Planning a camping trip can be fun and exciting. What better activity to look forward to than a family campout? The easy way to make your camping trip go smoothly is to be prepared. That means coming up with answers to appropriate questions before you depart. I've put together a checklist of questions to help you with your camping plans. Once you go through these questions, you'll be ready to enjoy a great camping trip.
1. Who's Going?
Get the easy ones out of the way. First, who's going: how many adults and how many kids. You'll need to know this when you check in at the campground, and it will help with meal planning.
2. When?
Next, you've obviously got a date in mind, so just check to make sure everyone can go that weekon the dates selected. If you have teenagers, you know you have to keep tabs. :-)
3. Where?
Where to camp is an easy question, if you're returning to a campground that you've visited before. Or, you may have to search for a new campground near a pre-planned destination. In this case, try Google maps. Search for your destination. When the map comes up, search for campgrounds. Tada, a list of nearby campgrounds. Or, you may have to come up with something out of the clear blue, because you want to go camping, but you just don' know where. In this case, you better start surfing the Internet.
4. How Long Will You Be Camping?
Ask everyone going how much time they have available, and plan accordingly.
5. What Do You Want To Eat?
OK, you know who's going and you know how many meals you need to plan for. Find out everyones likes and dislikes, and put together some daily menus.
6. What Will You Do When You Get There?
Fishing? Check your gear and get your license. Hunting? Same thing goes. Hiking? Ready your day pack with hiking essentials: map, compass, water bottle, camera, etc. Biking? Check the tires and brakes. Swimming? Take extra towels and don't forget the sun block. Whatever your recreation, now's the time to think about what items might need replenishing.
7. Did You Check Your Gear?
If you haven't done so already, do your camping gear spring cleaning (unroll sleeping bags, set up tents, check camp stoves, etc.), restocked consumables (propane tanks, charcoal, sun block, bug spray, etc.), and go through your check list to make sure that everything has been readied.
8. Ready To Go?
You've done all of the above, the kids are in the car, you know the route, the car is full of gas, you've got travel food and road tunes. Time to go camping!
