Hit me with some low budget low effort activities when we're all stuck in a caravan

[ploooto]

We're on a tight budget and have a caravan booked in May, what essentials shall I take to keep the kids occupied (4-12)? Any tips? We've booked swimming a few times and hoping for a beach day but other than that I'm stumped! Also any ideas about meals etc? I'm trying not to spend a fortune or be tied to the kitchen all week. Thanks all!

I'd take a few crafty things in case of rain, a cheap £1 paint palette and some paper, thread for friendship bracelets, pack of cards for snap and matching pairs, get some good films downloaded on an ipad. List of things to find for an outdoor scavenger hunt. Couple of board games or orchard games or bingo?
Not trying to be pessimistic, but I've had a few very wet caravan breaks 😂

Where is the caravan located? If there’s a beach nearby, I’d pack waterproofs and plan to not be stuck in the caravan - irrespective of the weather.

Bats and balls, rackets, football, cheap kite. Seaside buckets and spades, fishing net

Get out and walk and explore. Make sandwiches for lunch and set off in the morning. Have adventures. I would have loved a caravan holiday at that age.

Take board games and a pack of cards for night time fun.

A deck of cards!
Monopoly
Quizbook
A few desirable 'prizes' for winners
Sharpies or mini paints, sticky gemstones, stickers to decorate stones & shells

Buckets
Marshmallows for toasting outside
A disposable bbq for sausages (put it on a big stone or brick)
Download some movies on a device to watch offline, get micro popcorn

A pack of cards is essential, and paper and pens. With those there's loads of things you can do. Paper games, paper craft ( make boats etc) drawing things like maps, treasure hunts, lists, lettering etc etc. There are so many card games you can play as well, which dont include Snap! Beat your neighbours, Twizle, Donkey, Rummy etc. You can also make card houses of course!

Crabbing? Can buy the sets for under a fiver and can keep kids entertained for hours.

If there’s a beach you can go sea glass hunting.

If you’ve all got smart phones Pikmin/Pokémon Go/GeoCatching.

Take equipment to make DIY kites in the caravan in the morning then fly them in the afternoon.

Have a look on EventBrite at what’s on.

Balls - football/basketball, whatever interests them more. A cheap tennis set maybe? Also a pack of cards - happy families and snap for all but if your eldest has a later bedtime you could maybe teach them a few more grown up games for evenings too (both of my elder dc were fairly competent poker players at 12 😂). Speed is also great for older dc.

Meal wise - how far from home are you travelling? When we've been to a caravan only a couple of hours away, I took frozen pots of spag bol and casserole for the first two nights, night one you can just leave out, night two can be stuck in the fridge to defrost. Then I've taken a couple of super easy meals like tinned meatballs or tinned chilli and those pre-packed fresh chicken stir-fry meals where you just need to chuck it all in a pan (again dependent on how far you're staying).

I was going to say craft kits, get something more sophisticated for the older one.
Those blanks you get in Hobbycraft are good for painting.

Is there a dvd player, I’d make sure you have some movies to watch. Take stuff to toast marshmallows and make s’mores.

Id just do a lot of research on the area and be out as much as possible, if everyone is tired out when they are back in the caravan I think it’s easy to keep them occupied.

I would also take some frozen food with you to defrost and cook. If they like something like hotdogs with some sides that’s a good easy option.

Depends on where the caravan is.

food -
have toast and cereal for breakfast. lunch can be sandwiches etc.

have a buffet dinner one evening. i buy frozen party food from iceland (chicken nuggets, breaded mushroom, frozen pizza etc) and let everyone pick at that for the evening.

things to do -
how about a party night - you could buy balloons etc and have a mini children party eg printable pin the tail on the donkey, limbo, musical statues.

party bags - i used to make up party style bags for my children when we went on days out. i'd buy packets of sweets, bubbles etc all from the poundshop.

picnic - if you go out for the day. you could always have an indoor picnic if the weather is bad.

I'm guessing it's Haven or sometiing if you've booked swimming? If it is then the nature's rocks activities are free for the younger ones and there are also some day time activities in the entertainment venue.

It also depends where it is, maybe someone can recommmend local fee stuff to do? Def bring board games, Pack of cards etc though. Food we usually have stuff like pizzas, party food, spaghetti Bol, Curry.

I took my 2 youngest to a caravan on my own last Summer and just did pizza or something easy for dinners to give myself a break. They liked the arcade, I gave them £1 each in 2ps every day. We swam every day. They liked the beach even if the weather wasn't great although we did do a museum and an aquarium too. The caravan site had a play area and my youngest took his scooter. I downloaded some films onto my iPad for them both and myself for the evenings and took a box of toys for DS and books to read for all of us.

Uni, monopoly go.

Let them amuse themselves!

We've done loads of caravan breaks when our DC were younger, and my essentials were wellies, waterproof clothing and plenty of exercise outside whether they wanted to or not. Beaches are just as fun to explore in the rain as in sunshine especially if there are rock pools etc. Then we had books, drawing, art stuff for indoors once they'd been walked into submission

We all love dobble here. Portable (essentially a deck of circular cards in a tin), fun and extremely competitive… or is that just us? We’ve played it anywhere and everywhere.
Food - pasta and jar sauce? Filling and easy.

Have fun OP!

Jigsaw puzzle that you can all do we nearly always end up buying one in a charity shop and join in doing it.
puzzle books, sticker books, labyrinth board game, Pictionary, cards, uno flip, scrabble, game of life. Anything really it’s good to have the excuse to do different games.
@Stichintime can you recommended any more good card games as we are getting bit fed up of our limited list and now the kids are teens we’d like to learn more.

Food wise, you'll probably find the caravan is a bit lacking in pots and pans and stuff, so plan for super-simple meals.

Our first night self-catering is always a rotisserie chicken with oven chips, picked up on the way.

I usually make a Bolognase sauce in advance and freeze it, let it defrost on the way/in the fridge and that's second night, just need to boil pasta.

Third night takeaway, or just do pizzas.

I really like cooking but not in a badly-equipped kitchen!

All of this plus Dobble for entertainment. The absolute best thing about a caravan park holiday though is that the kids usually just run about and play. You probably won't have to 'do' as much as you do with them at home.

If it's raining...

Jellycakes, Sevens is a great family game, can also be played with players paired up to help the younger children. Trumps is also great, where each player tries to win the round by beating their oppenents with a higher value card. 21, aka Pontoon is also pretty straight forward and quick!

Just saw kids are teens, so Gin Rummy is a definite.

Scavenger hunt/ nature trail
Board games, card games
Craft bits, drawing materials
Some glow sticks to have a mini rave
If you can then bring scooters or bikes

Can you get a cheap badminton kit (or rackets ) they can play outside the caracan?

I’d say jigsaw too, a 1000-piece will keep people busy for a while, and you can pick them up at charity shops as a pp mentioned 🧩