Camping questions

teabag29

We've booked our first family camping holiday for 3 nights (4 days) in July and plan to go again in august if we all enjoy it and become regular campers. I went when I was a child and loved it so i'm hoping the kids will feel the same

Just a few questions, we are a family of 6 so planning to buy the gelert meridian 10 beyond tent as it has excellent reviews and very spacious, I am planning on buying the carpet to go with it and we have already bought camp beds. Will I also need to buy camping mats to go under the camp beds so as not to pierce the tent groundsheet or is that not neccessary?

Have also looked into buying one of those tent toilets to save getting up and having to go to the shower blocks in the night, particularly for the kids. Are these worth the money?

Also any advice on how to make our camping trips more enjoyable as I havent been in over 20 years and a little out of touch :rotfl:

wallbash

Main thing about camping , stay dry . Easy enough to get warm but if you get wet or equipment gets wet , you can be in trouble.

1) double the number of pairs of socks you think you might need!

maibobs

Take an extension lead to hook up, and a fan heater, this can be put on at night before you all go to bed to warm everything up, its a pleasure going to bed then, rather than shivering, and being cold all night, we normally put the fan heater on for an hour before going to bed, stops the kids moaning they are cold

teabag29

Oooh i'm so excited I cant wait....feel 10 all over again

cardboard_chewer

we've got a kitchen unit, very handy for cooking because you can have your gas cooker plus a bit of workstop space. also has an integrated washing bowl so you can wash up. we heat some water in a pan and use that to wash up.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sunncamp-SunnCamp-Deluxe-Kitchen/dp/B001NPCW20
also these tables are not bad
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sunncamp-SunnCamp-Roll-Slat-Table/dp/B001NPCW2U
both of these items are self assembly and pack away to a nice small ish size in the car.

our camp beds go straight onto the tent floor sheet and we have not had any problems.

get a big 5 or 10 litre water bottle from the pound shop so you don't have to keep going to the tap every time you want a drink.

jackyann

Plenty of old towels, to use for mopping up almost anything!
Hooks to hang on tent ridges so everything can be hung up and not get kicked about
old thick socks to wear in the tent if it's cold
keep a spare blanket or fleece in a plastic bag in the car in case things get wet.
lots of cheap buckets for anything

cardboard_chewer

also get a really good cooler box (not a zip up cooler bag, these are nowhere near as good as cooler boxes). the expensive ones are worth the money and will keep everything nice and cool for several days. or if you go camping for a week just buy some ice and throw that in after a few days maintain the coolness.

citronella/lemon candles to keep the midges away.

cardboard_chewer

eye masks so you don't get woken up when the sun rises

sorry about the repeated posts - keep thinking of things

thefishdude

you dont need mats under ya camp beds. and i would prob not bother witha toilet tent. we do how ever have luggable loo wich is for weewees only during the night we used this when we ha small children in our tent. and our tent had a spare bed pod so kept it in there and it was onlu used at night times. you will find harldy anyone uses toilet tents. You may be interested in a kitchen/utility tent we use one of these all time originally for safety so all cooking stuff was out of way of main tent an little hands and then just because we lied the set up of not having it all taking up room of main tent

teabag29

Thanks, hadnt thought of half of these things especially the fan heater, that will deffo come in handy

Bev_B

cardboard_chewer wrote: »

get a big 5 or 10 litre water bottle from the pound shop so you don't have to keep going to the tap every time you want a drink.

Just buy a 5l bottle of water on your way there as they are about £1 refill when needed and recycle before you go home, saves taking it home AND the hassle of cleaning before next use.

If you're wanting electric make sure you buy a branded camping hook up not just an extension with 4 sockets on the end, they are much cheaper but are not as safe.