You may know by now that Casey and I love camping. But what you may not know is that we are borderline glampers. Now we don't have AC or heaters, (although if I could make that happen easily don't think I'd hesitate) but we do have fans and a strand of lights to be able to see at night. We both use air mattresses and cots and it's glorious.
So today we figured we'd give you the low-down on everything we purchased to stay comfortable while camping.
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The must-haves:
1. A Good Tent / This is our exact tent and we love it. It's easy to set up and gives us 2 and the 3 dogs plenty of space. Make sure you buy the right size as I express in this blog post.
4. Camp Stove / Cooking over a fire is fun once or twice, but it's a lot of work. Save yourself the trouble and just buy this camp stove. I love it even more than my stove at home because your pan heats up so quickly. We use this one so many times on our trips. Don't forget to buy the propane! The stove won't work without it.
5. Huge Tarp / We actually have two tarps. We usually put one under our tent, but that one isn't totally necessary. The other is in case it rains or we don't have much shade. The tarp can be strung in the trees over your tent so the rain doesn't ever touch it. Or you could use it to create a shelter from the rain or sun over the picnic table area. Either way it's great to have because it packs up pretty small. If you have the space, another option is to have a canopy tent. We don't have room for one of these, but if we did I'd bring one along with our tarp.
7. Air Mattress or Camp Pad / We use air mattresses and it is glorious but you could also use a camp pad if you wanted it to take up less space. You'll also want something to blow your mattress up with. We use a car pump but this one has the option for plugging into a wall and your car.
8. Battery Operated Lantern / This is our exact lantern and is the best battery operated lantern we've found. We love it. It collapses. It has three different brightness levels and the batteries last for a really long time. We haven't changed our batteries in a year and it's still working great!
9. Fire Starter / Building a fire is quintessential for every camping trip, but it doesn't have to be hard. You can still gather wood and leaves from around your campsite, just use the fire starter stick to start the fire immediately. Your beautifully built fire will light in no time without much work in the beginning.
10. 50 ft. Extension Cord - To plug in all your important things and charge your phone. This one has 3 plug sites which is more helpful as your plug won't be right next to you.
Some extras we can't live without:
11. Unbreakable French Press / Casey needs her coffee and her favorite way to have it is french press. Hear all about how she makes hers in this video. When we first started camping Casey tried her hand at making Percolator coffee and it was not her style. So a french press was perfect for her! Now we use the percolator (with inside pieces removed) to boil water because it is pretty cute after all. Also you can find the Good Morning Lovely Mug here!
12. Cozy Blankets or a Sleeping Bag / Even in the middle of summer it can get chilly at night. Plus it's good to be able to have something outside of the tent to bundle up with.
14. Tabletop Tiki Torches + BiteFighter Fluid / This is something that we have to have when camping in the months where mosquitoes are alive and well. Make sure you get the fluid that repeals bugs- they have some that is just citronella scented. Get the "BiteFighter" fluid and it will help keep those pests away from your area!
15. String Lights / So you can see around your campsite when it's dark. Plus, bonus, it looks kinda cute.
16. Waterproof Hiking Boots / These are something we didn't buy right away but we really needed them. Not only is it good to have hiking boots, if that's something you will be doing a lot of on your camping trips, but it's also a good idea to get some that are waterproof. Even when it hasn't rained we've had muddy campsites due to the really high humidity and temperatures dropping over night. I remember one trip where we were dealing with very muddy Birkenstocks because those were the only shoes we had. Birkenstocks are good camping shoes for everything else except mud and hiking.
17. Camp Forks / These are perfect for hot dogs (which we end up eating every time we camp) and even marshmallows for s'mores (which we also always have).
18. Box Fan / This is a game changer for summer camping. We will use it to blow away mosquitoes wherever we are sitting at the campsite and then also at night to keep cool.
19. Games / Cards, Dominoes, Phase 10, and Bananagrams have been our favs. It's really nice to get out into nature, with zero cell service, and just play games. It's something Casey and I never do at home. One time we did try to do a puzzle but after an hour we were over it. So we save things like this for camping, and it's perfect for it.
And that's it! I'm sure there are some extra things you will need to cater to your needs, but this should get you started!
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xo, Savannah
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