Camping or Glamping with the kids this summer?

By Catherine Jones - thirty something Mum of three, daughter to Tony and Fran at the family-run business at Larkhill.

It’s a well known fact that children love the idea of camping! Sleeping under canvas, making campfires, roasting marshmallows - it’s the stuff of childhood fantasy isn’t it!

Camping Nostalgia vs Reality

These are certainly my memories of going camping for the first time.  I remember the bubbling excitement of getting to our campsite, unpacking the tent, getting it up, putting our sleeping bags inside, deciding where to sleep and then running off to explore the campsite and getting back in time to see Mum and Dad filling up bowls of spag-bol… it all seemed so wonderfully seamless in the glint of my childhood memories. I wonder if instagram has a filter named ‘childhood memory’... because let’s face it, once we become adults the reality of camping doesn’t quite look so social media perfect! For a child I’m sure camping appears to be the perfect family holiday… but for the parent it quite frankly feels more like an exhausting operation - needing an actual holiday shortly afterwards to get over it!  As children we don’t remember our parents staying up late packing the night before a camping trip, we don’t remember their stress of putting a tent up with children trying to “help”, the sibling bickering of who gets to sleep where and then the hassle of preparing food when you realise you didn't bring a chopping board or that the saucepan for the spag bol doesn’t fit on the gas cooker… while also trying to keep one eye on children running to every far edge of the campsite!

Que the invention of Glamping…

So how about camping where the tent is already up? A campsite where all the cooking utensils are already there and to top it off the beds are already made - no pumping up of airbeds required! Glamping is the half-way house of achieving those perfect childhood memories that we all want for our children - the campfires, the freedom and the adventure...without Mum and Dad feeling the need to prepare for a military style operation and getting to actually enjoy an outdoor family holiday. Glamping sites like ours at Larkhill are the ideal place to give children the sense of the freedom a camping adventure brings. Our site has an enclosed four acre woodland with adventure play park and a further 20 acres of fields and natural habitat to explore.

Sleeping under canvas and cooking out in the open…

These are definitely two of the best camping experiences I remember as a child. Sleeping in a yurt or a tipi is as magical as sleeping in a modern day tent - if not more! In each of our structures you can glimpse the night sky as you lie in bed and wake to the sounds of the bird’s morning chorus -  experiencing an outdoor adventure with no hassles! Unlike many campsites we also have dedicated outdoor fire-pits for that authentic outdoor cooking experience or just for a bit of old fashioned marshmallow toasting (we also have gas hobs for those who don’t feel as adventurous). So that’s those magical camping memories ticked off without the more painful memories that I have from camping with my own children! Camping without the stress that comes with it, making an easier, more relaxing family holiday without compromising the best bits!Why glamping is a must for you and the kids this summer!