Went camping for first time! Im40. Never again lol

[TheOpalFox]

I went camping in a tent in the middle of nowhere with a friend
she suggested it and she’s a pro. Im40. Never been camping but never agajn
im not the best sleeper at home . But thought with walking miles a day and being near the sea would help me? How wrong was I
i loved relaxing and being away from home but cooking was a nightmare,
basic food that you have to make sure you cook properly ,
I was freezing !!! Even tho we had camp beds and sleeping bags I woke up froze!!!! And I have been hit by some many midges my legs are covered in bites :( sooo painful. We went for 3 nights
never again but glad I tried it lol

Smidge is what you need to use to prevent bites

I don’t blame you! I’m fussy with sleep, and need a proper bed. Glamping is as far as I’d go!

Currently doing my crochet and watching deer run by, as my husband's lighting the BBQ to cook me and my daughter steak and salmon!

I'm in my mid-fifties and wouldn't want it any other way. Earlier this year we bought a gorgeous classic VW campervan for a surprisingly affordable price! You do need to have the right equipment though, we've got a decent size bed with memory foam mattress topper for example, I'm not a freaking martyr.

I got put off camping for life,after going with the Girl Guides when I was 12/13. The first one was at the beginning of April,must have been the coldest April we'd had for years as I was freezing the whole time! There was a shower/toilet block on site,but it was about 500 yards from where the tents were pitched. I remember waking up one night desperate for a wee but being too scared to go across in the pitch dark. The previous evening, we'd been sitting around the camp fire telling ghost stories which goes some way to explaining my fear! I ended up waking my patrol leader to come with me. She was not amused.

Yeah im not a fan. Either too hot or too cold.

YANBU. In my experience in order to make it vaguely comfortable you need so much gear it’s pointless. And trekking to toilet in middle of the night, being cold etc. last time we went it pissed down - I wanted to go home but it was too blowy to collapse the tent. Never again!

My first and last attempt at camping was way back during the 1970s on the hippy trail to Afghanistan! (There were no Taliban then). We did some camping and some nights in simple hotels. I preferred the latter because otherwise the girls got lumbered with the cooking. We travelled through Iran and Pakistan. Ive since been back as a solo traveller but never camping. I prefer the comparative luxury of a hotel.

Maybe it was too much with three nights when camping for the first time.

Like previous posters mentioned, it's important to have appropriate sleeping bags etc. for the weather, or you risk being too cold or too warm.

I love camping, it's so lovely waking up early hearing the sounds of the birds, and getting up and making coffee or tea on the portable stove, or even better on the campfire.

I'm outsidey but I'm not outdoorsy. I am at peace with the fact that I can't do it, and I don't enjoy it at all, and that's ok!

Yanbu.
Too much work. Setting the tent up, filling up the water container, sorting out the gas oven.
Then if you need a loo you have to walk over a field which in the UK is often wet. Other campers make too much noise. Shower blocks with grim floors etc. I hate it. Also difficult to dry wet clothes.

About 10 years ago, I had an amazing week's camping as part of a hobby camp with my two DC. We had borrowed all the camping kit. Not a drop of rain, perfect weather! Precious memories from that week.

We had so much fun, that I lost all my marbles and decided to splash out on all our own kit. I was so excited.

A few weeks later, we had a wonderful week in Wales (total sarcasm). We got soaked to the skin, having to take the tent down in the middle of the night. Water was actually coming up through the ground sheet. We were all miserable.

Another trip was so scary with the storm we thought we were going to have a tree come down on top of us.

And another long weekend was ruined by a storm in August. Had to leave for home early.

We never did have a dry, non-gale force camping trip in our own tent before we thought fuck it and sold the lot within 2 years of buying it. I shan't ever camp again!

I went camping once. Never, ever again. I booked into a hotel after the second night (of no sleep) and left everyone else to it. Fucking miserable experience.

It is the devil’s holiday.

I went camping this summer in Wales, hated hearing all the snoring in the tents around me and personal conversations as well as having to shower and pee in a communal block. Gross and weird that people like that.

Am on a beautiful resort in a wonderfully hot country right now. THIS is a holiday.

Devils holiday indeed.

I woke in the night at a festival and I was freezing. So cold I have never been that cold. I genuinely wondered if I might die in the night. Couldn’t go home as was over the limit and wouldn’t have been able to find the car. Put on all the clothes I had and lay there shivering and scared. Then woke up the next morning. Too hot.

I am far too sensitive to temperature changes/light/noise. I also only sleep naked, even in the depths of winter, so I feel forced to wear something, which stops me sleeping!

Absolutely not. Camping is shit. 😆

This was me as well.

IOW festival 2010. I did two nights out of 5. Then I booked a hotel and arrived at the festival site for the remainder of the festival rested, clean and showered.

I will never camp again.

I have loved camping for many years, even before kids.
However I'm done with the packing, unpacking and laundry. I lost my total shit on return of a two week camping trip in Europe. No one lifted a finger while I did 8 loads of laundry including all the bedding and had to put all the camping cooking stuff through 3 dishwashers and then back into the attic.
Fuck it.

I was defending the joys of camping to a friend recently and I thought to myself ‘if I suddenly became rich, and could stay in beautiful country houses wherever I fancied, would I still want to go camping?’ And the answer is, yes, yes I would. I’d probably camp more 😆

I would have top of the line clothes and kit in terms of quality - but I probably wouldn’t bother with things like EHU, or a really huge set up with all home comforts. I’d have something similar to what we have now for us and the small child, just better quality, plus a really light weight, bare bones set up that I could just throw in the car and escape on my own!

I absolutely love these threads 😄, they're a good reminder that I have free will and I really don't have to do something I don't want to do.

@NameChangedForThis2025 That’s exactly my view. My kit is really basic but the best equipment I could find. It fits in a couple of big crates and probably takes me 30 minutes to get everything set up when I arrive at the site. I can look at the weather forecast on a Friday lunchtime and, if it looks good, be sat outside my tent watching the sunset with a glass of red later that evening.

I had a similar view last week on a terrace. Then it got chilly so we went inside the hotel.

Whenever anyone suggests camping to me, I say “as the late Terry Wogan wisely put it - why on earth would I want to leave home to be uncomfortable somewhere else?”

I am also fatally attractive to all bitey bastard bugs and highly allergic to them like you. As I live in a hot, humid climate, I had to figure out how to keep them at bay as much as possible. We have our garden sprayed to exterminate mosquitos every 3 weeks, a UV light exterminator in the house on all night, but truly the only effective deterrent when I’m outside at dusk/night, is to spray myself with Deet (25% at least, anything less won’t keep them off me). I try to keep it my clothes/hair but if I’m in shorts/tee, which is often obviously, I have to spray it on my skin or be destroyed.

If the fuckers have managed to break through, I will have welts for weeks. The only thing that kills the itch is heat. I blast them with a hairdryer on the hottest setting until it hurts too much, or put a teaspoon in boiling water and press it against them. They’ll still look dreadful, the itch isn’t driving me doolally! Repeat when itch returns, probably every 1/2 days or so for about 4 days or so, until the histamines recede, I also take an antihistamine for a day or two. Pain in the arse and you have my sympathy!

I was considering trying it again - thanks for reminding me why I hate it! (Mainly being cold / wet / not sleeping well / that sticky dirty feeling after a nights sleep!)

We are a smug and tedious camping family 😆
you need the right equipment, camp beds will be freezing because of all that cold air wafting around underneath you.
We use self inflating mats and really decent sleeping bags, cover your skin up in the evenings or smother on the smidge.
Let the kids go feral and take a good book!
We can have a week in the uk for 4 of us for under £1000 at a decent campsite, eating out at least twice a day and including all activities and fuel/parking etc. Could get the price right down if we cooked every meal ourselves but I don’t particularly want to.
Wear the right clothes!