Camping for absolute beginners?

[escapeyou]

Planning well in advance. We want to camp at Silverstone next Summer and possibly have a couple of trial runs prior to that. Silverstone MotoGP weekend is 5-7 August.

We have never camped so I have no idea what we need to take. Can anyone give me a list or tips? We do have inflatable mattresses in the attic.

I stumbled across a company that does supply and erect tents for you at major sporting events like Silverstone. They give you tent, mattress, table and chairs and you can rent (I’d still take my own) bedding. The cost for this is £350 for 3 nights. While a good and easy option, can we buy what we need for less and may be enjoy a few camping weekends prior to August.

We won’t need to cater as there is plenty at Silverstone including access to showers etc. The only things we would really want is how to make a coffee first thing and a couple of beers/snacks. That said, will we need more if we do trial runs in advance?

Thank you for any help you can give me.

You can buy cheap camping equipment cheaper. But good quality long lasting stuff can be very expensive...

My initial thought when reading your title was hire an erected tent first before investing to see if you like it... as that's why there are often barely used tents on ebay etc as people realised it wasn't for them.

(For context... our family tent cost £650. We sold our old 8man for £200 (it was 8 years old.))

I've camped every year for the last 12 years...
Decent tent. Airbeam (inflatable poles) are great..after years of heavy metal poles I'm never going back..air tents are a breeze to put up.

Get a bigger tent than you think you need..always! SO if there are two of you get a 4-5 man tent.. 4 of you.. get a 6. Vango are great tents but actually Decathlon do cheap ones which aren't bad at all.. we use one quite often.. a 6 berth for 3 or 4 of us.

Electric hook up, of the camp site has them. Makes life SO much nicer when you can plug in a little fan heater, kettle, hair dryer ... some years we take the microwave and just nuke food! I always take the toaster.

Camping chairs, decent mattresses or camp beds

A camping fridge is useful.

I fyou think you may want to camp regularly it's worth going to Go Outdoors or Decathlon and kitting out properly. Not cheap but worth it.
Otherwise I'd go with the hire option for the event, see if you enjoy it and then buy a really good tent!

I always thought I hated camping until I went with DP who is very into it.
You need really good gear or it’s grim is basically really all there is to it it seems!

Thank you for your help.

I’d get a tent tall enough to stand up in - makes a massive difference if you don’t need to crouch inside.

Have you got a garden big enough to erect a tent in? If you have, put the tent up in it and spend a night there - note everything you have to go back into the house to get because you forgot it, then use that as a packing list when you go away.

Oh I went through this when I was thinking about going back to a hobby where I loved camping (almost fortnightly) when I was younger...

Buy a decent tent (yes definitely one you can stand up in)

Unless you drive a truck, buy roof bars and a roof box or a tow bar and trailer for all the stuff you will need.
Buy a good at least mid range camp bed. Realise you hate campbeds and go back to air mattresses.

Realise that you are no longer in your late teens/twenties, you hate spending at least an hour at the start and end if your holiday unpacking/packing up, getting up to go to the loo in the middle of the night, and are exhausted most of the holiday through lack of a decent bed.

Vow to book a travelodge next time.

Hope it goes better for you!
Ps I'd definitely booked preerected tents if I couldn't get a proper bed

Firstly, have you booked the camping? As we camped at Litchfield and that isn't an option this year. Other options like woodlands and the golf club sold out in minutes for the F1 so I'm expecting a similar surge for the Moto GP.

Yes facilities are available and although nice and clean, the queues for the showers were HUGE. I showered at 5am, pretty sure some people won't have showered all weekend

Posted too soon!

Food, lots of places to eat but depends on budget. There's a great atmosphere on the sites so I'd strongly advise taking your own bbq and making friends when there to get a real feel for the GP weekend.

I second getting a tent you can stand in. Ideally with zip up
Bedroom compartments as that stops bugs getting in and means you can keep stuff in there.

A carpet tent carpet! Love ours as it’s nice to walk/ sit on rather than nasty cold floor.

Basic stoves you can get for £10. Try a couple of those before investigating mega bucks in a big stove.

A table and camp chairs.

A big plastic box for plates/ cups/ spoons as it stops them getting all over the place!

Really good sleeping bags or take your duvet.

Tent that can be stood up in, with a ‘bedroom’ section.
Camping chairs are essential.
Camping stove and kettle of course.
Tent carpet makes the tent feel warmer.
Air beds and duvet, I’m not a fan of sleeping bags.
Battery powered pump.
Hot water bottles for the colder nights.
Decent lamps, at least one for the tent and one for loo trips.
Cool box for beers and milk etc.

Slug repellent.

Have a look on facebook marketplace for camping equipment - a lot of people go camping once, don't like it, and sell their stuff off cheap.

I've found that the better kit you have, the more comfortable you are, and the more likely you are to enjoy it, so if you can get better stuff for your money by going second-hand rather than new but cheap and uncomfortable, you will have a nicer time!

Yes yes yes to a tent you can stand up - especially good if it rains.

I hate inflatable matresses, especially doubles - cold, uncomfortable, and you wake up every time your partner moves. Self inflating pads like these are far more comfy.

Don't take sleeping bags - take a sheet for the bottom and your normal duvet and pillows.

@lollipopsandrainbows

Firstly, have you booked the camping? As we camped at Litchfield and that isn't an option this year. Other options like woodlands and the golf club sold out in minutes for the F1 so I'm expecting a similar surge for the Moto GP.

Yes facilities are available and although nice and clean, the queues for the showers were HUGE. I showered at 5am, pretty sure some people won't have showered all weekend

Not yet but there is availability and there was right up until race weekend just recently. MotoGP doesn’t attract the numbers F1 does. That said, I am looking to book soon but your comment about the showers really puts me off camping!

I’d also recommend getting a double skinned/double walled tent (effectively a tent within a tent), makes it harder for opportunistic thieves to slip their hand in and steal your stuff.

I love our bell tent so much - very spacious inside. At this time of year lots of glamping places are selling them off second hand

We've been camping for decades & for that hire price I would suggest buying your own stuff. This time of year onwards is a good time to find bargains.

We've had all kinds of tents over the years & now swear by teepees, having camped in serious storms a few times & had other tents fall apart, We'd never use anything now.

Our main tent is a 3m regatta teepee, easy & fast to put up, stands up to even gale force winds & will easy take 3 double or several single mattresses & my very tallDH can easily stand up in it. We have a smaller one for teen DD, but when she was younger, we used to fit in a single mattress fir her & a air sock sofa & food prep table & large cool box & still have space.

You need also

Good inflatable mattresses & a pump that works with your car
Foil insulation sheets to lay in the ground underneath the mattress, plus a sleeping bag or duvet to cover the mattress under the sheets... this is all for warmth in the night. Then just use fitted sheets, duvets & top with lots of blankets & pillows as normal... a good warm bed is the secret to enjoying camping

a camping stove & stand, we take a wok, wide frying as we can do pizza in that too & a saucepan & kettle. We find these cover all bases for cooking.

Foldable prep table, Chopping board, set of knives, bowls, Tin opener & other utensils you'd need to prep & cook food, folding wash up bowl

Enamelled Tin plates plate, bowls mugs etc... we found these in Poundland & they've lasted for years & are so easy to clean

A portable fire pit, you can both cook on this & use as a campfire for marshmallow roasting & keeping warm

Fold up comfy camping chairs

Air sock air bed/sofa

Picnic mat

Foldable water containers

Good quality cool box & a cool bag

Hanging bags... we put veg, crisps, etc in these & hang them up onto the central tent pole out

Blankets, fleeces etc to put over you all around the fire when it gets chillier at night

Lights, lots of lights to hang in the tent & torches etc to wander around outside. A head torch can be very useful. Solar fairy lights & post lights to decorate outside your tent & make it more visible to stop others tripping over your tent ropes in the dark

If you have a dog, you need a long tether too

Potty if you have small kids. Far better than waking them & dragging them screaming across a field to make them go to the toilet to avoid accidents & have them sob & scream to the rest of the campsite for the couples of ours as we've seen too often lately🥴

Joss sticks, especially lemongrass to keep mozzies etc away

Think I've remembered everything

How many of you?

Two adults and two small kids would be fine in this for long weekends:

www.millets.co.uk/15980551/vango-icarus-500-deluxe-family-tent-15980551

Great tent from a reputable brand. Quick and easy to put up, £100 cheaper than the hire.

Use your inflatable beds, invest in folding chairs, a table, a cooler, a one ring stove and see how you like it.

The following year you could look at what you want in your ideal tent and whether, for example, you want the more expensive, heavier, bulkier air beam tents, how big, layout… or whether you want to sell it and never go camping again!

If you have 3 kids or big teens the above tent won’t really be big enough.

2nd/3rd/4th /whatever a tent you can stand in. And bigger than you think you need. If it says it sleeps 2 then it means 2 people laid flat on their back on the ground. Not 2 people with an airbed and a bag of clothes. I have a 6 man tent (actually might be 8man) and we comfortably sleep 4, usually using my brothers awning and marquee thing as a "lounge/kitchen space". If we had had cook and "live" in it, rather than just sleep, it would be a squeeze.

Contrary to everyone else I think the tent carpets are crap. Unless you've got DC/DP who always remove their shoes on the way in. Everyone I know who's had one has ended up binning them because they got so muddy.

A blanket to go under the airbed. A lot of the cold comes up from the floor.

Sleep with your valuables under your pillow.

So many responses. Thank you everyone. A lot to think about.

Oops. Our smaller teepee that DD uses is a Regatta. Our big one which we love, is a Shoshone

This is our main tent & at a great price too... I reckon you could easily kit yourselves out with a good camping set up for little more, maybe even less than £350 & you have it to use time & again. We camp a lot very locally with local friends & it's been a godsend this last couple of years especially. I'm sure new camping kit won't go to waste...

www.bell-tents.co.uk/products/5m-glamptex-500-10-person-teepee-tent-pyramid-tent-zipped-in-ground-sheet-canopy-awning-1

Lights. Rechargable camping lanterns (ideally that can be recharged in a car, if it's moving and not draining the battery).
Hot water bottles.
Kindling and firelighters, if you are relying on things like firepits even only slightly.

@escapeyou it depends how close you want to be to the track. Woodlands and Litchfield were both sell-outs before the event. Our friends tried to book on and couldn't. We were non-electric too as that had all gone. But with Litchfield now closed, all I'm saying is the options are a lot limited as people are trying to source alternative camping. I do think the change in dates will have an impact though - we're not going simply because it's not landed in the bank holiday weekend, as we made a mini-holiday out of it.

We camp at MotoGP. First things first you want to camp at Woodlands not whatever the ‘official’ campsite is. Woodlands has excellent facilities and entertainment. Better in the lively camping then family.

www.silverstonewoodlands.co.uk/

My main tips are an air bed, proper duvet and pillows, eye mask and ear plugs for sleeping. Plenty of warm clothes if you feel the cold. And get a really good cool box which keeps food and drink cold for days. We save a fortune by taking breakfast, drinks and lunch food. Then we only really need to buy dinner.

Camping at MotoGP is fab, the atmosphere is brilliant. You’ll love it!