Camping With Kids: The Family Guide to Making It Actually Fun
Camping with young children is one of the most reliably memorable family experiences available — and one of the most consistently cited planning failures when it goes wrong. The family camping trip that produces two miserable days and a vow never to camp again almost always went wrong because of planning decisions made before departure: too remote a location, too ambitious a schedule, insufficient activity planning for children who can’t entertain themselves in an unstructured environment for hours, or underestimation of the additional equipment that children’s camping comfort requires. Here is the framework that produces the camping trips children remember with enthusiasm rather than with trauma.
Location: Start Close
The first family camping trip should be within two hours of home — close enough that aborting the trip because someone is miserable or unwell doesn’t require a long miserable drive back. This proximity also reduces the consequence of forgetting essential items, which is nearly universal on first camping trips with children. State parks within reasonable distance provide the developed infrastructure — flush restrooms, running water, playground equipment — that makes the first family camping experience more comfortable than dispersed camping while still providing the nature experience that motivates camping in the first place.
Activity Planning Is the Entire Game
Children who are engaged with specific activities — a nature scavenger hunt, a fishing attempt, a hike to a specific destination, a campfire cooking project — are happy campers. Children who are told to go play outdoors in an unstructured environment for hours may or may not be — it depends entirely on the child’s temperament and whether the environment provides the specific type of engagement that child finds rewarding. Plan more activities than you expect to need. Pack the fishing poles, the nature identification cards, the camp craft supplies. The boredom that triggers the “I want to go home” complaint is entirely preventable with adequate activity preparation.
