Camping: The Perfect Family Vacation

If you’d like to take the kids on a holiday, but are short of cash, then you may need to get creative with your holiday ideas. Cruises are reasonably priced these days, but not quite so reasonable that the average family could afford one in the current economy.  Road trips can be expensive – and stressful – for the driver, and traveling by plane could cost a fortune in the current climate. 

Fortunately, there are inexpensive holiday options out there.  Perhaps the best, and most frequently overlooked, low cost holiday is camping.  For your first camping trip you’ll need to buy some equipment, but that isn’t all that expensive, and you can use it for future trips, saving you even more money in the long term.

 

What Equipment Do You Need?

You don’t need a lot to enjoy a good camping trip. You just need a tent, maybe some sleeping bags, though blankets will work perfectly, and then everything else is just extra. Some people like to go all out when they go camping. They like to buy propane grills for cooking, portable stoves for boiling water and making soup, pots and pans and other cooking and eating utensils, and everything else they need to completely enjoy themselves while out in the great outdoors. However, if you truly want to rough it all you need is shelter, some food and water and nature. That’s it. So it all comes down to how much you actually want to rough it and how many luxuries you want while you’re camping.

Food for campers

Unless you fancy the hunter/gatherer life, you will need to take some food with you.  This could be ready-to-eat food from the supermarket, or some of those fancy packed meals you can get from camping stores.  You could also bring some ingredients and cook your own meals on a camping stove.  If you’re new to campfire cooking, you could pick up a camping cookbook that will give you some ideas for recipes that work well outside.  Usually, you need to stick to simple recipes that cook quickly and don’t require a large number of utensils – especially if you’re combining camping with hiking, as you don’t want to be weighed down with tons of unnecessary equipment.

Don’t Forget Water

If there’s one thing that you simply must remember, it’s water.  If you ran out of water you would become seriously unwell in a very short time, and your camping trip could turn into a fatal expedition.  Make sure you take enough water to keep everyone hydrated for the duration of the trip.

If you take the right equipment, and pick out a nice camping trip, the whole family should enjoy a fun, and relaxing, countryside holiday.