Camping: pack like a pro

So here it nearly is again, the annual French camping holiday. This year, we're only going for two weeks and two (all-important) days rather then the usual five-ish weeks, but unfortunately it makes very little difference to the amount we have to pack. We'll still need a tent, sleeping bags and cooking equipment. We'll still need toothbrushes, swimsuits and towels. On the plus side, we won't need quite so many books or suncream/shower-gel refills. But on the downside, we could potentially end up taking more clothes. I normally take enough for around ten days and do plenty of washing while we're away. The idea of avoiding washing this holiday has a definite appeal, but then I'd have to take at least sixteen changes of clothes - and that doesn't allow for any weather-related clothing dilemmas. First-world problems...

Anyway, this morning, my post about packing for Australia (How do you pack for five weeks?!) popped up in my Facebook memory feed and it made me think about packing for camping. If, like us, you travel around when camping, there are various things you can do to make it easier for yourselves - some ideas that we successfully adapted for our trip to Oz. So here are a few of my tips for packing for a stress-free camping holiday.

Pack light

Firstly, you really don't need to take that much - or, at least, not as much as you might think. Sometimes I look enviously at the shelves in Mountain Warehouse or Go Outdoors at the range of clever gadgets and expensive gear, but you'll be surprised at how little you actually need. So here are the camping essentials we do take:

• Tent (obviously);
• Gazebo - this is perfect for shelter from the rain or the sun while cooking, eating or when the kids have gone to bed and we don't want to sit inside the tent;
• Mallet and spare tent pegs (you'll be surprised at how many you lose or get bent);
• Gaffer tape and pliers - useful for lots of things;
• Sleeping bags (Lee and I actually took duvets pre-kids but they take up lots of space, so sleeping bags are more practical!);
• Camping pillows - these are little padded pillows (not inflatable ones) that roll up in a small bag, and they're as close to luxury as we get, but having tried no pillows and rolled up towels, they make a surprising amount of difference for a good night's sleep; 
• Air beds - again, this has been trial and error. Lee and I slept on sun lounger cushions pre-kids(!) but they take up even more space than duvets. We've tried the mats that other people swear by but found them too hard. We've never liked the look of camp beds (probably imagining them collapsing in the early hours). When they're not deflating (which sadly is a common problem), air beds are actually pretty comfy, plus they take up very little space;
• Fold-up chairs;
• Fold-up picnic table and benches* (just big enough for us all to sit at and it ensures the seats are the right height for the table);
• A two-ring gas stove - you need at least two rings for easy cooking, although an extra stove would allow you to boil water for a cup of tea while you're cooking;
• Coolbag;
• Saucepans, plastic plates and cutlery, etc. - it's good to have enough plates and cutlery to get through breakfast and dinner without needing to do more than one trip to the sinks for washing up;
• Lots of torches - you need a couple of bright torches to light up outside or inside the tent in the evenings, plus the boys have one each and we usually have at least one more for trips to the toilet or wherever. Spare batteries are also an essential;
• Washing-up bowl, liquid, sponges and tea-towel;
• Washing line and pegs;
• Toilet roll (not always supplied by campsites, especially in France);
• Black sacks and plastic bags - perfect for dirty clothes, rubbish, wet stuff, etc. (you really can't have too many);
• Antibacterial handwash - don't expect to find soap in the toilets;
• Antibacterial wipes (just because).

Things we don't take:

• A mini fridge - we tried this once - it took up lots of space in the car and then when we arrived it didn't work. If the weather is hot, it would be a handy thing to have, but we've camped in Spain and the South of France without one and survived. A bit of clever planning with your food avoids needing one (see below), and a lot of campsites or resorts hire them out, leaving you more space in your car;
• A camping carpet - sure, this probably makes your tent feel luxurious, but given the amount of mud, grass and water you end up tramping into the tent, I'm not sure it's worth it. We make sure no shoes or dirty/wet clothes get into the sleeping compartments, but the main area of the tent ends up dirty whatever you do. We've also seen incidents where people's camping carpets have got wet and flooded the tent... ;
• Camping cupboards/shelves - I've seen all sorts of clever organisers for camping on sale, but if you're travelling around they're simply not worth it. Unpacking everything onto shelves just to pack them again a day or two later is time wasted - plus most tents have a few built-in pockets where you can put essentials;
• Portable toilet - hey, if we had the space,it would be great, but the boys are old enough to take the night-time trip to the toilet now!

Thing we take but can live without;

• Electrical hook-up - most campsites charge for this, so we usually don't bother, as the only thing we really use it for is charging phones/tablets/DVD players. If you want to do luxury camping and use lots of electrical equipment - particularly if you're staying in one place - then it's great, but it's really not an essential.

This is obviously not an exhaustive list, and I haven't included the usual holiday items like sunscreen, mozzie repellent, toothbrush, etc., but it should cover all the essentials you need for a camping trip of any length. I checked the items against last year's List, and we managed successfully for over five weeks!

Portable battery pack

This is the one thing I have left off the list above, because it is important enough to need a paragraph all of its own. It's basically a portable battery*, which is designed primarily for starting cars in the event of a flat battery. However, it can also be used for charging phones and tablets, for inflating the airbeds and as a light. This is one of the reasons we're not too worried about getting an electrical hook-up at campsites, and it can be charged up in the car when you're driving. Plus you know it's there in an emergency if you ever need to jump-start your car!

Luxury lifesavers

Here are a few more things we usually take - not essentials, but they do make life easier!

• Portable DVD players - if you're travelling a lot or driving a long way to your destination, these make the journey so much more pleasant. No more 'Are we there yet?' In fact, my kids are usually a bit sad when we reach our destination and they have to get out of the car and stop watching. They also come in handy for those days when it's raining and we're not quite ready to leave the tent. Depending on the model, you may be able to pre-load it with films or stuff you've recorded from the TV to avoid taking loads of DVDs with you.
• Tablets - as above. Useful for journeys, useful for rainy days, useful for occupying the kids while you're putting the tent up/taking the tent down, cooking dinner, still in bed, etc.
• Walkie-talkies - we invested in these last year, as our children were getting a bit older and wanted a bit more independence. While the idea of sending them off to the park or to explore the campsite on their own is great in theory, especially if you're busy cooking or setting up, in a big campsite - particularly one where you don't speak the language - it doesn't always feel like a particularly safe or sensible idea. Walkie-talkies mean they can go off to explore or play but they can easily contact us if they need us and we can easily tell them it's time for bed/dinner/going out without having to tramp round the campsite to find them.
• Pens and paper - okay, so not luxury, but really useful. Keeping score in games, writing lists, occupying the kids in a restaurant, copying directions - the list is endless.
• Games - a fair amount of space in our car is taken up with games. We have games for Lee and I to play when the kids are in bed (Scrabble, cribbage, backgammon). We have games to play as a family (Uno is the current favourite). We have outdoor games (petanque and Molkky). 
• Foldable beach lounger* - this takes up virtually no space in the car but makes sitting/lying on the beach soooo much more comfy!
• Shewee - yes, you read right, and yes, it is what you think it is. It's mainly useful for travelling - picnic stops don't always come with public toilets, and it's so much harder for us ladies. It may also have come in useful in the night when our tent was a particularly long way from the toilet block...!

Fuss-free food 

If you haven't got a fridge, it rather limits you as to what you can cook. If your campsite has a shop on-site or nearby - or even if you do a big supermarket shop just before cooking - you can obviously cook meals with meat, dairy or other fresh ingredients. But for those times when that's not an option, it's a good idea to have some no-refrigeration-needed meal ideas ready. Vegetables like sweet potatoes, carrots, potatoes and onions keep well, so veggie curry, Bolognese and chilli are all options. There are plenty of tinned meat options too, such as tuna, corned beef, ham and chorizo. Favourite camping meals for us include tuna Bolognese, corned beef hash, ham and couscous (with salad if available, tinned sweetcorn if not) and a jambalaya-type rice dish with chorizo and veg. Tins and jars are your friends if you're camping and we always bring a selection with us, as well as store-cupboard essentials like pasta, rice, olive oil and herbs/spices. Of course, you can always shop while you're away (and we do - frequently), but it's handy to have a few staples with you to avoid having to go shopping straight away. UHT milk is another essential if you like cereal for breakfast (let's face it, toast would be difficult) or milk in your tea/coffee. No, it's not as nice as fresh milk, but actually it's nigh-on impossible to buy fresh milk if you're camping in France, so you may well be stuck with it anyway! You might also want to invest in some long-life desserts like rice pudding and pots of jelly if you're used to having pudding (although ideally, if you're in France, you'll be eating tarte aux pommes, clafoutis, tarte citron or some other gastronomic delight...). A final tip, and possibly my best one, is to start stocking up on sachets of salt, pepper, sugar, ketchup and other sauces whenever you end up taking a couple extra at restaurants, as well as the little cream/milk pots you can get for your coffee/tea. If you like a sprinkle of sugar over your cornflakes or a teaspoon in your tea, or you like salt on your dinner, these are perfect to save you having to take a big container with you. The cream pots are ideal if you don't want to open a whole carton of milk (which won't keep) for your coffee. And we discovered how perfect the ketchup sachets are the year we had to buy a whole bottle (which didn't keep) just to put it on our hotdogs one night (tinned frankfurters - another easy meal!)!

Packed lunches
Okay, so this isn't strictly speaking to do with packing, but it has the word 'pack' in it, right? If, like us, you travel around between campsites, you may find yourself driving at least four hours in a day. And unless you're really quick at packing up your tent before setting off, you'll probably find you need to stop for lunch on the way. On shorter journeys and/or if you don't mind arriving at your next destination late then it's great to find a nice town or village to stop at for a wander around and a relaxed lunch in a cafe. If, on the other hand, you're in a bit of a hurry, just going off-route to find a suitable town/village can take up too much time, let alone the time spent wandering around trying to find somewhere for lunch. On our first big camping trip, we found ourselves looking for supermarkets on our journeys to buy lunch and do a shop for the next couple of days' dinners. This took both time to find a supermarket and time going around the supermarket, and then we'd find ourselves eating lunch in the non-idyllic setting of the supermarket car park. It also meant we'd need to go shopping again if we ever wanted fresh food for dinner, so we found ourselves spending a lot of our holiday in supermarkets (and, while I confess to actually finding French supermarkets quite exciting, even I don't want to spend my whole holiday in one). We eventually found a routine that works for us, makes journeys easier and saves wasting too much time shopping. We shop the night before we leave a campsite to move on to the next destination. As well as something fresh for that night's dinner and stocking up on essentials (drink, chocolate, toilet rolls, important stuff), we buy enough to make sure we have at least one night's meal and one packed lunch. That way we can stop for lunch wherever we want (for however long we want) on our journey the next day and we know we can cook dinner at our destination without having to go shopping again. We tend to buy the little ready-wrapped brioche rolls for sandwiches, as they keep fresh longer than a loaf, skip butter and use honey, peanut butter or little tins of pate (our favourite) as fillings. Crisps and biscuits (not chocolate ones!) keep fine in the heat and fruit is usually okay if it was only bought the day before. It's not as exciting as stopping in a cafe, but it does save wasting time if you're short of it - plus, if you buy a lunch that keeps, you can always change your plans and have it another day if you find the perfect lunch-stop on the way!

Careful choice of clothes

I know it's a bit of a no-brainer, but it's worth carefully planning which clothes will be appropriate for camping. Crease-free is your buzz word - your clothes are going to spend a long time rolled or folded up in a bag/suitcase, so you want clothes that will be smooth enough to resemble the bum of a baby rather than an elephant. Jersey material is ideal. Similarly, if you're going to be washing clothes while you're away then you want stuff that is easy to wash (nothing delicate, and I've learnt not to bother bringing white clothes with me) and suitable for tumble drying (unless you have a large pitch, a lot of pegs and some sun). Summer dresses are fine if you're somewhere for a few days, but for those days when you're pitching or taking down the tent, shorts or trousers are more practical. Be prepared for all weather too. It might be hot during the day but you'd be surprised at how cold it might get in the evening when you're sitting outside the tent with a drink and a game of cards. I always bring both summer and winter pyjamas as the night-time temperatures vary so much. And you can't do without a waterproof jacket/cagoule - you can't afford to get too wet when you're camping, as you never really get the chance to dry off! As for shoes, some waterproof flip-flops are essential for showers, as well as being able to slip them on and off easily as you come in and out of the tent.

Compartmentalising
I now use this method whenever I'm on a holiday that involves living out of a suitcase (travelling around or staying with friends/family where you don't get to unpack), but I got the inspiration from packing for camping holidays. If you're only planning to go to one campsite, packing isn't a problem, other than ensuring you have everything with you and trying to fit it all in the car. But if you're moving around, you want everything to be easily accessible, easy to pack up and easy to find. This is why I take a variety of bags and boxes, each with its own 'category' - it makes life so much easier. Firstly all the 'camping' essentials go in the roof box - these are all the things that will need to come out first whenever we set up camp, such as air beds, sleeping bags, chairs, etc. The tent sadly doesn't fit, so this is always the last thing to be loaded into the car, as it's always the first thing we'll need. Then we have the Overnight Case. This is very important. It holds everything we need for the night - PJs, toothbrushes, shower gel (at least two bottles so more than one person can shower at once!), books, etc. - and it means if we arrive somewhere late, we don't have to rummage in the car for all the things we need, as they're all in one place. I then have a separate bag for 'stuff' - games, batteries, books (other than the ones we're in the middle of reading), etc. - and another for medicines, suncream (although we always have a bottle handy in the car), spare shower gel, etc. We each have a bag/case for our clothes, all rolled up to avoid creases and to make them easier to get in and out, and we have a black sack or two for dirty clothes, ready to take to the launderette when we can. We have a big bag of shoes (why would you want to put them in with clothes?!) and another bag for beach/swimming stuff so that it's all ready whenever we need it. Finally, we have plastic under-the-bed boxes for food and for cooking/eating/washing-up utensils. It sounds a bit anal but it makes packing and unpacking at campsites so much easier and you always know where to find things. It also makes packing at home before you go away that little bit easier - no more trying to work out how best to fit things in a case, just throw everything in the relevant bag/box and you're done!

I think I've covered most of the tips we use when packing for camping, but if you have any more fail-safe ideas or tried-and-tested methods, please feel free to add them in the comment box - I'm always very open to finding out new ways to make life easier!

*Disclaimer: I've included a few Amazon links so you can see what I'm talking about. The starred links are not the exact items we have, nor am I endorsing those products or brands - they're simply there as an example!