For me the joy of camping is the cheapness and the freedom, but you have to get good at it and accept that yes, it’s a lot of work.

Spent more than a month overall under canvas (well, nylon) last year, and it was all great. Hoping to beat that this year.

I can surely say I would much rather be in a tent than in a b&b or hotel

Top tips?
Meteorology. Avoid bad weather (which you are free to do!)
Avoid Nazi campsites with loads of caravans and marked out pitches!

Reading this from my sleeping bag on a Beavers Leaders family camp at Ford Castle near the border.

Our kids (3 & 7) did a ~four mile hike today, played with friends in woods and streams, held slugs snails and beetles, saw kites flying, helped BBQ dinner, then sat round a campfire roasting marshmallows till 11:30 at night.

Lush!

(Yes 11:30 isn’t ideal, but these are the nights that memories are made of)

I am currently camping as I type.

Wish I wasn’t. 🙁

I’m with davidtaylforth.

We did the family camping thing, noise, light, cold, damp, deflating airbeds, rain, mud and do on. Hard work.

We bought a caravan. Problem mainly solved.

But where’s the joy in sleeping outdoors?

There are no joys to be found outdoors. Even if there were, none would compare to the sublime pleasure that is B&B. Please keep B&Bing and keep Britain in Business. Let those masochistic fools pretend to enjoy flogging the dead horse soggy donkey that is ‘the outdoors’!

generally speaking most are overpriced hell holes full of ignorant families who think their weekend/week is more important than every other user there.

This exactly. I’ve never once been to a campsite where people have obeyed the 10pm rule, there is always at least 1 group of piss eds up until 2 or 3am, then you get the dawn chorus of the crying baby at 5am.

Wild camping is the only way, but then to do that you are going to bed without a shower (having walked in for miles and sweaty and hot), no decent food either.

Ha ha – so this is actually a we hate camping thread??

Personally I love it but I would opt for the minimal approach – can’t stand huge sites so aim for little traditional tent only places or more than often these days wildcamping.

Racing and a partially converted van for me 🙂
A comfortable bed, room for the BBQ, proper stove and proper cover if it got wet. Hanging around in a field with a bunch of other DH mates having a laugh.

Top tips – you don’t need special camping food, you can cook what you would at home quite easily, bring the decent pans/knives from the kitchen and get a kettle.
Get some comfy chairs and something to keep the beer cool.

Top tips – you don’t need special camping food, you can cook what you would at home quite easily, bring the decent pans/knives from the kitchen and get a kettle.

^this^

We always take decent cooking kit, and plenty of kitchen role. Hand g out a bacon cob on a piece of kitchen role reduces the washing up which is my only gripe with camping.
Even took the uuni pizza oven a few weeks ago when we went, now that is flash!
Showers, nobody dies when they don’t have a shower, ever been to a festival?
We go to a place regular and we always try and camp as far away from everyone else as possible as it just makes it feel that little bit more camping like.

Right campsite is the key. We pretty much always go to the same one, never crowded, even when it’s busy your only allowed to camp round the edge of a massive field so loads of space in the middle for kids to run/play.

Five minute walk through the fields to the coast path and an awesome beach with a lagoon, sea caves and decent surf in the right conditons. And it’s only £10 a night and 45mins from my house.

Jam bo, where is this campsite, it sounds great.

Atlantic view, porthcothan

The words, ‘joy’, & ‘camping’ don’t occur together in my vocabulary. I’ve still got all my gear but use it for when/if I stay in a bothy (obviously I don’t put a tent up in a bothy though) 😀
Used to love it when I was a kid & spent a lot of my childhood camping with Mum & Dad on High Bridge End farm near Thirlmere.

No more of that for me!

Thanks Jam bo, might have to pay a visit later this year.

It makes sense to recognise the pastime of ‘camping’ as nothing more complex than an affectation borne out of a barbarous stubbornness. This is nothing new for the Brits, whose tenacious and madochistic nonsense was recorded by the invading Romans who after giving it a shot eventually said ‘bugger that for a game of soldiers’ and sodded off back to their villas in Italy.

Here’s what Cassius Dio had to say:

Both tribes inhabit wild and waterless mountains and desolate and swampy plains, and possess neither walls, cities, nor tilled fields, but live on their flocks, wild game, and certain fruits…They dwell in tents, naked and unshod, possess their women in common, and in common rear all the offspring….

….They can endure hunger and cold and any kind of hardship; for they plunge into the swamps and exist there for many days with only their heads above water, and in the forests they support themselves upon bark and roots, and for all emergencies they prepare a certain kind of food, the eating of a small portion of which, the size of a bean, prevents them from feeling either hunger or thirst”

– Roman History, LXXVII.12.1-4).

Of course, modern writers will sell you the dream:

But the reality is far more sobering. So sobering in fact – that one requires to be drunk in order to attempt it:

Booked a campsite for weekend at end of July, we will be their first guests on a new site so they have framed our deposit cheque, turns out authorities have dragged their feet with the approval so their won’t be any facilities (and I mean zero) and we will be the only campers – oh and it’ll be our first wedding anniversary

Surely Cassius Dio was only referring to Wales? I’ve had many a mountain biking holiday there that sounds quite like that.

@davidtaylforth, you have to admit the view you get camping has to be better than the one from under your bridge…
Up to two years ago, the only camping I’d done was the Reading Festival back in the 90’s, and that involved having a noisy bunch pitch up next to me with a boom box who stayed awake all night, forcing me to abandon my tent on the last night and walk all the way back to my car to try to get some sleep.
Not in a Vauxhall Chevette, I didn’t…, then I did a weekend at a small pub festival around five years ago, not well equipped, tent was ok, but I had one of those horrid flock air mattresses that took forever to inflate, the temperature plummeted overnight and my sleeping bag was an ultralight one I’d used on a bike tour in France, so I was chilled to the bone.
Forward to two years ago, IoW Festival, same tent, proper s/a mattress, a cheap (Aldi) but very snug bag, and the five days I was there encouraged me to do a proper camping holiday, so I packed the car and drove down to South Devon, and spotted a little camp site by accident a short distance from a village I’d stayed B&B at in the pub, I’d originally planned on doing a wild camp in a field a bit further away, so I though I’d check this one out first.
It was ideal, just the fenced-off top of a field, with part of a hedge dividing it into two sections, a small double toilet block with wash basin, and a standpipe with tap between the two sections.
There were a couple of campers and a caravan there, but they were only there for the weekend, and I had it to myself for most of the time.
I was there for nine days, cost £10/night, money in an honesty box, as against £75/night in the pub, money saved went on beer and wonderful food in the pub each evening, I had a little stove jobbie which I fueled with chopped-up driftwood I collected from the beach, plus some dead wood from the hedge behind, so I was happy keeping a kettle simmering for numerous mugs of tea while sitting outside reading and enjoying the stunning view across Start Bay.
Then I’d walk along Slapton Sands, or all around Start Point to East Prawle, or drive up to Dartmoor or round to Dartmouth.
Fantastic time, all on my own, first time I’ve ever done it, and I’m 63 this year, looking at getting a bigger inflatable tent, for ease of erecting, and planning on doing the same again in September/October.
This is the view:

Dartmouth is off in the far distance, directly in front is a path that goes down to a lake, then along to the beach about ¾ of a mile away.

^ Beesands? Looks lush, wherever. I was first bitten by camping bug in South Hams. It was the regular family camping destination. First trip was parents and two kids with all the campng stuff in an old Mini. Then we upgraded to a Maxi with a trailer!

Fantastic time

Yeahy!

, all on my own

A verified vastness of joy

Can’t believe this hasn’t reared its head yet:

People who like camping are basically deviants. Or ten years old. And don’t get me started on **** bivvying.

Yeah basically it all hinges on obtaining peace and quiet. Book with care.

People who like camping are basically deviants. Or ten years old

True.

Ya bunch of miserable stay-home naysayers. 😀

Agree that sites are key though. Just choose the type you want.

Sites with clubhouses, arcades, swimming pools and evening “entertainment” have their place and can be fun, if a bit feral.

But likewise sites with little else beyond a grassy field, loos and a decent view are often amazing too.

Our camp this weekend was on Scout property in the grounds of a castle. Just us and the others leader’s families. River, forest, big campfire, facilities block with kitchen, loos and showers. Perfect mix for the group we had.

This place may interest some folk on here: http://comriecroft.com – supported camping in the woods, with fires allowed, and mountain biking in site.

I was never keen on the idea of camping until the hotel I booked was washed away in a flood and I needed to make alternate plans very quickly. I bought a tent, a stove and a sleeping mat fell expecting to dislike the experience, but I loved it.

It is true that special food isn’t required and some prefer duvet to sleeping bags. I’m not sure that ‘camping’ would necessarily be my main objective when I go camping and I’m not sure il like to stay in a place that is a field full of tents. I like the places where the pitches are clearings cut from trees, so you get some privacy and the sound doesn’t travel so much.

I like B&B’s, but some of the proprietors a a little odd and some give you the message that you are staying in their house. Which you are, but if a person is precious about their house, they shouldn’t let strangers stay in it, especially if they are going to charge them.

@Malvern Rider, yeah roughly between Beeson and Beesands. Only issue is the very steep bit of road about 100 meters away, which is even worse coming back late at night after an evening in the Cricket Inn and several pints of Otter and a big meal!

the main attraction for me is low cost and flexibility. the first couple of days are hard but after that its OK.

Our miserable family camping holidays St Agnes Isles of Scilly

[url=https://flic.kr/p/afJ44d]DSC_0087.jpg[/url] by John Clinch, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/aek53K]DSC_0287.jpg[/url] by John Clinch, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/5ajrWK]DSC_0133[/url] by John Clinch, on Flickr

It really is hardwork. Plus, it’s bad for the local economy. Honestly, don’t be a tight arse, just stop in a B&B or a hotel, you can enjoy yourself then.

I think common sense says that is wrong. Particularity in peak season. Something like 20% of all summer visitors to Cornwall camp. As all the accommodation will be full at this time not camping would mean a 20% drop in visitor numbers. It would not be desirable or viable to build extra accommodation for a few weeks per year. I can think of places all over the world where the only viable way of getting in all the visitors you want is camping.

the first couple of days are hard but after that its OK.

Try a week in Oban when the only day it doesn’t rain all day long is Wednesday. 🙄

davidtaylforth, did something kidnap you and do something nasty to your head? I know you’ve made some troll-ish statements before, but between your comments above, and the ones you made on a recent thread about buying a new roadbike, I’d say you’ve gone batshit crazy, or just become ridiculously oppositional.

OP, just ignore him.

Ampthill, those photos are bloody glorious! I want to go there right now. 😀

I’ve said this in a previous thread, I like camping, but I’m not particularly looking forward to going camping as a family

I like spending time outdoors, I like bikepacking and bivvying, I like spending time in the woods with the kids making shelters and cooking lunch and dinner over the fire (private woods)

BUT, whilst I love the notion of going camping as a family, I really don’t fancy the practical side of it
(1) – I have 2 youngs kids and a wife
(2) – I’m mildly OCD about packing stuff – what it is, how it’s packed and where it goes
(3) – I have 2 large dogs

It’s the thought of packing enough to keep (1) entertained and comfortable, which combined with (2) meaning I’ll be the one packing, unpacking, setting up. (3) means keeping the tent clean, having food permanently dotted around at floor height (unless we bring more kit like tables, but see (2) ) are both a hassle, and the likeliness of it being wet add more to the already major MAJOR faffage in mildly moving house before and after

Plus the (very large) car is already full of dog and person, the roofbox fills up with normal stuff (like clothes, kit, wellies, games/toys etc)

I like the idea of trying some wild camping but finding a shelter big enough to fit everyone but light enough to carry is a challenge

I should point out that I spend a lot of time outdoors and am fairly experienced at wild camping and bikepacking, and I love it, but the faff isn’t appealing. Having 2 kids and 2 big dogs means things are slightly tricky.

Despite all of that, I’ll be doing some camping this summer I reckon, but I’ll probably do it on the private woods I have access to where I won’t have to worry about annoying others and can have a fire more easily. The main problem is no running water or toilets, but we can deal with that OK

Having lots of camp furniture is pretty good and makes things rather easy. But then you realistically need a trailer so you can just pop it all in and be done. Trailer would be my choice if I didn’t have a caravan.

We keep our kids entertained with a small number of classic outdoor toys and for indoors some play sets, colouring, that kind of thing. If they whine about being bored we tell them to go and explore and find something to investigate. Not usually a problem.

Cuddling up with your wife under canvas for a bit of the other

You’re having an affair with the OP’s wife and this is how you choose to tell him…?

Good God man! That’s pistols at dawn stuff.

I’ve lost the joy of camping a while ago mainly due to every time we went it poured it down. Add to that the over priced sites that insist on packing as many people in as they can and well beyond the facilities they have available.
Much prefer to just book into a small guest house/AirBnB now which usually isn’t that much more expensive but infinitely more comfortable with the added bonus of not having to listen to neighbouring tents wife snorting like a pig when she laughs or someone insisting on playing the few songs they think they can play but obviously can’t.
Other bonuses include not having to unpack the tent when you back so you can get it cleaned and dried, ready for the next camping trip which you convince yourself will more enjoyable.

Ha after a couple of nights at the Keswick Mtn Festival this is topical. Thankfully we didn’t have our 4yo with us but great time had despite torrential rain and high winds. I’m a camper from being a baby, then caravans. I love it but we’ve tried campervans, all the faff of camping with a much higher bill, tenting, nice but moist. Pondering a caravan , well put it on a seasonal site further north so it’s there and if we want to venture we can. I do like it but some of those massive sites are awful and it’s a wholly different proposition in the sun !

We’ve done a “big” camping holiday – a week in the southern lakes in a field – had the keys to the community hall / access to showers / great weather/loads of space. Still hard work trying to work out menus and keeping food in a healthy state – lots of buying fresh stuff to be consumed within an hour or so. Big tent, loads of gear etc.

Just bought two 3 man tents so we can take the family away for an overnight – trangia to make cups of tea on, fish and chips for tea, bread and jam for breakfast then away home…. that’s the theory – a bit of wild camping (once summer actually arrives in Scotland…)

Instagram Vs Reality: What Camping Is Really Like

The pictures of what camping looks like according to marketing and what camping actually is!

I don’t mind it, I’ve done a few car-based tours of Scotland where I’ll stop over somewhere for a day or two, spend all day riding, sleep, move on somewhere else etc and I’ve usually split my time between a mix of B&Bs, camping at campsites and one night “wild camping” (it’s not wild at all, it’s off a road and out of sight and there’s a car parked next to me…)

To be honest, that for me is the perfect balance, especially when it comes to things like washing and drying cycle clothing, having a choice of kit to wear and not having a massively laden bike.

Seems to me that a lot of folk moaning about busy campsites, too much noise etc are just not finding the right sort of site for them.

So.. what do folk use to find suitable campsites?

I usually use:

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk – bit clunky and old skool but good user reviews of sites.
http://www.pitchup.com – flasher, better search engine
http://coolcamping.com/campsites/uk – more unusual sites
http://www.getoutwiththekids.co.uk – limited sites but often has other useful information.