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!

Oh god, this thread is giving me the fear. I fucking HATE camping, but somehow DP (dickhead partner) has harassed me into going camping for two fucking weeks to France. I’m absolutely dreading it, the most we have ever done is 2-3 days and I’ve wanted to murder my entire family by the end of it because I never sleep and the kids are horrors every time. He is SO excited and keeps banging on about how he can’t wait to go and I’m absolutely dreading it.

We are going at the weekend- fucking weeks of tropical heat that half killed me to work in and the forcast for the weekend is torrential downpours and thunderstorms happens every bastard time we go away. We have no electric hookup this time so we are going to freeze! I went and bought new waterproofs today and im going to buy my dog a coat tomorrow.

We'll be huddled around the campfire freezing our bits off and donning our waterproofs and schlepping across the moors.

I actually can't wait!!! However im going abroad next year!

50 Euro’s? Where are you camping?! We’re looking at €20 a night for a family of 4 in France. misses point of thread

God, yes. DH loves it, the kids love it- I've hated it for thirty years! We had a girls' tent and a boys' tent- the boys' tent smelled of BO/farts/feet but was quiet, the girls bickered all night long, constantly rearranged their bedding but did have the warmer tent.
Get a decent bed mat/airbed and sleeping bag.
Make sure to have food ready and available- always have some kind of snack available for when the whining starts.
Best thing we ever did- wait until it gets dark, and claim to have spotted a toad/hedgehog/lizard in a bush. This gave us a full hour of peace once, and that hour was the highlight of my holiday.

I hate camping. I don't find pretending to be homeless a fun holiday.

Agreed with OP, but for two nights I’ll try, then bring me home!

I’ve just got back from 3 nights in a tourer and that was enough for me! Camping is the devils work and most certainly is not a holiday! Good luck OP

I love camping!! Sadly my STBEX didn’t enjoy it as much as me and I think we only went 3 times in 14 years. When we split up I ended up selling the tent and most of the camping equipment! But I used to love driving out somewhere and getting the tent out and pitching it up, the places we went allowed camp fires so tea would be cooked over an open camp fire. Roasted marshmallows and a few drinks on a night time. The best place we stayed at was Brandy Wharf up in Lincolnshire. It was basically a huge field with a hedge separating one side for tents the other side for touring caravans. We met some great guys the first time we went and we arranged to all meet up again at the same place the following year. I was the only female on the site (apart from the owners wife) but they made me feel so comfortable!! I remember the first time we went and a couple of the guys we became friends with had gone home we were the only the only ones left in the whole campsite. Just one sad lonely tent sat against a hedge with a car next to it. It was blowing a massive gale that night with a torrential downpour. The campsite owner came out to us and said they were ordering an Indian and would we like to go inside the house and join them. We were sat in the car finishing off our sandwiches so we declined the offer but I thought it was really nice of them to come out in the shitty weather and ask us!! I did think at one point during the night though we’d have to sleep in the car because the tent was lifting up off the ground due to the strength of the wind!! Camping for me is the
:nature
:cooking food on a camp fire
:being able to not worry about not washing hair properly for a few days whilst there. Dry shampoo or a hair bobble soon solve that one
:finding different places to go and explore
However I don’t think I could go for more than maybe 4 days at a time!! I’d much rather go for 2-3 nights and then go back a few more times in the year!!

Fuck. That.

Best camping ever Yellowstone National Park. Worst camping ever, Yellowstone National Park. There were bears, bison and fires, Oh My.

Go find a b&b with a bar, camping sucks big time

As I have already said on this thread, I love camping. Nothing anyone has to say against it puts me off. We've been on holiday in a rented cottage this summer already but are going camping for a few nights as well anyway...just because we want to.

I just wanted to remind some of you heaping scorn upon camping holidays that for some families it's the only holiday they can afford. If you'd rather stay at home than camp then ok...but other people have a sense of curiosity and adventure and want to GO somewhere even if it has to be in a tent. Good on them I say... I don't think they need to see their holiday described as a 'fetid bag of shite' and so on.

Staying at home so you can sit on a sofa and watch telly is worse.

Camping sucks balls. Also I live in Australia where everything wants to kill you. Not a fan.
Also not a fan of self-catering holidays organised by cheap bastard husbands who are shocked to discover that their wife refuses to shop, cook, clean or do laundry while on holiday so guess who’s just volunteered his own time instead for once? (He has just booked our summer holidays and I am planning on drinking frozen thing while he toils and learns to discuss things with me first - he’s a slow leaner.)

We've had plenty of years when we couldn't afford to go away at all. I will still never camp because it is utterly shit.

DH knew that if he wanted to go camping with the DDs he could have gone. Despite his insistence that he would do that, oddly enough he didn't and he threw the tent out instead. None of the DDs have ever cared.

I totally agree with you. Uk campsites are the worse and even more expensive. 50 euros a night would get you a decent hotel or apartment in East Europe and many places, even at this time of year. I stayed in a 5 star apartment last year, a week with flights cost 70quid. I met oaps who ditched their camper vans, as camping fees in Spain were much dearer and they feared being gassed. Try mobile homes in Spain and France which are still reasonable for families in the school holidays.

@roboticmom where are you?????? Pm me!

I confess to using girl guide camps off season - there is no one else on the entire site. It’s glorious.

And I backpack. Dehydrate my own food and shove my life into my thirty three year old rucksack and hike into the backcountry.

I bloody hate people (and the bears worry me). You won’t find me on a front country commercial site. No freaking way. But I love camping.

Camping or staying with relatives was the only holiday my parents could afford when I was a child. I still used to beg them to stay at home and not make us camp. My DF was the only one who enjoyed it, I have no idea why my DM didn’t go on strike.

I’d divorce dh on the grounds of using the word “snowflake”.

www.standard.co.uk/news/world/france-floods-man-missing-and-750-evacuated-from-campsites-after-torrential-rain-hits-southern-a3908031.html

I love camping but I wouldn't want to do 3 weeks of it tbh.

We tend to go for 3 or 4 nights which is about right for me. I'd do a week but no more...as much as I enjoy it, I get a craving for a proper bed after that.

Anyone seen that campsite in France that got flooded? People found hanging onto tree branches and all sorts. Bloody dangerous pastime if you ask me.

Currently 20days into a six week camping trip.

Loving it.

We stay at each site for between 2-5 days and then pack up and move on to the next one.

We're travelling across seven countries.

Have already met some lovely people.

It's not for everyone (and I much prefer the wilderness/no one around sites to the highly organised with pools etc), but as pictish says, some of us do love it.

Wow, hope everyone at the flooded campsite is ok. That sort of thing is very unusual though. I have mixed feelings about camping - you need a spacious tent, electric hook-up and a quiet campsite. I also don't think I could do camping for more than a week and wouldn't like to spend my whole holiday in a tent.

We have self-catered in France the last few years but are thinking of doing a week's camping and a week in a cottage next year. We camped for a few nights last year and the kids loved it.

Also, say what you like about camping, it's very popular. I'm in France at the moment and every town or village has a campsite. I was on Ile de Re yesterday and it is teeming with campsites, with tents packed in.

Cauliflowersqueeze- cracked me up (I read that thread)

“for some families it's the only holiday they can afford”

True, it’s cheaper than other options. But still not cheap, especially if you have to buy the stuff the first time. You need the stuff, home storage space for it and a car to transport it (or are strong enough to carry it all by train - hard).

IMO it’s not actually a holiday for the adults unless they love and are practiced at camping.