Prepare yourself to learn as much as you can about camping. Camping provides you with the opportunity to share a rewarding experience with your whole family. Use the tips that follow to extract the most value from your camping experience.

Find your shelter before it gets dark. Once blackness falls out there in the woods, it can be extremely difficult to pitch a tent, find good firewood and prepare food. This is particularly the case for city slickers who are unaccustomed to darkness. To ensure you get your campsite operational arrive several hours before sunset.

Survival Kit

Make sure that you both carry a survival kit and then get in the habit of always having it with you. Your survival kit should contain a survival knife, water-purifying tablets, waterproof matches, first aid kit, and a flare gun. This kit can keep you alive! Always carry this pack with you instead of leaving it at the campsite.

A tent needs to be the proper size for all people staying in it. This will allow you to sleep more comfortably and get up easier during the night when you need to use the bathroom.

Prior to leaving on your camping adventure, look at the weather forecast in the location your are going to be camping. There are lots of excellent websites that you can use for a weather forecast and they can give you an idea of what to expect. If you have the correct information, you can pack properly.

Bring oranges not only to eat but also to deter mosquitoes. When you get through eating an orange, rub the peel on exposed skin to keep pesky bugs away.

Buy some camping pillows. Standard bed pillows tend to get sticky in humid weather. The moisture in the air can also cause mildew. Pillows designed for camping have a coating on them that does not all the moisture to be absorbed.

Kids love camping, but you need to plan out activities for them to do on the trip. Many of today’s children are not used to downtime away from the hustle and bustle of city life, and the quiet outdoors can cause boredom for them. They may not be used to thing like fishing and pitching a tent. Show them how to do these things before you leave if they haven’t spent a lot of times outdoors.

Inform your children of possible dangers before taking them camping. Get online with them and show them what poison ivy, poisonous snakes, and other dangers look like. This will help your kids know what to avoid when exploring.

If you are traveling to a place with an abundance of animals, make sure you are prepared with respect to food. Wrap your food up tightly so that smells don’t escape and store it away from your sleeping tent area. Following these measures will keep you safe from attacks.

You should always have some duct tape along on any camping adventure. Not only is it useful around the home, but it serves many purposes while camping. You can slap a piece of it on a leaking air mattress. It can also fix up a tarp, sleeping bag, or even the tent. If you are hiking long distances, a strip applied to your feet can keep blisters from forming. Injuries can even be bandaged with it.

Plan ahead and make sure your flashlight batteries have full power before you leave for a camping trip. It is easy to inadvertently turn the flashlight on when digging through your camping equipment. An easy way to prevent this is to switch your batteries around when the flashlight isn’t being used. They will stay handy but a thoughtless push of the button will not turn the flashlight on.

Camping is interesting and rewarding, and it is even more so when you have the knowledge you need. Camping is a great experience, especially when you go prepared. Lucky for you, fun times are ahead after today.