Calling all happy campers!

[mum2twins]

I am a complete camping novice and quite honestly the idea fills me with dread, but my husband has just bought us a family tent!!!! His idea of comfort and mine are poles apart. Can anyone recommend the vital things we need such as something comfy to sleep on (my main problem is it all sounds really uncomfortable) and any other 'must haves'. Also can anyone recommend any brillaint sites for 4/5 year old twins!

there is another camping thread on the go at the mo. Hang on....

here

thanks I have forwarded my DH the thread as he is in charge of the tent - anybody got any ideas on the equipment etc

Go to Halfords. But yourself an electric fridge, two air beds, an electric pump,and a fold up armchair. Supply yourself with wine (chilled from the fridge) and a good sleeping bag- et voila! Happy camping!

Seriously, Halfords has some good stuff, and it's all pretty affordable. Also try a good camping shop- I think theres one called ccc outdoors thats located in Wakefield, but also do online ordering. Sorry, I have treid and tried to do links, and can't quite make it!

UK campsite.co.uk is a brilliant site to help you find a campsite- they have reviews too.

I know how you feel- three years ago it was me. I got seriously put off in my teens when there was a cyclone in the middle of an enforced guide camp! Now though, I really love it, and so do my girls. Added bonus- kids get exhausted, and so sleep through anything. Hence the need for a fridge and wine noted above!

I'm off camping tomorrow and I'm counting the hours. I'm a super softie but just love camsites in France which have all the things that make our family happy, bar, reseturant, pools, playgrounds bike hire etc

Also have a look at www.outdoormegastore.co.uk

Oh and see if you can borrow kit and try before you buy, can save expensive mistakes!

mumtotwins - have just been to a site in South wales just outside Brecon called Brynich caravan park - they have their own website (sorry am hopeless at links), excellent facilities, swing park, adventure playground, recreation field, lots of showers/washing up room/microwave fridge etc. Cost us £14 for the night - 2 adults/3yr old and dog.

there is also a soft play barn within the park (at an extra charge) adn a fully licensed restaurant.

Took us about 4 hours from West Yorkshire with 2 stops

Park Resorts

We had an amazing week at Park Resorts Nodes Point (Isle of Wight) last year, they have the usual entertainment beloved by all school age kids (esp my eldest two then 4 and 3, and the most fabulous beach right on the exit of the site- St Helens Beach on one side has a restaurant / beach cafe and a supplies store, and sandy family beach; look the other way to Nodes, where Rockpools abound. The Supplies shop puts up signs advising of big ships passing from Southampton, we spent an amazing summers evening on the beach waiting for the Queen Mary to pass by.

This year we are going to Woodlands in Charmouth, recommended by a family member: we know Charmouth very well as DH grew up nearby, and as the place is a mix of fab (again not overly commercial) beach, dinosaur wals, fossils and rockpools they'll love it. there's also Lyme regis and Weymouth nearby.

Our local main Post Office in Newport sells UK Camping Guides which lists and grades hundreds of site; maybe yours does too?

We're also novices at family camping. We have some stuff from 'before', but didn't seem to mind the discomfort as much, then. We're planning a week or 10-days camp later this month, so we did a 2-nighter in July to find out what we really needed extra. We stayed at Hurley Riverside Park - very good indeed. No entertainment laid on, but our two (nearly 5 and 2.6) had lots of fun making friends and just playing.

Essentials: Something comfy to sleep on - you need more comfort than children do. They will be fine on campermats, but you may prefer airbeds. Definitely have campermats at least for the children because the ground gets very cold, no matter how many blankets you put down. A couple of washing-up bowls and facecloths, in case the showers aren't good enough (or too hot, as they were at HRP). Clothes-airer, to dry off towels and raincoats if it rains. Comfortable seating and a lantern (we got a rechargeable one from Lakeland) because you won't be able to slope off to the pub once the children are asleep. A decent cool-box - we got one that runs off the car while you're driving, and is just an ordinary box otherwise. Plenty of outdoor toys, plus something to do if it rains. Take more than the bare minimum of cutlery and crockery if you plan to do any cooking. Wellies, and sandals for the showers if you're squeamish. (Let the children run around barefoot if the ground is wet - skin dries faster than anything else, and you get less mud in the tent that way than if you have to keep reminding them to take their shoes off every time they come in.) Someone recommended waterproof trousers for the children - a veyr good idea, I'm still trying to find some.

Have fun! We'll try to as well!

millets for waterproof trousers BTW

Bit sad and hopeless this - thermometer so you know how cold it gets at night. Ds1 was covered in all our coats the first time we went camping as we didn't realise before how cold he would get at night, and I was mortified when we went to give him a kiss last thing at night how cold he was.

OK Jamiesam you've worried me now - cold? in August? really? So, we've got airbeds but should I put something under the airbed to stop the cold rising? We'll already be on a groundsheet plus the inner tent groundsheet.

Is our car big enough for all this?

No, no, sorry! We were just a bit hopeless on how cold it was outside even in August. We didn't have proper sleeping bag for ds, just his normal 'grobag' and a blanket, nowhere near enough for camping - tbh I think we might just take single duvets for ds's when we go camping at August Bank Holiday. (Hurrah )

I thought I would take the kids' quilts as well as their sleeping bags just in case but as you will see I have advertised for a roof box because the car is getting fuller!

Where are you going jamiesam? We are going to the New Forest.

Must confess we have a trailer as no way we could fit everything in boot of Golf. (We'll be bringing travel cot for ds2 - can just picture the other campers laughing at us now - oh and I bring the washing up bowl too!)

Malham in the Yorkshire Dales (It's grim, err cold, oop North!)

Oh god we are going by bike. No car just a trailor for DD who is 14 months and lots of panniers. For a warmer sleep nothing beats cardbord boxes flattened under the carry mat. Take baby wipes for sprucing everyone up after meals etc. If you have any mini plastic bottles they are good for decanting shampoo, conditioner and washing up liquid etc into thus saving space. A light is very important for in the tent when you can't find a damn thing and pack a warm fleece for each member of the family. Enjoy the stars!

If you've got space, one of these under a child's airbed would make a huge difference. (They're made of foam.)

Always put everybody to bed in socks too - if your feet are cold it will wake you up even if the rest of you is quite warm.

Thanks JanH - great idea. I'm hoping that we'll be sweltering in the tent in August but I always was an optimistic fool!

I trying to travel light without skimping on the essentials.

I am so looking forward to no telly on, no phone ringing, no dishwasher to stack, sitting on my chair with my feet on DH's chair drinking wine, gazing at the stars in a quiet field, with two sleepy children tucked up in bed. Am I heading for a fall with this dream? My friends just cut short their holiday in Cornwall because of endless rain. I don't want much, just a stress-busting week of P&Q.

We put the childrens' campermats in a single duvet cover, because the mats tend to slide around, and the children tend to end up under the mats (how do they do it!?), with an old 1-season sleeping bag opened up between the duvet cover and the mats. Ds slept in an old but warm adult sleeping bag with about 18" of the foot tied off so that he wouldn't get lost in it, and dd slept in her ordinary sleeping bag (some people call it a grobag) and light blanket, jsut as she does at home. They wore long pyjamas and were fine. If you've got inflated airbeds, then I shouldn't think you'd need campermats as well.

And as for the amount of stuff you seem to need (how did we ever manage with just a couple of rucksacks before?), our estate car boot was nearly full to the roof, plus sleeping bags in the rear footwells, and we thought we'd exagerated what we need, but couldn't imagine managing with much less. Yet at the campsite we realised that our pitch was quite sparse compared to others: we had no chairs, no table, no awning, no badminton net, no folding kitchen, no multi-burner stove...

BTW has anyone used one of these ?

We're considering buying one, but want to know whether they're powerful enough. Also, whether you can put the stove on top of the case for cooking, as the pictures in some catalogues implie (not this one, obviously).

Hi peeps,
In my extensive research of ukcampsite, I noticed that apparently it's not the cold that cause the cold on an airbed, it is infact the air in the airbed. So most useful would be to put a blanket or foam mat between the airbed and sleeping bag.
I don't know this from experience though

I guess that's when you start thinking about a trailer PC!!

Thanks for that, MrsD - dh thinks we ought to get an airbed because my old bones groan too much after a night on a campermat. Even my trusty old Thermarest, which I used to absolutely swear by for comfort, doesn't quite cut the mustard any more. Ah, childbearing...

The estate has roof bars...dh has started browsing catalogues of roofboxes...this is getting ridiculous - camping is meant to be light and easy...isn't it?