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!

I can manage a maximum of 4 days camping. As the only adult I am in charge over everything. The sheer amount of stuff and organisation involved is awful. I hate it for all the reasons you do op. Mind you I like it as a child and teen because I didn't have to do any work and could sleep anywhere.

I love camping. It's where I feel happiest. I agree with PP the sound of the zip is one of my favourite parts. Couldn't do 3 weeks though. A week at most with electric and a good shower block

Your replies have cheered me up no end and I’m currently ensconced with a Pinot in the corner of the campsite bar with my lab who seems to be hating it as much as me.
On paper a 3 week tour of Europe (France, Germany, Austria and Italy) was the trip of a life time and to be fair the scenery is breathtaking and I love the daytime activities and we have seen some amazing places.
Camping just seemed ‘easier’. We did have a hotel stay a few nights ago and we have a prebooked farmhouse for 10 nights with pool at the end of the 3 weeks (making a total of over 4 weeks away if we don’t kill each other first!!)
I’ve been shocked at the price of campsites, it’s been 40-50 euros pretty much everywhere in August.

Is camping a money saving thing, an environmental choice, or just pure masochism. LOL.

I adore camping but this comment rings true ...

I do have a huge tent and lots of stuff to make us comfortable. I don't do basic camping!

Picture of huge tent attached (we don't take the hoover with us, I was just tidying up!). We choose our sites very carefully and always have electric hook up.

We have 4 children between us and it's a great way of taking a holiday and going to places we otherwise couldn't afford to go.

The worst trip ever was a tipi holiday in Cornwall. It rained stair rods all week. My mum and I hate 4 children 5 and under with us and I was 20 weeks pg so couldn't even drink to drown my sorrows. The creeping damp was awful, everything was sodden and on the last night the top of the tipi blew open so it rained on us.
I also developed horrific toothache half way through which necessitated a root canal on my return.
We live in the south east and the journey there took over 9 hours because of traffic and getting lost.

Last year I stayed somewhere with Eco loos in a creaky wooden hut with no roof. How I loved to see other peoples shit whilst the flies swarmed around me.

SilentBob - Daughter is an introvert and wasn't happy joining the children's club but did make friends with a goat.

This made me properly laugh

Of course the airbeds always deflate in the night and you are freezing cold and then can't go in the tent during the day because it's too hot.

@Zampa that is a fabulous tent, wouldn't like to pitch it though (unless it's one of those air tents).

I'm loving the tents within the tent tent in the pic.

Still wouldn't persuade me to go though. I would want to take the hoover.

South of France when I was about 24 with my dad and boyfriend in a big tent, with his parents who were in a caravan.

It should’ve been amazing, amazing weather, amazing surroundings.

Hated every minute. Too hot, no privacy and at one point I had to eat a whole barbecued courgette just to be polite.

I also threw up in the porch area of the tent after drinking loads of French cider just to cope with the hideousness of it.

Ooh, do hold out for the farmhouse with a pool, that sounds like a lovely ending to wipe the pain away. It'll probably feel like childbirth, where the wonder of the ending will erase the painful journey.

Can you and dog not just eff off to a nice gaff with a king size bed and jacuzzi for a night and leave DH to wrangle the DC?

@FlintyBadman It takes DH an hour to pitch it on his own whilst I'm baby wrangling. We previously had a Airbeam which took 15 minutes but it was so huge it took up most of the boot space.

We have a huge Villa with big swimming pool in Europe

We go there each year

For a change we thought a campervan round France would be fun

We have been renovating our home and living in two rooms since may this year

We are now in one room on wheels on noisy campsites

WE ARE FUCKING INSANE & FUN IT IS NOT

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy camping Pumkinfailure but I'm certainly not surprised.

If you hate camping I can assure you that living on the other side of the hedge to a big camping and caravan site is just as bad. Imagine, between March and October each year, the equivalent of a housing estate just pops up on the other side of your garden hedge, with, at any one time over 2,000 people and about 600 dogs. You get the children who are never taken off the campsite and just scream their heads off all the time and, the worst, the dogs that bark their heads off all day. Next time you go camping and want to have a mobile phone conversation at the top of your voice lasting three hours while your children run screaming amok and your dogs bark themselves hoarse - give some thought to the line of villagers next to you.

Should of hired a camper van, that way you can travel site to site or to a service station and have some privacy.

@Zampa I love the look of the Airbeams and was rather tempted but the price put me off.

I already have 3 tents so don't really need another tbh! To be fair, one is a 2 man tent that I use for solo wild camping, another is a 3 man tent that my partner and I use for wild camping. The third is a 5 man instant pitch that we use for festivals or camping on small sites.

Camping doesn't appeal to me at all. I need some space from the dc in the evenings on hols and roughing it isn't fun to me .. not keen on feeling grubby.

I wish I liked it though .. the dc would love to go but it certainly won't be with me and dh!

In Scandinavia and some other European countries, and parts of the USA and much of the rest of the world, it is legal to "wild camp", meaning you can set up camp anywhere you like on public land. To me, that is fun! Sharing a campsite and bathroom in close proximity with a ton of other people definitely would not be!

I'm with you OP.
I've been camping oooooh so many times.
The one consolation was that the kids used to like it.
Luckily, DH feels the same as me and we don't camp anymore. Oh no.

I second everyone who says get as much vino down you as you can without needing to get up in the night to do all the wees because that's the thing I hate the most about camping.

Dear god, 3 weeks, YADNBU, that is my idea of utter hell! We are going glamping soon - Yurt with a super king bed, wood burning stove, ensuite yurt bathroom with a roll top bath and a hot tub on the deck. That is as close as I will get to a tent ever again. I have spent one night 'camping' when I first met my husband. His friend was hosting a music festival in his grounds. It was horrible, kept falling off the blow up bed, being totally pissed didn't help. Woke up the next morning with a hangover from hell and felt manky and that was only one night.

My Mum taught me to never holiday anywhere that wasn't just a little bit nicer than home.

Oh god, YANBU. It's awful. I would rather spend 3 nights in a Travelodge by a motorway than go camping for 2 weeks. I need walls, a roof and a bathroom.

In Scandinavia and some other European countries, and parts of the USA and much of the rest of the world, it is legal to "wild camp",

Wild camping is legal in Scotland. I live here and have absolutely no desire to do so!

YANBU. Camping is shit. If being absolutely knackered, sunburnt and feeling dirty aren't bad enough, just add sulky DD's who've used up all their data, a wank-deprived DS, DH blocked solid with constipation from all the chip shop dinners and me with a menstrual migraine with vomiting. I shall never go to Babba-fucking-combe again.