This option is available in blue and burgundy, and two bags can be zipped together to make a double.
Royal Umbria Sleeping Bag £33.89 Buy it here.
5. Intex Double Height Queen Airbed – Get off the ground
a) my body was not that of a lithe teenager anymore
b) cold and damp rises from the ground particularly at night, even with a groundsheet
c) expecting the small child to spend the whole night in her own bed while camping was folly
Get up off the ground while you sleep. In the morning your hips, knees, back and sanity will thank you. I’ve never had any dramatic failures with air mattresses, apart from the very thin ones. Air mattresses will seem to deflate a little bit in the night. It doesn’t mean you’ve got a leak, it’s just the air pressure changing in the temperature. Don’t let the kids jump on it. For that matter, don’t jump on it yourself either.
Do not buy an air mattress with a built in pump. These often have 3 pin plugs designed to be used in the house. This is the exact same version I currently use and I purchased mine in 2009. Get the queen size. You’ve got loads of room for it in the 5 metre bell tent and it will take 2 adults and at least 1 cheeky child sneaking in during the night with ease.
Don’t forget to get enough for the whole family!
Intex Deluxe Rest Queen Air Bed £34.05, Buy it here.
6. Do not skimp on the air pump
You’ve made it to item 6 on my glamping essentials list. Over half way and you’ve gotten past the enormous canvas bell tent, the private toilet tent and toilet, and the sumptuous sleeping suggestions. At this point I beg of you not to fade out on me and get anything other than a great air pump for that double height queen size inflatable air mattress. Again, feel my pain and learn from my mistakes.
You do NOT want to spend an afternoon trying to get it inflated with a foot pump or, for that matter, praying that you have enough D size batteries to make it with the battery powered pump.
Just skip to the end and buy one of these helpful creations. It will run from the cigarette lighter socket, sorry, the 9v power outlet in your car. It is worth taking the time to inflate the mattress at the car and then carrying the mattress to the tent. It is worth it a hundred times over.
Dual Powered Camping Air Pump £19.75, Buy it here.
7. RayGar Vacuum Bags – Squash it in…
Did I tell you not to skimp on the air pump? Good. Here’s another reason why.
I don’t have neat folding or inflatable camping pillows. I take the lovely pillows from home. I don’t have the latest microscopic camping towels that can suck up a lake with just 2 square inches. I take the big fluffy ones from the house.
I don’t have sleeping bag liners. I take the queen size summer weight duvet from the guest bed to go on top of our sleeping bags for extra layers, or underneath them for extra comfort when it’s hot.
Why do I do this? There are two reasons. The first is that I like to camp in comfort, and these things add to my sense of comfort and well-being when I’m living out of a 5 metre canvas bell tent for a few nights. The second is around a more ephemeral sense of sustainability, and purchasing what I need just a little bit more than what the adverts think I could want.
Mostly, I like my own pillows.
Duvets pack well by folding them and laying them flat on the back seat of the car. Pillows are easily packed around passengers, particularly the child so that she can sleep in comfort during the trip. Or, you can get some of these vacuum storage bags and squash everything down even smaller. Watching them deflate is one of the minor delights of being an adult. No, seriously. Try it.
This is the important part. I can’t know which air pump you’ll end up with, nor which vacuum bags. As soon as you own both, TEST them together to make sure the adaptors on the air pump fit over the suction valve on the vacuum bags.
Pack of 6 Vac Bags £7.99 by RayGar, Buy it here.
8. Kampa Easy In/Out Camp Chair – Sit down and take the weight off
Much like sleeping on the ground seems like more fun than it actually ever is, sitting on the ground is fun when it’s dry and clean and warm and your knee isn’t playing up.
Take some chairs.
The number and variety of camping chairs is delightfully bewildering. Choose whatever takes your fancy. I particularly like this type the best. It folds, it’s sturdy, and best of all it doesn’t topple forwards when you put your hands on the arms to push yourself upright. You don’t need a can shaped holder attached to your chair more than you need this stability, trust me.
Kampa Easy In/Out Camp Chair £23.00, Buy it here.
9. Royal Easy Up Camping Kitchen
Every single camping trip I have ever been on, we have never used a table as a table. The folding table has always, continually and without fail, been used to coddle along whatever stove we’re cooking on this time around, and for food preparation.
No one has ever eaten at a table while camping except once, and that was for a live role play in character event so it frankly doesn’t count. Everyone eats off their knees, or laying in the grass on a blanket, or in bed, or huddled inside the fly of the tent because it’s tipping rain outside.
What you need is a cooking table with a windbreak and somewhere to contain the food rather than having it strewn around in carrier bags.
What you need is one of these.
Royal Easy Up Camping Kitchen £53.24, Buy it here.
To go with it, grab one of these durable single ring gas stoves at £20.15 which you can Buy here.
10. RAC Heavy Duty Lantern
Nice and simple. You need to be able to see.
Take whatever it is that you fancy. Solar lights, oil lanterns on poles, glowsticks, battery powered nightlight, things that glow in the dark, things that wind up; go ahead and knock yourself out.
And then take one of these. A heavy duty lantern. Make sure it is fully charged and tested before you set out. Make sure it is with you in the car and know where to put your hands on it in camp.
This is the thing that will be there for those 3 a.m. trips to your private toilet tent, for when no one can find the matches and the sun hasn’t come out to charge the solar lights and the wind up dynamo has wound down in five seconds, for when you really need to be able to read the fine print on the medicine packet in the firelight or when you arrive late thanks to motorway traffic and need to pitch your tent in the rapidly fading twilight.
RAC Heavy Duty Lantern £9.99, Buy it here.
And there it is. My 10 essentials. I don’t glamp without them, unless I’m staying in alternative accommodation so I don’t need to pitch the canvas.
Go. Reflect. Consider. Then get outdoors and enjoy!
Disclosure: This is not a sponsored article in any way, but the links included are affiliate links, so if you buy something on my recommendation I get a small percentage of the sale back.
