Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Camping

Our UK Camping forum has all the information you need on finding the right equipment for your tent or caravan.

How long does it take you to set up and break down?

11 replies

chaosisawayoflife · 05/09/2014 21:51

Just out of interest. How long does it take you from arriving at site to being fully set up, and at the end of the holiday how long does it take you to get everything packed up and drive off? Last holiday it took us about 2 hours for both, not rushing and trying to keep 2 small dcs safe and entertained.

OP posts:
kelda · 05/09/2014 21:52

I'd say about two hours as well. We get the children to help by pumping up the mattresses.

KnappShappeyShipwright · 06/09/2014 02:30

For a long stay, it's getting on for two hours. The tent goes up in around 35 mins and the rest of the time is filled with arranging the insides - carpet, airbeds, kitchen etc. Coming home takes around 3 as packing it in the trailer is stressful. About half way through the process one of us will make threat of switching to a caravan...

It's an 45 mins up and an hour down for short stays - smaller tent, just SIMs and no furniture.

MissWimpyDimple · 06/09/2014 06:08

The tent itself is pretty quick, but moving and building everything else takes an hour or so.

Breaking camp takes about the same depending on how well we clean and store everything!

CrispyFB · 06/09/2014 19:55

After three camps, it's Blush 4-6 hours depending on how hectic the four DC are being. To be fair, DH has to do much of it on his own as the baby is a velcro baby right now, and the three year old seems to like undoing anything we've done. And there are six of us and a lot of fancy bedding and general tat. But it's a lot longer than we'd like, for sure.

Hopefully it will get faster as we a) get more experienced and b) the children become less of a hindrance and more of a help (oldest is nearly 8, doesn't really help either yet, sigh)

freckleonear · 08/09/2014 12:09

Less than an hour for both. We have a bell tent which goes up in about 15-20 minutes, so the rest of the time is just unpacking/packing the car and arranging everything.

Ineedmorepatience · 08/09/2014 19:55

If DP and I manage to work as a team we can do it in under 1.5 hours, if not wll who knows Wink

If I am on my own I move really slowly but never more than 2 hours.

I have a ridiculous amount of kit and am very anal about how it is packed though Smile

Oh and we only camp with pop ups so the tents take about 10 minutes each including guy lines Smile

troutsprout · 10/09/2014 10:25

I have read this and am wondering why it takes us so blardy long to strike camp!. Setting up is fine -20 mins for tent.. Stuff in and sorted in about another hour/ hour and a half
Packing up for home is horrible though! Seems to take all morning ! About 4 hours!
I only camped once this summer ( used to camp 3 or 4 times) as the packing up has seriously dented my camping mojo.
And then you come home and have to start again!

I think I need to seriously reduce the amount we take... Everyone is kind of adult sized now.. I think that's part of the problem .The footwear alone seems to half fill the car. When they were little, a couple of pairs of crocs / sandals didn't take up much room.
Now we have to pack the car very carefully.

Naoko · 19/09/2014 18:27

I'm not your average camper, I'm a live roleplayer, but we managed a new record this weekend - unloaded van, pitched and arranged 3 bells, a tipi and a popup tent in an hour and a half. Takedown was more like three hours, which was also really good time. It takes longer because everyone is knackered and all the stuff is in disarray rather than neatly packed. That's with about 7 of us though, not just me and DP, and no small people to 'help'. :)

4yoniD · 08/10/2014 22:49

old tent, 4 to 5 hours , new tent is more like 2 hours (so long as we tidy up the night before we take the tent down). Tent is under 30 minutes but then there's the beds to deflate, collecting up rogue loom bands, playing tetris to fit everything in the car, etc. 2 adults, 2 young kids, and a Quechua base seconds family 4.2xl pop up tent.

pauline6703 · 15/10/2014 21:02

We took about an hour and a half to fully get everything organised. After half an hour the tent was up, the carpet down and the wine poured and on the table. After that all the small things took ages. Then one really windy day it took nearly two hours to get the tent up, I had hurt my neck and could not help as much do DH had to do it all himself. On the way home we bought a caravan, now we take 15 minutes to set up, well probably less than that and also we are able to enjoy being away through the winter.

cyclecamper · 17/10/2014 21:31

About half an hour to set up - to the point of the kettle being on, including airbeds etc (it was less in the days before one of us had to chase the toddler!) and about and hour and a half to 2 to pack up, more if it's raining. We mostly cycle camp so have a small tent and fairly compact equipment. We can do it faster if the toddler co-operates.Smile

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread