AIBU to think camping is f*cking shit, it’s not cheap and it’s not fun

[Pumkinfailure]

I’m currently a week into a 3 week camping tour of Europe and I’m ready to jack it in. I surely can’t be the only one to find this whole malarkey fucking hideous. Sleeping on a sloping bed in a tent hotter than the devils furnace, kids screaming day and night, neighbours who hate our wellbehaved Placid lab and have instructed us to keep him near to us at all times, never feeling clean, marriage hanging by a thread, no personal space or time alone. Not even wine is helping. And 50 bloody euros a night for the privilege!!
Please tell me I’m not alone on my detest for this form of holiday and share your tips to help me survive the rest of the holiday!

It’s not just spiders - the daddy long legs and the weird looking giant moths

Op you need to find your plan B and sharpish. Good luck with the air bnb where are you? Perhaps you can even get there this eve? No idea how you have coped in this heat either and more

For £120 a night I'd expect to take the teepee home with me. There was a thread a few days ago where the poster was paying £90 a night for glamping, except it wasn't glamping, and everyone was outraged on her behalf.

Like others I have been traumatised by childhood camping experiences. My father's camp-cooked "corned beef hash" is a major reason I am now vegetarian.

House swap is a much pleasanter way of avoiding high season prices. Camping is exhausting. We used to do 3 weeks when I was a kid/teen but eurocamp which used to be cheap but now really isn't.

One week glamming in Europe is enough for me. We’ve got all our own stuff now as we go most years, including a pop up wardrobe. But tend to get electricity so I can have a cool box and fan on. Proper secondhand cooker and table and chairs (70s) all helps to feel more pleasant. Still works out cheaper than hotels but it helps to get a good campsite.

Also a tent you can stand up in helps. No way am I crawling around to get changed

CAMPIng is a fetid bag of shite.

House swap is a much pleasanter way of avoiding high season prices. Camping is exhausting. We used to do 3 weeks when I was a kid/teen but eurocamp which used to be cheap but now really isn't.

Air B&Bs and hostels (a lot have en suite family rooms now) also an option. Camping did used to be cheap. And glamping just seems a rip off.

I don't understand why lost of posters are complaining about being surrounded by people though.

Woodland sites are good for avoiding people. On the Forestry Commission sites in the New Forest, they have a 6 metre rule (no camping within 6m of other campers). If you time it right, you can find a clearing 12m or less across and stick your tent in the middle of it, and no-one else can come and share your pitch.

The Caravan and Camping Club have a lovely site at Graffham in West Sussex, where there are lots of very private pitches. I once had a pitch there that was so private, we could have sunbathed naked outside the tent if we'd had a mind to.

C&CC always have immaculate facilities, often including a family bathroom with an actual bath, and they enforce the quiet at night rules, so are very peaceful.

DH and I used to do a lot of hiking before we had kids so people (including DH until I set him straight) thought I would like camping. No thank you. Half the point of hiking for me is the contrast between the hot and dusty (or teeming with rain, I am Scottish) walk and then the luxury of getting bath and a nice meal and a hotel bed. The only times I've agreed to go camping were for the Inca Trail when the rainy season came early and also I got giardia and mountain sickness and there was a hole in our tent and everything smelled like Alpaca piss. You're supposed to say "but hiking to Machu Picchu along the old Inca roads was such a privilege it made it all worthwhile" but it bloody didn't. Every night from the first night we got back to Cuzco till my kids were born 20 months later I gave fervent thanks that I could sleep in a warm, dry, non Alpaca piss smelling bed.

Nightmare, don’t mind caravan,but 3 weeks in a tent ⛺️ 😱 pls don’t tell me ur in a sleeping bag

Why would you camp for 3 weeks?!? 2 nights is fun, 3 weeks is self harm

Camping is utterly shit. Tried it once and lasted one night. Never again.

Why does anyone want to go on holiday to a place where you even have to build your own accommodation? Why would I want any less comfort when on holiday than I have at home?

I remember DH warbling on about how marvellous this was while I was cooking bacon and eggs in the pouring rain. I was so pissed off that I seriously considered shoving the camping stove up his arse. It wasn't our most successful holiday.

I think you could say that I just don't "get" camping. I would rather extract my own teeth with pliers from the garden shed.

Stuff that for a game of conkers.

Give me luxury any day. I did 10 days, all inclusive in Egypt in a 4 star hotel for the same price. £500, so £50 a night and I know which I'd choose again lol.

And as for glamping, I've just checked a website, £365 for three nights in a shed, (with a tin roof, so you can imagine how great that would be in this weather,) in someone's garden.

Hahaha brilliant

This thread is showing there is two types of people. Camping lovers and camping haters :D

Well I am another in the minority here because I love camping! Better for short breaks when the weather is decent and definitely on quiet sites.

Have done 10 days before, longest we have ever been. 3 weeks? No, not for me.

It’s no holiday that’s for sure, packing up your entire belongings plus the kitchen sink... no thanks. Holidays are for taking a break, to be waited on. Have a change next time, go for a b&b.

3 weeks? Too long.

We had long, long camping holidays as a child which I romanticise in retrospect - though the time a flash flood came down through the site and literally washed us out of bed might not have been quite as much fun as I remember.

We tried it once with our own children with a ready put up tent in France -I enjoyed it and so did the girls but it was so not the right holiday for my husband. He tried, and wine in the evening helped but as we rolled off the ferry back he just said ' A gite next time. With no neighbours. '

I love the idea of camping more than actual camping. Three days is my limit

Camping.... I personally find it great (but then I love glamping, lodges B&Bs and nice hotels too).... but it really isn’t for everyone.

If your kids like camping and you have a totally secure, enclosed garden let them have a tent at home for the fun of it. Also let them go camping with brownies or scouts ( supposing the adults accompanying are not dodgy).Then you can have lovely, comfortable holidays with hot and cold running everything. After all, you are now a grown up.

Ack I'm going to be a Guide leader starting in September! This thread is half terrifying and half hilarious!!

I think as long as you think of camping as an 'experience' rather than a holiday it's a little better. I find after 2 nights I'm ready to go home.

Our camping gear cost very little- basic tent, camp stove, air mattresses, we have sleeping bags anyway. We also keep a plastic container full of old kitchen stuff that we don't like anymore so it's easy to go.

I have to admit we are in Canada and our provincial camp sites are lovely- though probably with a LOT fewer amenities than you have. We went a couple of weeks ago for 3 nights and we had a shared tap of running water (which we were thrilled about because it was potable) and a pit toilet. But we also could hardly see our neighbours through the trees and the beach was Right there. We even turned our phones off- it felt amazing to be in fresh air for that long. Our kids are 8 and 10 and it's starting to be worth the hassle.

' Camp hair, don't care' They make Guiding t-shirts with that on. lol to the PP who brings curling tongs camping! I don't know whether to aspire to be you or chuckle.

Well done for 3 WEEKS! After a few nights in a hotel you will feel human again