Camping or glamping - ?

[simongt]

Probably a silly question on a cycle chat website, but is it just me that's noticed how much campers have been 'conned' into buying all those wee 'extras' to make a weekend under canvas more 'enjoyable' - ? Seems that for a couple, nothing less than a six berth stand up family tent is required. Put that with full size tables, chairs, all singing dancing cooking range, cool boxes, camp beds, etc., etc.. Dunno how they fit it all in, quite apart form the setting up / striking camp time it must take - !
My take on camping has always been keep it simple. That's half the fun and also you appreciate what you have at home when you get back, not taking your home with you - !🤣

 

[Cycleops]

I think it's always been like that hasn't it?

That brand of camper loves to have all the comforts of home but away from home and the accessory makers are happy to indulge them. Loading it all I to a 4x4 or a cavernous estate and heading for a sanitised campsite with all the amenities.

The only true campers are cyclists and hikers who delight in the very opposite cutting their kit to the bare minimum which includes saving weight to the extent of removing the handles from toothbrushes.

 

[weareHKR]

I remember the family tent I had years ago... the bag of steel poles was that heavy I needed a flatbed truck to go camping... but seriously I needed a trailer for all the gear, there weren't any luxury items either. It certainly wasn't a relaxing time putting it up & taking it down...
The last time I used it was down in Norfolk, pissed down for two weeks solid, worst holiday ever & my very last camping trip!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

What’s wrong with building a shelter out of moss and fallen branches and rubbing two sticks together to light a fire. Eating a rabbit you’ve caught and skinned. Camping has gone soft.

 

[HMS_Dave]

Glamping also comes with a bowl which says "car keys here"...

 

[PK99]

Probably a silly question on a cycle chat website, but is it just me that's noticed how much campers have been 'conned' into buying all those wee 'extras' to make a weekend under canvas more 'enjoyable' - ? Seems that for a couple, nothing less than a six berth stand up family tent is required. Put that with full size tables, chairs, all singing dancing cooking range, cool boxes, camp beds, etc., etc.. Dunno how they fit it all in, quite apart form the setting up / striking camp time it must take - !
My take on camping has always been keep it simple. That's half the fun and also you appreciate what you have at home when you get back, not taking your home with you - !🤣

When we camped with the kids oy 2 bed 4 person canvas tent with aluminum poles took up most of the Estate boot space.

Weighed a ton and took ages to erect.

Something like:

A modern ligkr weight nylon bungalow with cabon fibre poles, weighs nothing and fits in a rucksack. Almost erects itself etc

There is sapce for the extras!

 

[Oldhippy]

I will always take a two/three person tent on my bike as I like the space. The rest is sleep bag, mat, cooker, coffee, food, wash kit and clothes.

 

[Archie_tect]

Ah, when I was 17, three of us decided to go camping- all we had was a play tent and a one man job which we took to Coniston and set up beside a small stream.

In the night there was a downpour and the stream grew to a raging torrent which flooded out the level ground we'd camped on and sent us scrabbling with a torch to save what we could.

First and last attempt!

 

[I like Skol]

Loading it all I to a 4x4 or a cavernous estate and heading for a sanitised campsite with all the amenities.

Can't agree about the sanitised campsite, but you are right about loading up the 4x4..... It's the way I roll
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/l...-12-16th-sept-2019.248322/page-2#post-5736976

 

[Bazzer]

Not a new phenomena. In the late 70's Mrs B and I used to take a 6 person frame tent when camping in France and Southern Germany. We liked the space, although it took the whole of the back seat of our then Golf to accommodate it. Didn't go for the whole camp bed and range cooking stuff though.
A big downside though was reduced flexibility. If we thought we might be moving to two or three sites over (say) 10 days, my preference was for another tent we had which was a typical A frame. But that one I had the flysheet extended and bought a couple of tent poles, to increase the covered space, which made for handy storage.

 

[oldwheels]

Probably a silly question on a cycle chat website, but is it just me that's noticed how much campers have been 'conned' into buying all those wee 'extras' to make a weekend under canvas more 'enjoyable' - ? Seems that for a couple, nothing less than a six berth stand up family tent is required. Put that with full size tables, chairs, all singing dancing cooking range, cool boxes, camp beds, etc., etc.. Dunno how they fit it all in, quite apart form the setting up / striking camp time it must take - !
My take on camping has always been keep it simple. That's half the fun and also you appreciate what you have at home when you get back, not taking your home with you - !🤣

Not just tents. I have been looking for a trailer tent for myself. They all seem to state sleeps 8 or something when I know what I want is for one person and simple to erect. Caravans and motorhomes have also got bigger in general. I am always amused by the advertiser stating how many births.

 

[fossyant]

We've got enough kit for a long weekend. My son managed 5 days at Le-Mans with the addition of a big portable solar panel to charge their power banks to keep their phones going.

Our friends used to always insist on electric hook up ! Not camped for a few years !

 

[a.twiddler]

I always used to stick by the motto, "keep it thimple, thtupid" and travel light on 2 wheels whether pedal or motor powered but since I have got more old and creaky I can appreciate the hedonistic point of view a bit more. I used to enjoy the heathery, grassy smell of my tent when getting it ready for my next trip. None of us have done any camping for the last year, I wonder when we'll be able to get out there again, the self indulgent or the spartans or the somewhere in betweens.

 

[Drago]

I used to work by a simple rule - if the cost of a proposed site and style of camping cost more than an hotel room, then I'd go camping in a hotel room instead.

 

[mudsticks]

Surely this is glamping.

If the views not this good, then its just shuffling about in a field, with facilities less amenable than those to be found at home*.

*Yeah I know I did it for enough years with small kids in tow..

This is pretty goddarn glamorous, for the geologically minded.

Oh I do. hope we're all allowed to go somewhere soon.

Even Wales feels like a far flung exotic location right now