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

I don't get it either. The drinking wine outside and visiting braces and castles is what we do from a hotel anyway.

I keep trying to like it and then think all that's hassle, cost of equipment, no toilets etc to do the exactly same thing as in hotel.

Hotel BBQ on the quiet beach with cocktails served and no washing up is close enough to wine and fire pit out side imo

We can never camp. Dh has a horror of close proximity to other people, and worse their off spring, on holiday. He thinks campsites look like refugee camps. We are the only ones amongst our group who don't think camping is marvellous. Luckily I did loads of camping as a teen so know I am not missing anything my loo roll carrying days are over.

Luckily discovered house swap so swap homes with nice Italian and Spanish families voila free holiday with not a tent peg in sight...

we are going camping next week in the lake district but wont be any cooking for me, we have picked a site on the grounds of a youth hostel so there will be shower facilities, a hot room for drying any wet clothes, a self catering fully equipped kitchen for making brews, they serve a full english breakfast for a fiver , and do evening meals so thats dinner sorted, and they have a bar with cask ales so thats the evening drinkie poos sorted, just hoping now that the weather smiles on us :)

Yes I am with you op.

The heavy % of rain...before you even start...camp site crap compared to what you get abroad...awfull..

I keep trying to like it and then think all that's hassle, cost of equipment, no toilets etc to do the exactly same thing as in hotel

Its just the cost. camping is miles miles cheaper.

There are some good things, namely:

1. Kids love the freedom.
2. Kids have lots of space to run around
3. It's cheap. That's it, though. The negatives far outweigh the positives. If the weather is good, it means it's light at 4.00, there is no sleeping in! It's bloody uncomfortable and always cold. Dark trips to the toilet block, having to share the facilities with people you don't know. Traipsing to wash your utensils in the block. Trying to dry out damp clothes. Yuck, yuck. And, IMVHO, people aren't relaxed, they're practically comatose because they are bone-achingly exhaused! Now, a static caravan/mobile home a la Canvas/Keycamp is fab!! And ticks all the "good things" boxes from above

My hairdresser asks me every year at holiday times "but what do you do all day, what is there to do that fills the day?"

We go to a remote area in Scotland to a cottage, and there are no words to describe the beauty, peace and how relaxing it is to her, she just doesn't get it.
Her day needs to be filled with structured activities, mine does not.

popcorn, that sounds like a heavenly holiday to me. The key detail is the word 'cottage'. Not 'tent', 'cottage'.

Iam - is it though? Ie I did look into camping but the cost of equipment for us all would be a fortune anyway as we don't have anything. We don't even own a car so the cost of hiring one for a week, buying sleeping stuff/tent/ cooking stuff/ hiking stuff/ blah blah. Even tent pitches per night aren't cheap anywhere closeish.

Tent -£500
Sleeping bags - £200
Air beds -£200
Blankets -£40
Grill/ cooker -£100
Camping chairs/ table/ rugs -£100
Cooler/ plastic cups- plates / ice blocks etc -£50

Clothing - everyone needs water proofs not only kids, welling tons, hiking boots, warm pjs, coats ( ares are all blazers/ trench coats/ woollen) etc -££££

Car hire -£300 week

Camping -£20 per night anywhere we looked, so £140 per week

Food - buy loads to take each time

Plus any other stuff I forgt like torches blah blah , we literally own nothing like that. And no storage to store any of it.

In comparison I just spent 10 days in Italy with x2 children. £800 for all of us all inclusive including flights. Not that much difference by the time every time I went camping would be car hire, food, new equipment costs, pitch rental

I am currently sitting a VIP suite of a 7 star hotel. I can assure you it is more relaxing that sleeping on the ground in a tent. And my dog is in the bed with me in reply to the comment about hotels not being relaxing because of no dogs.

Artandco I need to know where you went AI for 4 of you for £800. PLease!!!

So do I! (pretty please)

In a group before kids, steak on the BBQ sat around chatting drinking wine I loved it. On your own in the rain with whiney bored kids I loathed it and haven't done it since. I'd rather do 2 nights in a nice b&b than a week camping. But each to their own.
Although I do like the idea of this glamping thing but it's mega bucks from what I can see.

Relieved to see the other 'non-campers' out in force . Some of the camping experiences sound lovely and have answered my initial question - believe me I do not need entertaining all day and am very happy to sit in a field and read (and drink wine). I can also sit and stare at the sea for days if allowed!!

My kids have been very spoilt for holidays over the years as we always spend the summer in the same small village somewhere hot where they have always roamed around, ridden bikes, swum, fished, met other kids etc - sounds much the same as camping but with ensuites, walls, and comfortable beds - big one though is obviously the SUN!!

Artandco you are having a right giraffe with that price list!

You can get a rather good family tent - standing height, large sleeping compartment and fully sewn in massive living space for £170. If you have more than 3 kids get a chap pop up for the extra children.

Sleeping bags - take duvet for you and husband and cheap sleeping bags for kid. No WAY £200. And why do you need extra blankets at £40? Are you saying you have no throws of fleecy blankets you could take from home?

Air beds £200?!? Air bed for you and husband £30 for a great one. Kiddies on roll mats £15 each for an ok one.

£100 for a grill? Ok by this point I'm realising you have never set foot in a decathlon... Anyway it's about £30 for a decent gas ring plus £5 for a bottle of gas. Try not to do too much cooking or eat out like you would in a hotel.

Camping chairs table rugs £100. Probably accurate of you want everyone to have a chair. You can probably borrow camping chairs from friends tho for your first camping trip.

Anyway, you don't need to go all out with a massive camp set up first time. You gradually accumulate each trip you go. Start out on a weekend trip reasonably basic or borrow stuff and see what you really need.

You pay less (£30 on an expensive site) for so much more space than you get in a hotel.

Camping and non-camping holidays are not mutually exclusive preserves for separate groups. We do both.

The campsites we choose all have clean, modern, warm facilities.

I don't need to traipse to the loo in the middle of the night. Thats what Traveljohns and partitioned bedrooms are for.

We don't get cold. We have fires/fleeces/blankets.

The light doesn't wake us up. Most decent modern tents have bedroom sections lined with light-eliminating fabric.

In short, I suspect the quality of equipment, campsites and facilities have come a long way since many of the negative perceptions on this thread were formed.

But I also get that it's not for everyone. It does piss it down at times. Your DH will wind you up beyond measure at some point during the erection fnar. You do need to spend some cash initially to get decent gear. It's an effort at times for sure. But like life, the shit times are shit but the good times are absolutely priceless, only when you're camping the highs seem to be distilled, concentrated somehow and more than worth it.

We have q caravan we go on holiday and do things and you know do holiday things not all hloidays are to beach resorts

'during the erection'.

I'm sorry, but the words 'Traveljohns and partitioned bedrooms' bring me out in a cold sweat. I dont' really know what they mean, but I think I can kind of guess.

I am with the OP.

I was once persuaded to try camping by my husband. Never again. I hated it.

I just cannot see the thrill of going off on a holiday, and when you arrive at your destination your accommodation isn't even erected yet, you have to put it up yourself.

I also can't see why on earth I want to go on a holiday where I would have none of the creature comforts I have at home. I would rather just not go. I am not a five star hotel person, but not one for under canvas either.

Where we went I felt that I couldn't even relax with a glass of wine because the nearest loo was across a couple of fields and it was so pitch dark I couldn't have made it. Also, traipsing half a mile to do the washing up just didn't cut it for me. Why would I want to do that just to commune with nature?

Much of that is probably just me, but it is really horses for courses. Plenty of people love camping and get on fine with it. It isn't for me though.

Another huge fan of camping here. Although, I have the extra advantage of living somewhere with long, hot summers so it's an extra bonus. I'm heading off for a week just me and the kids next week and then DH will roll up at the weekend.

That said, I do pack heavy. We all have double height air beds, down mattress toppers, quilts, blankets and pillows. I have a brilliant gas bbq that fits to the back of my car. The tent has an inbuilt ground sheet and we also cover the floor in cheap Ikea rugs. When we camp at the beach, I take about 20 towels as there's nothing worse than having a sandy,damp towel to last you.

For us, it's about getting out of our postcode, turning off the wi-fi and getting the kids out in the great outdoors. It doesn't mean we have to be uncomfortable while we're doing it though!

Re tent prices, eBay is your friend. We bought a great 6 man pod type tent (known as moon base alpha ) for £30. Goes up in 15 minutes with minimum fuss.
Shop around for sleeping bags, camp beds etc, there are some good deals about, some things are worth paying out for more than others.

I also can't see why on earth I want to go on a holiday where I would have none of the creature comforts I have at home.

I can empathise with this. This is conversely one of the reasons why I love camping. I will try and explain. And it will sound like a massive boast but I don't care as you all don't know me from Adam.

It was only on our honeymoon at a safari resort costing the best part of a K a night that I've ever felt that the luxury was higher than we have at home. It's pretty nice chez 'Pru. Whenever we go on holiday, no matter how high the standard of accommodation, or luxe the price tag it's never quite as clean, plush or high quality as we have at home. And trust me I choose accommodation really carefully. We've stayed in some really lovely places but it's never as nice as home, the bed is never as premium, the decor always has something that irks me. The food's sometimes disappointing compared to DHs cooking. We can't afford 10K holidays every year and I'm not sure I'd want to spend that much even if we could.

When we go camping, it's so far removed from this that it's incomparable. I'm not sitting there wondering why they've put the full-length mirror in such a stupid place or how annoying it is that I can't get the lighting configuration just so or who has walked in their manky old flaky feet across the carpet before me. Or whose bodily fluids I would see on the headboard were I to shine a UV light on it (urgh don't google that). I'm just anal.

Camping is a totally different experience, for me the making camp, creating a little homestead is the joy. it's completely different to home in every way so I don't feel like I'm compromising or missing home comforts.....

I have discovered the way to harmonious tent erection is to get DP to do something else. My tent is simple to erect and I bought it ages ago for camping at sports weekends while I was at uni. So I'm pretty good at putting it up, on my own, in pissing rain and wind.

Modern tents are far removed from the fixed pole and canvas things of my childhood!

TheWhole your way sounds lovely and comfortable. I can see where Vivi is coming from too. Still not sure it's my kind of thing though unless somewhere very hot (although then I'd want aircon - never happy!!).