Are you bored at work? Day-dreaming at your desk of spending time with your loved ones? Want to go on a family vacation with your wife, husband, kids, boyfriend, girlfriend, parents, or friends? Maybe you went camping when you were younger, and you want to take your child camping like your parents did for you. Truth is, you better hurry — after age 15, the chances of being introduced to camping are slim. Almost 85% of camping participants took their first trip sometime between the time they were born and age 15.
Family camping vacations are incredibly popular in the United States. In 2011 alone, a total of over 500 million days were spent on camping trips. In 2014, an astounding 99% of campers said they were likely to camp again the following year. Two-thirds of surveyed campers actually had already planned three or more camping trips.
But, maybe “roughing it in the great outdoors” isn’t for you. You want to go camping, want to get in touch with nature, see the stars without the light pollution from your city getting in the way. Or, maybe you or someone else finds the thought of the vastness of nature intimidating. Consider, then, cabin camping. Camping out of cabins is incredibly popular, as it allows people to connect to the wonder of nature with none of the “roughing it” most people think of. That isn’t to say you’ll still be spending every night of your family cabin camping trip indoors. More than three-fourths of cabin campers spend one or more nights outside. It can be an efficient way to introduce yourself, or a nervous family member, to outdoor camping by keeping a safe, enclosed space nearby.
“What’s there to do when camping?” you might ask. “After all, I want my family vacation to be worth it!” There are near limitless activities when camping, from the classics like building a campfire and roasting marshmallows to playing board games and going for hikes. While going on your hike, play a nature-themed scavenger hunt. Search for rocks of odd colors, or fun-shaped leaves. Maybe you spotted a hawk, or a cool-looking insect of some kind. There’s also a fun new game called “geocaching,” for the more tech-savvy campers. To begin, you register at a geocaching website, which will give you the coordinates of a hidden treasure. Using a compass and a trail map, you then search for the treasure, which also comes with a logbook for all who found it. Once you find it, replace it with a treasure of your own choosing and leave it for somebody else to find.
Family vacations are all about being close and having fun, and nothing connects a family more than camping. If you’re in desperate need of a family vacation, camping may be just the ticket to reconnect with your loved ones.
