7 Camping Hacks You Need NOW!

Summer is here and I am so excited to see our holiday parks get busy again this year! I'm also looking forward to hitting the road and doing some camping with my family this season. I have done A LOT of camping over the years and have picked up great tips and tricks along the way. Some of these things I've learned from fellow campers at a holiday park, and some of them are creations of my very own! Today I'm going to share my top 7 camping hacks with you. I hope these will make the camping season even more organised and fun for you this year!

1. Prep meals and snacks before you leave home

Unless you are a seasoned pro, cooking on a camping trip is sure to prove a little challenging. You won’t have all your usual gadgets and gear and cleaning up afterwards is more work. Make things a little easier by prepping ingredients before you leave. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Chop onions and other veggies and store them in plastic containers
• Grate cheese and portion it into small sandwich bags
• Break eggs into a resealable plastic container with a pour spout – no more worrying about broken eggs.
• Make pancake mix and keep it in disposable frosting bags. When you’re ready to make breakfast, just snip off the end of the bag and squeeze!

2. Make coffee time easy

If you can't start your day until you've had your first cup of coffee, then make coffee time as easy a possible. Before you leave home, create single-serve coffee bags by filling coffee filters with ground coffee and tying them off with floss. When you're ready for a coffee, just steep the bag in hot water for a few minutes. Nothing to prep when you're bleary eyed and no clean-up afterwards!

3. Get organised with stackable storage bins

I don’t know about you, but things always seem to get a bit chaotic on our camping trips! I guess we're usually too focused on fun and adventures to worry about staying organised at the campsite. Before my last trip, I picked up a few small stackable storage bins and used them to store the odds and ends that we need when camping. It helped keep things neater and I avoided hunting around for matches, salt and pepper, sunscreen, etc. whenever I needed them.

4. Cake storage containers for plates and napkins

Along the same lines, pick up one of those cheap plastic cake storage containers before your trip. It's the perfect size to store paper plates and napkins, and it'll save you from chasing after your paper goods when the wind is blowing! 

5. Use foam floor tiles as sleeping pads

If you have some of those big foam puzzles laying around the house, bring them along on your next camping trip. You can create the perfect size pad to fit into your tent, which makes sleeping outdoors just a little more comfortable.

6. Book a site at a Kiwi Holiday Park!

Freedom camping has its appeals, but it's illegal in many places and offers none of the conveniences of a holiday park. When you stay in a Kiwi Holiday Park, you'll have access to toilets, showers, kitchen facilities, and more. Our parks are set up to make camping easy and fun, so you can spend more time enjoying your holiday and less time worrying about logistics. Want to make another smart decision? Grab a Kiwi Holiday Parks Membership Discount Card and enjoy big savings on accommodation, rentals and attractions throughout New Zealand!

7. Download our FREE travel app! 

By downloading Kiwi Holiday Parks' free travel app, you'll be able to quickly locate your nearest holiday park. Our app also containers other super helpful travel information, like the location of your nearest petrol station, supermarket, information centre and more.

What’s your favourite camping hack?

I hope this article has given you a few new ideas for your next trip. How do you make things easier while camping? I'd love to hear about your favourite camping hacks – feel free to share them with me in the comments below!

Photos
Camp Coffee by RichardBH, CC BY 2.0
Camping by Richard BH, CC BY 2.0