Top 20 Tips for Family Camping

Here are our 20 Top Tips to make your family camping adventures more comfortable, stress free and enjoyable!

Power on the campsite without EHU – to get around this problem invest in a leisure battery or good car battery and a power invertor. These two items will provide you with power for lighting, charging mobile phones and running a TV.

Keeping your tent tidy and free from clutter – Use your car as a tent tidy for storage, often our followers ask the question “how do you keep your tent looking so tidy” and if you have a bedroom pod you are not sleeping in use that too, these methods keep your tent clutter free.

Meal preparation, save time - Prepping your meals at home saves you taking all those utensils you don’t need for food prep, saves you time and hassle on the campsite, and if you freeze it all before you go, it’ll be ready for the next day after you arrive too, while keeping everything cool in the cool box – win win!

For airbed users, keeping your airbed warm -While you’re picking up your insulated picnic blankets, pop a second into your basket for the bedroom! It’s great for under your air beds to stop the cold air coming through underneath the – especially if they’re likely to deflate a bit.

Keeping your sleeping bag warm and snug - Worried about being cold when you’re camping? Look no further! Vango have launched the Vango Radiate Sleeping Bag Heat Mat, which simply slides into your sleeping bag and has 4 different heat settings to warm it up! It slides into any sleeping bag and can be placed anywhere you like! These are also ideal for airbeds under your quilt.

Freeze your food and drink before putting it in the cool box - To extend the life of your cool box, freeze as much as you can before you pack it, and if you can’t freeze an item, at least make sure it is chilled, rather than at room temperature before you place it in the cooler. Remember too that the fuller your cool box is, the more effectively it will keep the contents cool.

Pack a kitchen essentials bag - If you’re planning on cooking whilst you are way, you’ll need to make sure you’ve got the equipment and tools to allow you to do it. A stove, kettle, pans, cutlery, plates, bowls and mugs are essential, but also think about where you’re going to cook, meal planning and preparation is essential for family camping.

Knowing how to pitch your tent – this may sound a little obvious however we have been witness over the years to families buying tents new and not trial pitching them firstly in the garden at home prior to descending onto the campsite. We have had to assist lots of families over the years with pitching including a family that did not peg the 4 corners of an Airbeam© tent before inflating. Our advice is, if it’s a new tent and even if you are an experienced camper – trial pitch your tent prior to getting to the campsite.

Don’t pitch directly under tree cover – try wherever possible not to pitch your tent directly under overhanding trees, particularly in the summer months this can cause greenfly larvae to get onto the flysheet of your tent causing it to become sticky, this can be difficult to remove.

Reduce heat in your tent during the summer months – A good way to reduce heat inside your tent on hot days is to invest in some silver emergency blankets and secure these to your tent roof, this will reflect the sun rays and help with the temperature inside the tent – we have tried this and it works! Vango supply sky shields for some models of their tents – we have one for our Anantara and if reversed this has a silver surface.

Book your camping trips in advance - Try to book all your camping trips in advance, this way you won’t be disappointed if everything is booked up, we recommend using an advance weather prediction app to help you gauge the weather ahead and providing you give your campsite the required notice most will be happy to move your stay to an alternative date.

Stop your tent carpet sliding around –there are several ways of preventing this, you can either use a heavy duty Velcro tab at each corner of the carpet to secure it to the tent floor, or you can use a cling on clip at each corner of your carpet to secure it around the airbeam at each corner of the living area.

Essential repair kit –using an old toiletries bag to store them in we always carry a repair kit, this kit comprises of: scissors, duck tape, fuses, tare aid tape, basic tools such as a screwdriver and pliers. We have always carried this kit and has come in handy many times – even for our neighbouring tent!

Clear the ground before you pitch – this seems common sense, however many campers often pitch their tent or caravan awning before checking the pitch area for stones, glass or other sharp objects. Check this before you pitch, you never know what the last campers have left for you, including a tent peg still left hammered into the grass!

Use the right tent pegs –we recommend you invest in some steel hard ground pegs, the standard pegs that come with your tent are adequate for pitching your tent on soft grass, however even if the ground is soft you can still hit hidden stones and this will bend most standard pegs, invest in hard ground steel pegs as these will be suitable for most ground surfaces.

Open all doors on your tent before packing - Zipping up windows and doors before you take your tent down makes it much more likely you’ll get air trapped inside the tent. With nowhere for the air to go when you roll the tent up, at worst you risk damaging your tent, at best, you’ll struggle to pack the tent away again as it will be puffed up with air, so before you pack down, make sure you open up windows and doors.

Create a camping boredom buster box for kids - If your kids are challenged in the imagination department and your cries of “just go and PLAY!” are met with blank faces, then putting together a boredom buster / bad weather box is a good idea. Pack it full of books, games, exploring and craft items that they can get stuck into. A box like this is also perfect for poor weather to stop the kids moping around inside the tent, this will keep them occupied and entertained.

Use plant clips or spring clothes pegs for securing lighting/bunting - Whilst cable ties will do the job of securing bunting and fairy lights around your tent, they are single-use plastic and you risk nicking your tent when you snip them off. Round garden plant clips or spring clothes pegs are ideal and these can be used time and time again and are ideal for securing things like fairy lights to your tent or awning.

Take cleaning wipes with you - From anti-bacterial wipes to washing up liquid, don’t forget that you’ll need to wipe and clean things whilst you are camping! Spills will happen and table surfaces and such like will get grubby, so make sure you have some anti-bacterial or cleaning wipes and kitchen roll with you.

Pay attention to how you pack your car - When you pack the car, make sure the things you will need first when you arrive on site are easily accessible. So things like your tent, pegs mallets etc. should either be packed last so they are easier to get to, or packed in a way that means you won’t have to unpack the entire car before you can get to them – especially handy if you end up having to set up camp in the rain. We often see the entire car having to be emptied before the tent comes out.

We hope you enjoyed this publication and found some of it useful

Happy Camping.