For a long time we didn’t even consider camping holidays as an alternative. We would ask why would you go camping and go through the hassle of making your camp, cooking and cleaning? After all, there are plenty all inclusive hotels and resorts at reasonable prices. You have plenty choices from resorts to mountain holidays, too.
We thought that people go on camping holidays for different reasons. One may be that they don’t have enough money and want an economic holiday. Or they have a specific purpose for camping like fishing, walking, hiking and they don’t have hotels and restaurants where they want to be. Another good reason would be to go for only a weekend to a nearby destination.
How We Discovered Camping Holidays
One day my smart wife came home with a some camping gear. They were going cheap, she was very interested in the demo presented by store staff and we could always return them. There were cooking and dinner sets, sleeping bags and other items in there. One of the items was very interesting and a game changer for us.
One touch tent was just amazing. I took it out of the bag and just threw it in the middle of the living room. To my surprise our tent was ready. We struggled a bit to fold it back into the bag for the first time but it was much easier for the second time. This was a game changer for us because we are the type of people who like to get up and go.
This opened up all sorts of options for us. We could stay wherever we want or go wherever we like. With the camping sites all over the country with reasonable costs there was nothing holding us back to start a family road trip. There were times that we would only open our tents two or three days during our week long trips because of the availability of cheap hotels on our routes. Usually we would manage to get a good use out of our tent and other equipment on our camping holidays.
How Did Camping Improve Our Trips?
As I have already said above, we don’t like to be tied down in one place when we set off in a direction. We could like a place on the way and stay several days or don’t like it and just pass through. Impromptu travel suggests that we must come from nomad ancestry. One of the main problems of such travels is the accommodation. It could take hours to find an accommodation for the night that ruins the fun.
Also, my wife starts getting stressed when the evening comes close and we have nowhere to stay. Having our camping gear in the car eases this stress. With hotels, there are a few points you need to consider like price, quality and availability. However, you are only renting a piece of ground to open up your tent in the case of camping and you have already accepted basic facilities. Thankfully, there are plenty of them along the roads.
We normally target a large town to stop nearby. We first find our camping location before we hit the town. It is incredibly relaxing to know that we have a place to sleep, cook and eat. We can have a nice dinner and come back home (the tent) for a bottle of wine. If we don’t fancy anything, we could get our groceries and return to cook. Alternatively, we could just pick carry outs on the way back. It gives us total flexibility. You can only enjoy camping holidays truly if you can eat what you want.
We don’t need to make any plans, book anything or have to be anywhere at a certain time and check out at a given date. Today we decided to go on the road again for couple of weeks and we will hit the road the day after tomorrow.
What Else?
We thought that this was a phase that will fade out after one or two camping trips. We only grew liking it more and more. It is indescribable to stand in the middle of nowhere knowing that your other half is standing next to you. When you break your boundaries it is so easy to bond with each other. We spend most of our time in the city that this gives us a chance to see rest of the country including many small villages we stopped by.
By the way, do you realize that most of the camping sites are in prime locations by a river, lake or beach? You cannot be any more in the nature and be well positioned for the town or the attraction you want to see. Those are generally the places money cannot/won’t buy because modern development wouldn’t be allowed.
