Family trip in a camper: can it be mindful?
- Sandra Zaunfuchs
- Jan 22
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 5
Many people are already starting to plan their next vacation this year. Many families are asking themselves the following questions: How to spend the next vacation? How intense will it be? You don't want to end up more stressed than before and realize that home is the best place to be.
That's why we have ventured out on a wide variety of family trips in recent years and our conclusion is: camping with a coach is the best form of travel! But how do you manage a sometimes very challenging trip so that everyone is happy and your nerves aren't permanently strained - here are a few mindfulness tips:
To avoid buying a pig in a poke, we recommend renting campers for the first few trips and testing different varieties. We are total fans of VW buses, but we can manage with relatively little space and luggage (you learn this on many trips with survival training).
If you have an issue with small spaces, you should test the camper beforehand and try it out (to reach the roof tent in the VW Beach/Ocean and get to your sleeping place, you have to climb over the seats onto the roof).
Companies such as myvanture and roadsurfer offer introductory videos or live showings before collection - make sure you find out how to handle the equipment beforehand.
With the right packing method, you can make arriving at the campsite very easy - food can be stored directly in the fridge and in the boxes in the camping kitchen (this makes camping much easier than if you don't have integrated kitchen equipment and have to take care of refrigeration and cooking yourself).
All campsites have washing-up areas, so you can save water in the bus. The bathrooms on the Italian Riviera and in Slovenia were all clean and easy to use (don't forget your slippers though).
It is also advisable to wear camping-friendly clothing that can be easily changed in the evening (there is not much space for this in the bus) and to define a separate laundry area (sometimes laundry can also be done at the campsites).
If you are traveling in the high season (which in Europe starts for campers at the beginning/mid-May), you should definitely reserve your pitch in advance. In Genoa, for example, we wouldn't have been able to get a pitch without a reservation and many were turned away again.
Simple pasta/rice/lentil dishes are suitable for eating, as you usually only have 2 hotplates/pots. Or you can simply go out for a relaxed meal in the evening to save yourself the work after a long day of traveling (the camping restaurants are also getting better and better - we even had Gault Mileau level once).
Make sure you find out about pitches in advance (in Italy and France they often only accept weekly bookings).
Nothing is as nice as starting the morning with breakfast by the lake/sea/in nature. The earlier you start the day, the quieter it is at the campsite and the cooler the morning air (you can't sleep in a tent or bus after 8am in summer anyway due to the brightness, heat and noise).
We didn't think that our little one (4 years old) would sleep in a bus and were worried that she would be up until midnight. But the opposite was the case: every day she fell into bed overjoyed and tired from the experiences and was gone within minutes.
There will be even more camping tips in our Mindfulness Travel Guide, which will be published this year. If you would like to read our existing literature in the meantime, here is the link to the webshop:
Appointments for our online practice can be conveniently booked online and as we have a limited number of therapy places, there is almost always an appointment within 1-2 weeks (for emergencies, please leave a message on our practice number):
Comments