would you add any others?