Tips for first time in a camper van please!

[Tiredbadger]

Hi,

We have booked to go away in a new vw camper for a week in July. Going with DH and DDs (3&1).

Has anyone got any tips on essentials to take with us? We will be staying in sites in Pembrokeshire with shower facilities etc.

Thanks!

take a suitcase burner thingy so you don't have to cook stinky food in the van where you sleep. take an awning the extra space is essential as there isn't enough room otherwise esp if it rains and you need extra space to store car seats etc when the beds are out. relax bedtimes - my kids turn nocturnal when away so don't expect any sleep - it's far too exciting apparently😕 a bucket type loo is great for nightime wees - to use in the awning. take pens, colouring books and an iPad. lots of warm clothes - my kids sleep in onesies, a gillet and a hat.
err there must be more but can't think now. good luck it's a beautiful part of the world.

go to bluestone - they have an amazing centre parcs style pool. tenby and st David's are lovely.

Make a good note of how tall it is; lots of car parks have height restrictions.

Thanks all - some great tips there!

Planning a trip to Bluestone, looks amazing.

IKEA fleece blankets are key! Easy for wrapping around you at breakfast after trekking to the loo, great for wrapping around you when you're all around the fire and excellent as another layer in bed (we put them underneath our sheets. They are less than £3.

A dustpan and brush is essential.
Store food or other essentials that don't fit in a cupboard in a Really Useful box - they are great as little drinks tables or foot stools when outside.

Other essentials:

• Loo roll
• Hand gel
• Black bin bags
• Dog poo bags
• shower flip flops
• LED fairy lights (we buy them from Amazon in a pack of 3 wire lengths of fairy lights with batteries for £6 and they last a week or so of constant evening use before the batteries die) - our smaller children find these a lot less scary than torch light and not as bright as the main lights which wake up the babies.
• Cleaning wipes
• Gloves, hat and scarf for all no, matter what time of year you are going
• Suncream
• Sunglasses
• Windbreaks even just to secure spot on sites when you go out for the day
• Download children's audio books, we always find them useful for getting them used to drifting off in the van the first couple of nights.
• Pancake mix (the ones you add milk to a bottle and shake) make for fun and easy breakfasts with fruit.

Make sure when you pull up and don't intend to go out again in the van that you get it ready for bed time. So literally the second you pull up, everything that doesn't need to be in the van is out and situated (BBQ, car seats, camping chairs etc) then pull the beds out, put the pillows and duvets in place. Put your book where it needs to be, put the phone charger into the plug socket ready to go, wind up torches, check head torches are working and hand them out. Locate the food you want to cook and all the booze for the evening, find the corkscrew too! I make it a military operation as soon as we pull up. 5 minutes of marching around sorting stuff out equals an evening of relaxing because you don't have to disturb the sleep children later or have to hunt around in the cold and dark.
At about 5.30 I take the children down to the shower block, we all have warm showers and dry our hair (I take a foldable travel hairdryer) then we put our pyjamas (and a vest) on with our clothes over the top which they find hysterical. Plus I make them all put a hat, thermal socks and big hoodie on. That way everyone is warm and ready for bed without the fuss of getting stripped off and changed when it is dark and cold. As a reward we all have cocoa and marshmallows.

We like to spend most of our time out doors around a fire and eat outside unless it is raining so most of what we do is centred around being warm outside and not having to make too much effort in getting everyone to sleep or having to open the loud sliding door too often once they are down for the night.
I keep my handbag in the footwell of the passenger seat which has most of my essentials in it but I can just grab it from the front with our opening the dreaded sliding door. We also put the extra booze there too 😂😂

Sorry that was really long!

Yours must be very small and biddable Keira, mine would have laughed at the idea of getting in their pyjamas at 5.30 when camping.

Fantastic tips!

Thank you Kiera - so many things I hadn't thought of!

Tinkly Yes only the small ones (but OP's DC are young), the older ones are old enough to sort themselves out and sleep in a tent.