to ask what you are supposed to DO on a camping holiday in the UK??

[BalconyBill]

I mean, I know there's the day setting up the tent and the mornings/lunchtimes/evenings trying to cook for a family over a match, but..

Where's the relaxation? The laying in the sun? The chilling in a hammock? The swimming (in warm water)?

I just don't get it

80sMum now, weeing in a bucket outdoors in the cold middle of the night is just not what I think of as a relaxing holiday

our caravan has a toilet. so that you can go for a wee, as many times as you like, in the middle of the night.
and the campsite has hot showers, hot water for washing up and a washing machine. and a fish and chip van once a week.

all this talk if grim martyr doom , is all a bit unnecessary, isn't it??!

This was my 6 year old DD last weekend in Dorset. Am finally seeing the appeal!

This was my 6 year old DD last weekend in Dorset. Am finally seeing the appeal!

We mostly stay home these days.

Just taking a week off work and bumming around the house/gardening/maintenance etc is about a billion times better for me than camping.

I would much rather stay home.

I do live in Sydney though so there are plenty of lovely things to do and then come home to my nice snuggly bed.

morloth, my bed in the caravan is bigger and even more comfortable than my home bed!!

I luffs my bed, is a californian king, deep latex mattress, sheepskin under blanket, 100% high thread count cotton sheets, down doona and a gorgeous hand made white quilt (bought it in Pennsylvania).

Did I mention how much I love my bed?

I have been known to go to bed as soon as the kids do (so about 8pm) just to maximise time in it's loveliness. The cat understands. :)

Is winter here as well so now we have the added joy of the electric blanket.

Bliss.

Traveling is good, my bed is better.

ALL I could think about the few times I have been camping as an adult is how much I wanted a hot shower and my bed. I even left a camping holiday once and stayed at a 5 star hotel in the nearest town instead, coming back through the day for hikes and lunch etc.

I get that other people enjoy it, I just don't understand why. Different strokes and so on.

I camped for a weekend as a GG and just hated every moment. It was really uncomfortable sleeping on the ground, the oil drum toilet was gross, I never felt clean all weekend and the work was boring and endless (collecting firewood, making twig brooms and wooden stands to hold bowls etc, carrying water from a standpipe).

I love camping - in France. Every camping trip I've made in the uk has been miserable. I love the daytimes hanging out with friends, hiking etc, but the night times have been diabolical stretches of evilness - so cold! This is despite expensive sleeping bags, several layers etc. I never sleep and just lie there fighting hypothermia.

I love living in Liverpool, yet having Wales two hours away, which I can camp in for around £20 (max) a night.

If you camp regularly (weekends) then you invest in your gear.

My tent has a sewn in ground sheet, another later and carpet, the removable porch has ground sheets and carpet.

I've got a full electric set up, including heater, kettle, iron and free view TV/DVD, which I rarely use.

I walk, I used to fish. I like having my dog with me constantly, even in pubs.

Our Blue Flag beaches in the UK are amazing and our countryside/wild life, stunning.

If we go as a group, we dog sit and so go touring Slate Mines, Steam trains, Horseriding and visit Historical Sites.

I prefer my camping now my children are teens and we don't have to do "family" sites.

I don't recognise the descriptions of camping, but it's all in your set up.

I have a trailer and top box, so take a blow up luxury bed and my feather quilt/pillows. As I said, I have a heater, but alcohol is a great cold beater.

Brilliant thread.

YANBU OP I'm definitely of the 'camp' that a break or holiday doesn't need to be such hardwork.

Toilets through a field, insects, wet clothes not drying, weather changing from one hour to the next, insects, noisy campers, insects, dampness inside tent. Did I mention insects?

I am a self confessed high maintenance person, not fake tan/nails kind of person, but I need home comforts - dinner when hungry, hot water to wash, comfy bed to sleep, a toilet and a phone charger

I hate insects, of most kinds, I freak and have mild panic attacks. I definitely would not relax when camping and my experience of communal showers has always been that they're full of large spiders

Mum likes camping and has indeed turned into a 'grey nomad'.

We all blame her for our deep and abiding hatred of camping.

Every fucking holiday we went camping. I hate it, hate hate vomit.

My kids like it though, so they get packed off with Nanny whenever possible.

I do quite like Holiday Parks though, as long as they have cabins. We have a chain called Big 4 here and that means the kids get all the fun of camping (other kids to play with, roaming around on bikes etc and I get a proper bed and an ensuite).

What to do when camping:

1. Collapse tent.
2. Get in car.
3. Drive to hotel.
4. Have a bath and relax.

Relax doing what, sitting in four walls, why do you have to travel to do that?

Admittedly, if you haven't got a dog and have lots of money, I could understand the use of hotels.

But you can't get Hotels, in beautiful locations for £20 a night.

You don't have to suffer your neighbours (or family) if you can get away when it suits you.

I don't get it either, OP. My idea of complete and utter hell on earth. Communal facilities, just yuk.

The thing is you DO have to do lots when camping: drive to campsite, put up tents, cook, wash, keep dry.
I love it but for the above reasons I go on package beach/ pools hols every year. Hop on plane, transfer, pool and cocktail: bliss. And no cooking or cleaning for a fortnight. Dd loves pool. Guaranteed sun.

Love camping, there really is nothing like it for relaxing in the great outdoors.

I spent my childhood caravanning every weekend except for the depths of January ( we did Christmas in a caravan and started again in February) and I learned to hate it but camping is better!

In a tent you feel really connected to your surroundings and it's extremely relaxing. We only go for weekends these days though. We have done 2 weeks in a tent but by the end I was ready to kill our neighbours and was so desperate for my own shower.

We camped last weekend so we could visit Woburn safari park which would have been too far to travel in one day. It was a perfect, cheap way to do it and lovely to relax strolling by the Thames in the evening. A hotel (even a cheaply) would have cost 3 times as much and we wouldn't have got such lovely surroundings.

Most camping trips, we go out for a walk and relax outside in the evenings. It's a slower pace of life which is really welcome sometimes.

Like Birds we've invested in kit (the process of procuring said is a joy in itself for a gear-geek).We pack our Transporter van to the rafters with firepit, comfy chairs, premium air bed, masses of bedding, festoon lights, rain shelter etc and have just treated ourselves to the shittest hot of shit hot tents which doesn't feel a million miles away from staying in a luxury safari lodge.

We get to visit a different, beautiful part of the UK every other weekend. The best part about it for me is it's like a grown-up game of Wendy house, pottering about being busy doing nothing, it's the ultimate unwind. Your senses are stripped of overload and everything tastes, smells and sounds better. Most times I CBA to even leave the campsite, we just pick a quiet, well-equipped, picturesque one, open the ciders and BREATHE.

I'm seeing the appeal. Camped for the first time ever last weekend. At a school event only 10 mins from our house but still....my 6 year old DD loved it too....

Camped as a child and hated it. Camped as a 20 something and hated it. Glamped with the children lay year and had a great weekend but been there dine that and don't need to do it again. I really see the appeal although definitely fancy a eurocamp holiday in a proper mobile home with a bed a and decent weather.

Another camping hater here. Too many memories of miserable wet weeks, being flooded out, poor toilet facilities and freezing to death. Tried it with DD last year for the first time and my opinion hasn't changed.

The only upside of camping is that an english breakfast tastes SO much better when its cooked out of doors.

Mankind has spent a lot of time, effort and innovation trying to avoid sleeping outside on damp ground

YY!

Give me a beautiful cottage with an open fire as a holiday venue anyday.

Give me a beautiful cottage with an open fire as a holiday venue anyway.

We do that when it's too cold and miserable to camp. We also do Majorca beach breaks. And long-haul holidays. But between May and September, as often as we can, we camp.

I'm mega-choosy about the campsites we visit and even choosier about where we pitch. I love it. It's like a compulsion.

I love camping holidays now. About 4 years ago, I wouldn't have dreamed of going camping, but now, I'm a total advocate. So much so, that we've recently got rid of our tent and are currently converting a minibus into a camper van!
Anybody who's saying that they like showers with hot water - have you even tried camping these days? Many campsites have amazing shower or wet rooms.
I love the fact that when we're camping, my husband wants to do all of the cooking (barbecue and campstove) - there's nothing nicer than being away from the computer and being able to lose myself in a good book and enjoy a glass of wine!

currently converting a minibus into a camper van!

Ooh what a thrill. DH is always going on about converting our Transporter into a camper when it's come to the end of its useful commercial life.

Bet you love a bit of George Clarke.... He can test out the length of my berth any day