There are so many blogs and articles that contain brilliant camping tips both for camping in tents and vans that I read avidly before our trip this July and August. Here is some of the wisdom I’ve acquired since that trip that I hope is helpful!
I’ve found that every trip we take I think of something new – a way of doing things to make everything easier, or a new gadget that saves time and space. I’m sure by this time next summer I’ll have at least ten more camping tips to share on this blog.
1. NO BACON in the van! Vegan bacon smells amazing but the smell is just as strong as normal bacon, and it lingers for weeks afterwards. So we cook our bacon rolls outside, on the stove, under the gazebo if it’s raining. Same goes for cooking bacon in a large tent – don’t do it, the smell just does not go away!
2. Scented candles are a great thing to take with you camping. They can be left in the van (though not unattended – make sure someone is around and don’t go off for the day and leave it burning!) after cooking or before bedtime so that you fall asleep to everything smelling nice rather than the smell of dinner. Not needed of course if you’re lucky enough to be camping somewhere where you fall asleep to the scent of honeysuckle and mimosa wafting in from outside….
3. Routine – setting up and striking camp/ your van becomes so much easier when you have a fixed routine and order in which you do things. This will quickly become mechanical. For us it’s – arrive, pop the van top, set up the storage tent and gazebo which have been packed so we can get to them first, unpack everything else into the storage tent and under the gazebo.
3. Storage – Rather than having lots of bags and rucksacks containing various things, we have a three box system with three large plastic boxes. One is for bedding, one for food and cooking related items and one is for everything else such as games. Add to that a small clothing and toiletries bag for everyone and that’s all we pack for trips. It means everything can be found easily and the plastic boxes double up as tables as well as being fairly weatherproof.
4. Shoes for in the night – there’s nothing worse than needing to go to the loo in the middle of the night and scrabbling around for shoes. Have a pair that are waterproof in case its raining, easy to slip on and know where they are in the van or tent should nature call at 2am.
5. Know where everything is – this relates to storage above, but it makes such a difference if you have a place for everything in your van or tent, that everyone knows and sticks to so when you need the salt for cooking or the bungee cords to hang a light from, you’ll know exactly where they are and don’t need to waste ten minutes upturning everything to find them.
5. Games including solo games – important when camping with kids, especially on WiFi free campsites. Always have a stock of games that they can play, including games like Solitaire that they can play on their own if one of them doesn’t feel like playing. Our favourite camping game is Exploding Kittens. It’s brilliant fun and doesn’t take up much space. Sussed is another great game for 8 plus and also a space saver. Also include plenty of pens and paper, some activity books and a few reading books – our last camping trip saw our 10 year old bookworm devour three books in five days which necessitated a not-unwelcome trip to this lovely bookshop in Keswick for some more!
6. Download videos on an iPad or laptop for those camping evenings when everyone’s a bit fed up, when the kids are fighting, you can hear the rain bouncing off the roof of the tent/van and it’s COLD – they do happen with the best will in the world. The thing to do on those evening is to get everyone in their sleeping bags, make some hot chocolate and stick on the Harry Potter film you cleverly downloaded earlier.
7. Collapsible washing up bowl – there are so many camping gadgets you can spend money on, but this one I’ve found super useful. Means you’re not balancing a pile of dirty dishes on the trek to the washing up station, or dropping the clean ones in the mud on the walk back, as I did one rainy evening!
8. Plenty of water – seems obvious but make sure that you have plenty of receptacles for water, and that you keep them filled and handy, avoiding miserable middle of the night moments when you wake up with a raging thirst to an empty water bottle and a walk through the rain with your torch to fill it up.
9. Plenty of towels – at least two per person. These don’t need to be luxury, fluffy, towels – we always pack our thinnest, oldest towels for camping. But make sure you pack enough so that there’s alway at least one dry towel for everyone. Don’t be like me and have to borrow your teenager’s towel for a shower, which you later learn she used to wipe the floor of the shower cubicle.
10. MIDGE CREAM! This is VERY specific to camping in the west of Scotland but so important. We were attacked by a vicious cloud of midges while in the Cairngorms and had to break out the midge cream and apply it in extreme haste – even then, we were all left with a few bites that tormented for days afterwards. If you’re camping in this area, insect repellent really isn’t an optional extra. If you’d prefer not to use cream, or as an add-on, invest in a hat with a mesh screen and make sure you cover every bit of skin so they have nothing to bite!