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

Static caravan = lovely

Actual camping = my idea of hell

I love camping. Because the kids love camping and it detaches them from devices for a good period of time. I only go for 3 nights max, have invested in a good sized tent with blackout bedrooms, good air bed and take my quilt from home. We camp as a group of 5 adults and 6 children so it's shared effort on camping equipment and we always have fun. Even when it's tipping with rain!

Camping is for people who haven't spent enough time being cold, tired and hungry.

And if it rains then it’s just vile

I didn’t mind it in the past but my body is wrecked. Nothing comfortable to sleep on. I did a camp out with the D.C. at the start of lockdown, all three of them deserted me so I slept out there alone on a mattress from the house and still had a shit,
painful sleep. I’d like it apart from that, oh and if someone else organised all the food

Tents are ok if necessary, otherwise caravan, or my favourite a cabin in the woods type setup.

You are doing nothing wrong. It mystifies me why anyone would leave their home to get a dreadful night's sleep on a thin hard mat in a tent that is too cold and wet or too hot and stuffy, with no proper showers. Just why? The idea of sleep deprivation being a holiday upsets ne to even contemplate it.

I don't like tenting. We got a van. Much better

Actually - ignore all that. Camping is really really awful, and I would recommend never trying it.

*sneaks off to her lovely quiet campsite....

I love it if the weather is kind, I'm definitely a fair weather camper and will pack up and go home if if it's crap.

I love it.

I relax more when I'm camping than any other holiday. It's something to do with living outside. My favourite bit it waking up before everyone else and boiling the kettle on my own....
Get shit loads of vitamin d as you're outside all day. So we always come back looking healthy. But tired, admittedly.

We rent a cute little house it's not ours but it's home and into me it's like eating out - if you can do a better meal at
Home why bother

And if you've worked hard to make your home (whatever that may be) more comfortable why put yourself thru it!!

Ahh yes I love that. Sitting in the quiet listening to nature, and then the hushed sounds of other campers slowing waking up and having quiet conversations. That 'zuuuup' sound of other tents starting to open. Then the smell of breakfasts cooking begins... love love it.

No no no no unless I get my own bed with a proper roof air con if it’s hit heating if it’s cold and decent meals not cooked by me fuck camping did it once never again!

All depends on where you are, what equipment you have and what there is to do in the evening.

We had a great time camping in the South of France. Big tent, fridge, BBQ, near the Med, swimming pool with slides, bar etc. Very relaxing.

I loathe camping. We went every summer for a fortnight in France and got to visit some amazing places, but I still remember asking my parents why on earth we couldn't stay in a hotel like normal people.

Obviously, the DC bloody love it, so we go probably once a year. And glamp - I have learnt that one of the things I despise about camping is the sheer hassle of getting everything together, packing the car and putting the tent up (and the reverse at the end). Packing a bag and popping it down in a what is essentially a room under canvas is miles better.

I hated it when people who normally fuck off abroad were using 'our' quiet campsites too 🤣

I've camped for years, it was the only way I could afford to go on holiday.
Then I got a vintage folding caravan, it's pure luxury compared with a tent. I mean the delight of cooking inside, bliss. Even better the caravan is tiny so takes up as much room as a tent on a pitch. As it's a folding one, really easy to tow and we can store the stuff in it, so no ending up with every spare inch of the car being full

We took three weeks off work ro do some festivals the year before lockdown had a blissful three weeks under canvas. Love camping 🏕

I detest camping. I hate all the tedious work and paraphernalia and I hate using loo/shower blocks. But the absolute worst bit is just being on a bloody campsite. There’s no peace and no privacy. You’re living a few metres away from other people without solid walls between you, you can hear them bloody fart ffs. The moment you emerge from your tent you have no seclusion. I like being outdoors and surrounded by nature, but unless you’re camping wild (which is a fuck-ton of hard work) that is wrecked by the fact that you can’t just sit and enjoy it because there are awful braying middle-class families everywhere in head-to-toe FatFace and Boden engaging in wholesome games of rounders, setting up giant picnic tables and shouting at their obligatory cockapoo. Awful.

@minimadgirl do you have an Eriba?

I was brought up caravanning but hate caravans. I camp at festivals in a small 2 man tent, we have progressed from a huge tent when we had the children to a smaller tunnel tent with extension to our beautiful 5m bell tent with porch plus utility tent housing our loo and pump up shower. Proper camp beds with thick inflating mattresses and warm sleeping bags, gas stove and log burner with an oven and water heater for colder weather which we cook on too, carpets, lighting run off a large battery bank and washing up stand. We camp at adult only sites and prefer those with no facilities apart from electric hook up to power our cool box. Our pitch last year cost us £140 for ten nights. Our tent takes about 30 minutes to pitch and quite a lot longer to set up, but we camp extremely comfortably and often get asked by fellow campers in caravans and motor homes if they can have a look around our set up. Most are very impressed and we have much more space than a 4 berth caravan.

I love camping but you do need a nice site, ideally with a river or beach where you can swim or paddle, some kind of pub, cafe or shop nearby, good toilet/shower block, and good kit especially decent tent and sleeping gear. I love being in the countryside at night, having a campfire, hearing owls and badgers, looking at the stars and doing the camping cooking. I love it with kids when they get really excited about sleeping in a tent. And I get excited myself about camping stuff like kettles and lanterns😍

But shit camping is awful. Wind, rain, other campers, scary dogs, midges, bad campsite etc can all be a nightmare. Being up all night with an unsettled baby in a tent is bloody grim. Long walk to horrible dirty/bug-infested/dark toilets is miserable.

But I do understand that if you don't get it, you don't get it so you probably would hate even fabulous camping. I'm like that with bungy jumping, just don't get why anyone would ever want to.

Closest I've ever come to camping is Eurocamps in the north of France when I was a child. Viewed through the rosy lens of childhood it was an adventure and tons of fun. Viewed through the lens of an adult who has an idea of the logistics, and how uncomfortable it would be? Nope. Camping out in actual nature? Shudder Hell on earth.

I adore camping but if you don't like it, you don't like it.

I like waking up and lying with the tent open, watching the sun coming up, reading a good book and feeling part of nature. I like the fact that we have no screens and play board games, read, walk, explore. I like cooking over a fire. I like waking up with friends and the children all play in the brook while we cook bacon. I like the sound of the zip and the smell of wet grass. I like sitting round the fire at night with a guitar and just chatting and laughing with friends. I like us all being in the tent at night, close together and talking. I like the ritualistic nature of putting up and taking down the tent and equipment, lighting fires etc.

We do wild camp at times but I have a preference for a campsite with a proper shower block. We are going next month to a farm site with bathrooms nicer than most hotels, a quiet meadow for people like me who prefer more space and fewer people and plenty of trees to climb and streams in which the children can play together. Can't wait!