Camping - I think I hate it….

[Nik2015]

I've just come home from camping and I just don’t get it.

I find it really hard work and uncomfortable no matter what I do.

I’d love to know what I’m doing wrong?..

So thought we could have a (lighthearted) vote so I could get an idea if it’s just me -

YABU = I love camping
YANBU = I dislike camping

I'm really looking forward to the bread and viennoserie delivery service in French campsites, you don't get that in self-catering villas!

If you are all in tents that you can't even stand up in, no wonder you hate it! You have to go big or go home (literally!)

I agree that the best thing about camping is you can go to loads of different places where if you were to stay in a caravan or cottage in each place would cost shit loads so, unless you are totally minted, you get to see loads of stuff you would otherwise miss out on.

That and a glass of red and a book in my big comfy camping chair, once the kids are in bed. Oh and DH always cooks a bacon and egg bap and a cup of tea in the morning and it tastes so much better than anything at home!

Worst thing is sharing minging bogs and showers with strangers, although a lot of places have really started to sort this out and make the facilities a priority, with plenty of really clean toilets, underfloor heating etc.

We are currently in a caravan, but if we could afford a hotel that's where I'd be. all about money really nobody stays in a tent unless they have to, but it's a cheap way to holiday

Oh god I want to be a person who likes camping, I really do. I love outdoors stuff, hobbies where you get to buy loads of special kit and lighting fires. But I'm not. We've glamped. We've borrowed the full kit, including good mattresses and a massive tent from friends. It's still awful.

For some reason I feel hungover the whole time, even if I'm not.

We don't have our own car either, so by the time you've rented a big one it ends up not being that cheap a weekend and loads of hassle collecting it. Team premier inn all the way.

@HappyDays40 no I have an Ansfold

@Minimalme hoping someone comes along to say a real woman has a wand . Would you hear one in the next tent?

Went camping a few weeks ago for the first time in years to a great campsite just up the road. Just a couple of nights but I loved it - even though it rained on night2 - I still loved it. My brain let go of all stress and rather oddly, my feet came back in better condition too.

I'll be going again after the Summer season - as a quiet corner to myself makes it for me.

I REALLY hate camping, so please excuse me for asking but this seems so alien to me - why would you even bother to pack all the camping shit you need just to go less than 30 minutes away?? Why not just go to buy stuff at the deli counter/have a bbq with friends at home?

Camping is shite. I've been twice - the first time was with the Girl Guides. We stayed in leaky tents and it pissed down. I spent 4 days eating semi raw spuds cooked on an open fire whilst avoiding creepy crawlies at night. 😱

The second time was 30 years later. I stayed in an ancient orange ridge tent with my partner. It was boiling hot and so bright inside at 6am it looked like they'd dropped the bomb! To cap it all, the site manager complained that we'd been heard having sex!

This is why I now have a caravan. I'm with Terry Scott on this one (Carry On Camping).

I think maybe Guide camp ruined me, we had to sleep in a sleeping bag on a ground sheet (so no beds) then create a 'bedding roll' in the morning to give us space, the sack cloth at the bottom of the canvas meant we all spent the entire night damp (we rolled the text up during the day) and some people had to empty the rancid toilets every day. The site had showers but you basically needed to wear wellies to avoid getting dysentery from the disgustingness.

Having said that I'm just not made for camping. For a start I'm not going to spend a million pounds on kit, as I would much rather spend it on a villa or all inclusive in a country with nice weather. Board games and cards bore me to tears and I'd want to throw myself off a bridge if I had to listen to other people strumming guitars around a campfire.

I totally get the 'first thing in the morning coffee listening to the world waking up' but I can do that from a balcony!

Rolled the tent!

Took FIVE children camping once (if I can achieve that with the hundreds of items you have to take), I can achieve anything! 😂

I don’t mind it, until I have to sleep in a tent and then I usually lose my shit completely. The kids think camping mum is a hoot, mainly cos their waiting for the temper to erupt.

Of course, they and DH fucking love it.

Firstly, no airmattress is comfortable. None. Of. Them. Sleeping bags are the cunting devils work, sliding about like a fucking eel in a carrier bag, washing up in the bog block is not a holiday. Then! Those jovial mother fuckers roaming the campsite overplaying breathing in with the: ‘lovely country air isn’t it Sandra?!’ Fuck off and breathe elsewhere bell end. No it isn’t lovely air, it’s bog standard air where I have to sleep in a pissing tent.

Even glamping is a tossers business, nothing glam about it - damp beds, fucking livestock roaming into your tent, the off grid ones are bastards - no fucking electric either. Bring your own bedding!! Fuck that shit, and fuck off again. Fucking wankery.

@myuterusistryingtokillme I think it's the break from all the constant stuff to do at home. I'm a single parent, working FT with pets etc and it's just so full on. Sitting in a camping field with friends and food delivered is a complete break

I do have a campervan which has all the camping stuff in it so only need to pack a bag quickly, stick the dog and kids in the car and we head off.

I like sleeping in a tent and chilling outside with mates early morning and through to the evening. We've also camped multiple times a year and sometimes even in the garden (covid year) 🤣

@SummerSazz isn't it funny how different we all are? I'm so glad you love it, but from everything you describe I'd honestly rather tear my own eyes out 🤣

Life would be v boring if we were all the same

Just to balance it I am going AI for a week in Aug in Greece. It's not all about 'slumming it'

Camping is my worst nightmare!! Cramped , sharing bathrooms , bad sleep …. No just no

Between a camping holiday and no holiday at all, I’d take the latter. I was dragged on camping holidays as a child in freezing, rainy Scotland, and there is no way I am ever doing it again.

For those of you who can afford to rent a cottage every time, then great!! Good on you. Enjoy.

I have no interest in camping. I like my creature comforts. I don't see the fun in packing everything you own and spending ££££ to do it "comfortably". As a light sleeper who gets insect bites & heat rash easily, it's my nightmare. The put up & pack up and the time involved would make me so resentful, too.

And I say this as someone who doesn't mind self catering & bringing own bedding etc on hols. I guess my line is that it's in a properly equipped, solid structure. I've even made a "holiday" of staying on an army camp facility with work and sleeping in a cabin with bathroom, electricity & own room. I knew I was never going to enjoy working for an outdoor retailer though when as a newbie I swerved the "invite" summons they procured for me last minute to their Managers Meeting which is traditionally "under the canvas". Just no.

If I couldn’t I would stay at home. Camping just wouldn’t be a consideration, there’s nothing on his earth would get me in a tent. I’ve done it, it’s not fun. Never happening again

We were gutted last weekend as we had a free weekend to take the tent for a walk and spend a night away from it all- when sone friends turned up

I mean we loved seeing them but it's been so long since we could get out in the tiny tent

Fingers crossed for Next weekend if the worst temperature forecast are wrong

For those of you who can afford to rent a cottage every time, then great!! Good on you. Enjoy.

If people would honestly say that yeah it's a bit shit but we go camping because it's affordable and only way we can have a holiday - this I could believe. I've spent nights sleeping at airports and bus stations because I wanted to travel and an airport hotel for just one night was over my budget. But I wouldn't wax lyrical about how amazing that bench at Valencia bus station was. Whereas here you have people trying to convince everybody else that filthy shower blocks and bringing everything including the kitchen sink are a fabulous experience and the people not enjoying it are doing it wrong.

It just depends what you're looking for in a holiday, surely.

We don't spend any time in our accommodation other than to sleep and get ready for the day. So as long as I've got that, I feel a bit of a mug paying for a hotel with all the facilities I'll never use, even a cheap hotel is 3 times the price of the tent pitch. Now that I don't have dc young enough to need a daytime nap, we're probably there 11pm - 9am. I know some other people who like to spend time relaxing in their hotel room/villa during the day, so camping probably isn't for them, but that's not what I'm looking for.

I'm not intending to camp in any kind of wild adventure sense, at least this time. It's something I'd be prepared to consider in the future. We'll still eat out in restaurants and do all the days out we would if we were staying in a building.

There's some places I wouldn't like to camp: Crete in August just looked too hot, and I wouldn't consider the UK in anything other than summer.

So, not keen then😉