In this series, I’ve covered how to choose and buy a tent, how to look after it, what kit to take, how and what to cook and quite a few of the basics of camping. It took until a Twitter exchange this morning (by which I mean last Monday because pre-written and scheduled post!) for it to occur to me to write “why go camping?”
Camping is divisive. It’s pretty rare to meet someone who feels ambivalent about camping. People like me love it (well, I love it until I’m actually doing it) and sensible people hate it. That’s fair enough. Camping isn’t for everyone, especially in the UK where there’s a very good chance it’s going to rain. Nothing spoils a holiday spent 100% outside like rain. And then you add in camp beds, inexpert cooking and a shared toilet a bit of a walk away. Of course people don’t like camping!
So why do it?
The number one reason for me is that it’s the cheapest way to travel. Your kit may be a bit of an outlay but you don’t need to spend as much as the magazines – or fellow campers – tell you. I’ve already said that you need something better than that £10 festival pop-up tent from the supermarket but I’ve also said that my nice spacious two-man with a porch which is reasonably rain-proof was only £40 and my massive four-man was only £89. Admittedly, both of those were me leaping on a bargain – they were both old models being sold off and I was very lucky to find them but it does happen. These sales probably won’t last long but try this 3-man for £80, this 4-man for £109 or this 2-man for £45. Actually, if I was in the market for a new 3-man, I’d have fetched my wallet and bought that first one before I’d even finished writing this paragraph.
My experience with campsites is that a one-tent sized pitch without electric hookup generally ranges from about £10 per night to about £25 on a really expensive site. Last time I was camping, my landlord hinted gently that I might like to try the yurt next time and I told him quite straightforwardly that “I kind of like the price of going in my own tent”. Particularly as most of us are confined to the UK for the foreseeable future, this is by far the most affordable way of getting in as much travel as possible during a plague.
I went to Cornwall the other weekend. I paid £32 for the privilege. Ok, I did get a night free for the inconvenience of having to change my dates from early June to July/August so we’ll call it £48 at full price and ok, technically I was camping in Devon, five or so miles from the Cornish border. But can you do a long weekend in Cornwall in the summer holidays for £48? No, not without a tent. I also went in late June for £32 (no free night!) so that’s five nights and two weekends away for around what I’d expect to pay for a single night in a B&B.
Number two, experiencing the great outdoors. You want the great outdoors to be in a friendly mood because rain and wind are no fun but if you’re lucky with the weather, it can be very pleasant to spend a few days living outside. Fresh open air, really experiencing the movement of the sun, listening to the birds (and occasionally the livestock if you’re on a farm) and I still maintain there’s nothing like an early breakfast outside when the air is still a little crisp. That healthy, wholesome, old-fashioned outdoors living, and the best thing about it is that you know you’ll be going back to your indoor home soon.
Number three, you can camp in places where you can’t stay under a solid roof. There’s wild camping, which probably involves a certain amount of walking and cycling to a quiet and deserted place – you wouldn’t see that quiet and deserted place if you were staying in a hotel or B&B. Or there’s just camping on a small campsite in the countryside – you just wouldn’t get that tranquillity in a building, or at least you wouldn’t notice it. How many hotels and B&Bs have really got views of rolling green countryside or perfect blue ocean? You’re not guaranteed premium views, of course, but you’re getting them for an absolute bargain price and seeing a place that the non-camping type will never experience.
Number four. If you’ve got children, they’ve got all the space they could possibly want for running around and making a noise. I hate children on campsites because it utterly wrecks that aforementioned tranquillity but let’s be fair here. Imagine a seven-year-old in a hotel room vs a seven-year-old in a field. I would rather die than own a seven-year-old but I could not be trapped with a child in a room. Do you really want to spend a holiday with your children in less space than you have at home? The camping might be a really good option for you.
Number five, life skills. You don’t need to light a campfire while camping. I don’t think I’ve ever done so. But you might have the opportunity, so you’ll learn to light a fire and tend a fire and put out a fire and you can teach those kids to enjoy the fire while also being respectful of it and learning to be safe around it. What about cooking? How many Guides have I taught simple things like how to hold a sharp knife, how to cut a tomato in half, how to make scrambled eggs? Even adults – you might not cook much at home but with no oven and no microwave in your tent, maybe you’ll have your first real go at cooking from scratch while camping.
Number six: although people are so bored with it that most people are now pretending it doesn’t exist anymore, there’s still a killer virus ravaging the world. I find camping is a really good way to travel while social distancing. In the unlikely event I’m feeling sociable, I can still chat to people while not sharing the air of a confined space. Sure, you might get damp but it’s a lot safer and more plague-compatible. I don’t know when I’ll be ready to go back to a hotel but it’s not yet. Meanwhile, there are campsites.
Number seven, sometimes it’s just what’s available. Why did I camp when I went to a comedy festival at a pub in the middle of nowhere? Well, the only accommodation within an hour’s drive was at the pub in question. Of course, it was sold out that night but I reckon it would have cost somewhere between £130 and £200 for a single night. Or I could drive a couple of hours into north-west London and find a hotel after midnight, which I would have to check into beforehand, adding a couple of hours’ drive onto the other end. Sometimes you just question whether you really should be going to this sort of thing. I spend a lot of time questioning whether I should be going to the comedy show I’m trying to book tickets for. And then I found a campsite six miles away for £12 and I had a lovely afternoon making myself at home and a beautiful morning eating my breakfast outside and it turned out I absolutely should be going to that show and I’m very glad I did. All the acts were damp and cold because it was outside in a tent rather than inside the pub and the comedy was accompanied by a lot of tea and a lot of fish and chips for warmth. Good times.
Same goes for Iceland – part of the reason I took to camping in Iceland was because I couldn’t find a hotel near Skaftafell and because I didn’t fancy the bunkhouse at Landmannalaugar. Sometimes you camp not because you want to exactly but because it gives you options you wouldn’t otherwise have.
Number eight, and a bit niche, it’s an easy way to get UK travel content! I’m not going camping specifically for blog content, I’m going camping because I like it and because it’s cheap and for all the other reasons listed in this post. But I can’t deny that, as a bonus, after nearly a year and a half of no new travel content for my blog, this is quite a cheap and easy way to get some. I’m seeing other travel bloggers, YouTubers and influencers buying, renovating and converting camper vans, I’ve seen one buy £1000+ worth of small tent that happens to sit on a car roof, I’ve seen a lot of wailing about how difficult it is to go abroad and… I’ve got a tent. It’s cost a fraction of vans and roof tents, it feels so much more flexible and easy, there are still plenty of campsites with spaces, and every time I go camping, I think of another post I can do about it, not to mention the posts about where I’ve actually been. The vanlife folk are probably warmer and drier than me but I can buy a huge tent without destroying my house deposit.
And number nine, enjoying the simple life. Deep down, everyone wants a bit of a detox, a break from social media. Camping is a great opportunity to not spend time on your phone or watching Netflix. It’s time to read a book, write a journal, collect fallen leaves for a scrapbook, or just sit and watch the stars. There’s no emails to check, no one to answer to, nothing you have to do. Just disconnect and enjoy being you for a few days. And isn’t that worth occasionally being damp for?
If you’re really not into camping, there’s always glamping. I like it for a change occasionally but I admit that potentially you’re spending as much as, if not more than, you would for a hotel and you’re still getting rained on.