Upon returning from another successful family car camping trip in which my children swam in crystalline springs, cooked food over the flame, tracked wildlife, didn’t touch devices with screens and didn’t miss those devices one bit, etc; a manliness blog I follow published a piece entitled Car Camping Is The Worst.
Huh?
I dug into the article to read the gauntlet of complaints from the author who states that he and his family go camping up to two times per year! Wow, this must be a real camping expert, I thought.
Complaints include:
😭 Camping in a tent is UNCOMFORTABLE!!!
😭 It sure takes a lot of work to camp for just for one night!!!
😭 Car camping isn’t soul-washing!!! (?)
😭 RVs make a humming noise!!!
😭 Lights from the bathroom sometimes shine on our tent!!!
😭 Car camping doesn’t get you immersed in nature!!!
Hmmm…are those complaints even close to being barriers? Approximately 100% of people can come up with solutions to the above problems in about 10 seconds.
I decided the Car Camping Is The Worst article needed to be counterbalanced with a better article entitled: Car Camping Is NOT The Worst.
So…
Car Camping Is NOT The Worst (Or Why Every Family Needs To Go Car Camping)
1. Car Camping Is Low-Pressure
There’s not a lot of pressure to make sure car camping trips go perfectly, unlike, say renting a $300 per night cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The more one spends on a trip the more pressure there is for everything to go perfectly.
On an expensive trip, tantrums by the littles are met with exasperated parents calculating just how much money is being wasted by little Susie’s kicking and screaming, ratcheting up parental stress. On a cheap little car camping trip a parent can just give Susie a snack and then crack open a beer while Susie takes a snooze in the hammock. No worries!
2. Car Camping Is Low-Cost
Anybody with kids knows that saving money is paramount! That family trip to Hawaii sure would be nice…but it would break the budget. Yet, as parents, we must make sure that our children are having new, fun adventures.
Car camping is a God-send for lower-income families or for families that need to save. Last year we camped at Hontoon Island for just $18.00 per night and camping in Florida can be had for as little as $0.00 a night. We also camped in the Florida Keys during last Christmas Break for a fraction of the price it would have cost if we stayed at a hotel.
Car camping fits the bill!
3. Car Camping Allows You To Go Glamping
Sure, when I camp alone everything I need can fit into a backpack. Not so when camping with the kiddos and that’s fine by me! What’s the point of minimalist camping when you can drive all your gear right to your site which comes equipped with electrical hookups?
Live it up, I say! Bring the air mattresses! Bring the s’mores! Bring the waffle maker and extension cords!
They all fit in the minivan, anyway. So, why not go big? Camping any other way with my four children—ages 11, 6, 4, and 4—wouldn’t be that fun. (“Okay, kids, everybody hoist up their backpacks for our 5 mile hike to our campsite!”)
Some of my glamping favorites: waffle maker, bug tent, hammock, propane stove, 4-person river tube, air mattresses, beer.
Embrace the glamping!
4. Car Camping Filters Out Camping Snobs
No wonder non-car camping folk who declare their love for the outdoors rarely camp—their snobbery prevents them from the joys of car camping at the local state park. Fine by me!
They can have their every-other-year “real” camping trip in the backcountry with their super cute GQ camping costumes and overpriced, lightweight camping thingamabobs. I’ll take the friendly, down-to-earth RV neighbors over a camping snob any day of the week!
And the great thing about being a non-snob is you get to go camping way more often because you don’t look down your nose at the local camping spot that is filled with us commoners. You’re welcome to hang out with us!
5. Car Camping Allows You To Take Mini-Vacations
Sure, M-F 9-5 jobs suck and so does the standard 2 weeks’ vacation. We do what we have to do to provide for our families. But that doesn’t mean we have to fretfully whittle away our weekend in a work-induced anxiety coma, counting down the seconds until we have to report back in at 9am sharp to the boss-man (or boss-woman) to go over the latest spreadsheets. Heck, no!
Instead, pack the family in the car and go! Why wait for your 2 weeks of vacation when you can take a mini-vacation every week? Car camping makes this happen because it is low-cost, fun and gets you moving so you have no time for work-induced anxiety attacks! And your family deserves an anxiety free you.
Embrace mini vacations!
6. Car Camping Lets You See The Treasures In Your Own Backyard
That Instagram family travel hacking through Southeast Asia is inspiring. And honestly, good for them! They worked hard to get there.
BUT…you do not have to wait until you can afford to quit your job in order to start that epic multi-year RTW trip to start traveling. You can start traveling now…in your own backyard.
Here in Florida we have 175 gorgeous state parks—crystal springs, sugar sand beaches, green tropical forests. Our family is working through visiting every single one. It has been a great, low-cost family adventure that has primarily been fueled by car camping on the weekends. Nobody has quit their job. Nobody has had to open 37 new credit card accounts to build up points.
We just toss in our gear and go.
Where can you go? What’s by you? State parks? National parks? Weekend canoe trips? There is treasure to be had.
7. Car Camping Teaches Children How To Not Be Sissies
Child, this is how you set up a tent. This is how you sharpen a blade. This is how you chop wood. This is how you build a fire. This is how you cook a steak over the flame.
We will do these things instead of playing Fortnite like your obese friends at school. (FYI—my kids have no idea what Fortnite is because they are too busy doing things like riding bikes).
My children do not complain about uncomfortable sleep in a tent or about icky mud—they love it and beg for more of it. It’s not because my children are particularly tough. It’s just that stuff you do on a camping trip is the same stuff a child naturally likes to do before being spoiled by inattentive parents who prefer to defer parenting to videogames, ding dongs and ADHD brain drugs.
One thing is for sure. The boys that date my daughters are going to have to be real butt-kickers, partly due to the fact that my girls will be unimpressed with any soft-handed, doughy fella that can’t swing an ax or command a canoe.
8. Car Camping Teaches You How To Not Be A Sissy
It’s easy to sink into a lame weekend routine which consists of sitting around too much and daydreaming about owning a 4-hour business, while the dread of another pending workweek starts to set in.
Instead of that…how about you kick that dread to the curb and take back your life by DOING THINGS with your time off. Like taking your family car camping. My preferred car camping trip is leaving for the campsite on Friday 5:30pm and returning Sunday 5:30pm.
But, wait!!! How will I ever be rested for work on Monday morning if I do that every weekend?!!!
Are you ever not tired for work on Monday morning? The truth is that you are a red-eyed, bleary-eyed zombie every Monday morning for work because you stayed up until 2:00am watching Game of Thrones the night before. Why? Because you know if you fall asleep it means when you wake up it will be time to go to work. And that’s no good!
But, but, but camping is hard with kids!!! It would be much easier to just, ya know, hang around the house and stuff.
Yes, camping with the kids can be hard. What’s even harder is wasting a perfectly good weekend watching the latest sportzball matches when you could instead be LIVING LIFE and showing your children how to LIVE LIFE.
9. Car Camping Makes Strong Families
There is a reason the boy scouts, girl scouts, business retreats and gurus go to the outdoors—it makes them stronger! A car camping trip makes a family have to work together in new ways and solve new problems and gain new perspectives.
A successful trip involves: communication, problem solving, flexibility, learning new skills, chores, intimate interactions, and more.
There are opportunities to learn: What kind of bird is that? What are these wild purple berries? How do I build this fire? Where is our camping neighbors from and what’s their story?
Every time we return from a camping trip our family is made stronger and more tightknit by challenges we encountered and solved and by the new experiences we had.
Camping is also very fun. And fun is good for the family.
10. Car Camping Immerses You In Nature
The complainy-pants article Car Camping Is The Worst states that car camping doesn’t immerse you in nature. Really…
BONUS REASON: Instead of being inundated with the latest, cutting edge doom and gloom that is nearly unavoidable in daily life, you can instead say “screw ’em” and go on a sunrise hike. I’d estimate family car camping will solve about 50% of your problems in life!
