Select the Right Camping Gear

There is an art to selecting the right camping gear... And while it only comes with experience, I can help you along the way by sharing a few key camping tips right here and now.

Camping manufacturers are always inventing new camping accessories to impress newbie campers. Most of these camping gadgets and gizmos are not at all necessary. A few of them are nice, if somewhat overpriced. But some of the camping toys are impractical, easily-broken and worse than useless.

How can anything be worse than useless, you ask? I'll tell you how. Something is worse than useless if you rely on it but it's poorly-made and really just waiting to fall apart on you at the worst possible moment.

You don't need items like this. What you need is camping equipment that is tried and true. That has already been tested and not found wanting. You can take charge of your camping gear selection by having a checklist of camping equipment to guide you.

Now a checklist is only a suggested list of items you should think about. you don't need to take all the items with you, in fact you'll be much better off if you don't. Prune the list down to the bare necessities for camping and you'll do fine.

If you are new to camping, see if you can hire a camping tent or borrow one from a friend. That way you'll be able to test the tent and see if the shape and size work alright for you. If they do, that's great... but consider that there are plenty of other types of camping tents and some of them might suit you even better if you give them a try-out. So have a few "shakedown" camping trips and try a few different tents.

Sleeping bags are very personal. They are not something most people like to lend out, and good bags are expensive and last a long while. I suggest you buy your own sleeping bag right from the start. And buy the best and the warmest sleeping bag you can afford. A sleeping bag liner is also a good item to have, and it's a downright necessity if you're using a sleeping bag borrowed from somebody else.

If you don't have the luxury of a camp cot — they're only good in big, tall tents — then you will need a foam camping mattress of some kind. This keeps your body off the cold hard ground.

You only need a backpack if you will be hiking or carrying all your own camping equipment for any distance to the camp site. If you're just unloading the car, most anything will do to stow your camping gear. Even $2 clothes storage bags will do the job. You'll just have to make a few shuttle trips back and forth from the vehicle.

If you are camping at a campsite where there are shower and restroom facilities, you have the full five-star camping experience (or 5 small candles, at least). Otherwise your camp toilet and ablution facilities are going to be rather crude and not recommended for the inexperienced and the fair sex.

Camp cooking takes lots of practice to become an art. Otherwise you can make do with sandwiches as much as possible and eat canned food. Many commercial campsites have their own restaurant or diner, which can take care of the main meal of the day. Breakfast can be simple, and lunch can be a sandwich at least some of the time.