With a little bit of planning, camping can be an easy, affordable, family friendly activity that can be enjoyed by everyone from babies to grandparents. You will find below 7 family camping tips!
Family camping tips and tricks
As beautiful spring weather bursts forth, I just want to get outside and enjoy nature. Everywhere I look, I see kids going crazy with the glee of being outdoors, without snowsuits and boots, enjoying the finest of the season – getting into mud, checking out the flowers, running through the grass. If this fine weather has inspired you to start dreaming of a summer holiday, you might want to consider camping.
1. Kids camping tips
Do kids love camping? Do they ever! Beaches, playgrounds, lots of sunshine, tasty treats, campfires, and the novelty of tents make for an irresistible combination. Even the “city kids” seem to really enjoy the experience – camping no longer means “roughing it”. Campgrounds come equipped with hot water and showers, free Wi-Fi, general stores, and even hot food kiosks. If you’re going camping for the first time, it can be a bit intimidating to figure out all the gear, food, and information.
2. How to start camping as a family
Ontario is fortunate to have an extensive network of beautiful, well maintained provincial parks that offer an orderly, user-friendly camping system. As soon as you have settled on your dates, be sure to reserve your site. Some of the most popular campgrounds sell out five months in advance, especially during holiday weekends. I find it easiest to call the campsite directly and ask the staff for their recommendation. Let them know how many children you have and how old they are –the staff can help you select a site that has a nice balance between bathrooms and beach proximity. Ottawa residents have a choice of one municipal campground site, Wesley Clover Parks, several provincial parks within an hour’s drive, and many more in a 3 hour radius. Having a short drive will make your trip less tiring and, in case of any tummy trouble, you can easily get back home.
3. No Tent – No Problem!
If you don’t own a tent, considering borrowing some camping gear before investing in it yourself. You can bypass sleeping bags in favour of regular blankets, but you’ll want to have a good quality air mattress (this is the key camping tip between good and bad sleeps!) Flashlights and headlights are another must have. We forget how dark it gets at night and you’ll want easy navigation to the bathrooms! A roll of paper towel, a container of wet wipes, and biodegradable plates and cutlery will make your first camping trip an easier one.
Campers big, small, and even canine require high quality sun and bug protection and lots of hydration. For your first few short camping trips, you can bypass specialty equipment in favour of a little creativity – last summer, we helped friends bath their 3 month old by creating a tub out of our plastic food bin! Worked like a charm!
4. I’m Hungry!
Most campsites come equipped with a fire pit and metal grate, but typically campers only use it for evening campfires and roasting marshmallows. Cooking all of your meals over a fire pit can be fun, but also challenging. Bring along a camp stove for quicker cooking and prepare lots of easy, no cook snacks and meals.
Camp cooking can be as basic or fancy as you and your family want. Kids go crazy for classics like hotdogs cooked over open flame, gooey S’mores, and Jiffy popcorn, but you can also go all out and have some foodie fun! I’ve done a full Indian meal which was much easier than it sounds. Advance food preparation in sturdy Ziploc bags is the way to go!
Decide in advance how healthy you expect your children to eat. If you are going with other families, there might be a lot of temptation around! Consider having a very healthy breakfast (yogurt, fruit, whole grain muffins, scrambled eggs), followed by a moderately healthy lunch (cold cut sandwiches, fajitas, pitas, carrots, and dips). By mid-afternoon and into the evening, even the adults have a hard time resisting the chips!
5. I’m Bored!
Every family loves the experience of “camp time” – nothing scheduled, nothing planned; just fun and relaxation. But if you do want to experience something more structured, speak with the park rangers. There are daily ranger programs aimed for children and families that cover a wide range of topics, from fossils and rocks to searching for nocturnal animals! Most parks also have an extensive network of nature walks suitable for all abilities. In case of poor weather, I always bring along a few board games, books, and fun camping activities to pass a drizzly hour or two.
6. Camping tips: Rules of Three, Leaves of Three.
These are such important safety camping tips! Camping is a great time to leave the rules at home, but every trip requires some safety guidelines. I suggest having three firm rules: No playing around the fire pit (regardless of if there’s a fire), no leaving the campsite without telling someone; and one rule that works for your own family’s dynamics (No fighting and teasing? Don’t unleash the dog?)
Ask park staff for information concerning poison ivy and other reactive plants, often identified by the “leaves of three, let it be” rule. Last summer, we discovered an extensive poison ivy patch on our campsite and there was one notorious incident when the kids went streaking right through it! Remarkably, they emerged unscathed!
7. Family Friendly – YES! But is camping Budget Friendly?
Camping can be a very budget friendly activity. But the little costs of camping can easily add up and, if you’re on a tight budget, there are several expenses to look out for. Even if you borrow camping supplies, you will still have to stock up on groceries and convenience foods are very expensive. You’ll also likely be picking up juice boxes for the kids – along with bottles of “adult juice” for the grownups! Don’t forget to bring along money for campfire wood, cooler ice, and high grade bug spray.
Finally, communities around campgrounds contain many temptations; including ice cream stands, fudge counters, craft stalls, farmers markets, and festival fare. Help keep your expenses in check by setting up a basic budget like you would for any trip and consider issuing pocket money to the kids to keep the ice cream and slushy expenses more controlled.
Children don’t need beautiful hotel rooms, guided tours, or even clean clothing to make incredible travel memories that last a lifetime and bond a family together. A simple, inexpensive, low key camping weekend can become the kind of yearly tradition that your family looks forward to. I hope you enjoyed these tips for family camping and that your camping memories are as warm and endearing as mine!
I started working at a camp park so I am excited to learn camping tips. Maybe I’ll actually take advantage of the free camping
Keep everyone oriented. Make sure your crew, particularly kids, remember your campsite’s location. Help everyone memorize the site number or point out landmarks (“We’re 4 sites from the amphitheater”) to help them recall its location. Write the number down on cards and hand them to everyone.
That’s a great idea! Campsites are often arranged in a bit of an unusual pattern to take into account the lay of the land and I often get lost myself! I can’t count the number of times I learned about a short cut to the bathrooms on the last day of the trip just because I only really knew one route – the long one!
If your children are old enough to go exploring on their own, make sure they know the site number and make it easy for them to relocate, mentioning landmarks like you suggested and even tying some balloons or ribbons on the site post.
Remember that some of the larger provincial parks have several different campgrounds within their boundaries. Usually they are separated by natural features and are quite a distance apart, but occassionally the boundries can touch so it’s important to be aware of this so no one (including the wine-indulging adults!) get lost and look for their campsite in the WRONG campground!
We go camping every year with everyone in the family ,grandchildren and all.These are some really good tips to teach them.Thanks.
Thanks for the tips
Time to get out and start camping please review all the rules you have with the kids and adults so everyone is on the same page
When I was a kid my mother took us camping all over Ontario but the best part of it was she somehow saved enough money for a secondhand trailer. Some of my best memories are from us camping but I’m not a camper anymore but now we stay at my mothers cottage instead.
I did enjoy camping way back when but now more of a fan of glamping!
I have a full range of camping equipment to donate,
High quality Eureka shelter and tents, new Coleman stove , kitchen utensils and lighting including solar
If you are interested please let me know. It could make camping affordable if parents can rent or use this equipment
These are great tips for family camping