Easiest possible Tent to put up,and your fast camping tips.

[jardy]

DH has severe back problems due to MRSA following brain surgery.We also care for our severely disabled son in his 20s.I work ft,dh works pt,oh and we are in debt!
No chance of a holiday except camping.We do have a dome tent which we used last year.
We will get a few weekends respite this year,can you help me please by suggesting a really easy tent to put up,thats fast.Also any other ideas so that it will be worth going away camping for the weekend.When I have told my dh that I would love to go away camping for the weekend,at least to have something to look forward to,he gives an involuntary shudder and says its not worth it,because of all the hassle involved putting it up etc
I have heard of those umberella tents but maybe you can recommend one,there is a confusing choice.THANK YOU!!

we have a large kyham - they are suppossedly quick erect - but they aren't - not sure if thats what you mean by umbrella? if you are only going for the weekend and want something easy i would go for something small, only go if the weathers good and then you don't need a large living area as you could sit outside. i can see why your dh shudders as i'm not sure i would camp if i had a bad back - too much leaning over

Pop-up tents - they're marvelous!! And the design is so SIMPLE! I wish I'd thought of it. They literally go up in two seconds - done! And once you can figure out how to put them down again...that's easy too.
I have an old ex-PO Postman Pat campervan and take DS14 to weekend music/kite/reenactment/whatever festivals or camping sites (or just wild-camping) - I bet there'll be one for any interest. We keep a couple of 2-man pop-up tents (Quechua) in the van for DS and friends, so's I can have van all to myself, heh heh.

Thank you very much!Great ideas x

as GardenPath says, if it's just for a w/e then a pop up tent is perfect.

I take a tarp along as well, with a couple of poles that all goes up in about 5 mins if it is looking like it is going to rain and I need some shelter to cook under.

If your dh is shuddering at the thought you HAVE to go minimal. Seriously is is very refreshing. No to windbreaks and chairs and tables and massive amounts of cooking apparatus and any of that guff.

Tent, mat, sleeping bag, clean pants, toothbrush and paste, wipes and the most minimal amount of cooking stuff as possible for your needs.

You will enjoy w/e breaks infinitely more if you take less stuff.

You need overmydeadbody. She is the uber minimalist camper.

Thank you very much Slubber,like the idea of the tarp!

If he has a bad back, make room for one comfortable chair and a good campbed/Fat Airic or something - have him road test them at home first to avoid any surprises.

Minimal is the way though - our best camping outings were in the motorbike days

Hope you find a suitable tent, some good tips here.

I'm off this Wednesday night with dp for one night camping behind a pub, costs a fiver per tent and has loos open with hot water . We take next to nothing really. I agree wet wipes are very useful. Have you thought of mess tins? You can cook then eat out of them. They aren't that cheap though so maybe not a good idea. I'd like some and sad as it sounds might ask for a 4 (or cash for some) for my birthday

I'll be following this thread too as always happy to hear of money saving tips.

Been googling as got excited talking about mess tins and found these here

I think we'll be taking a trip to Go outdoors (again) before Wednesday

Our kyham goes up in about 15 minutes as long as it's not windy - takes a bit longer then and it's large.

When going minimal we take:

tent
tarp (blue v cheap plastic cover thing from B&Q)
blow up bed
Blower upper of bed - small and saves loads of time, we got ours from Aldi so v cheap
Duvet if in car sleeping bags if on bikes
Pillows - not if on bike
kettle
tea
sugar
milk - enough for first morning
2 x cups
1 x spoon
and a collapsable water bottle
Couple of changes of underwear
Shorts if sunny and something warm because it's the UK!

Depends on whether you decide to eat out or not really. Not eating out means carrying more stuff iyswim.

WentCampingWithA14WeekOldTiggaxx

Forgot little stove.

OursIs16YearsOldTiggaxx

I have 2 plastic, lidded boxes, full of all the cooking bits. Then another with spare batteries & torches. Makes it much quicker when packing for a weekend break.

you sound very organised dawntigga. Can I ask though why the no spaces at the end of messages? Or is this something I've missed?

Curiousmama it came as a reaction to some sites where women put DS36 still BF etc on them and I started to have some fun with that.

It'sNowMySchtickTiggaxx

We have a Quechua 4.2 seconds base pop up tent and can put it up in about 5 minutes, I would really recommend a pop up tent, ours has 2 bed sections and a middle living area.

I wish pop up tents would pop down as easily
as they pop up...

Thank you for all these tips.
Here is one of my own,I take stuff from charity shops to wear and throw the lot away at the end of the holiday as one thing about camping is all the washing when you come back!

jardy that is a terrible waste, really. Do you have no conscionce? Are you really happy to just add to the huge rubbish tips already because you are too lazy to stuff a bit of washing in a machine?

Sorry, only juat read your op, maybe with that amount of stress already you are allowed the luxury of throwing away your dirty clothes! My apologies at my earlier shock.

MInimalist is the way to go, only take the bare essentials that you might need, as Slubber has already said (I see I taught you well Slubs)

I have teo robust plastic lidded boxes, and apart from the tent and sleeping bags, if it can't fit in one of the boxes it doesn't come with us. That's when we are going camping in a car and are not slumming it by my standards.

When we are relying on public transport it is a lot simpler, we only take what we can carry. Not a lot when it's just one adult and a small child, that's for sure!

I plan every meal we are going to be eating in advance, and stick to simple easy to prepare foods. You don't need a lot for a weekend, especially if you go to a pub for at least one meal!

SuperSal if the charity shops round here are anything to go by, it would be cheaper for her to buy all new stuff form Primark and then pay a laundrette to wash and dry them all aftewards.

I am ashamed to read my previous post - of course it is wrong to be so wasteful.
I wrote that in a hurry and cringe to read it.
I would like to retract it and thank you for quite rightly pointing it out.Please don`t throw anything away,maybe take strong bin bags to chuck everything in for washing when you come back ( goes to hide )

I buy my knickers from ASDA £1 for 5.
. Heres another tip,their TSHIRTS,brilliant value,I think I paid £2.50 and less for my dhs tshirts from ASDA.
They were brilliant.I did get some lovely ones from Charity shops but they were dearer.
I do support the Charity shops as much as I can.
I promise,I WON`T throw ANY clothes away.
I recycle as much as I can,honest