Taking the spouse and kids for an outdoor vacation in a family camping tent makes for a great vacation break that is extremely affordable. And with a little planning your camping holiday can provide wonderful memories to be savored for many years to come.
First up, you will need a family camping tent that is large enough to sleep all of you comfortably. This isn’t difficult, since family camping tents are made in sizes that will sleep four, six or eight people with ease. Just check out your local camping equipment supply store and work out if a one-room, two-room or three room family tent is going to suit all of you best.
I would suggest that a one-room family camping tent will only be suitable if your children are very young and are still used to sleeping with mommy and daddy every night. If they are any older than that, the kids will love having their own space, and you — the parents – will savor the little bit of privacy a separate room in the tent will give you. But remember, the only wall you have is no thicker than a curtain. So every little noise anyone makes will be heard by the whole group.
For noise and privacy reasons, some families elect to go family camping with two or more tents. That way, the kids can sleep a little bit away from mom and dad… You will want them close enough to be safe but far enough away for you and your partner to have some privacy.
When choosing which family camping tent to purchase, you should consider whether you’ll be happy with a canvas tent or a synthetic nylon-type of family tent. Both have their own advantages, but the canvas tents are heavier and tend to last longer.
Tents made from synthetic cloth should have an inner tent of bug-proof netting for you to sleep in. This is covered by an outer waterproof roof and wall part of the tent which keeps out the wind and rain but allows fresh air to circulate. This prevents condensation in the tent by allowing water vapor, from your breath and body sweating, to escape outside.
Water spray inside the tent
Old-style canvas camping tents allow water vapor to escape directly through the weave of the cotton cloth. Falling rain on the outside soon makes the canvas fibers swell, which prevents the rain from making you wet inside the tent. But until the fibers have swollen enough, you will feel a fine mist of water inside the tent for the first few minutes of rain.
It goes without saying that any tent you buy has to be able to keep you dry in the rain and allow you to sleep at night without being made uncomfortable or cold from any outside wind.
Before you leave home for your first camping trip, do unpack your new family camping tent and set it up somewhere. You can do in your own back yard or in some nearby park where the other people there won’t mind. If you do do it in a park, then be sure to make it clear that you are just checking out your new tent, and that you do not intend to camp there! You might get yourself fined or arrested otherwise for camping illegally.
Once you are satisfied with the way your new tent all fits together, then take it apart carefully and pack it away for your real camping trip. Be sure not to lose any of the bits and pieces. You don’t want to be miles from anywhere and then find you are missing a tent pole, some tent pegs or the rope guy-lines. That could spoil the whole camping experience for the whole family.