To think camping is absolutely bollocks

[FuckYrBellTent]

It's crap isn't it?

Everyone else has fancy tents you can stand up in, we have a squished up, leaky four man. There's a puddle in the middle of it. It's rained non stop. My head is aching. I had an argument with DH over putting up the tent. Everyone has a sore back. Nobody can dry out. The kids (7 and 10) tag teamed us by needing the loo all night and wanting one of us to come with them. We are meant to be here for one more night. Aibu to go home early?

We used to enjoy camping, but I think our tent days have reached a natural conclusion. It's shit unless it's blistering sun. If we wanted to be stuck indoors with whining kids we could do it in the comfort of our own home, with ready access to toilets and kettles. It always ends up raining and it's really properly lashing so not even the type you can go out in anyway

We are poor and this is the only type of holiday we can afford, but I really don't think it's worth it

Camping? Just don't. That's all. It's just the same as being at home but everything's ten times harder.

Go home, OP! Think how happy you'll be when you've made the decision and set off!

Drinking - nope.
We have these but got them half price in a sale.

Drinkingtea no, self inflating mats inflate themselves and you can inflate a bit more by blowing into them if you want them more inflated.

You need a pump to blow up the inflatable tents. There's a video here that shows you www.decathlon.co.uk/air-seconds-family-41-xl-id_8384152.html

One of the worst things ever is Waking up in a stifling hot tent with a hangover.

I've never camped anywhere except the Outback in about 40c.

that and the fact it was only 2 nights was how I coped. Mostly I was awake tbh - there was an electrical storm over Uluru.

Camping in the UK just stuns me, I don't know how anyone does it. Biggest problem in the Outback was the ground sheet because the ground is so hard but it's not difficult to get a padded sheet.

(you need to be okay with spiders and snakes of course).

Camping is one of my top three 'holidays never to take'. I'm with the pp who said our ancestors invented buildings for a reason.

If your holiday budget won't stretch to anything less basic, OP you might be better off spending it on days out from home, especially if you can combine it with two for one offers or pre booking discounts.

You poor thing. It does sound awful, mainly because of the rain.

Being surrounded by big fancy tent wankers can't help

And inflatable beds are all plastic, so you wake up in a pool of sweat.

What? No you don't Grief Are you thinking of beach lilos?

I love camping, going off for two and a half weeks to France very soon.
We do glamp though - big bell tent, beds plus sims on top, stove... I even take an old cowskin rug, and yes I realise how wanky that sounds. It has taken a fair few years to get all the equipment though.

BUT... after a horrendous wet week in Norfolk in 2013 which ended in a massive storm where tents were ripped apart and a fucking caravan blew over, I will only ever camp abroad now.

We use tesco vouchers for the tunnel and it makes everything cheap. I find French campsites are genuinely fabulous and cheaper than those in the UK.

And pop up tents, brilliant idea, you just throw them in the air, and you have a tent. But inside dimensions of a kennel, and have you ever tried to pack the fucker away?

We do a bit of both; I teach so have long holidays; we go away on a 'proper' holiday for a fortnight then camp with friends in a few places over the summer. The DCs love it and I'm a pretty happy camper; DH despises it though so will pop in for activities but will only stay if there's sunshine, bbq'd food and enough beer to make him forget how much he hates it.

It's a love or hate thing, though, and no amount of wine can cheer you up if you're genuinely having a shitty time. Go home and sleep well.

I've never really camped. We've always had a caravan. I find it enjoyable, once I've got the awning up.

Get yourself a cheap caravan 😉 our first one cost £1000 off ebay and came with all the gear. We go away constantly and have done so for 15 years now. Our boys have grown up caravanning. It forces us to interact as a family, we have found so many beautiful places to camp not far from home. We love it. I do hate tents though so YANBU in that respect.

Im a bell tent wanker too maui 5m of circular stoved up solar lit toilet tent accompanied heaven. Reindeerskin here though it's a bit sheddy 😂

I used to be made to go camping as a child and utterly hated every second of it.

Just cannot see the attraction.

It's shit.

YANBU, I'd rather be at home.

Also where the hell do people find the space for all this camping gear?
I really don't get it.

YANBU. Camping is grim and exists only to make you grateful for the life you normally lead.

I like Eurocamping where you just turn up and the nice spacious tent is waiting for you. You don't have to set the tent up or take it down it the end.

I've posted this already today but the only way I'll camp is at a festival when I can get drunk enough not to care that I am camping.

I'd rather one night in a premier inn than a week in a tent or a caravan. So much fannying around with endless stuff for little reward IMO. Having witnessed the hours of setting up that people do when we have visited PIL at their caravan site. Unpacking, unfolding, erecting, waterproofing, sweeping, inflating, plugging in etc then all the same in reverse to go home plus the packing and unpacking at home for a weekend in a field. Just have a day at the beach.

Oh and definitely not in the UK. Camping in the rain, damping if you will, is fun for no one.

If I ever get a house and garden, I'm going to camp in the garden in the heatwave. But that's it for any other considerations for UK camping

I love camping...actually love it and get excited and everything but you're doing it wrong in your cramped, leaky tent and uncomfy beds.

We take so much gear we need two cars, but our camping holidays are warm, dry, with space and wherever possible, electricity. We make sure poor weather is absolutely catered for with heaters, lights, DVDs, board games and books. We have wall to wall rugs underfoot. We have spent many a happy hour or two listening to and watching the rain battering down, in the warm, supping on a hot choc and playing Uno. We might have a family nap.

It's supposed to be a holiday, not an endurance test....get a better tent for starters.

I have given my children permission to shoot me if I ever mention going camping.

If I mention getting a caravan, they are to put me in a home, forthwith.