Camping is something you either love or hate. I love it. I love camping in tents, in a caravan, in a motorhome – any kind of camping will do as long as I’m outdoors.
So for day 13 of #30DaysWild, I’m talking about camping. Sadly, I can’t actually do any this month because I’m heavily pregnant and it would probably break me, so I’m reminiscing.
My sister and I camped as children with my mum and we have some very fond memories. There aren’t many things as wonderful as waking up in the morning to the smell of dewy grass and fresh air.
My children have been camping in tents since they were mere months old, though the type of camping we do nowadays might be considered more like ‘glamping’ when you look at the amount of stuff we take with us.
Our favourite site
My favourite camp site is one not that far from where we live. Red Bank Farm Camp Site in Bolton-le-Sands, Lancashire. It is right on the coast, has lots of open space for the kids to play and has chickens roaming around the site. We’ve visited as a family many times and I always recommend it to people looking for somewhere to stay. Actually there was one incident that required an air ambulance but that’s another blog post entirely…
Everyone loves Red Bank Farm – especially Betsy.
Find a great site near you
There are thousands of camp sites in the UK and each one of them is different to the next. You can camp in a field with no facilities at all or you can stay on a busy complex with arcades and swimming pools – nobody can tell you the’best’ way to camp. It’s truly down to personal preference. My favourite website to use is ukcampsites.co.uk because you can filter your search results so much. It saves loads of time.
Halfords have a very useful camping guide which is a great place to start if you’ve never camped before or are looking for some inspiration, and I have a packing checklist you are welcome to refer to so you don’t forget any essentials.
Our favourite tents
Our first family tent was a Halfords own brand tent and it served us well – in fact, my sister took it when our family outgrew it and she still has it. If you’re buying for the first time then I would recommend having a look at their offers. We’ve since had several larger tents – an Outwell Montana 6 which was brilliant and so spacious, and we now have the Airgo Horizon Solus 6 – my favourite so far. Tents really are a matter of personal preference so make sure you visit a large camping shop with tents up so you can really get a feel for them before you buy.
On a smaller scale, we also have the Tentsile Stingray tree tent which is utterly fabulous for wild camping in the forest!
What tent do you have? What is your dream tent? Where is your favourite camp site?