Essential Camping Tips for Beginners

Camping is a great way to connect with nature, calm your mind, and experience an adventure of a lifetime. However, it’s not easy to make the whole experience perfect, from the start of the planning to the end. You’ll need years of trials and error camping so you can become comfortable staying outdoors and having fun. Are you new to camping? And you don’t know where to begin? Well, you are not alone! Camping is the best way to escape your daily routine and spend a night in the wilderness.

Essential Camping Tips For Beginners

For that purpose, we’ve created a guide that will lead you through the best camping tips for beginners. It includes how to plan your first camping trip, the essential camping safety rules, how to choose the best gear, etc.

Prepare The Gear

Before planning anything else, you need to consider the type of gear you’ll take with you. As a beginner, it’s recommended to take an ultralight down sleeping bag, or lightweight backpack to avoid on weights. You can check out Backpacks Global for your backpack needs. Do you plan on sharing your tent with anyone else? Or maybe your sleeping bag? If that’s the case, you can purchase a double sleeping bag which provides enough space for two people. Plus, it will keep you warm enough even on colder nights.

Do you plan on incrementing your camping skills so eventually you start backpacking? And what is your beginner budget for this trip? After you’ve taken into consideration all of these things, you can start purchasing proper gear.

Buy From Reliable Brands

When choosing camping gear, it’s important to choose items that will last for years. That being said, you need to buy from reliable and already-proven brands. It might be an upfront investment at first, but once you buy high-quality products, you won’t have to worry whether they’ll get broken soon. You can even find discounted camping gear since it can be quite expensive. Or you can buy pre-owned gear as long as it’s good enough to last you multiple camping trips.

Plan For Bad Weather And Check The Weather Forecast

The weather can be notorious sometimes. And it’s a good practice to prepare beforehand for any unpredictable circumstances. Since you can never know when it can rain, or be windy, you can check the weather forecast frequently. Despite it not always being accurate, at least will give you an idea of what to expect and what to prepare for.

And if you are planning for bad weather, we’d recommend taking plenty of warm layers, sun protection products, a warm hat, waterproof clothing, insect repellent, and good boots. You can also plan the activities in advance by checking what you can do in the area you plan to camp. If there are any walking or cycling trails (there are many great apps for this), you can hit the road by enjoying the ride and the walk.

Bringing a Sleep Mask for Camping

Consider bringing a sleep mask for your camping trip. It helps block out light, adjusts to different sleeping conditions, enhances relaxation and comfort, and is portable and easy to use. A sleep mask can significantly improve your sleep quality and make your camping experience more enjoyable. Don't forget to pack one for a restful night's sleep in nature.

First Aid Kit

Never leave your home without a first aid kit. Hopefully, you won’t need it, but it’s a common practice to take it with you. It’s good for you to learn how to clean a wound and put a bandage on it. It will be needed if someone has an accident.

1. Clean the wound;
2. Cover the wound;
3. Apply pressure
4. Elevate the finger

And if you are camping with a dog, take one kit for the dog as well!

Take Food

On a camping trip, people often tend to become more hungry. This is due to the hours of walking and wandering on the site. Well, you must eat even if you don’t feel hungry at the moment of your hike.

Some useful food options you can take on such a trip, with powders, tea, coffee, trail mix, and many more. These foods are easy and light to pack, won’t spoil, and will keep you energized throughout the trip.

Choose Clothes Carefully

It’s worth mentioning that you are not going on a fashion show. You are going on a trip that requires functional clothing. Cotton is great for the suburbs, but it’s not your friend in the woods. Instead, you can choose clothes made of synthetic materials, raingear, a swimsuit if there is a lake nearby or a sun hat. Bringing extra batteries and lamps is also important. You might need these gadgets almost all the time.

Set Up The Campsite

Make sure you choose the level ground appropriately and avoid any sticks, roots, or rocks that will interfere with your sleeping. You need to choose a site that has a good tree cover where you can hang some of your gear. And have a night of good sleep.

You are not going to want to sit all the time in your tent. So you need to make a kitchen and sitting area where you’ll spend a nice couple of hours. Bring some camp chairs so you don’t sit on the ground and a table to put your food on. And please make sure that you do not leave any plastic trash behind (we've written about avoiding plastic whilst travelling before here).

Wrap Up: Essential Camping Tips For Beginners

So there you have it, some basic camping tips for our dear readers :)

What about you, do you have any camping tips and advice? If you do, feel free to share below :)

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ABOUTME

We overland. We eat plants and fungi. We live outside as much as possible. We are all connected. A female travel blogger overlanding and writing about ecotourism, ethical and sustainable travel, socially conscious travel and housesitting. An online travel magazine since 2015.