Camping can be daunting. You always seem to get to your destination and suddenly realise half the provisions you need are at home. Do that same trip with a newborn and suddenly your stress levels are through the roof.
Camping in a T6 converted Camper can be easy with a newborn, you just need to know what to avoid and what mistakes not to make. We have taken a number of trips with our 4 year old and 7 month old together. Here's what we've learnt that could help you.
We really liked the idea of buying a campervan and travelling Europe over the next few years with our children. The great outdoors, different cultures, escaping the technology that is taking over our lives...all of which sounded like the perfect upbringing for our children.
However, as an overly sensible mother and a general worrier, I quickly came back down to Earth wondering about the practicalities of living out of a campervan with a 4 year old and a 6 month old!
As we all know, babies come with a lot of stuff, and all their stuff takes up a lot of room. How would we fit all of his equipment in the campervan and still have room for our clothes, our daughters’ clothes and all of our supplies for the trip? We don’t have an awning so the space issue is a big one at the moment. Where could Rhys sleep safely? Where would the rest of us sleep to accommodate him? Where could he lie when we were busy cooking?
James (Roj) spent time researching and purchasing the essentials we needed to get the van up and running, This is where his strength lies; researching products, reading reviews and finding exactly what we needed, and at the best price. I considered the children side of things for when we were going to be using the van.
Sleeping arrangements
Our van has a pop top roof where, on our previous trip in the van we had hired in July 2018, our daughter had slept alone. However, our family has now increased by one and the logistics need to be considered all over again. It may have been suitable for our 4 year old Cerys to sleep in the roof, but is this really safe for such a young baby? Might he fall off? Would he be warm enough?
You can buy a bed for infants which lies across the front seats of the van. This would be perfect, other than the price. They are very expensive at around £70, and after purchasing a van, this was not really a viable expense initially for something we didn't know would work for us.
I read all sorts of ideas from putting a travel cot on the floor of the van to lying a wooden board across the front swivel seats and then on top, a bed for Rhys to sleep on.
I wasn’t very happy with any of these ideas so we decided to try a night at a local campsite in order to test the logistics of sleeping with two young children, a trial run if you will, to try to find any problems before we went on a longer trip.
We visited Pembrey Country Park which is just a 20 minute drive from our home. For £20 for the night, it seemed an ideal location to test our sleeping arrangements, with plenty of entertainment for the children to make the most of the trip.
We slept our first night in the van, Me and Rhys (the baby) slept in the roof and Cerys and Roj on the ¾ Rock ‘n’ Roll bed below in the van. This was ok at the time, other than the temperature. It was May, but a cold night. Rhys slept through the night in the roof but I didn't!
I worried all night about him being too cold. He had slept in his sleeping bag and under a duvet, but over night the temperature plummeted and given we were only protected by a canvas form the outside, it soon became quite cold. Roj found that inside the body of the van rather than the roof, the temperature was fine. At the time the trip seemed to have gone well, but a few days after we had returned home, Rhys developed a cold which lasted around a week. After this, I wasn’t prepared to do that again!
Our next planned trip in the van was for July, attending Camperjam 2019 at Weston Park. I decided that this time, I would sleep in the roof with Cerys, and Rhys could sleep with Roj in the Rock ‘n’ Roll bed in the van. This time round, it was warmer during the night for us in the roof. It was also very comfortable in the Rock ‘n’ Roll bed. Roj had a lot more space as he was only sharing with Rhys, and Cerys and I slept very comfortably in the roof.
This arrangement worked well for the two nights at Camperjam and will now be our sleeping arrangement going forwards until he is old enough to join his sister safely in the roof.
Fitting it all in
I am known for travelling light but this still seemed like a massive challenge. How do you fit a steriliser, a high chair, a baby car seat, a pram, baby toys, plenty of changes of baby clothes, nappies, changing wipes, baby bottles and baby milk formula all into a campervan alongside everything that we needed for ourselves including our clothes, bedding, food and drink, and also not forgetting to fit in clothes, appropriate toys and activities for Cerys!
At home, we use a microwaveable steam steriliser for Rhys’ bottles. This was never going to work in the campervan with no microwave available, so we bought a Milton Cold Water Steriliser (£14.25 - Amazon)
This worked really well. It could fit into the van and meant we didn’t need to heat the steriliser at all, simply fill it with 5 litres of water from the water on the site, and drop in a sterilising tablet and the bottles would be sterilised. It only took fifteen minutes for the bottles to be ready and each time you filled it, the water would be usable for 24 hours.
We found that every time we were back at base in the campervan, we would wash the bottles and put them straight into the steriliser for 15 minutes - brilliant! It was genuinely so simple. We took and filled the steriliser with water every time we took out water container for the van to replenish.
It is quite a big item to store but we put food and smaller items inside it to travel and unpacked them when we got to our camping pitch to save space. It is probably the most useful baby item we have bought for the van.
A high chair of some sort was a must for the baby as he is not able to sit up unaided yet but is starting to eat solid food. After some research I found a high chair that folds flat and fits into the storage under the bed. It’s called the Summer Infant Sit n’ Style from Smyths (£16.99).
It’s great as it folds up very quickly, takes hardly any space when open, is very sturdy for Rhys to use and is really compact when folded down and fits easily in the van for travelling.
Having purchased this for the van, we have found that we also now use this in the house as our everyday high chair, we can fit it anywhere we want to use it and can store it away easily. It has now even been taken out with us to pubs and restaurants as it straps securely to normal chairs and is far easier than having to find a big uncomfortable high chair for Rhys to sit in.
During the rest of our time staying in the campervan, Rhys was happy to roll around on his playmat which we purposely took as it gave him some freedom and folds down nicely into a very small square being made of fabric.
When we stayed locally at Pembrey just for the one night, we took the Mothercare baby carrier in order to carry Rhys around on our front as we knew we didn't have room for the pram once we extended the Rock ‘n’ Roll bed out and in all honesty we were happy to carry him for just the one day.
However, when we stayed at Camperjam recently, the friends we had gone with also had their VW T5 campervan with them and also had an awning with them as well. This gave us space to store the children’s car seats and a pram.
We had been wondering about buying an awning ourselves, and having it available to use at Camperjam immediately made our mind up that with children, an awning is going to be very much essential for us. Roj is already on the case and is looking as we speak for an awning that will be ideal for us both for now with the children and for them to grow into over coming years. It is almost vital if you are travelling with a pram or buggy, multiple children’s car seats and children’s toys and activities.
An awning will also allow for us to have a space outside the van to be sheltered and also allow us to take family with us on trips as they can sleep in the awning.
Our plan over the coming months and years is to take some long trips in the van across Europe and for this, an awning is also going to be essential. We will give a full update on the awning once we have bought it in another post soon.
Some other handy items
Another thing we found very useful whilst away in the van with children was an outdoor cooking facility. We have recently purchased a Safari Chef 2 (£90 at Go-Outdoors) and will post a full detailed review. Being able to cook outdoors and not all have to be stuffed in the van was great to enjoy the outdoor space, it also gave Cerys an opportunity to cook outside with us and feel involved whereas in the van, she would not be able to reach the facilities safely with us supervising. It also keeps the constant food smell out of the van if you are cooking meat and any other particularly smelly foods.
We have also bought a fold up washing up bowl from ALDI in one of their camping events which pops up and folds down neatly for storage. This means we can put the children to bed in the van and then wash up outside and even cook our own meal without having to be in the van making any noise that would wake them whilst they are sleeping.
Obviously, we are fairly new to campervan life but we are learning more about what works for us and what we need each time we take a trip. We find things we could have done better and then come home with ideas on how to improve things. We have an endless list of things to buy over the coming months, each item will be reviewed in turn and as we buy them, and we will post so you can see if it’s something that could be handy for you.
Not all of these items or ideas will work for you and everyone will have their own preferences, just take any ideas that appeal to you. Camping with children can be daunting, especially the first time, and it can be a source of great stress whilst you try to plan what you need to take and how to pack it. Hopefully some of these ideas can help you in your planning.
Any seasoned campers, we would welcome any tips you have. Comment below to let us know your ideas.
Let's have an Adventure!
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