Do you camp due to financial reasons or just because you like camping?

[mrshess]

As the title says really just wondering what peoples main reasons are for camping

Because we like camping, although being able to holiday for 3 weeks for less than £300 is nice.

My pendulum of pleasure does swing wildly when I camp though. When the weather is good, and we are pitched at a good site I am pretty much at maximum happiness. Packing up the tent and all the kit in the torrential rain soaking through to my underpants is probably quite high up on my list of Things I Do Not Like.

like camping. Except I moaned constantly last week.
Perhaps I do it because I enjoy moaning?

We love camping and we're pretty hard core, but we could never afford a holiday other than camping really, so both!

We started caravanning this year because we are sooooo bored of the Caribbean .

Seriously though, we have had as much fun as any other holiday. It is less stressful and we do far more stuff together as a family.

I like camping, dh is not nearly as keen! When it rained last week he sat there moaning that we've got a perfectly good house at home (until I reminded him that our landlord still hasn't fixed the roof that started leaking back in April ).

The reasons we still go are:-

financial,

I'm good at getting my own way (ie he loves me really ),

Severely autistic ds, taking him on a plane (or anywhere near an airport actually, all that waiting around and loud announcements), or anything similar sounds more like hell than a holiday.

because we love it.....

Both!! We have had some horrendous camps and some brilliant ones, I always go back for more, Was going this weekend but when I got back from Cornwall on Monday I was knakered so cancelled my trip for the weekend and now I am gutted and want to go!!!

we do it for a few reasons, we have DD1 who is Autistic and so likes things the same, its cheap, we wnjoy it and its now too costly to insure DH because of his cancer. We are more glamper than camper though

We do both, camp for the fun, and when we need to be indulged we go off to hotels instead.

We are fair weather glampers,

We like to get away from TV, news, computers etc. I don't understand those people who have electric hook-up and then take a dvd player for the children. Each to their own I suppose.
Finance does come into it though. We will have had four camping trips this year, whereas if we went abroad we might have one week.

Also a bit of both- we have quite a swish set up now, acquired over several years. We tend to go to well equipped sites (def hot showers, clean loos, washing up area, maybe small 'essentials' shop, bit of a kids play area- that type of thing). We have just begun to to do the EHU- yes I know...!

Why?: twofold- to run a fridge cos I believe it was one of the things that made my mother's camping experiences so difficult- the inability to keep things fresh (and the fact she barely drinks thus doesn't realise that sleeping in a tent without at least 2 glasses on board goes against the laws of nature!) and -ahem- to run the laptop! We only use it for a couple of things, to research places to go if the weather fails us and to see if the weather is going to fail us! Love the rainfall radar. It has helped us plan so many days: sunny a.m? Quick, the beach! Coming in to rain about 2ish? THAT'S when we'll head into the town. Downpour coming? Batten down the hatches and head for the pub. Easy!

I confess we charge up 2 PSPs on the EHU AND the DCs have been known to watch a DVD but thing is, we camp with another family who happily allow PSPs and DVDs so we go with the flow.

We usually camp once a year, canal boat for a week and maybe do a chalet abroad for a week so it's part of the holiday continuum in our house.

We go camping because it's an adventure and because of the freedom to just turn up if the weather looks good on a weekend, and it's cheaper than the alternatives. So we can have lots of weekends away over the summer/autumn at sites that are basically fields with a poo loo.

However. Confession time. We just returned from a week in a caravan at a site with masses to do (pools, crazy golf, nice adventure play area plus early evening ents for the children). It was heaven..in Devon. I slept! I actually slept! And we roasted a chicken in the little oven! God it was marvelous. No wifi though.

I am now eyeing the tent with a slightly jaded eye as the prospect of a bank holiday with poor sleep is really, really not appealing now I have seen the promised land.

See, apple THIS is where it all starts....

We camp cos we like it, I like sleeping in a tent, and I like being away from electricity. No tv or computers.

I like the way you can be flexible and change your mind about where and when you'll go at short notice, or move on if you feel like it.

Also with 3 children it's often more relaxing being on a campsite than in a hotel. It's altogether easier not to have to shush and wipe the children or make them presentable for meal times.

but we have just come back from 3 sunny weeks camping in France, we camp a lot but we are fair weather campers, we cancel or come home or book accomodation if the weather is bad. So we rarely camp in the rain.

So agree with the not having to clean up and shush the children Fennel! I can't ever imagine us staying in a hotel - I'd be a nervous paranoid wreck I think!

It's mainly a financial thing for us, but I also do love being on a campsite - my Mum is completely baffled where I got this camping bug from as they wouldn't dream of going and i certainly didn't go as a child!

Our dream is get a campervan next although I do sometimes think that even a caravan might just be quite ok.... !

I do it mainly 'cos DD is an only child so in the evenings she has the opportunity to make friends and go play, leaving me to enjoy a book and some wine.

I have a campervan rather than a tent now but spent many years camping.

A bit of both - it is cheaper than a posh hotel holiday, though we go to the well-equipped French sites, so still fairly pricey.

Also it enables the children to make new friends and experience loads of freedom.

And I like the fairly minimalist life. For a couple of weeks

Yes my children love campsites, and making new friends, going off all over the site unfettered. They all learned to ride bikes on campsites.

We used to have a VW campervan but once we had a 3rd child it was like a very cramped noisy stressful sardine tin. It was good with just 2 of us or us and one child. might have another once the dds aren't around to crowd it. But I was surprised after 7 campervan years that we didn't really mind going back to tent camping. I'm a natural minimalist/cheapskate.

It is fun for the children and makes for a nice bank holiday break.

Like boiledegg, we are only fair weather glampers. We pitch up in sites that have good clean shower facilities and are near National Trust properties, where we go off to during the day and have BBQs on site at night.

Financial reasons ...although we are growing to love it.

We hadn't had a holiday for two years till we got the tent and if we hadn't got the tent it would have been four years since we last had a holiday.

It's allowed us to have a break and get away and just chill out I guess.

My dd's love it, and I have to say that even if I could afford to go abroad/stay in a cottage/stay in a caravan anytime soon, I think we'd still carry on camping

...I wouldn't mind a week in the sun too though