What kit do we need?

[sahmtotwo]

Hi

We've just been given a huge great frame tent. We've never camped before and have no idea what we need. Please can anyone make any suggestions on what we need to buy. Thought this time of the year will be when things are a bit cheaper in sales etc.

Any advice will be gratfully recieved.

It is worth buying now, you need to decide if you want basic or posh.

When we started we took bedding (air beds and sleeping abgs / duvets); single stove; kettle and cheap ASDA picnic set; camping chairs and that was pretty much it, we bought disposable barbecues as we went along.

We've steadily upgraded since then, better cooking equipment etc but still use a minimum- has to be all packed into a proton with a large tent and 3 kids after all LOL!

Seriously, browse around, but don't be fooled by the fiddly stuff. Cooking / eating; sleeping; sitting and a corkscrew, that's what matters

You will find you start off with the basics and pick up ideas from what you see other people using and what you find you miss!

I would start with:

An airbed for yourselves, roll mats will do for kids
A cooker: depends how much you think you will do, either a stand alone single burner and pan set or a double burner with a larger gas bottle and some old pans from home.
A table or 2! Believe me you will get fed up of eating on the floor after all of 2 seconds. A table of some sort for your cooker so you are not bending over is great (you can get waht are essentially shelf stacks which are great for cooker and storage) and then a folding table for you. The picnic table style ones are good as they fold up small and have seats on them.
Chairs: Sod the kids but you will be screaming for back support at the end of a week so a couple of canvas fold up chairs.

After that anything else depends on how much car space you have etc. Awnings are great as it always rains when you go camping! We just have a big tarp which we fix to the back of the tent so it overlaps (no leaking) and then 2 long retractable poles we got from a friendly caravan dealer so we don't have to rely on suitably positioned trees. Gives a good area to be able to still eat outside the tent if it buckets it down.

A good lantern style torch also pretty useful.

Start off going for a weekend, long enough to see what you need, snoop at what over people have etc but not long enough to matter if you forget sometihng important and end up running away and eating at the pub!

Message withdrawn

Ah yes, torches- several good torches one of the best investments you can make for camping

Chairs for kids- some booster seats double up well we find!

cooking- we have the camping gaz party grill and would recommend hugely, had the smaller model before, really compact but fab

Thanks for the advice ladies.

We have just bought a cooker. It has 3 rings and a griddle that sits over the top. It was £29.99 which seemed to be good value.

check out the outdoor mega store online, they've got some good stuff cheap.

you might want a cooker stand - especially with the kids around. a table next to the cooker stand for prep as well. the picnic table previously mentioned is great.

lanterns for a decent bit of light at night - we all crowd into our bed and read a few chapters from our kids story book before they drop off!

wind breaks! last trip to NOrth Devon was soo windy!

some sort of water carrier/store, a chilli bin, cheap plastic picnic set, kettle, pan set, utensils, storage bin for all of the above.

i find it easier to have a full camping set rather than raid the kitchen coz i always forget something or it doesn't make it home!

we do the blow up double bed for us and singles for my skids, dd was still in travel cot this year so...... the skids have sleeping bags but we take duvet/pillows. electric pump with car adapter!

washing line, washing up kit etc.

an extra groundsheet is always useful for outside so you're not traipsing dirt in every time.

hth, can't think of anything else off the top of my head!

welcome to the wonderful world of camping - i love it!