Going camping?

I got a great email from someone looking at www.walkandtravel.com today. They want to start taking the family camping! How exciting. I love camping and I think that more people should be doing it. Scroll down to see my reply.


Hi Gareth
I found your contact details on the website and need some advice. We are on a really tight budget this year and have decided to invest in a tent and equipment to take the family camping. There are 2 adults and 4 children (15,13,6 and 1). We will be starting from scratch and need everything from a tent to pots and pans! Can you tell us where to start? We have a Nissan Terrano (7 seater) so need to consider transporting the equipment too!!
Many Thanks

My answer:

Thank you for the email and for looking at www.walkandtravel.com.

How exciting! You will have immense fun camping and the other great things about it are that you only really need to buy the equipment once and you have it for many years of enjoyable holidays providing it is all well looked after. Camping is a great eco-friendly, wallet friendly and family friendly of enjoying holidays and the great outdoors! Even in the rain...!

Have you read the Walk and Travel Beginners Guide to Camping? This will take you through some of the basic things you need to think about, but I can cover some of them here.

The main things you will to get are:

Tent
Sleeping Bags
Sleeping Mats
Stove or Cooker
Lighting

A lot of the other things such as pots, chopping boards, washing up bowls you can just raid from the kitchen cupboard to help keep the costs down.

When you are looking at tents you will need to consider the who will sleep where and who will want to share space with who. You also need to think about how you will pitch the tent, where you are using the tent and what weather.

If you are doing family camping, I am assuming that you will be camping late spring to early autumn when the weather should generally be fine. A lot of family campers go for a tent that has separate sleeping compartments - bedrooms, and it sounds like you will need 3. Look for a tent that has a central area that you can stand up in and hang out in if the weather isn't so great. Most tents with a central lounge will have a ground sheet so you can all drag your sleeping mats out to sit on, or you can invest in lightweight camping chairs. Some of the more well known brands are Khyam, Wynnester, Vango, Gelert and they all do quite a number of different models.

These tents, because of their size can all be quite heavy and quite hard to put up on your own, so a couple of adults will make things easier. However, 13 and 15 year old children will also be very useful for this. Always have a practice pitch in your garden or a local field before you take it away to make sure it all works and you have everything. This also helps to reduce the amount of time it will take to pitch the tent when you arrive at your camp site.

If you can, try and see the tents up before you buy as this will give you a good idea of what you are getting and how it would look when it is pitched correctly. This is not always possible with some shops due to the size so make sure you talk it through well with the shop owner or person that is selling you the tent.

It is imperative that the tent is totally dry before you put it away for storage or you will get mildew and rot, rendering the tent useless next time you want to go camping.


Sleeping bags come in a range of sizes and warmth and cost. As you are camping out of a car you don't need to get the lightest smallest bags, but you may need to consider this if your children are in the Scouts or going to do Duke of Edinburgh Award Expeditions. Brands to look for again are Vango, Wynnester and Gelert and Millets have their own brands such as Eurohike. For summer camping in the UK, you should look for a bag that is at least two season. If you feel the cold then opt for at least a 3 season bag. Some bags come in mummy shapes that taper with the body, other are square shaped. Most of them will have a full length zip for airing, getting in and out of and loosening off if you are warm. Mummy bags will be a little lighter for their amount of warmth because there is less space for you to warm up when you are snuggling down for the night. you may also get the choice of synthetic or down filled. Synthetic will be absolutely fine for you. (it is much cheaper!).

It may also be worth investing in sleeping bag liners, which are like sheets for a sleeping bag, these cost around £10 and will help to keep the sleeping bag clean and are easily washable. You can make your own from some old sheets sewn together to make a sack shape to sleep in.

Sleeping mats or camping mats or really important as this insulates you from the ground and most of your body heat is lost through the ground. A simple foam mat will suffice and these range from a few pounds upwards. Aim for something in the £10-15 bracket as they will last much longer and be warmer under you. Blow up mattresses are comfy, but can sometimes be cold under you as they do not have any insulation. Combine them with foam camping mats if you want to. You can also buy self inflating camping / sleeping mats which fit well between the two, but can be more expensive, heavy and possibly puncture, so make sure you take a repair kit.


For cooking you will need at least a double burner gas stove. Again, lots of people make these and any camping shop will sell them. Brands to look for are Camping Gaz, Coleman and I'm sure Gelert. You will need a hose and regulator to attach the stove to the gas bottle. Make sure it comes with these. The gas bottles are generally by Camping Gaz and can be a called things such as 901 (idea size). There are also larger blue ones with brass attachments on the top which I have completely forgotten their names, but easily available as a lot gas BBQ's run off them. These gas bottles can be expensive to buy so look in your local free ads, or on Yahoo Groups - Freecycle, to see if you can pick one up cheaply second hand. You can get them refilled at garages and garden centres.

You may also find a stove with a small grill under it, great for a slice of toast of bacon. When cooking take a wok and do big stir frys or any other type of dish such as spag bog and chilli where you can lob it all in to cook together, while pasta or rice bubbles away on the other burner. The only problem you may have is the space on the stove to fit the pots as the stoves can be fairly compact.

Invest in some lighting for the tent. This has moved on a lot in recent years and you can now get some great little led camping lanterns to light things up. It may also be worth investing in head torches for the children so they can find the way to the toilet at night if need be or read in their sleeping bags.

When you are camping always try and plan in advance what to do if it rains! It does happen and you will need things to keep you all occupied, possibly in the tent in the evenings.

There are many many more gadgets and things you can get to take camping, above is the basics. Other things include fold up tables, fold up chairs, solar panels, washing lines, radios, fridges and much more besides.

I hope you find the above useful, I don't sell the tents or stoves, but sleeping bags and sleeping mats I can help you with, along with small lanterns.

All of the gear I mentioned above will be available from a range of camping stores. Good luck, enjoy the camping, love the adventure and if there is anything else I can help you with please let me know.