How do I take children camping?

Choosing a first site, keeping children warm at night, the routine that gets everyone to sleep, and the specific hazards of a campsite with small people in it.

Difficulty: beginner
Time: 30 min
Read: 6 min

Short answer

Start with one night at a proper site with toilets, close to home, and pitch the tent in the garden first so it is familiar. Children get cold from below, so a good mat matters more than a warmer bag, and they need a hat and dry clothes to sleep in. Take torches for everyone, a bag of things to do in the rain, and far more food than you think.

Camping with children is either the best family holiday you will ever have or an expensive night in a field followed by everyone going home at 6am. The difference is almost entirely preparation, and most of it is about warmth, sleep and having somewhere to be when it rains.

What you'll need

A tent big enough to stand up and move around in
A well-insulated sleeping mat for each child
Head torch each
Warm hat and dry sleeping clothes for each child
A change of clothes and spare footwear
Rainy-day entertainment
A first aid kit

Step by step

Pitch the tent in the garden or the living room first.Familiarity removes most of the anxiety. Children who have already slept in the tent are not being introduced to it at nine at night in a field. It also tells you if anything is missing or broken.
Choose the first site carefully.Close to home so you can leave if it goes wrong, with toilets and hot water, ideally with a play area and other families. A field with a view and no facilities is for later. Book somewhere you can drive to the pitch.
Go for one night first.One successful night makes the next trip easy. Three difficult nights makes it the last trip.
Solve the cold from underneath.Children lose heat quickly and complain late. Every child needs a proper insulated mat — an airbed alone is cold — and a bag rated warmer than the forecast. A hat to sleep in makes a bigger difference than anything else.
Sleep in dry clothes, not the day's clothes.A dedicated set of dry base layers and socks that live in the sleeping bag and never go outside. Damp clothes from the day are why children wake up cold at three in the morning.
Give everyone their own torch.A head torch each, with spare batteries. Being able to find your own way to the toilet block and back is the difference between confidence and a small crisis.
Keep the bedtime routine, roughly.Excitement plus daylight until ten in June means nobody sleeps. Blackout inners help enormously, as do stories, a familiar toy and the same sequence you use at home. Accept that the first night will be late.
Plan for rain before it rains.A tarp or a big awning to sit under, cards, a ball, colouring, downloaded films on a tablet, and a nearby swimming pool or cafe as a fallback. A wet day with nothing to do inside a tent is the thing that ends trips.
Feed them constantly, and make some of it an event.Camp food is part of the fun. Marshmallows where fires are allowed, a bacon sandwich in the morning, cooking their own thing on a stove under supervision. Take plenty of snacks for the gaps.
Set the site rules on arrival.Guy lines are trip hazards at ankle height in the dark — walk the boundary and show them. Stoves and fire pits stay hot long after use. Where the toilets are and how to get back. Which pitch is theirs. Where they may go and where they may not.
Give them a job.Pegging out, fetching water, blowing up the mats, choosing the pitch. Children who helped build the camp behave completely differently in it.
Take the safety kit.First aid kit, sun cream, insect repellent, tick tool, any regular medication, and the details of the nearest out-of-hours service. Campsite grazes and stings are near-certain.
Lower your expectations of your own sleep.It will not be a restful night and that is fine. What matters is the day, and children remember camping trips out of all proportion to how well anyone slept.

Tips

Take a wind-up or battery lantern for the tent as well as head torches. A lit tent is a much friendlier place at bedtime.
Wellies plus trainers, and twice as many socks as anyone thinks reasonable.
A pop-up sun shelter or awning to eat under is the item most families say they should have bought sooner.
Give older children their own small tent next to yours. It transforms how they feel about the trip.
Sites with a shop, a play area and other children are worth paying more for on the first few trips.

Common mistakes

Putting children in a sleeping bag on an airbed — Airbeds circulate cold air underneath and are considerably colder than a proper insulated mat. Cold children do not sleep and do not want to come again.
Booking a week for a first trip — If it goes badly you are committed. One or two nights close to home lets you leave early and try again.
Not walking the guy lines with them in daylight — Guy lines at ankle height in the dark, around a tent full of pegs, cause exactly the injuries you would expect.

If it doesn't work

Child wakes cold in the night

Cause: Insufficient insulation from the ground, or damp clothing — Fix: Add a foam mat under their existing one, put a hat on them, change into genuinely dry clothes, and give them a warm drink and something to eat.

Nobody will go to sleep

Cause: Daylight, excitement and noise — Fix: Blackout inner or an eye mask, the normal bedtime routine, and accepting a late first night. It settles on the second night.

Scared of the dark or of noises

Cause: Unfamiliar environment — Fix: A torch they control, an adult within reach, and having pitched the tent at home beforehand. Naming the noises — sheep, owl, wind — takes the fear out of them.

It has rained all day and everyone is miserable

Cause: No dry space and nothing to do — Fix: Get out of the tent. Swimming pool, cafe, museum, a walk in waterproofs and a hot chocolate afterwards. A tarp or awning at the pitch prevents most of it.

Everything they own is wet by day two

Cause: No wet and dry discipline in the tent — Fix: Wet things stay in the porch, always. Keep one dry set per child sealed in a dry bag and out of circulation.

Questions people ask

What age can children start camping?

Babies and toddlers camp perfectly well with enough warmth and a plan; the harder question is the adults' sleep. Around four or five, children start actively enjoying it and remembering it.

Tent or campervan for a family?

A tent is far cheaper and gives more space per pound. A van is warmer, drier and quicker, and it makes bad weather much less significant. Try borrowing or hiring before buying either.

How do we manage night-time toilet trips?

A torch each, a known route to the block, and for small children a bottle or a potty in the porch. Do not make them walk across a dark field at three in the morning.