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Family, Get Away Today, Lifestyle · April 13, 2016

Family Camping for Beginners

Skandika Kairo Tent
We’re not hardened campers – apart from camping holidays mainly being a distant memory of my childhood, we’ve only done a couple of family camping trips with our three boys and one of those was glamping at a Featherdown Farm in North Wales, so hardly ‘roughing it’.

Last time we did real family camping with a tent that we put up ourselves, we borrowed all the kit we could possibly need from our generous friends.  This time, we were heading out with a brand new family sized tent, courtesy of Skandika.  Their Kairo Tent is a tunnel style design for six people, so ideal for us as a family of five.

We decided not to head too far from home (being cautious Brits, just in case.. you know) and travelled about forty minutes to Delamere Forest Camping & Caravanning Club Site, near Chester.  The site is right next to Delamere Forest so a great setting – very well maintained with clean and warm showers and loos, well laid out and super helpful staff.

However, if you want to venture further afield, don’t forget to pack some fun activities to keep the kids from getting bored on the car ride. Portable game systems like the Nintendo Switch are great for this if you have them. Alternatively, a more low-tech and budget-friendly option is to give the kids a clipboard with drawing paper, colouring pages, and worksheets from DoodleLearning and other providers you can get online. These should keep them nice and busy during the journey and stop them from distracting you as you drive too! 

Because we only booked a couple of nights we aimed to ‘travel light’ deciding we wouldn’t be cooking al fresco – instead opting for a pub meal and breakfast out too (I know, cheats!).  But even without a fridge and cooking equipment, our seven seater car was pretty much packed to the rafters.  We need to improve on this!  I’m sure as we get more experienced, we’ll know what to take, what to leave out and how to pack smarter.

The tent doesn’t look huge in its bag, but it still takes up a chunk of the car boot.  Add chairs, cool box, clothes, towels etc etc… you get the picture.

Family Tent SkandikaThe grass at the camp was too saturated for us to pitch our tent on at this time of year.  So putting it up on hardstanding, we just hadn’t thought about getting some sturdier pegs than the ones that came with our tent, meant for grass.  Good to know for next time!  Fortunately we were able to borrow some from the campsite staff, as well as a heavy duty claw hammer to bang them into the ground.

The tunnel shape of the tent is pretty great design in that you assemble the poles by running them through the fabric tunnels to form the curved roof.  Tethering everything down was the slightly trickier part, but not too bad.  Tunnel TentWe were set up and inside enjoying a cup of tea in about an hour or so, which for newbies didn’t seem too bad.  Inside the tent is very roomy.  It has a built in ground sheet, a front canopy, windows and a door:Family 6 Person TentThe ground sheet is very tough since it withstood the hard stone chippings we laid it down onto.  In the evening we added the two bedroom compartments which were very easy to assemble – you simply hang the partitions up, attaching them via the hooks you can see in the photo above.  You can then choose to zip up the front of the compartments to close or leave them open.  You can opt to remove the dividing sheet too and have one larger bedroom.  Six people can lie within this overall sleeping section.

As we got busy having fun, I forgot to take an image of the bedroom set up – oops, blogging fail!  So here is one of the Kairo tent from the Skandika website instead:

Kairo Tent Skandika

We brought some camping chairs and a tent light to hang in the centre of the roof, as well as a camping extension lead with several plug sockets, since we were hooked up to the electricity.  We had also borrowed blow up mattresses which were great and very necessary.

Also we were well prepared with our our warm fleece onesies for bedtime and snuggly warm sleeping bags – or so we thought.  Hmm.  We totally underestimated how cold the tent would be at night time without an electric fan heater.  It was F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G and we didn’t sleep well consequently!  Basic beginners error.  If you are camping at any time other than summer, definitely take a fan heater – it would have made all the difference to our comfort and prevented the condensation that we found had formed on the inside of the tent overnight.  By midday however the sun was well and truly up and the tent was really toasty inside – so much so, we needed the door and windows open.

So these would be our recommendations as camping essentials for beginners:

  • A well designed tent that’s manageable (ease of putting up/down and transporting) such as the Kairo Tent by Skandika
  • A heater
  • Kettle
  • Plenty of spare socks and warm clothes
  • Sleeping bags – with a hood preferably
  • Blow up mattresses and pump (electric pumps make this job a doddle and pillows are a nice optional extra – our beds had air pillows, but real ones are more of a treat if you have the room to bring them)
  • A large water container/carrier
  • A light for the tent
  • Lightweight foldable chairs
  • Torch
  • Snacks, tea, coffee, milk
  • Melamine cups, plates, bowls, crockery
  • Washing up bowl, liquid soap and tea towel
  • Sharp knife for example camping knives
  • Cooler box and ice packs or a camping fridge
  • Fold down table to prepare food
  • Camping stove & cooking equipment (pans, utensils)
  • Also things like a can opener, bottle opener, matches, kitchen roll, oil, seasoning, ketchup, mustard etc.

I’ve left off personal items like towels, shampoo etc. but if there’s some vital piece of camping kit I’ve missed here, please add suggestions in the comments!

We also found our indoor/outdoor rug (from Wayfair) was great for stepping inside and removing outdoor shoes whilst keeping the rest of the tent floor relatively clean.  It is very lightweight and portable (you could use it on a beach too).

Eating out all the time is not cost effective and you definitely miss out on the whole camping experience if you don’t at least cook a bit of bacon and egg on a little gas stove so that’s why, although we didn’t bring any this time, cooking equipment features on our list of essentials.

We’re looking forward to some more camping adventures when the weather gets warmer and hopefully we’ll become much better at the whole ‘camping out’ thing.  Tent-wise, the Kairo was perfect; just the right size for our family and car which means we will definitely be able to get away as a family more often, since it’s a much cheaper option to holiday in one of these than put up five people in a hotel or apartment – plus it’s an excuse for a quick weekend getaway, plus kids love the whole outdoor adventure thing, don’t they?  Don’t get me wrong, I love a luxury hotel as much as anyone, but a bit of  ‘back to nature’ time now and again is definitely good for the soul.

Skandika Family Tent
Skandika Kairo
Tree Swing
Den Building

Thank you to Skandika for providing a free Kairo tent for the purpose of our review

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© Copyright 2016 Antonia, All rights Reserved. Written For: Tidylife

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Posted By: Antonia · In: Family, Get Away Today, Lifestyle

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Comments

  1. Nicola says

    April 13, 2016 at 8:54 pm

    Hi Antonia
    I would also take:
    collapsible bucket for a bin and bin bags
    hanging clothing storage which I got for a few pound at ikea good for keeping bits and bobs in or underwear
    prepared pancake mixtures in old ketchup bottles and had pancakes for breakfast.
    Clothes line to dry towels
    Campings fab if you get the weather

    Reply
    • Antonia says

      April 13, 2016 at 8:58 pm

      Brilliant suggestions, all of them! Thanks Nicola – I can tell you are an experienced camper 😀 xx

      Reply
  2. Amanda says

    April 13, 2016 at 9:14 pm

    Great to hear your trip went well!
    We have a couple of plastic boxes that are ‘camping-ready’ and full of what we need so if it looks like a hot weekend is in store (I don’t do rainy camping!!) we can just up & go!
    I’d also suggest taking;
    – Some tie handle or ziplock food bags for unfinished packs of food/day trip lunches,
    – A lidded plastic box to store your food items and keep bugs out!
    – Loo roll!
    – Pack most things in large ‘bag for life’ type supermarket bags, the large IKEA blue bags or foldaway boxes from The Camouflage Co, as they can squash into your car and be stored in awkward spaces in the tent.
    I’m sure you’ll have a trailer load next time you venture out!! Enjoy!

    Reply
    • Antonia says

      April 14, 2016 at 9:11 am

      Great tips, Amanda – thank you for sharing your expertise! This is definitely the way to begin a successful camping trip 🙂 Any campsites you would recommend, too? Xx

      Reply
  3. Laura says

    April 14, 2016 at 8:22 am

    Hi Antonia, Great blog post. Our recommendation would definitely be a clothes line. Nothing worse than putting back on cold wet swimming costumes/wet suits or using cold damp towels. Also we have the most brilliant glass holders that clip on to our camping chairs. Perfect for preventing any disastrous wine spillages! We use more than one groundsheet if the weather is wet. Happy camping x

    Reply
    • Antonia says

      April 14, 2016 at 9:11 am

      Good to know! Thanks for sharing those great ideas, Laura 🙂

      Reply
  4. Karen says

    April 14, 2016 at 11:01 am

    A great blog!
    I would always take a roll of gaffa tape, some cable ties, some elastic luggage straps and loads of safety pins. Even the best tent can have a little “accident” and with these items you can temporarily fix most smaller problems quite easily.
    Enjoy your new camping hobby!
    Karen

    Reply
  5. Molly says

    April 15, 2016 at 9:35 am

    What a fabulous tent and well done for surviving the cold! My goal this year is to go wild camping on Dartmoor – no campsite, electricity etc, just the wilds of nature. Wish me luck! You never know, you might fancy it yourself now that you have got a taste for camping 🙂
    Molly recently posted…Win a VQ Hepburn MkII DAB Radio, worth £129.99My Profile

    Reply
  6. Katy says

    April 18, 2016 at 11:17 am

    Can’t wait for it to be warmer so we can start planning holidays. I’m not much of a camper but your tent looks pretty cool. I could be convinced! x
    Katy recently posted…Top 10 neutral rugsMy Profile

    Reply

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Hello! I'M ANTONIA I launched Tidylife to provide interior, garden & lifestyle inspiration. Love home decor and budget friendly improvements? Me too! You'll find them all here. Plus decorating, styling & upcycling ideas. I also love to share fitness, fashion & beauty features, so I hope you enjoy visiting Tidylife.

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