Last Updated on 9 August 2024 by Colette
Clearly, flights for a family of five are expensive and there are obvious issues around family hotel rooms generally being set up for four. We’ve accepted that now, more often than not, we will have to book two hotel rooms and have a girls’ room and a boys’ room. Obviously that’s not practical for more than a night or two and so self-catering accommodation is likely to be first choice when it comes to holidaying abroad.
Maybe camping is the answer to cheap holidays for a large family?
Some years ago now my Dad suggested that camping might be the way forward for us in terms of being able to take family holidays over the coming years and whilst I could see his point, I really wasn’t all that keen on the idea. Camping has always seemed like a faff. So much stuff to pack and set up. And so much money to invest in all the things we would need to get started – what if we spent all that money only to find we all hated it?!
Fast-forward a few years, the kids were older and camping didn’t seem quite so daunting. After visiting Just So Festival for the day the first time round, the kids were keen to have a go at camping the following year. Dave & I investigated the costs of buying a tent and then sort of left it alone for a while.
But then, in 2017, we spent a good chunk of our Easter holidays camping in the Lake District with Wild Living Expert, Ben McNutt. Now going from never having really camped at all to living in a boat house in the middle of nowhere with no facilities whatsoever – and I mean no running water and no proper toilets – was something of a baptism of fire, however it made us realise if we could manage that, we could definitely manage a weekend on a campsite. And not only could we manage it, but that we’d enjoy it too.
That trip with Boss Ben (as the children called him) made us realise how much we enjoyed being outside and just how much the children benefited from it. Even before we had got home, we had decided we needed to invest in a tent for that summer.
You can watch a video of our Wild Living Experience here!
Five years later we are now seasoned campers and have camped at various campsites, a friend’s field and a number of festivals. This will be our sixth summer under canvas so to speak and we still love it. Typically we camp with friends – in fact I think, unless we’ve been at a festival, we haven’t actually ever camped just the five of us! Fairly early on in the year we tend to plan out a series of camping weekends – usually just setting the dates and then choosing campsites later. (This bit us on the bum though a couple of year ago when travel restrictions meant that the world and his wife suddenly wanted to give camping a go and many sites had not only reduced capacity but reduced facilities too – we’re planning ahead a bit more this year!)
Camping in bad weather isn’t our favourite!
Over the years we have learned that whilst we can camp in poor weather, we’d rather not! Setting up a tent in high winds and pouring rain is definitely not my favourite – and the kids are definitely harder to entertain if the weather isn’t great (though one of the great benefits of camping with friends is that they usually entertain each other!). We’ve camped in thunderstorms and heavy downpours (the worst of which being at YNot Festival I think!) and we’ve camped in late September – which was absolutely doable but pretty cold! But really what we like is a nice sunny, summer’s weekend – not too hot that you boil in your tent, but warm enough to be out in t shirts and for wet clothes to dry without too much hassle!
Freedom
If you ask the kids what they love most about camping, they’ll tell you it’s the freedom. At home we live in a built up area with busy roads and not a huge amount of easily accessible green space – or at least none where I’d be happy to leave the kids to play on their own.
Camping means freedom to explore, to run around, climb trees, paddle in streams and basically do as they please. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes doing as they please means lying in the the tent watching a film – but they know that once their battery is dead, it isn’t getting recharged so there’s a fairly finite amount of screen time! Combine this with late nights around the campfire and very little in terms of demands on their time and they’re pretty happy! (Even washing up becomes fun when we’re camping – and they’re old enough now that we can pretty much leave them to do it!)
Enforced relaxation
As adults, we’d tell you that what we love most about camping is the enforced relaxation – yes preparing to go camping is a pain in the backside; getting all the stuff out of the loft, making sure we’ve got all the food we need, packing everyone’s bags, playing some sort of ridiculous car Tetris to get all the gear in – but, once we’re on site and set up, camping is incredibly relaxing. There’s a lot of sitting around and chatting accompanied by campfires, hot chocolate, beers and snacks. Sometimes we go for a bit of a walk but mostly we tend to hang out at the campsite and just enjoy the company of friends while the kids are off exploring! This summer, we’re hoping to go on a slightly longer trip which I would expect will involve more walks and adventures but everything is just at a slower pace on a campsite!
Our camping plans!
We invested in a new tent and an event shelter at the back end of last summer – and we’ve not had chance to use them yet so we’re all pretty keen to get out and try our new set up. As I mentioned, we’re hoping to squeeze in a longer camping trip this summer as well as a festival or two and most certainly a few local weekends – we’ve really missed our camping adventures over the last couple of years and, if I’m honest, I’m aware that there’s a finite number of year left before the kids decide that actually they’d rather not come camping with us! Who knows if Dave and I will continue to camp without them – I kinda think we might!
Why not read these posts next:
Our guide to camping – all our camping content in one hand post!
Reasons to go glamping with the kids
Tips for making camping more enjoyable
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This is such a lovely post. We love camping too and I think you’ve summed up all it’s wonders and benefits really beautifully. We didn’t get to camp much last year as my husband’s car was off the road and mine is DEFINITELY not big enough – can’t wait to get back out there, exploring and chilling out. There’s nothing quite like that morning cup of tea when you’re camping. My favourite.