Camping close to home: 5 reasons to go camping nearby

If you’re in need of a break from the daily grind but don’t want to use up your annual leave, how about camping close to home?

The joys of a camping holiday can be in seeing incredible new sights and visiting places you’ve never been to before. But let’s not forget about the camping itself. Often, it’s life on the campsite that makes or breaks your trip. You swap television for the campfire, your bedroom for a cosy tent and your alarm clock for the dawn chorus. In our opinion there’s something blissful about going back to these basics which means there can be as much pleasure in camping close to home as there is in going on an epic trip. A change is as good as a rest, according to the old saying, and, for most of us, there’s no greater change than shifting your life from indoors to the great outdoors. Even a short camping trip, can return you to normal life feeling refreshed and reinvigorated.

Shorter journey times

Choose a campsite that’s within an hour of home and you can make a holiday out of an overnight stay or weekend away. You don’t have to wait for the school holidays and you won’t have to use annual leave as you can squeeze camping trips in to weekends or days off. A shorter journey time is a bonus for other reasons too. It’s better for the environment and your wallet and also means more time at your destination. It can be especially tempting for parents of younger children for whom long journeys are often accompanied by an endless chorus of that age-old question from the back seat: “are we nearly there yet?”. And if it’s a first-time family camping trip, camping close to home can provide a reassuring safety net; if the worst comes to the worst (and we’re pretty sure it won’t), you can always drive home.

Digital detox

A weekend in the wild is a little antidote to modern life; a chance to recharge the batteries and reconnect with nature. If you work in an office or other enclosed space, getting out to the countryside, coast or woodland can be an important escape. Camping offers a natural digital detox as there’s usually limited opportunity for charging your phone and, hopefully, tablets and laptops will have been left at home. Instead of worrying about the time you and your kids spend looking at screens you can show them the stars and gaze in to the campfire.

Outdoor education

You can also spot birds and go bug hunting, build dens, climb trees, swim wild and generally enjoy good old-fashioned fun in the outdoors. We can’t think of anything better and if you live in a town or city, it’s not only a breath of fresh air but can offer an education for your kids. Lots of campsites have suggestions for walks and things to do in the area, some even have their own nature trails and activities for kids but it’s easy to make your own fun too. Plan a treasure hunt in nature, go fossil hunting on the beach and buy or borrow a wildlife identification book and see how many types of tree, wildflowers, mushrooms or birds you can spot.

Little and often

If you find great places to go camping close to home, spontaneous weekends away will suddenly be within reach. Forget expensive mini-breaks in cities overseas and head for your nearest campsite. You might even find somewhere you like so much that you decide to return time and time again. When you’re holidaying in a new area, it’s natural to want to check out the must-see sights and attractions but when you holiday near home that pressure is removed. You can simply kick back and enjoy camping which can be infinitely more relaxing; lie back and listen to the birds, stand up and throw a ball back and forth, sit down to cook your dinner and generally enjoy the slower pace of campsite life.

Camping on the doorstep

Here at Cool Camping we love to travel and camping is always our top way to holiday but we also love camping for camping’s sake. If you feel the same way, don’t wait for the annual holiday to come around, seek out campsites close to where you live and you’ll be able to get outdoors more. It’s the adult version of camping in the back garden and, perhaps unsurprisingly, we can’t get enough of it!

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