Everyone Should Plan For A Family Camping Trip

A family camping trip is a fun way of sharing a great experience and enjoying nature and a bit of adventure.

To ensure the success of the camping trip and to eliminate most potential problems, planning before the event is vital. Include all family members in the planning and generation of ideas; this way they will ‘own’ the trip, participate better, have more fun and gain lots of valuable skills. It is important to learn to work as part of a team, and planning a camping trip is an ideal place to learn.

You need to decide the where and when before anything else can be done. Get everyone in the family to come up with some suggestions of a destination, giving some guidelines to keep ideas appropriate. Call a family meeting and let everyone express their ideas and wishes. Some suggestions may need discussion, with positives and negatives pointed out and talked about.


When you know your destination and the time of year, planning can begin on what needs to be packed. Divide up the areas that need to be planned and give everyone something to do. Smaller children can still be given a task, just make sure it is age-appropriate. Allow enough time for everyone to complete their lists and call another family meeting.

At this meeting, everyone will go through their list and others can make suggestions. This will evoke lots of discussion and much hilarity, but that is all part of the fun. This process may take more than one session. Make sure that no one’s feeling are hurt and help children understand that there are always more than one way to look at things.

When all areas are covered and lists are finished, it is time to allocate jobs. Make sure jobs are appropriate to age and ability, and encourage everyone to work together. Include jobs like checking the camping gear, setting up the tent to air, finding all the sleeping bags etc. Even small kids can organize their own clothes, and this gives them a real sense of responsibility.

Discussions will be an on-going thing as preparations continue, and be prepared to make changes if a better idea comes up. Be prepared for everything going wrong, and you will be prepared for anything. Remember to allow for keeping clean clothes and shoes dry, have a good first aid kit (and check it before you leave) and have some food that doesn’t need to be cooked in case you can’t get a fire lit.

By involving the whole family in the planning and preparation of the camping trip, everyone will learn new skills and feel like they have been partly responsible for a great family time.