Camping with little ones...... tips please!

[spookycharlotte121]

Hoping to take ds and dd camping with a friend. they are 13 months and 2.1

am a bit nervous about it as they are still quite young..... anyone else don this before.

I was planning on putting ds in a ready bed and just having dd in bed with me.

I have found this tent which i think looks good although its got quite a small living space.

anywho could just use some feedback from other peoples experiances. cheers!!!

We go camping with our DCs - first year we've done it though. They're aged 6, 4, 2.5 and 10m and it's been fine. Baby in with us and toddler in a ready bed like her older sisters.

Take some things to do outside and inside the tent - balls etc. for outside, paper and crayons, books, games (if your toddler is able to play games yet) etc. for inside.

Get them waterproof trousers and coats and wellies so that if it rains it doesn't matter. Take plenty of spare clothes.

Don't bother with sleeping bags - take duvets (or take both!) - it can get cold at night if it's not hot weather. And lots of jumpers and socks.

Throw yourself into it and tell yourself you'll enjoy it!

Waterproof trousers are essential for toddlers when camping!

Sleeping bags are warmer but little ones tend to crawl out of them in the night so duvets might be easier.

Make sure they can eat at some sort of table (can improvise with box etc) otherwise food gets everywhere!

Be brave and go out in the rain. You'll go mad if you stay inside and it always sounds worse in the tent.

Enjoy!

I had terrible problems with dd 18mths sleeping in bag with me on air bed last time we went.
This time i got a little arc travel cot , took her grobag and quilt and she slept really well. More so i did too as she wasn't wriggling all over bed and getting out of sleeping bag!

Definately all in one waterproofs too to keep clothes clean and dry!

sounds great fun. Im hoping to go with a friend so i have some help with the kids. I loved camping as a kid so Im hoping this will be soemthing we can do a few times a year and once we have all the kit it should be pretty low cost. Im a little torn between what tent to get this one would last us for years to come and has a decent living space. I have found it online for £100 which seems pretty good to me. on the other hand there is this one which is a little less and would probs be easier to put up but might not grow with us as a family. Any opinions?

also where to i get waterproof trousers from? the kids already have waterproof macs

Have you seen the deal of the day on Ebay? Get thyselves over to Ebay and get thee some grobags.

We looked at the Icarus for a smaller weekend tent, but decided against it in the end as (going on the floorplan) there is just one large sleeping area, so no divider sheet. Your kids are a bit younger than ours though so you probably want them in with you - we like to have ours close but in a separate room! So for that reason, I'd go for the Venture.

I would say though, they both seem to be 2000HH - if you can stretch to it, I would go for something a little higher, 3000 min... though if you know you'll only camp in good weather, I guess it's not an issue. But almost every time we've been away we've had high winds and lots of rain, and our tent struggled to keep it out ( I think ours was a 2000HH, though don't quote me on that, it could have been 3000...). Of course that could just be that ours was a crap tent!

Def. agree with the waterproofs! When ours were smaller we just had the all-in-one suits (think we got ours from Millets or Trespass, somewhere like that, but Little Trekkers online has lots to choose from). We struggled to find trousers short enough for DS (I think the smallest they did was age 3-4 but they came up quite long).

Definitely do it though! We love camping, the children always make friends and have a great time, whatever the weather!

Ready beds - we just got the Junior ready beds from Argos ( not the character ones, just plain blue ones from the camping section) and they have been fine - DS was about 2.5 I think when he first went in it.

hi I'd agree with LittleFriendSusan if you could spend £20 more you could get a bit sturdier like this one..

www.allweathers.co.uk/index.asp?function=DISPLAYPRODUCT&productid=3550

or this one which is a bit smaller but probably more robust

www.gooutdoors.co.uk/tents/outwell-nevada-3-tunnel-tent/HEROTSEB290234

HTH