General Camping Tips For First Time Campers

With the current financial climate and the costs of holidays abroad rising, more and more people are turning to camping for spending their time off. For experience campers, staying in a tent or caravan can be great fun, but for people who have never been before it can be slightly daunting. In this article, we will give some general camping tips for first time campers.

Preparation
The key to a great camping holiday is to be prepared. First of all buy yourself a nice large tent that has enough room for everyone. There is nothing worse than being cramped in a small tent while camping.
The next tip is to make a list of all the essential and some non essential items you need for your trip. Forgetting something can potentially ruin the holiday as there may not always be facilities near by to go off and buy when you need. Imagine camping in a remote location and forgetting your gas stove, this is an extreme example, but can make the difference of a fun holiday. This list should also be used when packing your items up for the return journey.
Make sure you pack food, water, extra clothes, torch, fire lighters and first aid kits.

Keep yourself cool
Most people think of things to keep themselves warm with when camping. But if you are lucky and manage to get some good weather you will need to think of how to keep yourself cool. You should try and keep put of the tent during the day as it will get stuffy. Ensure that there is shade for everyone to sit under to avoid the problems of too much sun, whether this is a parasol or sun shade.
Make sure everyone is wearing sun lotion, as it is horrible to be camping when you have sun burn, you should also drink plenty of water to keep yourselves cool.

Creepy crawlies
Insects can be a nightmare for campers. You should avoid setting up camp near water as midges, horseflies and mosquitoes will all be attracted around there.
If you find that people are getting bitten a lot, then you should make the affected skin is covered up and treated if you have any anti-septic cream. Painkillers will also help to treat bad bites and stings.
When walking around your camp, you should make sure your feet are protected by wearing some kind of footwear as you do not know what is hiding in the grass.

Fire Hazards
If you are going to start an open fire or use a barbecue for cooking, make sure you have some water near by that you can use if it gets out of control. On a side note when cooking on a barbecue, make sure you cook everything properly as you do not want anyone's holiday spoilt by getting food poisoning.