Camping 101 - is camping possible with a VW Polo & more?

[TheClitterati]

So I think the time has come for us to start camping properly. We've done "glamping" when the DC were little, but I want to do proper camping now.

All I have is a Trangia, a solar phone chaerger, 2 solar lights and a couple of chairs so I am looking for advice on basic kit.

I drive a VW Polo which is smallish, and there is me & 2 DC - so I really do need to keep things compact & minimal.

I was hoping to intially camp in France (we are very close to France) and UK.

I would like to get a Bell Tent - I have stayed in one before and really liked it & its a piece of cake to erect. Are they good tents?

I saw on here someone said airbeds are no good and to get "proper" beds for camping - what are these please? Need to bear in mind I am hefty and a bit decrepid. We've all slept well on airbeds at festivals - are they no good for a week or more?

My ignorance is vast, my budget modest, but I do really love camping and being outdoors.

Space wise I think you are OK, we take 3 adults and a LOT of kit and food with us for long weekends in a Honda Jazz (utilising the spare back seat for more stuff), it's not the most comfortable journey ever and some tetris-ing is required to fit it all it but fundamentally its fine.

Bell tents look great but are likely to be more expensive and bulkier (certainly heavier) than other options, plus the well made ones are pricey, so if you are on a budget I'd probably go for a cheaper pop up tent, modern, mid range ones ones tend to be fine to put up - we have a Coleman Tourer which couldn't be easier, although probably on the small side to sleep you + 2 DCs and lacks a porch area which is handy for storage.

To sleep on I would recommend SIMs (self-inflating air mattresses). Good ones are by far the most comfortable sleeping option I've found, easy to transport as they roll up very compact when empty, no onerous pumping up process and they don't sag too badly overnight. Alternatively there are some good cheap compact camp beds options on the market which are potentially a little warmer as they lift you off the ground entirely but are more hassle to assemble IMO. My absolute essential kit list for first time purchases/borrows would be:

-Tent
-Chairs
-SIMs
-Sleeping bags appropriate for the nighttime temperatures you are looking at +extra blankets to go between you and mattress if you feel the cold
-Real pillows, not camping ones, we just take our normal ones from own bed
-Head torches
-Coolbox (ours keeps stuff cool for 2-3 days if well packed with ice which is so handy)
-Camping stove +saucepan(s)
-Plates, cups, knives, forks
-Good wellies and waterproofs, even in summer!

If you have space and the campside doesn't provide, I'd try and take a small barbecue as well, as this opens up a lot more cooking options! There is then a whole world of more kit you can buy if you get into it and have space/budget (wind breaks, tent carpet, more cooking kit, porches etc) but I think if you have the above you'll be fine. Enjoy!

maxelly that is so helpful thanks very much for taking the time to explain all that.

I do have a few other items on the list (head torches, and DD1 has a SIM she used for a Guides camp).

Great to hear you can do this in a Honda Jazz too.

I'm thinking of a trial run one of the May bank holidays not too far away from us (kent), and all going well adventuring to France (maybe Germany) for a week or so in the summer holidays.

Put all the light bulky stuff in a roof box

A bell tent is not compact if it is cotton canvas. Check pack size and weight.

You may also want to take a tarp with a bell tent to create a porch. Not many have windows, so you are very much shut in the tent in bad weather.

Cotton / canvas tents have to be packed away bone dry to prevent mildew. Have you got a garden or garage to dry it out if you get a wet pack up?

The cotton is much better in hot weather though and will last for ever compared to polyester.

You need a chair each, a table, stuff to sleep on and in, cooking and eating stuff, including a good cooler. Washing up bowl.

I think your car will be ver rightly packed.

We prefer SIMS to sleep I, they are insulated so warm, and don’t sag to the centre like blow-ups.

I do have a garage and a garden which I could use to dry out ant tent. . I have stayed in the Cotton bell tent before and they are fabulous.

I see they are selling polyester bell tents now which are a lot cheaper & lighter but they are being marketed as weekend/ festival tents so I imagine that they are nowhere near as durable, I do think family tents have to be pretty tough.

Polycotton or polyester?

Yeah, no point in a polyester bell tent!

Polyester (70dn, which most tents are) only has a life of 6 weeks under strong sunlight before the fabric starts to deteriorate and go crispy. Though now roof protectors and some UV resistant Fabsil spray is helping.

But cotton canvas tents feel the nicest to be in, cooler in heat, warmer in cold, less rustley in wind.

Will you get sewn in, zip in or toggle-in groundsheet?

So good to know thanks Blouse

Will absolutely get tent with a groundsheet- not sure of the pros and cons but I imagine zipped in is easiest?

I have never dealt with a zipped in groundsheet, only fully sewn in or ‘not sewn in’. But I know zipped in are common in bell tents.

I wouldn’t get ‘not sewn in’. Slugs and bugs will get in.

Polycotton, as opposed to polyester, is good: lots of the benefits of cotton but lighter and cheaper. But I suspect cotton is best.

I have a Dutch Pyramid canvas tent . Not a big tent but it is heavy and had a much bigger pack size than my polyester tent.

So I am a bit concerned about you fitting it all in a Polo unless you get a roof box.

We used to camp in a Mk 2 Golf. But that was pre DC. We're now fed up of messing around with roofboxes etc and in the process of downsizing our camping kit.

I would go for good quality, lightweight gear - think backpacking rather than glamping. If you have a bell tent you may not have room for all the pretty accessories. I would just get a good quality stand up height polyester 4 berth tent that packs to under 15kg. Self inflating mattresses, 4 season sleeping bags that stuff into small bags, folding table and armchairs and your cooking kit. If you start taking endless binbags of duvets, playmats, cardboard, blankets etc you will run out of room. It's helpful for your tent to have some kind of porch or section outside the groundsheet for dirty shoes etc.

What we do in small tents is roll the sleeping bags back during the day and spread a blanket over the mats, so the bedroom area becomes extra living space. You cant do this with airbeds. I'd get yourself a good 8cm SIM and take a pillow and maybe a small folding camp bed if you don't think you will sleep on the ground.

Also a tarp is very useful for extending your space and providing shelter/windbreak to supplement a small tent.

The single most important thing to me these days is that the tent (and sleeping bags) should have an oversized outer bag with compression straps. We're now on a Vango Airbeam and it is so much easier to pack up as the bag is 25% bigger than it needs to be.

Lots to think about thanks everyone.

Silly question but if you're staying in a campsite and you go out for the day, do you lock your tent? Or does everyone leave the tent & stuff in the hands of camping gods!

Don't leave valuables in the tent like phone, money etc but yes just zip up. If you try to lock the zip, the thieves will just cut your tent and destroy that too. We have never heard of of experienced any theft on a campsite though, touch wood. Campers are a friendly community.

Yup, just zip up the doors. Same rules as leaving stuff in car at a beauty spot car park - if it will make your life a misery if it goes, take it with you. So phone, money, vital meds, keys. One thing I did do when I had a trailer was chain it up to make it un-nickable though - obviously I wasn't going to tow the trailer around for days out during the holiday!
If you do festival camping and use a wheelbarrow or garden trolley to help cart kit around, do chain these up.

So I ended up trading in the Polo on a Qashqai and we are off for our first camping trip today! Car is well loaded. The Camping gas party grill is bulky - I doubt we would have got it all into the polo, but we will be comfy in the QQ.

Me and 2 dc. Lovely pop up low key Camo site.

Ha! Have fun! I was just going to comment that I took an extra adult plus two kids camping in a Polo (v squashed but fine), but see you've now got a Qashqui (spelling). Love a Qashqui How fabulous!
I hope you bought a table and camping chairs as that makes all the difference. Our table has a built in bench too, it was from Halfords. Brilliant for preparing food, eating and playing card games etc.

Just back from our first weekend camping - had a great time.

Yes we had chairs - no table but a kitchen thing I can prepare food on from decathlon - I'm 5'8" snd it was a great height to prep food on. We were happy to eat in our lap.

The Camping Gaz party cooker is quite big & takes up a big chunk of the boot. But super versatile- pot/kettle ring, bbq/grill, we put the lid on and and cooked that half baked bread 🥖, Dd cooked pancakes on the smooth grill side - so it's hard working and no need to take frying pan.

Question - we have bell tent with no porch. What on earth do you do for cooking if it rains? Use one of those gazebo things? Go to pub . We are going camping for a week next week do I need to sort it out.

Other thing we were missing is some where to hang towels?

Best tip - from a YT video is putting soap into leg of a pair of tights and making a loop to go over wrist, or hanging hook for showering and hang by water source for hand washing. Camping soap on a roap!