Last week I wrote a blog post about our first family camping trip to River Dart Country Park. You can read this blog post here. We had an amazing time. There was so much for all of us to do and the site was lovely and clean.
Before going on our first camping trip, I did quite a bit of research online. I looked into the best tents, sleeping bags, self inflating mattresses, cooking stations etc. I felt pretty prepared for our trip. I even wrote a blog post called Everything you need to know about your first family camping trip.
While I still stand by everything I wrote in that blog post, I’ve also learnt a few things from our trip that I didn’t cover in that blog post.
Firstly putting our tent up was pretty easy so I definitely stick by having a practise go at home in your garden before you first go camping.
What I wish I done though was invest in another folding picnic table. We had one folding picnic table which is great because the four stools it comes with fold up inside it. In addition we had one small folding table.
We used the small folding table to put our kettle and toaster on. Yes, we took our own kettle and toaster! It had to be done! We then used the folding picnic table to put our gas stove on. The plan was to then take the gas stove off the picnic table so that we could all sit around the picnic table to eat.
In hindsight, it wasn’t an easy task moving a hot gas stove, especially when you have children.
So, one thing I would like to do before our next camping trip is invest in another folding picnic table.
On the subject of tables. I think we could have probably done with another one inside the tent to put drinks bottles and snacks on etc.
I would also bring an electric desk lamp with me .We used lanterns and torches and in hindsight, we had EHU (electric hookup) so why we didn’t just bring an electric lamp along, I don’t know!
I think I’d also invest in a bike rack so that our girls could bring their bikes with them. We did bring their fold up scooters, but bikes would have been a lot better.
In addition, I think we may also need to invest in a roof box. We packed pretty lightly (I think). We had just one backpack each of clothes for example, but trying to cram everything into my Vauxhall Meriva wasn’t an easy job. It was like real life Tetris trying to find a space for everything.
Finally, the last thing I learnt is to check with the campsite you’re going to, to see what they have on site. We took charcoal with us and we didn’t really need to as the onsite shop sold this amongst things that would have saved us some boot space!
Have you been camping? What are your top tips? Let me know in the comments below.
