Essential camping gear for families

Camping is a great family activity.
Source: Wikipedia

 If you have a family chances are that you want to spend some quality time together with them.  One of the best ways to spend time with your family in a cultured, contained environment is to go on a camping trip.

 Camping is a great activity for everybody in the family, as it allows you to try out a large number of activities. Everybody can try something that they enjoy, but would not do otherwise at home. If you are into wildlife, you can go bird watching, you can go fishing, or you can hunt. If you like sports most campsites have several sports courts, and you can always go running in the nearby forests. If you are into cooking you can start a fire, or have a BBQ in the designated picnic area of the campsite. If you just want to relax, sunbathing, reading or listening to music are all viable options.

 You are going to need different pieces of gear in order to be able to pursue these activities, and make the most of your trip. There are different pieces of gear out there, and most of them are really useful, but there are only a few pieces of equipment that are really essential in order to have a great camping trip.

 The first of such pieces is a tent or an RV. No matter which one you choose, you are going to need a shelter. Whether you use a tent or an RV depends a large deal on what kind of trip you want to go on. If your campsite can not be approached by car you should buy a tent, but if there are roads leading to the campground you can easily approach it with an RV.

I don’t know much about what makes an RV great, so I am going to concentrate on the features that make a good family tent.  The tents that are really fit for using with your family are all huge. After all the whole family - your spouse, your kids - will all sleep in it. It also needs to be durable, so I advise you to buy tents that have fiberglass poles and aluminium stakes, these are the industry standards nowadays, so you shouldn't have a hard time finding such tents. I also like tents that have multiple exits, and multiple rooms. This way your family will be able to get in the tent through multiple doors, and you can stay in multiple rooms, so members of your family can enjoy a bit of privacy if they want to.

You will also need a stove of some kind. There is nothing better than a nice BBQ, or freshly done burgers when you are outdoors. What I look for in a camping stove, is some kind of wall or shelter that hides the flames. There will be those days when the wind is so hard that it is impossible to keep the flame burning otherwise.

The other important feature of the stove is a durable design. Most stoves are made of aluminium or stainless steel. Both are durable, the aim is to choose a stove that will not crumble while you are cooking, and will not fall over immediately if somebody bumps into it. This last feature can be achieved by making sure that the stove has heavy legs, with plenty of weight. Some stoves work with gas, others work with coal or wood. The ones that burn wood or coal are better because these materials can be refilled in nature if you run out of them, whereas it is pretty hard to get gas at a campsite.

If you have a tent and a stove, you have the gear needed to get shelter, and make some food for yourself, so the two most important needs of a human can be served. There are other pieces of equipment out there that can be beneficial, but whether you need them or not depends more on the type of camping trip you want to go on, and where you want to go.