We are very mildly contemplating camping this year for a change.
Had a look in Halfords and they had a sizeable 5 man tent for £150 ish (2 adults and 3 kids).
Any advice for an absolute newbie as I fear coughing up lots of money for kit but not doing it right, therefore not enjoying it and then watching it all gather dust (or mould).
Ta

Sleeping Mats

Priority one is sleeping bag, mats and tents. If you choose your weather you’ll get by with a cheap tent. But I think a warm sleeping bag is a tent

You could try a weekend with a cheap tent, blow up beds and duvets. Maybe a single burner stove and pans from the kitchen

I’m out of my depth. I’ve been equipped since the age of 8

I know try a camping pod as a stepping stone

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/holidays/camping/camping-pods/

I’d recommend not shopping at Halfords

Avoid Halfords.

Try Go Outdoors, some nice tents for not much more than that.

We use a double air bed and a combination of double sleeping bag, blankets and duvet because MsD feels the cold below equatorial conditions 🙄
Place a blanket between you and the airbed to retain heat.
a double gas burner and a table to cook on make life a lot easier, we have a dedicated kitchen unit that is collapsible but they are a tad expensive.
We have a Vango Icarus 500 with an additional awning, the awning makes all the difference to us as it effectively doubles the tent space.

Have fun!

I live in the West Mids and have some kit if you want to borrow it. Cooker/gas bottle lanterns etc.

tried it, enjoyed it. Doubt We’ll go again.

Lee, me in the west mids also (Bewdley) anything you want to sell?

Camping….

As a teenager getting to grips with nature – frikkin awesome!

As an adult with wife, child and dog – not a bloody chance!

OP- what are you really after- cheap accommodation? Wilderness experience? New experience?

Are you likely to want to continue?

Essentially, as with so many other things, buy cheap, buy twice. There is good advice in the posts above.

Family Ambrose use Mountain Hardware tents and Salewa or Mountain Equipment sleeping bags. Sleeping mats are from Thermarest, Alpkit do good stuff too. Cookers from Trangia and MSR. The whole lot is possibly considerably more than the price of a package holiday. But it is all sitting waiting in the cupboard for the next trip (May 23rd) and the next and the next and the next…

Tent is now 6 years old. My sleeping bag is now very tired but still OK for summer use. It was purchased in 1985.

Yep buy a good tent if you are going to “carry on camping” bit like buying a bike really a poor one and you tend not to ride it.
My oldest tent is a Vango force 10 Mk5 bought in 1976 and still OK, new flysheet in 1989 and a couple of new poles/A connectors.

Borrow one for starters and just do a weekend.

Started out years back before kids, wife was ex d of e so had bits of kit knocking about.
First family camp daughter was 5, laddo 18 months. Kept that cheap tent for two years but it didn’t see much action. On its last use it failed miserably in a heavy downpour one Sunday morning. As we weren’t far from home we literally abandoned ship and I went back later for it.
Cue buying a decent tent.
Vango orchy with added canopy, loads of room and has stood up to some serious weather. Over time we’ve amassed more and more kit that make things easier such as storage space etc. but we were fine with just the tent a cooker/table and a cool box to start with.
So i think what I’m trying to say is decent tent which you can always sell on, decent bags which are always handy and go from there. Last year on one occasion the mrs had an occado delivery to a campsite, I was pissing myself when I saw the photos!
Go to your nearest yeomans camp show, you can physically walk round all the tents, and if you’re willing to wait you can buy the display model for a v good discount!

Yeomans tour

check out ukcampsite.co.uk which is the camping equivalent of STW.

Good second hand section for cheap stuff, reviews of tents and kit, and the real world reviews of campsites are spot on in my view.

Depends on the sort of camping you want to get into, but my wife won’t camp without an electric hook up (expect to spend a fair bit on the cable) and a fan heater set on low to keep the night chills away. Also allows for phone charging, hair dryers, beer fridge etc…

slight alternative – check out wigwams/teepees/camping pods etc
e.g. http://www.wigwamholidays.com/ and there are now uk sites with prepitched big tents etc etc

this way you can try camping using existing bedding etc etc, sort of a halfway house, for cooking try the portable foil bbqs (take bricks etc to keep em off grass etc) – and pick a site that is within an easy walk of pub/food etc it just might rain durng the summer

Buy the kit second hand. If you like it then you replace what you want to suit your needs. If you don’t like it sell the gear on again and you haven’t lost too much.

Vango tents are generally well made and good value for money. Don’t buy from Halfords. As above get good bags and mats. Lots of people get put off camping for life, because their first experience is with a £50 for a tent, two mats and two sleeping bags deal. They then find camping to be cold, damp and miserable. If we are just going for a weekend we don’t bother taking cooking stuff. I make a huge batch of sarnies before we go. Pack a bag of crisps snd cereal bars. Then we have dinner in a pub.

As above get good bags and mats. Lots of people get put off camping for life, because their first experience is with a £50 for a tent, two mats and two sleeping bags deal. They then find camping to be cold, damp and miserable.

I’m going to go against the grain here and suggest that you don’t buy decent kit until you have tested the waters.

Beg, borrow and steal whatever kit you can for a weekend, wait until you get a great forecast and then fill the car with pillows, duvets and blankets etc and head to somewhere nice that isn’t too far away.

Early camping trip success comes down to having at least one of two things: good weather or good kit. Decent kit is expensive, wait until your family are bitten by the fair weather camping bug until you start dropping money on kit that will keep you all happy when the weather isn’t so great.

You can create a lovely bedouin inside to a big tent with stuff from the house, just throw it all in there. If you can get inflatable mats from somewhere (even the ones you put up in the spare room will do) brilliant, just stick blankets or cheap closed cell mats over the top to keep off the chills.

If they hate it in nice weather July, it will probably be less likely to do with whether they had 2 duvets over them as opposed to a Mountain Equipment bag.

True, but if the tent leaks, a pole brakes and all your duvets are ruined by condensation then you won’t have a good time.

Bell tent here. Perfect for camping with a young family. Looks expensive compared to a cheap nylon tent, but not compared to a decent quality one. Major benefits are space, easy to erect single handed, stable in strong winds and it looks nice. More importantly than all that, its cool inside on the hottest days and seems to be immune to condensation on cold nights so you always wake up dry (we’ve had 4 adults and 4 kids in it)
If you don’t get on with it, they seem to go for close to retail on eBay.

Don’t get a cheap tent from Halfords…

A mate bought one of their larger ones…I think it lasted 3 outings. The first one it survived, the second one peg loops started ripping out of the flysheet and after the third outing it was pretty much ready for the bin.

Only problem with buying a tent at the moment is that there probably won’t be many good deals about, unlike at the end of the season.

If you get a tent, stretch to the footprint groundsheet too. It means you can get the tent packed away nice and clean and minimises having to get it back out when you get home to hang up and dry off.
Also try and get one with a canopy, so if it rains you don’t have to coop yourself up inside, but can sit in the canopy area and at least watch the world go by.

When we started camping, we just made sure we had a basic cooker, comfy seats and bedding. You quickly realise what you don’t have/want/need. Just make a list as you go on…

Thinking about this, if I could go back in time and give my younger self one piece of camping advice, it would be “don’t buy cheap crap.” Borrow what you can to start with, and once you’ve made the decision that it’s something you’re going to do more than once, get half-decent kit.

I’ve lost count of how much stuff I’ve replaced over the years because I initially tried to save money. Bottles, mugs, pans, stoves, lanterns and torches, inflatable mattresses, I could go on; you end up replacing it and paying more overall than you would have done just by buying proper stuff in the first place. I started referring to Gellert as “purveyors of the porous” due to leaky kettles and reservoirs and suchlike, about the only thing I’d trust them to make is a sieve.

If you are in Scotland, I have a mahooosive big tent you can borrow – 4 ‘bedrooms’ – great for the family

As well as the Vango I also would recommend
Jack Wolfskin Wild Country or if its a “King Arthur’s Palace” Cabanon

I’d echo what others have said; don’t buy cheap and don’t buy from Halfords – beg, borrow or steal a decent tent etc and try it out first; see if you like the experience when using decent kit.

I’d also suggest spending time thinking about what you want out of it (as others have again said); it is to see the countryside? let the children run free? somewhere cheap(er) to stay? escape the city?

I’ve got a Gelert atlantis 5,cant recommend it enough,on eBay For less than £100,takes 2 double airbeds,so ideal for 2 adults and 2 children (its meant to sleep 5,but that’s pushing it)

Do you need a cooker?

I’ve got a 2 burner and grill thing with a gas bottle

£20? Collected

In Wigan if interested.

make sure the first time you go, the weather forecast is favourable

Here’s how to do it 🙂

My experience. Whatever kit you choose if the weather is middling or horrible then you are likely to hate it. For extended trips like summer hols I would make the effort to go to the south of France. We do this every year and I really look forward to living outside. We have tried Devon, Brittany and its always been cool and damp which in my book is no fun. I would go for a weekend away in UK and put up with what the weather threw at us.

As to kit – secondhand or discounted new (few Coleman’s on Amazon).

Sorry Mantastic, I’ve tried to get rid but the SiL uses it on occasion.

Just here to acknowledge all the good advice and kind offers.
The current weather is doing nothing for driving this plan through…

As a camper since childhood, I second the ‘borrow and try it out for a weekend first’ advice.

Holidays for my family and me are always in a tent. We have covered ground from northern Spain to northwestern Poland and a lot in between. Of all places, my least favourite is Britain, and that’s because of the uncertain weather. That said, bad weather can happen anywhere, and if you are prepared, it will not spoil your trip.

The fact is, camping is an absolute delight to some and a nightmare for others. What is important is a good attitude, and comfort. To this end, I would definitely make sure I have a good mat and sleeping bag, followed closely by a good tent.

Do a bit of reading, pay a visit to Go Outdoors, or – if you live near one – a good local shop, and see what you like.

Recently, I have begun suggesting other types of trips (like hotel-based ones), and neither my wife nor my children will hear of it. So it’s camping for us for good it seems.