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Hi,

you may be best advised to try to borrow equipment from family or friends if you can and have a weekend or long weekend before committing to a longer family holiday and spending a fair amount of money of equipment that you may never use.

Even sticking with budget equipment (and there is some very good budget equipment out there) it will still cost quite a bit to equip yourselves from scratch.

If you use the search function and look for family camping, camping with children, you should find quite a few threads with good advice.

One thing to bear in mind is that you don't have to use things specifically made for camping. Many of the things you need can be borrowed from the the home - cutlery, garden chairs, picnic blankets, duvets instead of sleeping bags etc.

Perhaps the best piece of advice is 'go for it'. You may think that the kids will find it uncomfotable or that they may get cold. You'll be surprised at how resilient they are and how much they will enjoy the freedom of just opening the front of the tent and running out to play.

Keith.

Tent

Light

small gas cooker

and blowup bed

these are prob the main things you would have to buy which could be known as essential, most of the rest you could get from home

I know some people who have ebayed a complete kit from someone who is packing up camping, and is normally a cheap alternative until you are sure its what you want. kids love camping its like a big adventure, its the older ones who normally have to be convinced

Or become a shell dragger like me ;-)

I like your post Piddleypops as it is very similar to ours.  Our extent of camping was when one of our boys had a birthday camp out in the back garden. 

Last night we returned from our maiden voyage of camping!  As the above post states, you can use a lot of gear from the home.  We put waterproof picnic blankets over the airbeds to stop the damp/cold from rising - and it did work.

Initially, I decided to go for a cheaper pop up tent from Decathlon, but after a dry run in the back garden, I decided it wasn't for me.  I didn't like the fact that the ground sheet wasn't fully fitted as I found 3 slugs making their way across it the following morning.  I did notice a tear in the bedroom pod, so took it back.  In the end I opted for a Khyam 3 bedroom tent (with fully fitted ground sheet), so we could use one of them for storage - and now that I'm back and given it more thought, I was so glad of that extra bedroom.

I also froze a hotpot and put it in the coolbox to act as an ice pack, and heated it up the first night.

I did buy the electric wire to use in the hook up, so we took the toaster and kettle from home, so with the stove we borrowed were able to have beans on toast for breakfast as well as fry-ups!.  We also took disposable BBQ's and the site allowed us to use them so long as we put them on bricks.  We took pillows from home and the boys sat on them in the car.

I took games such as snakes and ladders, draughts, chess for the kids, but to be honest they didn't even open the box, as they just played with the other kids on the campsite in the evening.

The one thing that had put me off camping was sharing of toilets, so I did buy a chemical toilet, which we put in the spare bedroom.  i know that is more of a 'me' thing rather than a camping necessity.

Although I did find it an expense to get all the things I wanted, I also knew that if I didn't do it 'to my taste', I was unlikely to camp again.

Now having conquered our first camp, I can't wait to do it again.  I have been busy looking through the campsites on this website and eager to book my next one.

I'm just sorry that it has taken me so long to camp! 

I would say the most important thing is to get your sleeping arrangements right - if you are comfortable and warm then you can cope better if the tent isn't upto scratch.  As others have said, try borrowing a tent from someone especially if you are taking children.

There are some good second hand bargains out there

Good luck, there are plenty of tips on here, and lists of what you maybe need

Also glad to see JayneJ enjoyed her first trip, u get hooked believe me.

Have a look at the 'tents for sale' on this website, gumtree & ebay - there are some really good quality second-hand tents going cheap at this time of year. It's better to buy a quality used tent than a cheapy new tent.

Airbeds with a cheap fleece blanket on top & your duvets & pillows from home, a camping cooker (or two of the single burner suitcase stoves) and a kettle, plus frying pan, saucepans, crockery & cuttlery from home. A folding table & chairs would make life easier, & you should be able to pick them up cheap in a sale at this time of year. Don't bother with an expensive tent light, just get a round UFO led lights which cost around £4, plus a couple of Poundland torches for the kids. Take a bucket with a lid to use during the night (saves walking to campsite toilets ). A coolbox with ice packs is good, but not essential, as you can usually shop each day for fresh produce. A water carrier is not essential either as you can buy a 5 litre bottle of water from supermarket & refill it at the tap, then dump it before you come home.