To wonder why people enjoy camping

[SirJamesTalbotAndHisSpeculum]

I can't think of anything worse. I know people enjoy it but I can't understand why anyone would want to be nowhere near a bathroom or kitchen. or anywhere comfortable to sit. Not only that, if the weather is awful you get cold. Or wet. Or far too hot. I just don't get it.

Tell me why I'm wrong.

Btw I'm not particularly vain. It was the discomfort and lack of sleep etched into my face .

Agree OP. I can’t see a single thing about camping that is appealing.

I read The Tent, The Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy and it didn't change my opinion of camping.

It's a very good book though.

Honestly? We find it less stressful than hotels. We can put DC to bed when we want and sit and a have a drink or even a different dinner. Freedom for for DC to go to park and make friends. Fresh air invigorates and tires them out at same time.
We have a tent with enough room for table and chairs inside. Comfy sleeping areas. Enough blankets etc. Decent waterproofs.

We camped earlier this year during hail. With the right equipment it wasnt cold and damp.

Or we might be crazy.

Camping is great. Campsites are dreadful.

OP completely agree. I do love our campervan though as I am warm, dry and comfortable. Much prefer using it in drier, warmer parts of Europe though. When we went in Scotland recently we couldn't open the anything or step foot outside as swarms of midgies wanted to kill and eat us.

Get a Campervan then!

SirJamesTalbotAndHisSpeculum thankfully not as far as Scotland (we live in London) the camping horror occurred in Suffolk, lovely places, great scenery but the only way I’m going back is if I have a room in a hotel!
Dp (an Aussie) loved camping as a kid, said it would be great blah blah - he didn’t realise that when you grow up & go camping in Australia with great weather next to an awesome beach it’s a bit different to sleeping in a muddy field in freezing cold drizzle.
I definitely did the ‘I told you so’ face

Reasons:
Not having to shower for a few days.
The cost, or lack of.
Being able to travel and pitch then sticks and travel and pitch.
The adventure/being close to wildlife (and probably smelling like it by the time you get home too!!)

I often wonder the same thing when we’re going through the palava of setting up or packing down.

But once that’s all done it really is relaxing. I like the simplicity of it.

And it’s cheap (once you’ve got the gear)

We generally only camp in Europe.
We do have a fridge and water normally very nearby.
Showers are hot and very nice.

Camping is awful. Sleeping on the ground, in the rain, sharing grotty showers and a tiny kitchen (if you're lucky). There are a hundred ways to enjoy nature and the great outdoors without this suffering

It is either cheap or eco friendly don't know which.

But it is not and never will be for me. Each to their own though.

Some people are masochists and actually like the challenges of camping. Good for you. Enjoy. Not my place to criticize, but I can say that I would be terrified to sleep in a tent. The spiders, the condensation, the person with a knife who could kill us all with a rip roaring vengeance for something or other.

OK I need help dealing with this. LOL.

Another camper van here but ours is a 1968 basic boy, just a bed and a bluetooth speaker. Love camping, always have.

Weather, well you prepare for it. Waterproofs and decent hiking books and you’ll be reet. Too hot, well you pop a shade canopy up, some quiet music on or a book and let the world go by or head off to the beach and hire a boat. If we stay on a campsite we do tend to pay for ehu just for a fridge to have cold ciders lol.

Never been anywhere without a shower, and getting up in the middle of the night for a pee is part of the fun, creeping around with DP in our pjs and flip flops.

Different strokes though. I’d personally hate a spa resort or somewhere like Benidorm in a AI place. I need adventure and fun! Not being rubbed by a stranger or a have a nightmare served up in a communal buffet lol!

I love it. It’s a chance to totally strip back your life, leaving room to concentrate on each other without so many modern day distractions.

I can’t understand people who camp and try and recreate their house under canvas.

YANBU. I won’t do it. I love being in the great outdoors, I love being quiet and out in nature, but I cannot bear being uncomfortable to sleep. Cannot stand it even for a minute, and really have no tolerance for not being clean. I don’t mind getting in a mess on a walk/hike, don’t care if the kids get dirty either, I’m not a germaphobe. But. The thought of coming back to a tent and not washing it all off with warm soapy water just makes me cringe. I know sites have showers but the communal situation makes me shudder, and I think if you’re going super high end and having all mod cons available to you then just get a bloody cottage in the wilderness.

I think we have a much more natural experience where we stay, a cottage on a mountain, than on some of the camps nearby, as there are so many people there. So you’re kind of going back to nature but with a load of randoms. Randoms are another pet hate

.....and I get that hotels can be stressful with DC. But that's what air bnb is for! Gorgeous cottage in beautiful location, space to sit outside with a drink once DC are in bed.....

I'm not a fan but my kids would love it.

The other thing is,it doesn't matter if you're going for 2 weeks or 1 night you still need shit loads of stuff.

It's my idea of hell !! I don't get how people enjoy it at all. I went a few times as a child, very very basic things available, hated it then.

My sil goes all the time, any chance she gets, she goes, always on at us at how boring we are wanting hotels etc she kept saying how it had changed and that I'd love it now, so we went, OMG I thought I was going to rip the eyes from my face !!! She said the tents now are warm, dry and comfortable, NO, it wasn't, when it rained we got soaked, all our belongings were damp and smelled of damp !! it was feckin freezing, I woke so cold one night that I put ALL the clothes I brought with me on !! they were damp and cold and I felt worse.

She kept telling me there's loads of washing facilities, so we did the 20 minute trek to the shower block, it was cold, dark and millions of people waiting to use the showers, the showers were manky, pubes all over them, long hair everywhere !!! I was trying to have a shower in my shoes ! Then we get back to the tents and the lads were doing breakfast, burnt, tasteless, charcoal tasting sausages and cold beans, (((vomit))) the area was damp and muck everywhere, it didn't matter what I touched it was damp. Then the spiders !!!!!! Oh dear god, every spider and his family stayed in our tent. At the time I only had 2 children, they hated it, it was the spiders that were freaking them out the most and the cold from 4am -6am. We ended up booking into a hotel, we had a massive king size bed and we all bailed into it after hot showers and ordered room service and watched TV, I was so relieved to get out of that camp..

Still to this day sil camps, she still slags me off for being a spoil sport and for not been adventurous. Some people are cut out for it, some aren't, I'm definitely not !!!

OMG, I love camping!

For one night, by which time the novelty of being dripped on by my own exhalations has worn off.

I consider the joys of camping to be the being at one with nature, the getting back to a simpler time, and the renewed appreciation of one's own bed.

It's the numerous discomforts - sleeping bags, no sink, no
sofa, no doors, no walls etc.

A 4* hotel overlooking fields is as I want to get to camping..

It's brilliant fun. In England/wales you have to be a bit hardy ( though still did it loads) because of the weather but in France it just makes sense. You are outdoors, very little access to Internet or phone signals, play games, swim, walk, eat simple meals, eat picnics, walk to the pizza van, shower in luxurious shower blocks, have loads of washing machines, meet and chat to people, make lifelong friends, let the kids roam free,

We haven't camped for 8 years now because of serious family illnesses and I miss it so much. Often when I hear the rain on the roof in ten summer it makes me think of the campsite and I am nostalgic for the fun of it with the whole family

I think it's fine that other people like it, provided I absolutely never have to. I'm beginning to find it's a little like not talking about politics though at a dinner party; the lines are drawn between the campers and the AI enthusiasts.

For me, the main reason is the shower blocks. I have yet to visit one that doesn't have cobwebs dating back to pre-war in the corners of their horrid reinforced glass windows. Or taps without having to press in the valve constantly whilst trying to de-sud your hair.

And don't get me started on the "man with the guitar" strumming away to his admiring wife and friends with his eyes shut.

Not having to shower for a few days.

Not having to shower? Urgh. Grim.

I think I would love it. No way would DH ever agree though. I might persuade him into a camper van perhaps.

One of our regular dog walks takes us through a campsite. It’s either practically empty, because it’s pissing down, or out of season, or it’s rammed full, with barely inches between tents. When it’s full, it’s so noisy, I can’t see how it can be relaxing.

It’s on a cliff top, so very windy, we often see tent casualties after a windy night.

I enjoyed camping as a child, but did DofE style hiking/camping. the organised campsite, shower blocks and pitching in such close proximity to others is not tempting at all.