What can I do to convince dh of the wonders of camping?!

[anchovies]

So no holiday booked for the summer so far. My plan was to sell the big old dome tent, buy a pretty new canvas tent and some fancy comfy beds and drive down to the dordogne for a couple of weeks. Not doing a lot other than letting the kids run wild and drinking red wine.

Dh on the other hand has just announced he would rather fork out the £3-4K for a week all inclusive in Turkey or Egypt.

Is there any hope if our ideals are so far apart? Do other people camp just because they actually like camping or am I being ungrateful?!

Well our trucking days are numbered with the Prulet imminent, not precious about baby seats in the cab but will be a bit of a squeeze with the PruHound too... She might just fit in the footwell...

We've also considered sacrificing the firepit for a dog crate in the back, not sure about ventilation though and she will be seriously enraged at the downgrade from truckers mate to cattle class. Perhaps the Prulet can go in cargo

Or we could just get a California...

We have left our first destination and are now driving to put next one. All packed up kids wTching frozen we are very excited to see our next site as it has a fab pool and slides.
Tonight after we've made camp we will prob have a BBQ and chill out and play scrabble or go for a walk in the surround woods or beach.
What's not to like?
I always wee at night and have a camping loo which I just empty each morning.

We have left our first destination and are now driving to put next one. All packed up kids wTching frozen we are very excited to see our next site as it has a fab pool and slides.
Tonight after we've made camp we will prob have a BBQ and chill out and play scrabble or go for a walk in the surround woods or beach.
What's not to like?
I always wee at night and have a camping loo which I just empty each morning.

It seems to be a marmite experience.
I've yet to be converted.
My memories are of soggy bedding, steamy, too small tents(!) and boil in the bag mornings, when you're woken by a huge amount of "natural" noise and the sun at about 4 am.
I always need a shower in the morning to wash off the sweat from the boil in the bag experience, and am always covered in bites.

The only time I slept well in a tent was when I was at a music festival and ceidhlí in Scotland and had drunk too much whisky. I slept in someones motorbike coat with my boots still on ontop of the ground sheet. Woke at 6 to full sunshine, but still too drunk to care.

Do you think being intoxicated helps?
Be honest, do you have to have an altered state to enjoy camping?

Maybe being drunk is the way to get your DH interested OP!

Certainly Egypt or turkey sound like boiling hell on earth for August.
Why not go at Christmas, if Syria is stable? And indeed if Egypt is?
Personally I'd think again about both those places, in themselves, and then for August? No way!

Do you think being intoxicated helps?

Maybe - but all my camping trips this year have been whilst pregnant so stone cold sober obvs.

You've hit the nail on the head at the start of your post. Crap gear = crap camping experience.

I think people underestimate how much poor quality tents affect the camping experience. I don't think you need to spend a fortune, just make sure you use a tent that is spacious enough and is well designed with practical features that make life easier.

It's only this year we've upgraded to a fancy-arse megatent, until now we've had a cheapo Lo HiGear tent but we chose one that was spacious and didn't feel like an enclosed nylon torture chamber, so fell in love with camping years before expensive gear came on our scene.

We did too.
Dh and I met, and one of the things we immediately found in common was a passion for camping.
We started off with a wee dome tent, two mats and two sleeping bags...but back then we were young, and that was all we needed.

Crap gear = shit holiday. The right gear for you = a good time. In my experience.

vivi our dogs travel in cattle class and are perfectly happy. The van has never got too hot while moving though we thread a needle probe into the back to monitor the temperature if it's very hot.
The only other issue is that baby seats are humongous in te front seat of a Transporter so unless the other passenger is stick thin it's never going to be a luxurious journey :o

That's really good to know MrsFox. Our hound is perfectly content in a crate so hopefully she'll be ok in the van. She'll soon let us know if she isnt.

As far as room on the bench goes, I'm no waif but the Pruhound is a selfish, loungy mutt and I get about 1/3 of the space as it is. I'm glad to hear it IS possible, but distance trips probably best avoided!

I think that you have to enjoy being outside to enjoy camping. For me, waking up in the fresh air makes up for any other hassle. If you're not keen on being outside it would just be torture. I'm really not bothered about a walk to the loos in the night, why would I be? I used to wild camp and it was pretty eerie squatting in the heather in the wind and rain in the middle of the night though...

For us, cottages are a real case of same old shit but a different place and we made the decision this summer that from now on it's hotels or camping! Someone once described effective stress relief to me as something that stops you thinking of all the day to day rubbish or work stress and camping certainly does that.

Kit really matters- we used to use tiny tents but now we have kids we have (two) stand-up in tents and it makes a massive difference. I have a lovely thermarest SIM and it's much much better than a cold air bed. I take a empty pillow case and stuff it with clothes to use as a pillow as my arms go numb without proper neck support (yes, even in a normal bed)! I usually sleep very well in tents but I pack earplugs for unexpected noise emergencies.

OP: has your DH camped before or is he basing his camping refusal on previous bad experiences?

What about glamping as a compromise?

The thing is I love being outdoors. In fine weather I hate being inside. Now that DD is a teenager we much prefer to self cater than stay in a hotel. Trying to get her out of bed in the morning for breakfast is a pain. Although our version of self catering involves eating out a lot.

I think I could only be convinced to camp if each tent had its own en suite bathroom (As an IBS sufferer I have to have a private bathroom)

I've never been camping with my family (both parents hate it), but been twice with friends and I adore it!
I love being outside all day, and I've yet to have a noisy or dirty experience. One of the trips was mostly wild camping, often in the rain, my mother thought I was insane.
I'd love to go away with just my sisters, I think we'd have a great time. But they've never camped and completely buy my parents atitude.
Shame really, we couldn't afford anything else with just the three of us.

Thanks for all the thoughts, dh loves being outside (keen triathlete) so I am sure with some improvements to the sleeping arrangements I can convince him!

Having said that though the all inclusive holiday is booked and I am looking forward to a holiday doing nothing. The compromise is we are going to camp in the UK and see what we think afterwards. As dh pointed out how do I know I don't like AI turkey until I've tried it...

www.wanderlust.co.uk/planatrip/inspire-me/lists/the-worlds-most-spectacular-camping-spots?utm_campaign=Resend%20of%20Newsletter%2024%2F07%2F2014&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_source=email

You could take DH to some of these spots!

( hope link works)

We enjoy it, as a family of 3, DH, teenage DD and me. This year we did 10 nights under canvas then 4 nights in an unusual hotel place, where we had a small log cabin but no self catering, but a treat to end the holiday with a bathroom and a bed! I love the fact that i am outdoors all the time, that I can switch my brain off from work and that little things are fun, even filling up the water container! The new Cobb BBQ this year was the icing on the cake! Have always camped and will do so as long as I am fit and healthy enough.

Pictish you soooo need one of com these friend has one and raves about it...
As to persuading dh...Mme of we had loads of cash we would camp, but also probably a villa/hotel complex when really knackered and needing a proper break...

Sorry crap link...www.handiworld.com

Bought one two years ago. We took it to Wales.
When it rained on the way, the rain soaked into the canvas straps holding it on and dripped constantly on our necks and shoulders. We all ended up wearing towels in the car!

Then when we unloaded it at our destination, we realised it had made two perfect lines of scratches from one side of the roof to the other, and dented it as well.

I don't even know where the HandiRack is now. Mouldering in a cupboard somewhere maybe.

Yeah...they look brill don't they? We thought so too.

You used to be able to buy a contraption called a Trail-crate whuch was like a universally fitting sort of box that would hang off the back of your car. It was about £120...so a lot cheaper than a trailer.

All of a sudden they disappeared entirely. There's barely an image of it to be found on the world wide web.

I can only imagine they smashed too many people's possessions into oblivion off the road, and got sued to death.

Was considering one of those as well.

I am feeling guilty reading this as 2 years ago we upgraded our tent for our first Motorhome, and now we go away every available weekend, DH cooks outside whatever the weather and still gets to sit out with wine/beer under the stars, and we sleep on a proper bed, with heating if needed, and have our own shower and loo.
We are presently in a Forest site without EHU which DH much prefers to a formal site. We had a fab 2 weeks touring Cornwall which I would never have enjoyed so much in a tent (was about to get expensive Sims when we got the van!), 4 nights was great in a tent but I needed a few nights in a proper bed to recover.
Only wish we had found a cheap van to play with whilst the kids were still living at home!

To get your DH to have fun, let him play with fire (open fires, BBQs etc) and choosing a new tent or equipment.

Oh no! Gutted for you (ponders... Maybe my friend has only used hers in the dry...).
I remember the trailcrate....
We are fortunate in that we didn't own a car when we first camped so have lots of tiny but expensive kit which fitted on bike panniers. Now with a family of four we can still pack everything into our hatchback...

IMO it's partly getting the sleeping arrangements right and partly about picking the right kind of site. I come from a very anti-camping family and was sure I'd hate it. Dh persuaded me to try it for the first time when I was 36 and now I love it!

OP - do you know specifically what your dh objects to about camping? Because I had a fair few preconceptions about what it would be like, and was wrong about some of them. In particular I was amazed at how many sites had nice, clean toilets and showers.

After 10 years of training I have finally come to love camping. The thought of spending £4K on a holiday gives me the shivers.
The crap sleeping almost did for me a couple of years ago and last year we borrowed a caravan, deeply uncool, but so convenient and comfy! But we're back to the trusty tent this year as we've managed to shake off a couple of the grown up kids and think we can manage a nice pared down camp for the 3 of us. We have a trailer, but I'm hopeful we can get everything we need this time in the car.
I've invested a rather scary amount of money in some Thermarest 10cm deep SIMs which I hope deliver the goods and am cautiously hopeful of a good nights sleep.

We tend to go quite a long way from home, so I try and get a night or two in a B&B at the start or end to break the journey and get a decent shower.
We're off next week and I'm looking forward to it!