I’m considering going camping with the kids this summer. They’re currently 15 months and 30 months old, and I’ve never camped with kids before.

So, can anyone recommend:

* A good tent that is easy to put up, with built in ground sheets, multi-bedroom, and decent sized living area. Don’t want a large traditional frame tent because of how heavy they are and difficult they are to put up on your own.

* Hard wearing kid’s sleeping bags

* camping beds – I personally hate inflatable beds, and rate self inflating mats, but the Mrs seems dead set on a blow up megalith thing, so any alternatives would be welcomed.

* Kitchen items – not sure what we’ll need because the campsite has good washing facilities, so I think it boils down to basic cooking stuff.

Also, can anyone recall the name of that big outdoor leisure place near loughborough?

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/loughborough
?

We’ve got a bog Coleman tent. A Trispace, I think. I can put it up with minimal assistance, but swear a lot in the process. It has lots of pegs to bang in. Seriously, I’ve never seen so many tent pegs before.

We’ve a Coleman kiddie sleeping bag and a Vango one. One of them has a removable section to make it shorter. We also take fleece blankets and wrap them in those first, before putting them in the bag.

Have a look Here for plenty of good advice.

outwell are very good tents, we have a outland xl and it’s exellent, make sure you get one with plent of living space.
Also make sure you choose a clean campsite, espesically with small kids, because there’s nowt worse than trying to ‘toilet/shower’ children in filth bogs. 🙁

I used to take my kids camping all the time when they were the same age as yours.

I used a Khyam tent – Khyam Tents in the UK – because I could put it up on my own, which meant I wasn’t subjected to ‘help’ from the missus!

There are a number of different models of “QE” – Quick Erect – tents. We had the classic XL with two inner bedrooms, but they don’t do it anymore.

Good tent, quick to erect and you could stand up in the centre of it, which is important for me.

Maybe a bit big for you but we have one of these & it’s been faultless

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/tents/preview.asp?id=573

I second Mud-Dodger.

I currently have an Outwell Hartford XL.
It has a fixed ground sheet so no draughts or bugs! And its easier to keep warm.
It can be a bit of a handful to put up until you’ve done it a couple of times,but its rock solid and real quality.

I think it makes a big difference having seperate rooms to put them to sleep, a porch to take your muddy kit off in and still have big clean living space.

Minimal whinging from a 7 and a 2 year old!

We have an old 5 person Outwell tent – at the moment the two year old sleeps with us in the 3 person end, 5 year old has the 2 person end to himself

We’ve never bothered with decent sleeping bags for them – mud, and night time accidents have encouraged us to stay cheap, cheerful and washable. Adult size airbeds seem to have a big enough dip in the middle – if you don’t over-inflate them – so they don’t roll too far in the night.

Agree re decent showers etc – we have started finding some campsites have family/disabled bathrooms as well, which makes it easier when they are small. Place we stayed last year even had a full size bathroom with bath you could have for about 2 quid an hour – it was so worth it on a muddy site! And a campsite with a laundrette is useful. Until they have been toilet trained a couple of years they WILL an accident in the night – even now, the firt night of camping our eldest will invariably wake up at 3am wanting a wee, almost as though he wants to test that he can get his wellies on, get out th etent and to the loo/hedge in time.

A decent play area on site is useful to keep them occupied, as is proximity to fields of farm animals and/or trains.

And make sure each child has a torch nearby at nght, knows where it is, and knows how to turn it on. And take lots of batteries!