Adventure Awaits!

Expert tips for camping with friends

RV and tent sites dominate the landscape at most campgrounds, but the market for alternative accommodations is growing (many now have cabins, glamping tents, yurts, treehouses, airstream trailers and more).There has never been a more interesting time to take a family vacation at an American campground. – Jeremy Puglisi, co-author of “Where Should We Camp Next?”

Our family has made amazing memories during shared camping trips both locally and across the country. Our boys love waking up each morning to find their buddies at the site next to us. My wife Stephanie and I love putting the kids to bed and hanging out with friends around the campfire. And we all enjoy watching our kids gain strength and confidence at the campground. There are countless advantages to camping together with family and friends if you do it right.

Many trips with our friends go smoothly because we share a similar camping style and taste in campgrounds. Trips with other friends haven’t gone as well. So, how do you avoid conflicts and have the time of your lives? Here are six great tips to ensure that you make magical campground memories with friends.

Choose a Campground Together

When traveling with others, one family should never be responsible for making all the decisions. Each family needs to research the campground and make sure it’s right for them to avoid being disappointed in someone else’s choices.

Some families love rustic campgrounds, some love posh resorts, and some love both. Whatever category you fall into is fine, just make sure to know before you go and communicate with each other.

Arrange Sites Together (or not)

We own an RV, but love camping with families who don’t. Most campgrounds are well suited for diverse groups of campers with varying experience and equipment. Tent campers, RVers, and cabin dwellers can have a great vacation at the same campground, and often reserve sites that are close together.

Some families may want sites right next to each other, and others may prefer a little privacy. If you want to camp right next to friends, ask if the campground has buddy sites. Buddy sites are designed so that two RVs face each other (awning to awning), and there is a common area in the middle with picnic tables and fire ring.

Typical RV sites do not face each other—they face the back side of the neighboring RV. This is more private and could be desirable when camping next to strangers, but you may have a view of the neighbors’ sewer hookups. Keep in mind that there may be situations where you don’t want to have a site right next to friends—if you have different morning routines or the kids have varying bedtimes, for instance.

Plan Activities Together, but Don’t Overplan

Our boys love hiking, but even more so with friends. They are lukewarm about kayaking, but when friends come along, it’s a great adventure. But keeping multiple families on the same schedule can be tricky and stressful. If your family loves to get up early and hike before the trail gets crowded, and your friends like to sleep in, make separate plans and meet up later.

Your kids may whine or resist being away from their buddies, but set your expectations and stick with them. We’ve learned that our kids benefit from downtime with just us—it helps prevent the emotional “crash” from constant friend time. Our boys know that camping trips with friends include spending quality time with just Mom and Dad.

Be sure to build flextime into your schedule. Traveling with kids makes life unpredictable and priorities can change quickly. Flextime helps deal with issues as they arise.

Discuss Meals in Advance

Sharing meals with friends and discovering great local food joints are two of our favorite camping activities. Over the years, here is what we found works best:

For weekend trips, the family that arrives at the campground first on Friday makes that dinner, so a hot meal is waiting for the other family. The favor is returned with Saturday night dinner.

For longer trips, each family makes two dinners for the whole group. Taking responsibility for an entire meal (and getting one in return) has always worked better for us than doing multifamily potlucks. Many campers love potlucks—and that’s fine. Do what works for you.

We typically have breakfast on our own because we like to be the first ones at the trailhead in the morning and scheduling multifamily breakfasts can really slow down the start of our day.

We never schedule group lunches because we are usually out exploring and like to discover roadside food joints. Plus, eating lunch out is significantly cheaper than eating dinner out.

Take Turns Watching Each Other’s Kids

During one of our first joint camping trips, our friends had an epiphany. He and his wife offered to watch our kids while Stephanie and I went out to dinner, in exchange for us watching their kids the next night. I felt like we were single-handedly reinventing modern parenting—a brave new world where parents could go on date nights while on vacation. From that time on, we swapped babysitting on group camping trips, which has allowed us to find new restaurants, go kayaking and explore spots we couldn’t go with the kids. Brilliant!

Be sure to take copies of our free, printable Camping Scavenger Hunt (one for each child). The kids will love spotting items as they explore their outdoor surroundings. Print them at www.sandiegofamily.com/things-to-do/ travel/family-camping-round-up.

Be Flexible

The most important tip for traveling with others is to remain flexible. A camping trip should be loose, mellow, fun and adventurous. Being adventurous often means being spontaneous—following joy wherever it takes you. If one family is overplanning activities and strict meal schedules, it can lead to tension and miscommunication. There have been many times that Stephanie and I wanted to switch up our plans because we found an awesome spot to explore. Our friends are always flexible about it, and we do the same for them.

If you follow these six tips while camping with family and friends, you will have an awesome trip!

Jeremy and Stephanie Puglisi are the cohosts of The RV Atlas Podcast and have authored several books, including See You at the Campground.

This is part two of a two-part family camping series. If you missed part one (full of hints, hacks and destination ideas), read it in our June issue at www.sandiegofamily.com/ magazines/san-diego-family-digital-issues.

July 2021 • SanDiegofamily.com • 25