The Great MSE family Camping Hunt

HalfPint

Hiya! :hello:

Having spent this morning talking about our camping for next year :j...I want to get all you MSE Campers to gather together information. THIS IS FOR TENT CAMPERS ONLY - No caravanners/motorhomes. Many people are new to camping and are often looking for advice and information...so campers I ask you.....

How many people in the family?......We are 2 adults, 4 kids (12,11,8 &3) and a dog.

Are you a fair weather camper? A basic camper? A luxury camper? Do you mainly do weekends? or full week/2week holidays? electric or non electric?

What equipment do you consider essential? (please don't state the obvious tent :rolleyes:) What's the most useless piece of equipment you've bought? What's the best piece of equipment? Most expensive (excluding tent)? What's the worst thing in terms of value for money?

What do you look for in a campsite? entertainment facilities? Number of toilets? whether the campsite has showers? Open field or sheltered by trees? Shop? How much do you expect/want to pay? Campfires? Dog friendly? by a river? PLEASE DON'T RECOMMEND CAMPSITES ON THIS THREAD.

Do you cram all the stuff into the car? have a trailer? Roofbox? or both?

Okay...hopefully I've explained this ok and you've got the gist...I'll start.

We are 2 adults, 4 kids (12,11,8 &3) and a dog. Started off 4 years ago as a luxury camper...took everything including the kitchen sink! Electric hook-up...Hot showers..did a couple of weekends and one full week.

Fast forward to now....Have owned 3 tents and about to purchase our 4th. We are basic weekend campers with the occasional full week thrown in. Non-electric. Our essentials.... 1 x bbq, 1 x kettle, 1 x pot & 1 x fryingpan. 1x small stove. melamine plates/bowls, 4 x mugs & plastic tumblers plus cutlery. 1x small table. teatowls & washing up stuff. Box containing essential spare lines/pegs/mallet/patches & fabsil. Cool box. dog tie. Lantern & small torch (for loo trips) Blanket for the floor. Crappy towel for doorway if raining. (for a week trip we take an additional 2 x chairs for us old farts to use)

Most useless piece of equipment - Larder, was large, heavy, pain to put together and excess baggage.
Best - tripod bbq...also the best value.
Most expensive - Roof box! £300 :eek:...Having said that..worth it's weight in gold...saves a lot of space in the car. Other than that - self inflating matresses. Expensive and nice..yet we've realised that we don't actually need them!
Worst value for money - Larder!

For us a campsite has to be family friendly, clean, dog friendly and have loo's! Showers aren't essential unless away for more than 3 nights (we don't mind being a bit stinky and enjoy our shower when we get home all the more!). No entertainment (bar/club) preferring quiet evenings in front of a campfire. River is a nice bonus but not essential. Shop not essential but close to shops is. Noise limits at night are great to stop rowdy campers - essential for us, because we like peace and quiet. Cost - cheap as possible for basic sites...anything more than £25.00 a night is classed as expensive for us. However, some sites are worth spending that little bit more on.

OKAY CAMPERS (sorry It's not Hi-De-Hi I know)...lets have your thoughts.

In true MSE style...MSE tips all gratefully received!

HP x

Penny_Farthing_2

Hi
We are 2 adults 2 teenagers 1 eight yr old. Camping is usually our main summer holiday. We don't do electric but we are 'glampers'. The essentials for us are a huge tent with a loo, a fridge that runs off the gas and the adults have a massive airbed. I have drawn the line at tent carpets, though - too much effort! All our gear, including the roof box cost us way less than a package holiday and will last for several years so I think it's good moneysaving - and good for our carbon footprint.

The best buy this year was a couple of UFO type led lights from Poundland - brilliant.

We like a site that's clean and quiet, near a beach. Showers are essential.

Pet hate - people who don't clean the shower floor after them even when the mop's in full view!

Love - the campsite we have used in Cornwall but are not allowed to name!

And the sound of the zip on a canvas tent.

Alikay

We're fair weather campers and like campsites with showers and within reasonable walking distance of a village or beach. Not too bothered about swimming pools or a cafe/bar although its nice if you've got teenagers as they welcome the chance to hang around with other teenagers. Not into the large UK sites with kids clubs, cabaret etc although we have enjoyed holidays on some big french sites.

Most useful things are those £5 folding chairs with the net in the arm for cans . A decent torch for the inevitable 4am toilet run, flip flops or crocs and plenty of old towels. Biggest waste of money was the in-car fridge...only worked when the car was running and was no more effective than a cool box.

I always take 2 washing up bowls nested in each other as campsite sinks can be yucky, so I use one for washing and one for draining/carrying back. We use an old towel to clean and dry the tent as we pack it away.

little_miss_sunshine_3

Hello everyone, found this thread, so thought I would add;

My family is just me and my husband

We are week or longer campers, we now always have electric hook up when camping, after finding out how good it was in September.

Best thing - electric cool box, heater!, funky camping bin
Worst - hanging storage (no inside poles to hook it on too!)
Most expensive - camping gaz cooker, but worth it!

We have had many tents in the past, but now going to invest in a new Vango tent I think!

We choose a camp site for its location, toilets, and lack of facilities (like quietness)

Monkie

Shelldean

Hello everyone,

we're a family of six. Mum, Dad DD17, DSx2 14 & DS11.

Started camping few yrs ago to save money, cos I love my holidays they're the one luxury I CAN'T do without.
We currently have four tents but am looking to increase this:eek::eek:
Our main one is 8 berth and is used for longer holidays
Second main one is 6 berth and is used for couple of nights/weekends etc
We have a small 2 man which used to be used when helping the cubs!!, but we not have a Quechua 3 man pop up for this. I really wanna get another pop up and the base so when we go for wk/ends we can just chuck the tents up!!!

we go for wk/ends and longer holidays. Last yr we had various hols... 1 wk in a carvan ( sun holiday) couple of wk/ends in tent, 1 wk in Britanny in ready erected tent plus two wks in our big tent.

Tend to be a fair weather camper, but some of the hols we've been on have proved we can cope in adverse weather!!!!!!!

We have always been non ehu but for the 2 weeks hol this yr we had ehu for first time. And I think we're hooked, if only for the fridge. LOL Only got it as Oh had to return to work for the second wk and we knew without a car, i'd be held to the camp shop prices, if buying daily.

Prefer campsites with a pool and some entertainment, with the older kids makes life easier for us. And lets face it if they're happy then so are we, and it's our holiday too!!!



EDITED TO ADD
we started by sleeping on blankets (VERY MSE) went to self inflating mats, and now we're all on airbeds, don't think I could go back to the blankets now.
We've a MPV but with six of us, we're limited with space. For weekends we only use the car. For weeks holidays or longer, we put on roof box. Tho ours was no where near £300!!! Bargain from Halfords. We put all the bedding, tables and chairs into that.
we do have a trailer but as the car doesn't have a tow bar we can't use it yet.
We do try and take just what we need, but have found it a learning curve, but we' slowly wokring out what we really need.

jane130

we are 2 adults , 2 teens a 6 year old and a big dog .

I guess you could call us Glampers , we have a big tent with sewn in groundsheet , ehu - mainly for ds to charge is portable dvd player for the eveings and the kettle if its too wet to go outside ! but we have rechargeable lanterns and cook on a gas stove . DH and I have a huge double height airbed , proper pillows and duvet.

we obviously prefer good weather but have been known to lie awake all night waiting to see if the tent takes off !!! try to have 2 weeks during the summer but tey and get a few more weekends in if we can .
we have an estate car , roofbox and trailer But the boot of the car is reserved for the dog

most useless equipment - nothing we have bought yet - we planned very well

best pice of equipment - the trailer couldn;t manage with it

Most expensive - the tent its an outwell idaho xl , I love it and it was worth every penny

as for the site , we like quiet sites with strict curfews ( to keep the kids under control) preferably near a beach with good surf to keep the teenagers happy , good showers , family bathrooms ,. our favorite site has lots of little extras like free dvd hire , a pizza oven , microwaves and a freezer for campers use . but i'm not telling where it is or we might not be able to get in next year x

PasturesNew

I am going to start camping for the first time ... soon. I'll be buying a car and a tent and will be living in it for the foreseeable future, travelling site to site.

I'm alone (annoying as most pitches include 2 adults, not 1 - and in August a lot have a minimum pitch fee of £20-25, which again hits me hard).

I will be looking mostly for sites that are kid/dog free (I like a quiet life), must have showers/loos (I won't have my own), have electrical hook up (although I am looking into getting a solar panel so I don't have to pay an extra £3-£3.50/night for the luxury of powering my miniscule needs at the same price as somebody with 10 people on their pitch who are paying the same price). The cheapest sites I've found so far with an EHU are £8-10/night, but I've not looked into it too hard ... when I get solar I expect to be able to pay less.

I'll be buying:
- airbed, sleeping bag
- one small saucepan
- cheapo set of melamine plates/plastic cutlery/paper plates; couple of plastic mugs
- small gas grill
- washing up bowl
- a wind up radio

That should do it ..... I will get a pop up tent (can't put one up for toffee and I'm on my own), I'll borrow a folding chair and I have a small folding table.

I think that's all I'll need.

Mostly I expect to actually sleep in the car (under the parcel shelf), more secure and less creepy crawlies. The tent is simply so I "look like" a regular camper

nickyhutch

Why can't we recommend sites? It's good to hear people's experiences and what they found good and bad about a place.

creased-leach

General advice for anyone buying a tent- anything less than 2000hh is false economy. Pro action tents (argos) likewise.

In my experience (long time camper having owned many, many tents) Gelert provide the best value for money.

raphanius

How many people in the family?......We are 2 adults, 1 kids (8) fair weather campers and basic campers doing full week/2week holidays non electric.

What equipment do you consider essential? A decent 2 ring stove with grill. a big torch for walking to the loos at night.

What's the most useless piece of equipment you've bought? single air beds - we just kept rolling off them in our sleep. and compact pillows
we ended up using rooled up towels as pillows.

What's the best piece of equipment? stove

Most expensive (excluding tent)? stove and our first gas bottle

What's the worst thing in terms of value for money? those silly air beds

What do you look for in a campsite? clean toilets and showers some shelter from sun and on a good walking route

Do you cram all the stuff into the car? we don't drive so everything must go in a friends car boot or be carried.

this year we will be adding a small storage tent to our equipment list to take the load off the main tent. each year the cooking improves as i get used to making simple tasty meals we all like with two gas burners and mostly tinned/dried food.

dmbaxt

How many people in the family? Just the 2 of us - me and oh although you wouldn't think it with how much stuff we take!! We've camped in a mixture of different weather - from checking every 5 mins that the tent is still there to glorious sunshine and done both glamping and basic campering with no electric. Obviously prefer glamping but I like the odd weekend with nothing - just getting back to nature.

What equipment do you consider essential? Blankets and more blankets. Everything else you can cope with - food you can get from the local pub you can even make do without lights but if you forget the blankets and the temperature drops it's a long cold night. We learnt our lesson on that the very first night we went camping.

What's the most useless piece of equipment you've bought? one of those metal toaster things you can buy for about £2 that sits on top of the stove and takes a week to make a piece of toast.

What's the best piece of equipment? depends on with or without electric - with electric it has to be our tepenyaki grill (great for breakfast mmmm) without it would have to be something simple like freezer blocks to keep milk cool.

Most expensive (excluding tent)? Chairs. A decent chair to sit and chill in is a must.

What's the worst thing in terms of value for money? plates and cuttlery. If you buy these from specialist camping shops they cost a fortune you can get them from poundland that are just as good.

What do you look for in a campsite? Quiet site with clean toilets and showers preferabley that you don't have to pay for. Something nearby to go and see.

Do you cram all the stuff into the car? We've now brought an estate car because we had to have one!;)