10 Tips For Camping With Friends (Without Ruining Your Friendship)

Camping with friends can add a whole lot of extra fun to your camping trip, turning a simple camping trip into a whole camp community. Camping has a unique way of bringing people closer together. But let’s be honest—spending multiple days together without the luxuries of modern life can also test the strongest of friendships. So, if you want to come back from your trip with both your sanity and your friendships intact, keep reading!

We’ve got tips, tricks, and a bit of humour to help ensure that your next camping adventure ends with high-fives and not silent car rides home.

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The Essential Guide To Camping With Friends

Just like travelling with friends, camping with friends can be awesome fun or it can test the friendship to its limits. In fact, a camping trip with friends is a great way to test whether you want to travel with these same friends. After all, it’s much easier to pack up your tent and head home from a failed camping trip than it is to fly across continents after a travel companion fallout.

But you’re not going to have one of those, because you’ve got these friend camping tips to avoid such disasters!

1. Choose the Right Group Of Friends

Camping is a team effort, so it’s pretty essential to choose friends who are up for the adventure and willing to contribute. You don’t want Debbie Downer or Lazy Larry dragging everyone down. Make sure everyone is on the same page regarding the level of activity, comfort, and adventure they’re seeking.

You’ve likely got multiple friendship groups and the things you enjoy doing with each of these groups tend to differ. Sometimes they might all inter-mingle together, but there’s certain activities that might not suit one or more of your friend groups. Camping might be one of those things.

Choose friends who enjoy the outdoors and match your energy. Your 5-star resort kinda friends might not be your perfect camping buddies, but your fellow outdoor enthusiast friends who love a Saturday morning hike and sausages on bread might be.

2. Plan Ahead And Delegate Tasks

Before you hit the great outdoors, have a group meeting to plan the trip. Discuss things like destination, duration, activities, meals, and gear. Divide responsibilities so everyone knows what they need to bring and do.

This will prevent those awkward moments where five people brought marshmallows but no one brought a tent. Okay, that’s a bit extreme since everyone should be bringing their own tent! But you get where this is going.

This is your chance to let everyone know that you’re bringing the giant Jenga game and Cards Against Humanity so they can bring their football and roasting sticks. Not everyone needs to bring everything!

3. Pack Smart and Light

This one kind of flows on from the last tip. Once you’ve done your planning, it makes the packing much easier.

While it might be tempting to pack everything but the kitchen sink, remember that you have to fit all that stuff in your trailer or car. Coordinate with your friends to avoid duplication and pack only what’s necessary.

Trust us, you don’t need three different kinds of bug spray or 8 gazebos!

4. Set Up Camp Together

Once you arrive at your campsite, work as a team to set up camp. Assign each person a specific task, from pitching tents to gathering firewood. Teamwork makes the dream work, and it’ll get you settled in faster so you can start enjoying your time together.

No, it doesn’t mean men do the heavy lifting and women set up the kitchen. It means working together to get things done quicker.

5. Establish Ground Rules

To avoid conflicts, set some basic ground rules and expectations before your trip. This one is where a lot of friend camping trips can go sour.

This could include things like quiet hours, cooking schedules, and keeping the campsite clean. It also means making sure you all know one another’s camping style. If you’re the extreme outdoor sport kind of camper who wants to be on the go constantly, make sure your friends know this and that you all agree on what you will do together and what you can do solo. It’s okay to do things solo still!

A little structure can go a long way in keeping everyone happy.

6. Meal Planning and Cooking

Plan meals that are easy to prepare and that everyone will enjoy. Cooking together can be a fun group activity, but too many cooks can spoil the meal. There’s two ways to go about your camping meal planning: Share the load or keep food separate.

If you’re planning to share the cooking and food responsibilities, decide what group meals everyone likes and each set of friends can supply enough food for the whole party for that meal. Then just make sure everyone brings enough snacks for the trip to share too.

If you’re keeping meals separate, make this clear ahead of time that each group sorts out their own food and drink. This way you’re not rocking up with your weekend of meals while they came expecting to share. Eeek!

7. Start Simple

When you’re heading on a camping trip with friends for the first time, start with a short trip like a weekend camping trip somewhere not too far from home. This way if it doesn’t go quite as planned, it’s only 2-3 days before you’re all heading home and can (hopefully) laugh it off!

This shorter trip is good practice for a longer group camping trip together or to help you decide that even if you’re great buddies for backyard BBQs and pub crawls, maybe you’re not great camping buddies! And that’s okay…

This also means keeping your activities simple too. Plan a few group camping games and activities, but don’t feel it needs to be a fully packed itinerary. The best part of camping trips is being able to just take it easy!

8. Stay Safe and Prepared

Safety should always be a priority. Make sure you have a first aid kit, know the location of the nearest hospital, and have a way to communicate in case of an emergency. Also, familiarise yourself with the local wildlife and any hazards specific to your campsite.

This is especially important when camping with kids, to make sure all the kids are safe and supervised at all times. This responsibility can be shared, just so long as there’s always someone in charge of the little people!

9. Respect Each Other’s Space

Even the best of friends need some alone time. Respect each other’s personal space and give everyone a chance to recharge. A little solitude can help maintain harmony in the group.

As an introvert, I love my social time but also thrive on a bit of solo quiet time too. A quick nature walk. A reading session in the hammock or just some comfortable silence between friends.

10. Have Fun and Be Flexible

Remember, the goal is to have fun! Things might not always go according to plan, and that’s okay. Be flexible and roll with the punches. Sometimes the best memories come from unexpected moments.

When you’re travelling with friends, even just to camp at your local camping site, it can be easy to fall into the excitement of wanting to cram everything into the trip. Yet often the best moments are the ones that aren’t planned, so allow time for things to just happen. Like the kids making up a fun new game that might mean you miss that round of frisbee or the walk to the lookout, but nothing is better than happy campers!

Camping with friends can be awesome fun, filled with laughter, adventure, and bonding. Plan ahead, work together, and respect each other’s needs, so you can make sure that your trip is enjoyable for everyone involved. Time to gather your friends, pack your gear, and get ready for an unforgettable camping adventure. And if all else fails, just remember: a good campfire story and a bag of marshmallows can solve almost anything.