The Joy of Tent Camping

There's nothing like a camping trip to help you reconnect with nature. The hush of a quiet forest or the roar of the sea can give a camping trip a magical feel. Sharing the outdoors with creepy crawlies and wild animals adds an element of danger, however remote.

Some campers prefer the home away from home experience you get in a motor home or trailer: indoor bunk beds, kitchens, and running water. But hardcore campers like to go tent camping.

Why Go Tent Camping?

A tent camping trip may be the most inexpensive vacation you've ever taken. You can get a "like new" four person tent with a waterproof tarp for $25 on a popular online classified site, and a car with four passengers can get a weeklong entry pass to Yosemite for $20. Where else can four people get a week's worth of lodging for only $45?

Besides being economical, tent camping gives campers more of a "back to nature" experience than camper or RV camping. RV campers tend to spend at least some of their time indoors in the RV. Tent campers hardly spend any time at all in their tents, unless they are sleeping. The rest of the time, tent campers are outdoors, sitting under a canopy in folding chairs or at a picnic table, enjoying the beauty of nature that surrounds them.

Most tents have flaps that can be folded back on the outside to create windows. With tent camping, you can open these flaps, see the night sky, and get the sense of sleeping under the stars without giving up the shelter that keeps you away from bugs and other crawling creatures.

Another reason tent camping is so popular is because you can set a tent up just about anywhere. Thus, campers can backpack into the woods, hike for three days straight, and camp beneath the shelter of a tent every night. You just can't do that in a Winnebago.

Why Not Go Tent Camping?

Granted, tent camping is not for everyone. Understandably, frail campers like the safety and security of a camper or travel home. Travel home campers who carry a lot of valuables with them get a sense of security out of having a door with a lock on it.

Other campers simply prefer the relative comfort of sleeping on a bed instead of an air mattress, and being able to use the bathroom if they have to in the middle of the night without heading for a shower room or, worse, disappearing into the woods with a plastic bag and a roll of toilet paper.

Finally, even tent campers admit that a travel home is more comfortable to stay in during a rain or hail storm.