Hi,
We have just purchased our first tent! We are yet to get it out of the bag as it's massive and our garden is not! It needs weathering as it's a polycotton tent so hopefully we can persuade a work colleague to let it stay in their garden for a little while...
We need some advice about what sort of stove, sleeping bags, sleeping mats etc we should get. What else do people take with them that they find indispensible?
We are a family of 4, mum, dad and two little ones. A boy of 3 1/2 and girl of 14 months.
I am not a complete camping novice having spent my childhood camping, but things have certainly moved on since the late 1980s, you can have electricity in your tent! It's a revelation!
I would advise you to have a read on the free information over at the Camping and Caravanning Club's site on camping with a tent to give you some idea of the basic requirement you may need.
Make a list of what you need, have a look what you can raid from your home or your friends and family, then buy whatever that is left on the list.
Happy shopping!
DK
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Hi, and congratulations on your purchase :-) Have you camped before as a family or not? If so, my advice would be to borrow as much stuff as you can, or not to get carried away and spend a fortune, until you are sure that everyone likes it!!
That aside, it is very much a matter of personal choice. We have an airbed and I know some people don't like them and say they are cold and go down all the time etc. but I love mine and didn't feel cold at all last year when we were camping. We took our duvet from home last year but we are going to invest in a sleeping bag this year. We bought the CampingGaz Camping Chef stove and have been very happy with it. We also bought the Aldi electric coolbox - again, no complaints!
We have a tent carpet so I bought a few picnic rugs from Aldi to use as carpets in the bedrooms, and some fleecy blankets from Dunelm for extra warmth on cold nights.
We managed to borrow most other stuff we needed, and are still getting all our equipment together, and while you will get loads of good advice from the lovely people on here, different things work for different people so you have to go with what's right for you and your family
We haven't camped together as a family yet, but I'm sure the kids will love it. Our little boy loves going to visit his Nana and Taid when they come down in their caravan. I think for our first weekend away we'll go somewhere with them in the caravan and then at least we don't need to think about buying any cooking equipment.
My experience with airbeds is that I find them quite uncomfortable, but then we've been using my Mum and Dad's 20 year old ones, so they may have evolved a little.
Electric cool boxes look like a really good idea, can't say I have fond memories of the cheesy milk left in a bucket of water on a hot day
From being in your shoes last year: we did 'make do' but now I would invest in;
one really comfy chair (which you can all use) - and some cheapo deck chairs
A decent tent light
Strong citronella candles
EHU (make sure you have all this as we forgot a crucial bit and couldnt get the fridge going for the first day!)
One a day suncream (but its pricy)- constant source of dispute over reapplying suncream in hot weather
Freeze pops - saves you spending a packet on lollies
Take your own pillows as the camping ones arent very good in my view
Its easy to get overwhelmed with what you need but we just took our own stuff wherever we could and are upgrading some bits now. If you start looking at places like Wilkos thats a good source.
The best advice we were given was a washing up bowl - but get a www.tubtrug.co.uk (or from anywhere) and it will double up as many things and is flexible for packing - get one big enough and you can bath th kids in them!
We have one for washing, one for recycling, one for washing up but they are also used for storing shoes, water playpit, fishing for tiddlers ...indispensible!
Hi Guys, all of these suggestions are fantastic! Please keep them coming
ltinker your tubtrug idea is great, we have 1 lurking somewhere. It'll be a great place to store all the random bits and pieces as we collect them.
I had never camped in my life until last year and have to say I just love it. Learned EVERYTHING from this site. Some really good threads and lots of advice from others using the site. Once you do your first trip, you realise what you need and what you don't need. Enjoy!!
From our experience your children are the age when they will absolutely love camping. Our daughter (now 5 but started camping when 1 - quite late when you read some posts on here) is always asking when we can go camping again.
There is loads of advice on these forums and if you do a search for "toddlers" you will get lots more threads about other equipment ideas. One thing we find good is to get one of those fleecy baby grows for each child (even the older one) you may already have one, if not they usually do them quite cheap in Primark. Traditional sleep times and camping don't mix so that way you know they will be warm enough if they are running around or sitting out with you in the evening.
Another more general tip (that may help with not needing to take as much kitchen equipment) is to take meals from home that are frozen for the first day or two - they can defrost and be reheated in one pot.
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: New to Camping - What do we need?
