The tent should be on top of all your other kit especially if you are touring and took it down that morning. Get the tent up fast, dump personal kit inside the tent and cooking gear inside the flysheet. You've now arrived, find the toilets and the water point.
If the campsite has a swimming pool go swimming before it closes.
If there's a beach grab a towel and beachwear and visit it before dusk.
If you haven't brought dinner find the campsite or local shop.
Only now do you set up tables and chairs and while dinner is cooking open the bottle of wine.
What actually happened once was that I arrived at a campsite hot and parched by cycling there with full kit, the campsite office was in the bar so I ordered a pitch and a beer in one sentence, in French and got both.
"Je desire une place pour une person avec velo et petit tent et une bier presse si vous plait"
What often happens is that it is raining when you arrive, the soggy campsite looks horrific. You throw the tent up as fast as you can, open the wine as solace and get a take away from the village as you can't face cooking in the flysheet.
Get my tent and ‘set up essentials’ set up. Tent, SIM unrolled, sleeping bag and clothes bag thrown in tent, kitchen boxes unloaded from car into tent.
Depending on time of day head for a swim, a walk, lunch…. Or get the fire / BBQ going for dinner. I don’t open a cold beer or wine from my cooler until I can enjoy the ‘all done: RELAX’ moment in full.
I used to have a can of cold drink and a sandwich in my cool box, so that I could have a drink and a bite to eat while I set up.
The brew kit with an electric kettle was packed separately so that it was easy to access as soon as the tent was up with EHU lead attached.
DK
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These days my tent camping is pretty much only when the 'Lads' (Lads!, the baby one has just turned 50! ) go mob handed to France for the Le Mans 24 Hour race. But as much as we love a beer or 10, that always waits until we have the tents up and at least the bedding sorted and personal baggage in our quarters, whether we also set up the kitchen depends on what eating arrangements we have in mind. As a minimum we have to set up the fridges/freezers to preserve the food we have brought with us (with the bonus that we can also chill the beers, not that that influences us at all! ). Depends on time of day, whether we also do the finessing, or leave that to next day. If refreshments are required it'll be bottled water!
Even our resident near alcoholic 'can't pass a bar' p**s head pal refrains until the camp is fit for use. As we take gallons of beer with us from home, or have stopped off at the supermarket for supplies on the way, the beer is readily to hand so no difficulty in just reaching out for one (or more). For nearly forty years of making this annual trip we have always set up camp to at least a functional state before breaking out the booze.
After the camp is set up to at least basic functional level, that's a different matter, many a year the next day, the question is asked "what happened after we pitched the tents ....."!!!!! We have proven that beer is a sustaining food source and 'solids' are a mere luxury! - well maybe we raid the week's supply of cheese and finish it off that evening, but that's another mystery question - ".. where did all the cheese go?.."! Got to be done, now traditional part of the ritual that is Le Mans for us!
My personal preference with my caravan and my own trips is to get it set up first, properly pitched, water butt filled, waste tank plumbed, stuff normally transported in the car transferred into van, then I can relax for the rest of the day/evening and maybe a beer or glass of wine will make an appearance. Again if refreshment is required mid pitch, bottled water it is. Benefit of a caravan perhaps with it's always ready kitchen, a cup of tea is pretty much always an option as soon as you've stopped rolling, usually just crack on though and drink water until all is pitched properly. Probably only 30 minutes or so between rolling up and being pitched, so no great hardship to wait for a brew.
To be honest, often in a race against darkness after long journeys, so priority with a clear head has to be to set up camp before all else.
Some great post's here, as i have a roof tent and not used it yet but will be soon i will probably arrive at pitch open up the roof tent and sort my bedding out then crack open a beer then set everything else out
The roof tent set up that I saw last November had a separate tall dome tent for cooking & eating out of the rain. I think the 2 dogs slept in the car.
We always used to put the Cabanon tent up first, so we had somewhere sheltered to enjoy the G&T. I think if we’d cracked open the wine first, the tent would have been put up back to front.
Quote: Originally posted by SGThomas on 15/3/2022
The first thing we look for is a toilet. Its an age thing.
With you on this, we use Own San Ess sites and yes needs first, with tent it's the toilet tent which is always the first up. like Cleopatra's Needle. The Caravan it's legs down toilet seat up.
Then I can get on with the job in an orderly fashion.
Filling the water carriers is not a torture
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Tent up first. Chuck everything else inside tent. Sit down and have a brew using hot water from a flask (no need to find water supply/kettle). Then either finish set up or go and do something nearby if the weather is nice, leaving the set up till the evening.
First of all pour a cup of tea from my flask, then determine the direction that I want the tent to face taking into account expected wind and sunshine.
We usually set the tent up together, unpack the car and then I go shopping while DH puts all the furniture together. When i get back I fill the cupboards and make the beds. If we're at one of our regular sites it's usually takeaway on the first and last nights.
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Topic: When you arrive at your pitch
via mobile 14/3/2022 at 4:26pm
) go mob handed to France for the Le Mans 24 Hour race. But as much as we love a beer or 10, that always waits until we have the tents up and at least the bedding sorted and personal baggage in our quarters, whether we also set up the kitchen depends on what eating arrangements we have in mind. As a minimum we have to set up the fridges/freezers to preserve the food we have brought with us (with the bonus that we can also chill the beers, not that that influences us at all!
). Depends on time of day, whether we also do the finessing, or leave that to next day. If refreshments are required it'll be bottled water!
We have proven that beer is a sustaining food source and 'solids' are a mere luxury! - well maybe we raid the week's supply of cheese and finish it off that evening, but that's another mystery question - ".. where did all the cheese go?.."! 
Got to be done, now traditional part of the ritual that is Le Mans for us!
