So what do I need to take with me camping (family campsite, not survival)

I have just bought some stuff from Ebay and plan to take the family away for some camping breaks this summer – probably just a few long weekends but we may decide to do a week or even two over summer holidays.

So far I have:
Tent
Inflatable mattresses (but they are a bit manky so may bin them)
Kitchen unit
2-ring stove with grill
Large single gas ring
Gas heater
Foldaway table with integral chairs
High volume hand pump
Electric pump
Electric hook-up with RCD

Things I need:
Lights – for tent and portable
More seating
Another table/storage area
Cooking utensils
Water carrier

Am I missing anything else?

Cheers 🙂

Sleeping bags?

I like proper pillows and a duvet too but I’m a ponce 🙂

Ahh yes, we have two sleeping bags already (me & my wife) but we’ll be needing two kiddy ones too.

Big windbreak or tarp is handy too around the cook/eat area

2 Mallets. You wont be able to find one of them whilst putting the tent up.

2 can openers. Likewise.

Long nosed lighter for the stove (from poundland)

Alcohol
90s Rave Tapes
Washing Up Bowl/things
Insect Repellant
Solar Powered Fairy Lights

Hot water bottles are good too actually.

for the kids, obviously 😉

Duvet from you bed at home for sleeping on top of in sleeping bag, air matresses are cold.

Coolbox and ice blocks (or Frozen 1.5ltr Box of Cider works well for a day or two)

Magnifying glasses and binoculars to see small and large local wildlife.

Earplugs and Eye mask so you can sleep past 5:30am

Plug in fridge if you have electric hook-up and think it’s something you’ll be doing regularly.

Bottle opener/corkscrew

Windbreak. We use one for around the cooker and a larger one to keep any prevailing wind off when sat outside.

Matches/one of those gas lighter on a stick thing.

Does the tent have some kind of ‘outside space’ like a canopy? Our tent became much more usable once we bought the canopy for it.

A couple of cheapo headtorches are always useful.

Kitchen roll

Small dust pan & brush to clean out tent before folding, if you have a sown in groundsheet.

1st thing on my list:

Buffalo mountain shirt (even in summer).

2nd:

Alcohol
90s Rave Tapes

😀

And the biggest car you can afford!

Earplugs and Eye mask so you can sleep past 5:30am

Definitely this

To be fair they are quite handy if your campsite neighbour has remembered to bring their 90s Rave Tapes.

We use a powered cool box as a fridge, that’s been pretty handy – even in the south of France, it keeps meat, salad, butter and cheese etc alive for the two or three days between shops.

And the biggest car you can afford!

Mrs Pondo and I take our own tent and go camping for a fortnight every year in France, air bed (two singles), two duvets (one over, one under), four pillows, clothes tables, stove, surfboards, chairs, powered coolbox, etc etc etc AND we take two bikes – all in a Fiat Panda*. 😀

* It is, I must confessed, a little cramped unless packed with significant care. 🙂

Mrs Pondo and I take our own tent and go camping for a fortnight every year in France, air bed (two singles), two duvets (one over, one under), four pillows, clothes tables, stove, surfboards, chairs, powered coolbox, etc etc etc AND we take two bikes – all in a Fiat Panda*.

I’m guessing you fold the back seats down? Could pose a problem if transporting children…

Our c-max is stuffed to the gunnels (middle rear seat left at home) plus a full roof box. That’s for a family of four, but does include space-hungry baby gear such as a buggy and travelcot.

Buffs/hats as much to keep the midges/gnats away in the evening, as to keep warm – I always get bitten along my hairline.

Citronella candles

Anthisan/Savlon and other general potions.

I’m guessing you fold the back seats down? Could pose a problem if transporting children…

Yeah, for sure – we don’t got no kids, think it would be totally impractical in a Panda if we did, but it’s just to show, you don’t HAVE to have a big car to go camping (as long as you don’t got no kids 🙂 ). Because, believe me, Mrs Pondo takes EVERYthing that isn’t screwed down. EVERYthing.

We do have a big estate car and we filled it (and a roofbox) the last time we went when we borrowed someone else’s kit so I think we should be okay for space as last time we took literally everything and the girls were smaller so needed their pushchair etc (of course this time they will need bikes/scooters though)….

Our c-max is stuffed to the gunnels (middle rear seat left at home) plus a full roof box. That’s for a family of four, but does include space-hungry baby gear such as a buggy and travelcot.

3 kids, no baby stuff and we really struggle to fit in an S Max with the camping gear! A 240L roof box makes it doable just.

Resorted to bringing less food (which means a shopping trip for someone whilst on a holiday, yuk) or ideally fewer children 🙂
Otherwise it’s a van, I’ve now got buy-in from the CFO..

Bike?

Bog roll. Food and condiments. Plastic cans of water.

Spare gas cylinder?

Immodium

Insect repellent
Woolly hats (even in summer)
Umbrellas
If it’s a walk-in tent then shoes that are easy to get on/off and a folding crate to put shoes in inside the door
Headtorches – utterly essential unless you enjoy dribbling over the slightly odd-tasting handle of a torch whilst trying to do anything that requires two hands and more than ten seconds. Bring them for the kids too, or they’ll pinch yours.

Bunting, tick removers and earplugs. The rest is optional.

Corkscrew*

*I have no children.

Electric fan heater

electric kettle and proper mugs. Forget tea made in plastic mugs from a boiled pan….it doesn’t really work all that well.

Put a blanket UNDER the kids’ airbeds, makes a world of difference, and as above, use duvets and pillows instead of sleeping bags.

If you’ve got room in the car, take a couple of carpet offcuts, one for the bed compartment, and one for inside the main area.

And finally, a couple of poundland solar path lights, place them next to the guy rope pegs, gives a comforting navigable path back from the toilet block int h middle of the night, and stops every one tripping over the blasted things every five bloody minutes. 😡

folding camping bed like this from argos…

BED

it looks like a pile of cr*p but its actually great, we’ve only done a few camping trips last year and just had blow up mattress and its amazing how much the cold comes through from the ground.

also a bag/thingymabob to carry dirty dishes cups to the sink in!

we were given 2 large polystyrene boxes with lids that we kept all food and drink in, the type of ones you see at fish markets. amazing how long stuff stayed cold with the aid of a few freezer blocks.

bag in the box red wine aswell, no faffing then for cold beers etc… (if you like red wine that is)

Slippers/thick socks for inside the tent…

If you’re only going to be doing long weekends to begin with you’ll find that you’re going to spend an inordinate amount of time getting all your kit setup compared to how long you’re there. For weekends away we decided that we either go for a camping pod or take our 4 person pop up thing and hope the weather holds out. Our big tent is huge and the amount of kit the missus we need for a week or more fills our Berlingo.

Also, you probably won’t need cooking utensils, unless you don’t have a kitchen right now. The ones you have at home aren’t nailed down so just take them with you.

Oh, and second the red wine. Nowt worse than warm beer. If you decide you want beer just buy a pack of 4 from the fridge of the nearest shop then when you’ve had them get on the vin rouge.

If you’ve got a smaller car a trailer may work, it also means you can have it loaded ready to go but still use your car normally.

Camping trip
Gaffa tape
Spare Gaffa Tape
Tent
Carpet for tent
Extension
Sleeping bags
Pillows
Air beds
Wash kit
Wellies
Waterproofs
Cutlery
Plates
Kettle
Matches
Stove (safari chef and trangia)
Fuel for stove
Water carrier
Torch
Lights
Sponge
Washing up kit plus tea towel
Swimming kit
Dog food + bowl
First aid kit
Bin bags
Towels
Washing line
Persil
Table
Chairs/stools
Dog bed
Can opener
Trowel
Midge repellant
Coolbox/freezer blocks
Tent mallet
Toilet roll
Kitchen towel
Chopping board and knife
Tongs
Spoon for cooking/ serving
Bite relief
Plastic crates
Travel rug
Huge frying pan with lid

Frisbee
Football
Kite
Baseball bat

Scrabble
Stella Artois

Wipes
Skin so soft
Whisky
Milk powder
Knife
Compass
Firesteel
The dirtchamber sessions/prodigy album of choice
Bear/chava trap

Portable toilet

Nothing worse than needing to get dressed up in the middle of the night to visit the facilities, particular if it’s one of your kids needing to go and its pissing with rain. Obviously better if you’ve got a tent with more than one compartment though.