Top tips for camping and caravanning with family and friends

Heading out on a camping or caravanning holiday is a great way to open your eyes to new places and share the delight of new experiences with family and friends. But it can also mean putting up with fights in the car, constant whinging about different meals and cramped living quarters, as well as the dreaded ‘Are we there yet?’ if you have kids on board for the journey.

But if the idea of a relaxed outdoor adventure with family and friends is too good to pass up, we’ve put together a list of helpful tips to ensure you can live your best caravanning life.

There’s no way of getting around it, the summer season especially around Christmas and the New Year is incredibly popular times to get away for obvious reasons. So if you want a powered site in a popular caravan park with the best view over the water, book well in advance.

For shoulder periods, you might still get yourself a spot at short notice. Many campgrounds don’t get busy until Boxing Day and quieten down again towards the end of the first week of January when many people have to get back to work.

But don’t expect to be able to turn up unannounced at a caravan park anytime from the start of December to the end of January expecting to get the best powered ensuite site the park has to offer.

Set up sensibly

The thing about Australian summer afternoons is that they aren’t just warm, they're often oven-cooking temperature. The afternoon sun is the hottest, and so that’s when you don’t want the rays beating down on your RV and making life uncomfortable.

You can’t always choose your site at this time of year (see above) but wherever possible choose one after working out where the sun will be in the afternoon and try to set up the RV so it's in the shade in the afternoon. You'll thank yourself later.

Summer is a time when you’re out and about more when camping (than in winter at least) so there’s more chance of injuring yourself. A good first-aid kit is invaluable; it should include crepe bandages of varying widths, hypoallergenic (skin) tape, triangular bandages, adhesive dressing strips in different sizes, gauze swabs, combine dressing pads and sterile eye pads.

Now’s the time to do a first-aid course or refresher. One day, someone’s life might count on it, especially if you're like the Grey Nomads.

If you’re on a road trip together with a group of friends or family let’s just make it clear, there’s pretty much nothing you can’t say. We will just disclaimer this by saying you really need to gauge your audience first. Probably best to not go in swinging with q’s on sex, money, religion and politics if it’s your partner's dad or 90-year-old Catholic nanna – use your own judgment there.

Anyone else? We recommend getting straight into the hard stuff. After all, you’re about to spend hours on end together, so you need to know if and how easily offended they are, which topics you should/shouldn’t bring up again. Rip that band-aid right off.

No matter how far you go, it’s going to be a long trip for the kids. Organise plenty of in-car entertainment, and don’t rely on a mobile phone signal to do it.

Just remember that it’s likely you won’t often have mobile reception on the road, so the kids won’t be streaming movies using cellular data (unless, of course, you remember to download it beforehand).

Ensuring everyone gets some ‘me’ time so you don't drive each other crazy is another priority for helping to maintain family harmony. That could include going for a walk or bike ride, reading a book or just heading down to the local pub without the family.

Sharing the workload and dividing up tasks is also important to ensure that there are enough hours in the day to take that said me time.

Related: Aussies’ top dream destinations for road trips and caravanning revealed