The best campsites are the ones your kids still want to come back to

30 Apr The best campsites are the ones your kids still want to come back to

There is something quietly special about camping and caravanning as a family. It is rarely perfect. Someone forgets the tomato sauce. Someone packs the wrong shoes. Someone always needs the toilet five minutes after you leave the last town. But somehow, years later, those are the moments everyone remembers.

As parents, many of us spend the early years trying to squeeze in as many family holidays as we can while the kids still want to come along. We know, even if we do not say it out loud, that childhood moves quickly. One minute they are building sandcastles beside the caravan, the next they are asking for the car keys, working weekends, moving out, studying, travelling, or building their own lives.

So when they still want to come camping, even as teenagers or adults, it feels like a quiet little victory.

Camping and caravanning offer something that many other holidays cannot. They slow life down. There are fewer schedules, fewer screens, fewer walls and fewer excuses not to talk. You cook outside. You sit around fires. You go for walks after dinner. You share small spaces. You play cards, tell stories, argue over who gets the good chair, and somehow reconnect without making a big deal of it.

For young kids, camping is adventure. It is torches, marshmallows, bikes, creeks, beach tracks, campfires and waking up somewhere new. For older kids, it can become something different. It becomes freedom, familiarity and belonging. They may roll their eyes at first, but give them a good campsite, a bit of space, a swim, a sunset and food cooked outdoors, and suddenly they remember why they loved it in the first place.

And if your adult kids still want to camp or caravan with you, truly, you have done something right.

That does not mean you were a perfect parent. None of us are. But it says something important. It says the memories were good enough to return to. It says they feel safe, relaxed and welcome in your company. It says your relationship has grown beyond responsibility and routine into something that looks a lot like friendship.

There is a beautiful measure of success in that.

We often define success by work, houses, savings, achievements or possessions. But perhaps one of the greatest measures of a life well lived is whether your children still want to spend time with you when they no longer have to. When they choose to pull up a chair beside you. When they bring their partner along. When they ask, “Where are we going next?” When they still laugh at the same old stories, even if they pretend not to.

Camping has a way of keeping those doors open.

It gives families a shared language. That dodgy tent from years ago. The beach where the fish were biting. The storm that nearly blew the awning away. The caravan park where everyone made friends. The road trip playlist. The servo stop pies. The place you promised you would go back to one day.

These memories become family glue.

Of course, camping with older kids is different. They may want more independence. They may not want every day planned. They may sleep in longer, wander off more often, or prefer a quiet drink by the fire rather than an early morning bushwalk. That is okay. The secret is to let the holiday grow with them.

Make room for new traditions. Let them help choose the destination. Give them space to invite a friend or partner. Share the cooking. Let the trip become less about managing them and more about enjoying them.

Because that is the great gift of caravanning and camping. It evolves. The same family that once needed buckets, scooters and bedtime routines may later need extra camp chairs, a bigger fridge and a few more stories around the fire.

And maybe, one day, the kids will organise the trip. Maybe they will tow their own van, pitch their own tent, or bring children of their own. Maybe you will sit back and watch the next generation run barefoot through the campground, just as they once did.

That is when you realise these holidays were never just about getting away.

They were about building something.

They were about time. Connection. Belonging. Shared laughter. Open roads. Familiar faces. And the hope that, long after the kids have grown, they will still want to come along for the ride.

As parents, we want as many of those holidays as we can get while the kids still want to hang out with us.

But honestly, we all hope it lasts forever.

If this article has inspired you to think about your unique situation and, more importantly, what you and your family are going through right now, please get in touch with your advice professional.

This information does not consider any person’s objectives, financial situation, or needs. Before making a decision, you should consider whether it is appropriate in light of your particular objectives, financial situation, or needs.

(Feedsy Exclusive)