Camping is the marmite of the holiday world, you either love it, or you hate it. If you’re in the second camp (pardon the pun), this guide might change your mind. What camping means in 2026 is far different from what it was twenty years ago. There is so much choice of campsite and equipment available with the spectrum running from a basic tent pitch in a Welsh field for £15 a night, all the way to a heated shepherd’s hut with underfloor heating.
Camping is the marmite of the holiday world, you either love it, or you hate it. If you’re in the second camp (pardon the pun), this guide might change your mind. What camping means in 2026 is far different from what it was twenty years ago. There is so much choice of campsite and equipment available with the spectrum running from a basic tent pitch in a Welsh field for £15 a night, all the way to a heated shepherd’s hut with underfloor heating.
In this guide, without hierarchy or judgement, we will cover every aspect of camping. Whether you want to sleep under the stars with nothing but a sleeping bag, or you want the outdoor experience with the comfort of a proper bed, you’ll find the knowledge to plan a camping trip through and through.
This page sits within Stage 2 of the Love travel Planning Platinum Roadmap – Define the What. If you’ve already worked out who you’re travelling with, and you know that camping or glamping is the direction you want to go, you’re in the right place. We’ll walk you through every meaningful planning decision, from choosing your camping style and finding the right site, to timing your trip, managing food allergies in the field, and the safety considerations you will need to take into consideration.
Love Travel Planning disclosure
Before we get into it, we should be honest about something. The way we plan camping holidays, and what we write about, is independent and immersive. We don’t do package holidays or all-inclusive resorts; we prefer choosing where we pitch, what we cook and how we spend our days.
If a fully-catered, fully-organised package holiday is your thing, that’s absolutely fine, they work brilliantly for some families and trips, just not ours. Camping happens to be one of the most independent travel styles available, which is part of why we love it.
An estimated 16.7 million camping and caravanning trips were taken in the UK in 2022, with the value of the domestic market rising 25% over the preceding five years (UK Caravan and Camping Alliance Economic Benefit Report, 2024).
The most useful thing we can do before anything else is define what we’re actually talking about. Because, camping means different things to different people, and the planning decisions that follow depend entirely on which version you’re considering.
This is arguably the real deal. Under canvas with pegs, poles, a groundsheet, a tent, sleeping bags, and an outdoor stove. Traditional tent camping is the style most people picture first, and it’s the one that requires the most preparation, the most kit, and the most honest self-assessment about your tolerance for discomfort.
Done well, with the right equipment, the right site, and the right expectations, it’s one of the most rewarding holiday experiences available. Done badly, it can be a miserable week.
We have found that traditional tent camping comes with some absolute joys. Allowing for total immersion in the natural environment, waking up with the sun, spending evenings cooking marshmallows around a fire, and building jigsaws when it rains.
That being said there are some quite notable downsides, like erecting a tent in the rain, managing food safety without a kitchen, accidentally pitching your tent on a slope, and the British weather doing exactly what British weather does. None of which are reasons not to go, they’re just reasons you need to prepare properly.
A tent pitch at a UK campsite costs between £15 to £35 per night for a family, depending on location, facilities and season. Add site fees, food, activities, and a family camping holiday can realistically come in at a fraction of the cost of comparable cottage or hotel accommodation.
The big investment is the kit – a decent family tent, sleeping bags, mats, camp stove and cooking equipment. But, it is a ‘one-off’ rather than a recurring cost, and second hand camping kits are widely available at good quality. Also, you don’t have to have all the posh camping gadgets to have fun!
The UK glamping market reached approximately £96.8 million (USD 131.5 million) in 2025 and is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 10.4% to reach approximately £246.5 million (USD 335 million) by 2034, driven by demand for unique, comfort-forward outdoor experiences (IMARC Group, UK Glamping Market Report, 2026-2034).
Glamping sits at the other end of the spectrum and represents the fastest growing segment of the outdoor accommodation market. Shepherd’s huts, bell tents, safari tents, geodesic domes, converted horseboxes, treehouses, pods with hot tubs – if it’s outside and involves sleeping in something that isn’t a conventional building, someone is probably calling it glamping.
The definition is loose and the quality varies enormously, but the appeal is consistent; the outdoor experience and setting of camping, with the comfort and convenience of a proper bed, actual furniture, and usually a bathroom that doesn’t require a torch lit march across a field.
Glamping is excellent for families who love the idea of camping but are honest about the reality of it. It’s particularly good for first-timers, for families with young children who need a good night’s sleep, for couples wanting a romantic but nature-connected break, and for older travellers for whom a night on the ground is no longer appealing. It costs more than the average tent pitch, but it removes some of the barriers that put people off camping in the first place.
Glamping occupies a different part of the cost spectrum. CampManager UK Glamping Industry Data from 2024 puts the average glamping site rate at around £93 per night for pods, shepherd’s huts, and lodges, compared to approximately £23 for a traditional tent pitch. That’s quite the premium, and for longer stays it does add up.
Whether glamping represents value depends entirely on what you’re comparing it to. Against a mid-range hotel or cottage in the same area, glamping often competes favourably on both price and experience. Against budget tent camping, it’s much more expensive. The honest framing is – glamping is not cheap camping. It’s a different product that happens to share some characteristics with camping.
A campervan or motorhome holiday is camping’s touring cousin, home on wheels, combining the freedom of being able to move wherever you like with the self-sufficiency of having your sleeping space with you at all times.
For families who camp regularly, a campervan may provide a quality-of-life upgrade over tend camping, with a proper bed, a small kitchen, storage, and the ability to drive away if a site isn’t working for you.
The planning considerations however, are different. You need electric-hook up availability, motorhome friendly sites, and be comfortable driving a larger vehicle. Still on my bucket list of things to do, is hire an RV and travel around the National Parks in the USA.
Campervan hire costs will vary depending on vehicle size, season, and hire company, but a week’s hire of a family-sized campervan in peak UK summer usually runs from £1,000 to £1,800, plus fuel.
Add campsite fees (motorhome pitches with electric hook-up run from around £25 to £50 per night at established sites) and you’re looking at a meaningful budget. Against the cost of a week’s cottage rental plus restaurant meals for a family of four, a campervan holiday still presents good value. Especially if you’re touring rather than staying in one place.
Wild camping is where you pitch a tent away from an official campsite, in open countryside. It is one of the most elemental forms of camping and is also the one with the most legal considerations.
This style of camping varies across the UK. In Scotland, wild camping is a statutory legal right; in England, it’s only legal on the Dartmoor Commons (confirmed by the Supreme Court in May 2025); in Wales, Northern Ireland, and elsewhere in England, wild camping requires the landowner’s permission.
We haven’t really done much wild camping as part of Love Travel Planning as of yet, but who knows!
European camping is a distinct and well established tradition, particularly for UK travellers, for whom a ferry crossing to France with a car full of kit is a well worn summer ritual. When our eldest child was very small, we spent a couple summers camping across the south of France. Then, when we had our other two children, we all went camping across Germany.
Before getting into the details of how to plan a camping holiday, it’s worth exploring whether it’s the right holiday style for you in the first place.
There’s a body of research that increasingly backs up what regular campers have always known – camping is actually good for you. The Outjoyment Report, a study of nearly 11,000 campers conducted by the Camping and Caravanning Club with Sheffield Hallam University, found that 48% of campers reported feeling happy almost every day, compared with 35% of non-campers. 44% were classed as flourishing with optimal mental health.
Time in nature has measurable wellbeing benefits, research with the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre found that a single visit to a biodiverse natural environment delivered benefits that lasted up to eight hours.
Beyond the statistics, the practical case for camping is strong. It’s one of the most affordable holiday styles available – a family of four with their own kit can have a week’s holiday for a fraction of the cost of a cottage or hotel. It’s self-contained in a way that’s useful for families managing food allergies.
You can leave a site that isn’t working for you, adapt your days to the weather, and make decisions as you in a way that no other accommodation style really allows. And, for children in particular, a week on a campsite (with no wifi) delivers a quality of outdoor experience and freedom that is increasingly rare in everyday life.
An honest assessment also means acknowledging when camping isn’t the right choice. Over half of UK consumers who say they’re not interested in camping say uncomfortable sleeping and weather concerns as their primary objections, which is not unreasonable. A bad night’s sleep in a cold, dampy tent is genuinely unpleasant, and British weather has no particular obligation to cooperate with your plans.
Camping, may not be for you if:
One more thing, a bad first camping experience is almost always a planning problem, not a camping problem. Wrong site, wrong kit, wrong season, or wrong expectations – these are all fixable. If your only experience of camping involved a cheap Tesco tend in a field in October, that’s not really a data point about where you’ll enjoy camping.
Our Roadmap puts the who before the what, and a camping trip is no exception. Who you’re travelling with will shape your camping holiday more than almost any other variable. The right campsite for a couple looking for peace and quiet is a very different place from the right campsite for a family with young children. And, neither of those is the right campsite for a group of friends on a long weekend. You need to be honest about who’s actually coming before you start filtering destinations.
For families with young children, the campsite environment is often the activity. A well facilitated campsite with a safe environment gives young children a freedom they rarely experience – space to run, things to explore, other children to befriend spontaneously, and a campfire to sit around in the evening. The memories tend to be disproportionately vivid and lasting.
The practical priorities for camping with young children are different from those for any other group. Facilities can matter enormously – with clean toilet blocks that aren’t a fifteen minute walk from your pitch, hot showers that work reliably, a safe sit layout without hazards near water.
If you’re formula-feeding, then electric hook-ups are quintessential. The proximity of the pitch to the toilet block is a practical matter that becomes quite obvious at 2am with a four year old. And, the ground surface matters more than you’d expect, as grass pitches that become mud baths in rain can turn a difficult situation into a miserable one – kids crying, partners crying, you get the picture.
Our honest advice for camping with young children; prioritise facilities and site layout over scenery. A beautiful but remote site with basic facilities will be harder work than a well-run family site with reliable infrastructure. Once the children are a bit older and camping feels comfortable and familiar, the wilder, more remote sites become more rewarding, there’s an order to it.
Teenagers who are either scouts, or brought up camping as children with a developed connection with the outdoors are often the most enthusiastic adult campers you’ll meet. But, teenagers experiencing camping for the first time in adolescence need a completely different approach.
Independence within the campsite environment does matter. The ability to wander off, have their own space, maybe make friends with people from other patches. Activity matters too; a campsite near good surfing, climbing, cycling or water sports will hold a teenager’s interest in a way that a beautiful but passive field simply won’t.
Social dynamics at the campsite also matter for teenagers in a way they don’t for younger children or adults. A lively, social site where the evening has energy – a campsite bar, outdoor games, other young people, is a very different experience from a quiet, adults-focused site. Knowing which your teenager will respond to before you book is worth the conversation.
For more on how teenage trips differ from family travel at other stages, see our full travelling with teenagers guide.
Camping in its slower, more considered form; the adult-only site with great facilities and peaceful surroundings; the glamping pod with a wood burning stove and no school holiday prices; is excellent for couples and empty nesters.
The flexibility to travel outside of peak sumer is a massive advantage here. With autumn camping in the Lake District or the Scottish Highlands delivers a quality of experience and landscape that July simply can’t, and it costs less.
For couples and empty nesters, the campervan style also works here. The combination of sleeping wherever you park and waking up in a new place each morning. Whether that’s a Northumberland beach car park, a Highland loch or a French vineyard campsite, it’s a holiday style with freedom that’s very difficult to replicate.
The upfront cost of a campervan (or the hire cost of one) is the main barrier, which is why some people in their late 20’s/early 30’s have started buying vans. But, the lifestyle, for those who take it, tends to become habitual.
Group camping introduces its own planning dynamics, with coordinating travel, dividing kit responsibilities, managing different budgets and expectations, and finding a site that either has a large enough pitch or adjacent pitches to accommodate everyone.
The social structure of a group camping trip with communal cooking, evening around a fire, the particular intimacy of sharing a small space with people you care about, can be one of the most enjoyable holiday experiences available. It can also, if the planning is poor, be a significant test of friendships.
For groups, we’d suggest nominating someone to own the planning, one person who books the site, coordinates the kit, and manages the logistics. Rather, than trying to make every decision collectively. Communal meals work best when they’re simple – slow cooker stews, campfire cooking, one big breakfast etc. And, a clear conversation upfront about budget, alcohol, noise, washing up rota, and wake up times will prevent the minor irritations that compound over a week.
Solo camping is a growing trend, particularly for those seeking restorative solitude. The appeal stems from having total control of your own time and space. Allowing a deeper connection with your environment without the mediation of other people, and a kind of confidence and self-reliance that comes from managing your own outdoor experience.
When it comes to practical considerations, you need to be on your a-game. You need to check site security, communication, and letting someone at home know your plans and create a check-in schedule.
For solo camping beginners, starting with an established, staffed campsite rather than a remote wild camping location makes sense. Getting comfortable with the style, setting up and breaking down your kit efficiently, cooking for one, managing your own entertainment – is much easier with facilities nearby. The more remote, self-sufficient solo trips can come later, when the basics feel like second nature.
With the who clear, the what gets easier. Beyond the question of what you sleep in, is the question of what you’re actually there for. The type of experience you’re seeking shapes your campsite choice, your destination, your season and how your days will actually unfold. Here’s how we break down the main camping experience types:
For a growing number of campers, and this is being borne out in both the market data and the personal stores we hear, camping has become a deliberate act of disconnection from the pace of modern life. Dark sky sites away from light pollution, woodland camping with no phone signal, off-grid pitches where the only sound is wind in the trees – these are the experiences people are actively looking for. If this is what you’re actually looking for, prioritise it explicitly in your site research rather than treating it as a bonus.
Most camping trips we have done have been built around an activity rather than a destination. The campsite is simply the most practical, affordable, and enjoyable base from which to do the thing you’re actually there for. Surfing in Cornwall, mountain biking in the Brecon Beacons, sea kayaking in the Scottish islands, walking the Hadrian’s Wall in stages – in each case, a (or a few) well-located campsite transforms what might otherwise be an expensive or logistically complicated trip into something entirely manageable.
Festival camping deserves its own category, and honestly, it’s a brilliant way to ease into camping if your family hasn’t done much of it before. The basics are familiar; a tent, a sleeping bag, shared facilities, but there is also a buzzy festival atmosphere you don’t get on any other kind of holiday.
For a child’s first festival, it’s a chance to dip a toe into outdoor life with the safety net of organised facilities, food stalls and family campsites all around you. For teenagers heading off without you for the first time, it’s reassuringly contained – they are on a managed site with stewards, neighbours and phone signal, rather than out in the wilds.
If the idea of festival camping appeals but the thought of wrestling with a basic tent after a long day doesn’t, the glamping options at most major UK festivals have come on enormously. Think bell tents with proper beds made up for you on arrival, dedicated glamping areas with cleaner, quieter facilities, and a comfort level that makes the difference between surviving the weekend and enjoying it.
Den building, campfire cooking, nighttime walks with torches, learning to identify constellations, spotting wildlife at dawn – these are the experiences that define a childhood. Many well-run family campsites now programme these activities explicitly; others simply provide the environment and let the children find their way into it.
Camping seasonality is more consequential than for almost any other holiday type. The same campsite in September and in August can feel like a different experience – in crowd levels, in cost, in atmosphere and in what the weather actually does to your days. Here’s an honest breakdown of what each season delivers:
Summer is the peak season for good reason. It has the longest days, the warmest evenings, and the time when camping feels most naturally enjoyable. For families with school-age children, July and August are often the only option, which is both a constraint and to plan around clearly.
Popular sites like Cornwall, the Lake District, the Peak District and anywhere near the coast book up months in advance for peak summer weeks, and we mean months, not weeks. If you’re planning a summer camping trip with children, booking in January or February for July is not overcautious.
The downsides for camping at this time of year are quite obvious. Sites are at their busiest, which can mean noise at night, queues for facilities, and a campsite atmosphere that has more in common with a holiday park than a peaceful outdoor retreat.
60% of campers choose August and 49% choose July for their camping trips, while only 2% in January – which tells you both how popular summer camping is and how much space exists in the off-peak calendar (Great Britain Tourism Survey | Hipcamp Analysis).
For anyone with flexibility in their travel dates, like empty nesters, young adults, couples without school-age children, shoulder season camping is where the best experiences live.
The campsites are far less busy in September, prices drop, and popular sites have space available at shorter notice. September camping in the Lake District or on the Northumberland Coastal Path is not a consolation prize for missing summer, it’s often better than summer.
May and June offer something different again, with wildflowers (bluebells, daffodils, and wild garlic), birdlife, and the long evenings of approaching midsummer. The water temperature is cooler if you’re combining camping with swimming, but for most activities (walking, cycling etc), shoulder season is the sweet spot.
We once went camping in Devon in the school Easter holidays and were the first tent in the field (for a reason). It was still on the cold side, and so we needed our duvets, and hot water bottles with us to keep cosy overnight. At least it didn’t rain!
Winter camping in a tent is a specialist undertaking. Possible, occasionally rewarding, but requires kit and experience that most British campers don’t have. Winter glamping, on the other hand, is one of the most underrated short-break options in the UK.
A heated shepherd’s hut, a wood-burning stove, a proper bed, frosty mornings and cold-weather walks. It’s the camping experience without the cold-weather discomfort and socks that won’t dry.
For most readers planning a first camping trip, we’d suggest avoiding January and February for tent camping, unless you’re in Australia.
Once you know your camping style, your group, your season, destination starts to follow naturally. Here’s how we think about UK camping destinations, organised around environments and what each delivers.
Combining camping with the coast produces some of the most satisfying holidays available. The key here is to think about the site location i.e. proximity to the beach matters more than most other campsite variables for a coastal camping trip, and many sites that describe themselves as coastal are a twenty-minute drive from the water.
For UK coastal camping, Cornwall (our family favourite), Pembrokeshire in Wales, the Northumberland coast, and the East Lothian coast in Scotland consistently deliver. We have an in-depth guide on coastal holidays.
National parks are natural destinations for camping, the landscape that makes them worth protecting is exactly the landscape you want to wake up to. The Lake District, Peak District, Dartmoor, Eryri (Snowdonia), the Cairngorms, and the Yorkshire Dales all have well developed campsite networks alongside more remote options for experienced campers.
The Lake District in particular, England’s most visited national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has camping options ranging from basic farm pitches in spectacular fell settings to well-facilitated family sites near Windermere.
The booking challenge with national park camping is peak summer. The most popular sites in the Lake District and Peak District can be fully booked weeks in advance for August weekends. Planning ahead, or booking a shoulder season trip where availability is less pressured, is essential rather than optional.
Woodland camping has a specific atmosphere and a specific appeal that’s different from open moorland or coastal camping. The New Forest in Hampshire, Grizedale Forest in the Lake District, Kielder Forest in Northumberland, and Thetford Forest in Norfolk all offer woodland campsite options that combine shelter from wind and rain with a natural environment that’s particularly good for wildlife spotting and that being enclosed by nature.
For families with children, woodland camping tends to work particularly well – den building, tree climbing, exploring without the anxiety about open water or cliff edges that some other campsites require. The National Trust operates a few excellent woodland camping and glamping sites across England and Wales, and these tend to be consistently well-run and well-maintained.
Farm camping, in small, often family run sites on working farms, is a uniquely British experience and one that’s particularly good for families with young children. The opportunity to see actual farming in action, to meet animals and to be in a genuinely rural environment rather than a managed campsite park adds a layer of experience that well-facilitated holiday parks can’t replicate.
Platforms like Cool Camping or Pitchup specifically filter for farm camping and small-scale independent sites, and the quality of these varies enormously – reading reviews carefully is more important here than for large, established campsites.
A Love Travel Planning recommendation would be to check out Big Sky Hideaway in Lincolnshire, our guest writer Smyto went here last year and fell in love with the place. It’s an eco-campsite, with llamas, and natural meadows to camp in.
The undisputed capital of UK camping. Outstanding beaches, good surf, excellent food scene and a density of campsite options makes it easy to find something at every point of the quality and price spectrum. Busy in summer; lovely in shoulder season.
For families with young and teenage children, our recommendation would be to check out Mother Ivey’s Bay, near Padstow. However, we acknowledge this is a very popular site, so you will need to book months in advance.
England’s most dramatic landscape and excellent for walkers, cyclists and water sports enthusiasts. Book well in advance for peak season; consider shoulder season seriously.
Our guest writer Smyto used to spend summers camping here with the scouting movement. There are some great campsites near Windermere, with varying levels of facilities. My favourite campsite in the Lakes is the Great Langdale Campsite where you can wake up surrounded by the Langdale Pikes, fill your boots with wonderful walks, and end your day with a pint at the Old Dungeon Ghyll pub. Perfect!
The Pembrokeshire Coast National park has some of the finest coastal walking in Europe and excellent campsite provision. Less crowded than Cornwall, weather more variable.
The Northumberland coast has a great selection of beaches, often empty. Kielder Water is outstanding for dark sky stargazing. Often available with less advance booking than the south west.
The most dramatic landscape in the British Isles, wild camping is legal under Scottish law, and a quality of national experience that’s unmatched in the UK. Midges from June to August are an annoyance, so you will need to pack accordingly.
Camping abroad opens up some of the most rewarding camping experiences, like the French Loire Valley and the Dordogne, the Croatian Dalmatian Coast, the Dutch cycling trails, and the Italian Dolomites. It also adds significant logistical complexity for first-time European campers, and it’s a different product to UK camping.
Whether camping abroad is right for your trip depends on your camping experience, how you want to travel (driving via ferry vs flying), and whether you’re ready for European campsite culture. Which is more social, more closely-pitched, and more family-orientated than most UK campers expect. For American travellers, it’s a very different environment from US wilderness camping and worth understanding before you arrive.
Camping has a planning dimension that no other holiday can’t quite replace, and the equipment element in particular is unique to this style. Here’s how to work through the practical decisions in the right order:
The campsite choice is the most consequential single decision in camping holiday planning – more so than for beach or city break holidays, where the destination itself does most of the work. A poorly chosen campsite can undermine an otherwise well-planned trip; the right campsite carries a trip even when the weather doesn’t cooperate.
For booking, we use Pitchup and Hipcamp for initial discovery and filtering, Cool Camping for smaller, more characterful independent sites, and direct booking on the campsite’s own website where possible (often cheaper). The Camping and Caravanning Club, and Caravan and Motorhome Club both maintain networks of sites with consistent quality standards, which is useful when you want reliability rather than character.
For a first camping trip, we’d suggest borrowing kit if you possibly can. A friend or family member with camping experience and spare kit will save you the cost of investing in equipment you don’t yet know whether you’ll use. If borrowing isn’t possible, hiring is widely available – companies like Outdoor Hire UK rent tents and equipment by the trip.
If you’re committing to camping as a long-term holiday style and want to buy your own, the principle is to invest in the things that affect sleep quality. A good quality tent (sized at least one person bigger than your group, with a hydrostatic head rating of 3,000mm or more), proper sleeping bags rated for the season, and good sleeping mats (insulation matters more than cushioning) are worth spending properly on.
A decent two-burner camp stove, a good pan, and a comfortable camp chair complete the basics. Once we reached a certain age, having a tent which we could stand up in became a deal breaker (not a back-breaker) for us.
Unlike long-haul beach holidays where Avios and airline miles can make a transformative difference to cost, camping holidays don’t lend themselves naturally to reward scheme optimisation. The accommodation isn’t hotel chain affiliated, and there may not be any flights.
Well, that isn’t quite the picture. Through the Avios portal, you can buy camping equipment from Berghaus, Mountain Warehouse, Cotswold Outdoor, Blacks, as well as Argos, B&Q and Decathlon. All of which will give you some form of points. You can also convert any BP points you have into Avios. These points may not help you this time around, but they might in the future.
Essential kit for first-time tent camping includes; a tent sized at least one person bigger than your group, sleeping bags rated for the season, sleeping mats, a camp stove, cooking equipment, a first aid kit, a headtorch for each person, a mallet for tent pegs, and appropriate clothing including a warm merino wool layer and waterproofs regardless of the forecast.
The best camping trips come from smart, low stress preparation, covering what truly matters so you can relax and enjoy the experience:
Standard policies usually cover camping, but you should check the details of your agreement. Check, if your equipment is covered, and if your policy details include your destination country, and the activities you plan to do. Wild camping in remote areas may be affected by distance from assistance clauses.
CO poisoning kills campers every year, almost always because a barbeque, stove, or heater is used inside a tent, awning or enclosed space.
Never bring any fuel-burning appliance into a tent, awning, porch or caravan. Even a cold barbecue continues releasing CO for hours. Get a cheap portable CO alarm and know the symptoms.
If you are having a fire, make sure to use a designated pit, or bring one yourself. Keep the fires small, have water ready and never leave them unattended.
Campsites are usually safe and self policing, but don’t leave valuables visible in an unattended tent. Use a locked car or a small padlocked bag inside the tent.
A backup plan is smart, not pessimistic. Before you go, know the nearest B&B, pub with rooms, or hotel (most UK campsites have options within 20 minutes’ drive) in case of prolonged rain, tent damage or illness needing you to get warmth. Extreme wind on the Cornish cliffs once caused us to have to pack up the tent early and relocate.
Traditional camping involves pitching your own tent, sleeping in a sleeping bag, and using campsite facilities. Glamping (glamorous camping) provides pre-erected accommodation like shepherd’s huts, bell tents, pods, safari tents and treehouses, with proper beds, furniture, and usually a private or semi-private bathroom. Glamping costs significantly more than a tent pitch but removes the kit requirements and comfort compromises that put some people off camping.
Yes, but with the right campsite choice. For families with young children, facilities matter more than scenery. Clean, well-maintained toilet blocks, a safe pitch layout, and ground that does not turn to mud in rain all affect daily life significantly. Children under five often sleep better in familiar environments, so glamping in a proper bed can work better than tent camping for very young children.
Wild camping is a statutory legal right in Scotland, on the Dartmoor Commons in England (confirmed by the Supreme Court in May 2025), and nowhere else in the UK without the landowner’s permission. We cover the legal position in full in our dedicated wild camping in the UK guide.
Summer (July to August) delivers the best weather and longest days, but also peak prices, crowded sites, and the need to book months in advance. Shoulder season (May, June, September and October) offers the best combination of decent weather, quieter sites, better availability and lower prices. For families tied to school holidays, summer is often unavoidable. For everyone else, September is often the best camping month of the year.
A traditional tent pitch at a UK campsite typically costs between £15 and £35 per night. A week’s family camping holiday with camping kit already owned, including site fees, food and activities, can realistically cost between £300 and £800 depending on location and season. Glamping accommodation averages around £93 per night for pods and shepherd’s huts. Campervan hire for a week in peak season typically runs from £1,000 to £1,800, plus fuel and campsite fees.
Yes, and in many ways camping is one of the better holiday styles for managing food allergies, because self-catering means you control exactly what goes into every meal. The campsite kitchen is your kitchen. When eating out from a campsite base, the same level of care applies as anywhere else. Carry your allergy translation cards for travelling abroad, choose restaurants carefully, and communicate clearly.
A standard travel insurance policy covers most camping holidays, but check the equipment cover limits, as they may be lower than the replacement cost of a decent camping kit. If you are camping abroad, make sure your policy covers the country and any activities you are planning. For wild camping in remote locations, check whether distance-from-assistance clauses affect your medical cover.
If you have made it this far down the page, you are ready to move on. You have likely got a sense of who you are camping with, what kind of camping you are going to do, and where you might want to go.
The next steps in the Platinum Roadmap are where you turn that intention into an actual trip:
This page is part of the Love Travel Planning Platinum Travel Planning Roadmap, a complete step-by-step framework for planning holidays that work for real families and real travel groups. Built from genuine travel experience, not press trips or sponsored itineraries.
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