7 Tips For Your Next Family Camping Trip

 Preparing a camping trip can feel like a lot of effort at times, but planning your first family camping trip can be extremely stressful.

Photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash

There's a lot riding on the first trip because there's a fear that if your kids don't take to camping right away, they'll never learn to love it the way you do. But the key is to keep things simple and understand that camping is supposed to be enjoyable!

The following are the top ideas for making your family's first camping vacation a success.

Find A Well-Known Or Accessible Campground

The purpose of your first family camping trip is to just have fun. You'll have lots of opportunities to improve your camping skills later in life, but your children will only want to if they like camping.

Consider a well-established campground with plenty of amenities for your first vacation. Keep things easy the first time because your children may need time to adjust to going to the restroom outside or purifying their own water.

Look for a campground with actual facilities and water pumps. A picnic table and grate over the fire would also be nice.

Learning to sleep in the great outdoors takes practice, so your kids may feel safer if you camp in a campground where they can sleep to the sounds of others conversing in surrounding tents or make friends with kids their age.

Get Your Kids Involved In Planning

One of the most crucial aspects of camping is planning, and proper planning usually gives more time for fun when you're really camping.

The purpose of your first family camping vacation is to teach your children to enjoy nature while unplugging from many of the world's distractions. However, one of the most beneficial side effects of camping is learning the value of planning and the responsibility that comes with taking holidays.

Planning a camping trip does not always have to be a pain; it should be enjoyable and entertaining. For example, inquire about what your children hope to gain from the trip.

If you're camping near a lake, perhaps they're looking forward to swimming or fishing; if so, tell them how crucial it is to remember their swimsuit, innertube, or fishing rod.

Including your children in the planning process is a terrific learning opportunity as well as a way to gain a better sense of how you can make this vacation something they'll genuinely love.

Create A Packing List

A packing list is an important aspect of the preparation process. If you've ever tented before, you understand the frustration of realizing you've forgotten something at home and will have to go without it.

If you've camped a million times, you may already know everything you need, but you can always double-check packing lists.

Packing lists help you remember everything before you leave, which is important for both your safety and your enjoyment (don't forget the deck of cards)! Try to get your children to complete their own packing as part of the planning process. Add things like EcoGearFX, campsite games, and other essentials. 

Encourage kids to make packing lists, and then go over what could be missing and why that item is needed. For example, if kids forget to include socks on their list, you might talk about how sad they'll be if they don't have an extra pair and step in a puddle.

Make Food Over A Campfire

What is the first thing that comes to mind for most people when they think of camping? Of course, s'mores! Lean into the excitement and novelty of camping by preparing foods that your children will come to love and identify with outdoor family camping adventures.

A fire can be used to cook a variety of foods other than hot dogs on sticks. Consider bringing veggies to grill over the grate, such as corn. Camping is an excellent opportunity to break out your cast iron pan and prepare some one-pot dishes.

Allow your children to request some of their favorite dishes ahead of time and see if you can create them over a campfire. Whatever campfire cuisine you choose, sitting around a fire and eating is a typical camping experience that the whole family will love.

Plan Activities

Making family camping excursions enjoyable and memorable requires careful planning of activities. There should be enough structure to keep the days moving and your kids from becoming bored, but also enough flexibility for them to enjoy their environment and find something meaningful to them about camping.

Before you travel, talk to your children about it. Inquire about how they want to spend all their time and what they are most looking forward to. Make an effort to accept their own preferences and give them the opportunity to connect with nature in their own unique way. 

Split the Chores

No degree of planning ahead of time will eliminate all of the duties associated with camping; there will still be food to prepare, dishes to wash, tents to erect, and so on.

To get your kids involved without exhausting them, divide the duties so that they only have to complete a couple each day. Vacations are a time to be free of usual household tasks, but camping still requires some effort, which is best split across the group.

Last Words On The Best Family Camping Trip

Camping is a great family pastime, and the goal of your first family camping trip is to inculcate in your children a love of nature and camping under the stars.

Try to involve your children as much as possible in the planning process, and urge them to help shape the vacation into what they want it to be.

Bring games and organize activities that everybody will like so that your children will want to go on future camping trips.

If you follow the advice above, your first family camping trip will be a success!

Have you been on a family camping trip before? What tips would you add to this list? Please add some of these in the comments below.