3 Tips for a Successful Family Camping Trip

It's summer, finally! And one of the things we love to do, as a family, is go camping. Anyone else love pitching the tent, hiking, lighting up the campfire, and sleeping under the stars? Even before my husband and I had kids, we enjoyed these activities together. Now that he have kids, we want to share that love with them and make some good memories.

So, we took our kids on a camping trip. And it was terrible! There was so much crying, moaning, complaining, and no sleep. I could not understand how we spent all day outside (in the heat!) and neither one of them could sleep that night. You might be wondering, so I'll tell you, we have a son and daughter, four and one respectively. We knew our one year old might be a little young for camping, but we were willing to give it a go. Let me tell you; it took weeks to recover from that trip. I never wanted to take them camping again, but we had another camping trip set up a month later. I needed to make it a success, for my sanity. Upon trial and error, I've come up with three easy tips to help you make your family camping trip a success. Learn from my mistakes, people!


1. Have A Plan

The days of throwing your tent, sleeping bags, and a cooler full of beer and hotdogs into the trunk are officially over. Just like any traveling that involves your precious children, there needs to be a game plan. The easiest thing to do is plan your meals. This will take the pressure off when it's time to sit down and eat. I've started making food ahead of time, freezing it, and tossing it in the cooler on departure day. It's effortless to reheat a pan of frozen chili in a cast iron skillet. Add some Fritos, and you've got dinner!

Make it easy on yourself and find recipes that involve reheating and don't require a lot of utensils, pots, and pans. We only take our cooking grill (sometimes you don't even need this), cast iron skillet, a pocket knife, and a metal spatula. That's all. We can pretty much cook anything with that.
There are tons of ideas on Pinterest if you look up backpacking meals and camping meal prep. Your kids will be happy eating a real dinner every night and not just hotdogs and chips.


2. Lower Your Expectations

This was a hard lesson for me to learn. Usually, my kids love being outside, being independent, and sleep like rocks. None of that happened while camping. And I should've been prepared. Going off the grid, even for just a few days, can be hard on kiddos. The things they've come to rely on are gone, and we all know how kids crave structure and familiarity. So when we expected our kids to sleep on blowup mattresses (we fancy), they had no idea what to think.

My son came around to the idea, but my one-year-old daughter could not cope. She didn't sleep all night, which made the next day nearly unbearable. So, the next camping trip, we took the Pack and Play. And, yes, I'm sure people judged us and made fun of us, but guess what? She slept. No problem. Yes, it was a pain to take it. It takes up a lot of room in the tent and the car, but it was necessary for her. It may seem silly to be overly accommodating with your kids, but you have to choose your battles.


3. Squash the Boredom

While the biggest perk, for me, when camping is peace and quiet, kids can only manage about an hour of it. My kids are in constant motion. And after the entire campsite had been explored, they were both looking bored, and the whining quickly came after that. I love sitting in my camp chair and simply doing nothing. It's the highlight of camping for me. Not for my kids.

Take some yard games with you and set them up for your kids. I found some great ones in the dollar section at Target (you guys know what I'm talking about) that fold up reasonably small and are easy to set up. Give your kids something to do besides 'run around.' Honestly, they can only run in the heat for so long.

Research the area where you are camping and see if they have any nature trails, fun natural attractions (like a stream, waterfall or cave), or even a pool. Though you may not need entertaining, your kids do, so make a plan to keep them active and engaged. They'll soon love the outdoors as you do.


I hope these three tips will help you on your next family camping trip. They have saved as a multitude of times this summer while camping with our kiddos. Do you have some useful tips for me? I'd love to hear how you make getting out in nature fun and exciting for your kids. Please share, like, comment, and subscribe. See you next time!