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We did family camping when I was a kid because it was the cheapest vacation. It was never a luxury good.

by Isamu 6y ago

analog31 6y ago
Likewise here. Camping was certainly the cheap way to go, especially if the alternative included the cost of restaurant food on top of lodging. Now that I'm grown up with kids, we still camp, though we've also done a number of vacations where we rent an apartment for a week, with a kitchen. But there were other benefits to camping as well. Small kids don't belong in hotels and restaurants -- it's a nightmare for everybody. And the process of getting them in and out of those accommodations eats up half the day. And if you're camping, that itself becomes the entertainment, so the sightseeing side of it doesn't have to be as spectacular. Last summer we made our way across the northern shore of Lake Superior -- possibly one of my favorite places in the world. There are no bucket-list tourist destinations unless you count the Wawa Goose, yet it was just a blast and quite relaxing.
- beamatronic 6y ago
  >> Small kids don't belong in hotels and restaurants Uh, what???
  - ticmasta 6y ago
    I think what they mean is that (from my experience on both sides) small kids are noisy, messy and very active. This makes parenting in a shared environment (if you care about your neighbors) hard. When you go camping the kids have space, can get dirty, get tired and go to bed early. I'll take a crying baby camping over banging and yelling through a hotel room wall any day.
    - analog31 6y ago
      Yes, precisely. Now of course not all kids are the same, but hoping for several hours of quiet behavior after being cooped up a car -- possibly strapped into a child seat -- all day was unrealistic in our case. There are other problems as well: Finding a restaurant with healthy food that everybody will enjoy, without breaking the bank. And hotel rooms are filthy. Granted, it could be a matter of personal preference as well. I enjoy the outdoors, and my own cooking, more than the inside of a restaurant or hotel.
grindgrind 6y ago
Yes, both my mother and my wife's mother were baby boomers who hated camping because it's all their families could afford growing up. 'Camping', in Canada at least, is now more and more about people driving an RV up to a park with boats and ATVs attached. If there ever was a golden age of gentleperson light-touch adventure in the outdoors it is certainly gone now.
- sandworm101 6y ago
  >> golden age of gentleperson light-touch adventure It never really existed. People during the glory days still pooped in the woods. They cut down trees for firewood. They walked off trail. They stored their food improperly and then shot the bear that came for it. The rules against such things didn't exist then. They do now.

We did family camping when I was a kid because it was the cheapest vacation. It was never a luxury good.

by Isamu 6y ago

We did family camping when I was a kid because it was the cheapest vacation. It was never a luxury good.

Likewise here. Camping was certainly the cheap way to go, especially if the alternative included the cost of restaurant food on top of lodging. Now that I'm grown up with kids, we still camp, though we've also done a number of vacations where we rent an apartment for a week, with a kitchen. But there were other benefits to camping as well. Small kids don't belong in hotels and restaurants -- it's a nightmare for everybody. And the process of getting them in and out of those accommodations eats up half the day. And if you're camping, that itself becomes the entertainment, so the sightseeing side of it doesn't have to be as spectacular. Last summer we made our way across the northern shore of Lake Superior -- possibly one of my favorite places in the world. There are no bucket-list tourist destinations unless you count the Wawa Goose, yet it was just a blast and quite relaxing.

beamatronic 6y ago
>> Small kids don't belong in hotels and restaurants Uh, what???
- ticmasta 6y ago
  I think what they mean is that (from my experience on both sides) small kids are noisy, messy and very active. This makes parenting in a shared environment (if you care about your neighbors) hard. When you go camping the kids have space, can get dirty, get tired and go to bed early. I'll take a crying baby camping over banging and yelling through a hotel room wall any day.
  - analog31 6y ago
    Yes, precisely. Now of course not all kids are the same, but hoping for several hours of quiet behavior after being cooped up a car -- possibly strapped into a child seat -- all day was unrealistic in our case. There are other problems as well: Finding a restaurant with healthy food that everybody will enjoy, without breaking the bank. And hotel rooms are filthy. Granted, it could be a matter of personal preference as well. I enjoy the outdoors, and my own cooking, more than the inside of a restaurant or hotel.

grindgrind 6y ago

Yes, both my mother and my wife's mother were baby boomers who hated camping because it's all their families could afford growing up. 'Camping', in Canada at least, is now more and more about people driving an RV up to a park with boats and ATVs attached. If there ever was a golden age of gentleperson light-touch adventure in the outdoors it is certainly gone now.

sandworm101 6y ago
>> golden age of gentleperson light-touch adventure It never really existed. People during the glory days still pooped in the woods. They cut down trees for firewood. They walked off trail. They stored their food improperly and then shot the bear that came for it. The rules against such things didn't exist then. They do now.