New to camping advice

[Icantbelieve]

Family of 4 plus dog. 5 year old and 3 year old.
All tips welcome. Never camped before don’t know where to start.

Also advice on destinations. We are in Yorkshire

We used camp beds, then there is room to store bags of clothes under the beds. Also, use the folding crates to store shoes in, and we had a large plastic trug with handles that we used for storage / washing up / washing the toddler.

Start with small 2 - 3 night max. trips. We did 10 nights in a tent and it finished us off, it was just too long without decent sleep. Depends if you're camping in the UK or abroad as well. In the UK the weather was never dependable enough for us.

We got an inflatable tent from Decathlon and it’s ace. Bit more expensive than a normal one but can be erected in minutes . Just don’t forget to buy the pump .

Make up rolls of clothes - eg tshirt, shorts, pants, socks and put elastic band on it. Saves a lot of rummaging

Be fanatical about not getting inside of tent wet. We would queue in the rain to shrug out of wet gear and boots in the doorway bit, but it’s really awful if you get bedding wet.

Never touch sides of the tent as it can damage the waterproofing

Luminous yellow guy lines are good.

Bring a pot with a tight lid: once brought to the boil pasta or rice will cook on by themselves on very little heat.

Go for a couple of nights close to home as a trial
Take babywipes
Stay somewhere that you can easily get to a 24 hour supermarket until you get the hang of it
Take more babywipes
Relax - it's not meant to be like being at home, you have to accept that things might get a bit grubby
Did I mention babywipes?

It's wonderful fun, the kids get to run feral with all the other campers kids, giving you time to sit in your deckchair and do NOTHING for once!

Just don't forget the babywipes, or a corkscrew...

Before investing a fortune in a tent, airbeds, gas stove, etc ask your friends/family/generic Facebook post if anyone has anything you can borrow - I did this last year and we borrowed a tent, sleeping stuff, cooking stuff, lights, etc.

Then have a trial run at a campsite close to home. Just one or two nights when the weather is good. That way you'll be able to figure out if it's something for your family.