Guides
Family camping: the essential gear list
Camping with children: which tent, which sleep system and what gear to plan for. Storage, safety, laundry and organising the pitch.
4 min read
Camping as a family does not call for different gear so much as gear sized differently. Three areas grow every time: living space, storage and laundry. The rest changes little. This article starts from the general checklist and covers only what changes with children.
The tent: go large, and above all separate
The rule of “one berth more than the number of sleepers” becomes “two berths more” once children are involved, because luggage grows faster than the number of people.
More important than floor area: separation. A tent with two bedrooms either side of a living area lets you put the small ones to bed at eight while the adults finish dinner. In a single-compartment tent, everyone goes to bed at the same time, every night.
Two details worth checking before buying:
- Headroom. Being able to stand up to dress a child changes daily life; over a wet week, it changes the trip.
- How dark the bedroom is. Fabrics sold as blackout genuinely delay the summer sunrise and noticeably lower the morning temperature inside. On a July trip this is one of the rare marketing claims that corresponds to a real effect.
The other criteria — waterproofing, structure, pitching — are common to all tents and covered in how to choose a camping tent.
Children’s sleep system
The thing not to neglect is still insulation from the ground. A child has a large surface area relative to their mass: they cool faster than an adult, and a thin foam mat is not enough beyond high summer.
- A proper mat each, self-inflating or thick air, rather than a spare pad.
- A bag in their size. An adult bag leaves a large volume of cold air the child never warms: a junior bag, or an adult bag folded and cinched at the foot, works far better.
- An extra blanket, easier to adjust in the middle of the night than changing bags.
- A fitted sheet or liner, which saves washing the sleeping bag afterwards.
For temperature ratings, see how to choose a sleeping bag.
Storage: the real subject
This is what families most underestimate. With four people over seven days, mess is not a failure of organisation but a mechanical consequence of volume.
- A fabric storage unit or a few stackable crates, to get things out of bags.
- One crate per person for clothing: more effective than any shared system.
- A doormat at the tent entrance, which halves the sand and soil inside.
- A closed laundry bag, separate from everything else.
- Freezer bags or airtight boxes for opened food.
Laundry, an underestimated area
Be generous with socks and underwear: they are the only items where a child’s consumption exceeds all prediction. Also plan two complete changes of clothes reachable without digging, a washing line and pegs, and proper microfibre towels that dry in hours — cotton stays damp for days under an awning.
The living space
With children, covered outdoor space stops being a comfort and becomes a requirement.
| Item | Why |
|---|---|
| Awning or tarp | Creates a living room on wet days |
| Folding table | Meals, games, holiday homework |
| A chair each | Children included, or they take the adults’ |
| Outdoor groundsheet | Marks out a clean area in front of the tent |
| Lantern plus a head torch per child | Night-time autonomy removes half the wake-ups |
Safety and health
- An expanded first aid kit: plasters in quantity, antiseptic, tweezers for splinters and ticks, a thermometer, a painkiller dosed for the child’s weight.
- High-factor sun cream and hats, reapplied several times a day.
- Age-appropriate repellent: adult formulations are not suitable for young children.
- A meeting point agreed on arrival: one campsite avenue looks much like another, and a child can get lost without going far.
- The stove out of reach, and never used inside the tent: the risk is not only burns but carbon monoxide.
- The pitch number written down somewhere, or on a wristband for the youngest.
Cooking and meals
The needs do not change in kind but in scale: bigger pots, a bigger cool box, and above all a snack available at all times. The most useful rule is to plan one complete meal that needs no cooking, for the evening you arrive or the day the rain defeats everyone. Organising the cooking area is covered in how to organise a camp kitchen.
Three habits that change everything
Arrive early. Pitching a family tent by head torch with tired children is the best way to start a week badly. Aim for mid-afternoon.
Give everyone a job. Inflating a mat, driving pegs, filling the water container: children take ownership of the camp instead of enduring it.
Review it afterwards. Note what never got used and what was missing. In two trips that list becomes more accurate than any guide, because it describes your family.
Frequently asked questions
- What size tent for a family of four?
- A tent sold as 5 or 6 person, ideally with two bedrooms either side of a living area. A 4-person tent for four people leaves no room for luggage and makes it impossible to put a child to bed while the others stay up.
- How young can a child go camping?
- There is no minimum age, but two things change: small children regulate their temperature less efficiently than adults, and their sleep is more sensitive to noise and light. A genuinely insulated sleep system and a dark bedroom matter more than the length of the trip.
- How do you keep children occupied when it rains?
- An awning or tarp over the table is the best value item of the trip: it creates a covered living room. Beyond that, bring compact non-electronic games, and accept going out in the rain with proper waterproofs rather than staying shut in.