Family Camping for Beginners – The Ultimate Guide for first time campers

When I first started sharing camping tips on this blog, a couple of years ago, camping was pretty low on most people’s holiday wish list. While there are many camping lovers out there, when you tell people that you’re heading on a camping holiday, you’d often be met with puzzled looks or faces of pity.

Fast forward a couple of years and thanks to the little matter of a global pandemic which has made international travel all but impossible for most, lots of Brits are suddenly reconsidering camping as a holiday option,

Despite being a dedicated camper of many decades, I’m the first to admit that preparing for your first camping trip can be a daunting prospect. Sure, camping can be a minimalist affair – but taking your family away for a week in a tent isn’t quite as simple as it might have been when you were young and single.

What equipment might you need? How do you know where to camp? What gadgetry might make your trip more fun? These are a few of the questions I’ve attempted to answer on this blog over the past year or two. But rather than forcing you to hunt around for the useful information, and with many first-time campers about to take their first trip, I thought it might be useful if I gathered together some of the more useful posts in one place.

So here it is: the ultimate guide for first-time family campers….

In my first proper “camping tips” post, I reflected on a few of the things I learned after our first proper summer as a camping family. Tips include some advice about lights, how to find the right campsite and some learnings about cool boxes. I still had a long way to go, though…

7 Lessons I’ve Learnt After Our First Summer of Camping

A few years later, when I was really getting into my camping stride, I wrote about a few more camping tips I’ve picked up. Camping hacks covered include some food advice, a top tip about batteries, entertainment ideas for the kids and a life hack for night-time wee wees…!

Even more camping tips for families

Last year I decided to blog more seriously about camping, and shared my first “Camping tips for beginners” post – this one about preparing for your first trip. From scoping out what there is to do nearby to planning out your first night’s meal, this post is a must-read for all first-time family campers:

Family Camping for beginners – Preparation

Once you’ve got the basics sorted, you might want to splash out on a few camping luxuries – some gadgets and gizmos to make your nights under the stars even more fun. From solar chargers and toastie sandwich makers to camping stoves that charge your other gadgets, these tech treats are bound to attract even the most novice camper:

Family Camping for beginners – Camping Tech & Gadgets

If your family unit includes babies and/or toddlers, camping can be a little more… tricky. Especially when you need to lug things like cots around with you. But fear not: I’ve been there, done that and got the sick-stained t-shirt – so I decided to share some tips specifically for those of you going camping with children under 3:

Family Camping for beginners – Camping with Babies & Toddlers

Every good camping trip needs some food and drink to keep you going – so in the next post I shared some of my culinary camping tips. From choosing the right cool box to having a dedicated set of camping cutlery, I’ve offered up some tips that should make camping mealtimes a bit more fun!

Family Camping for beginners – Food, glorious food

If you’ve already exhausted the advice from my first camping tips post, I’ve got good news: I found even more camping gadgets to take your camping trips to the next level. From inflatable tents and camp beds that turn into sofas to portable espresso machines – you never need to slum it again!

Family Camping for beginners – Next Level Camping Gadgets

If you’re not quite ready to take the dive into a full-on camping trip, why not try camping in your garden first – consider it a dry run maybe? I’ve got some tips for that, too!

Family Camping for beginners – Why not give Camping in the garden a go?

And if you think I’m a bit of a camping know-it-all, fear not – a few years back I was just like you. Back in 2013 I wrote my first camping blog post, as we were about to head off on our first camping trip as a family. You can read about it here (and laugh at how niaive I was back then!):

A Camping We Will Go – It’s Just Like Riding a Bike, Right?

So there you have it – a collection of posts that might help you get started in the world of camping. If you know somebody who is considering their first trip into the great outdoors this summer, why not share this with them?