Beginner Camping for a Family of 5

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If you’re like us and love to travel, you’ve probably heard of services like VRBO and Airbnb, whereby homeowners rent out their properties (suburban houses, beach condos, ski chalets, etc.) to vacationers for a short period of time. Did you know there is also a similar service… for camping?!

Meet Tentrr, VRBO’s younger, more outdoorsy cousin (although I don’t think they are really related).

I grew up camping somewhat regularly. To us, camping meant pitching a two-room tent at a rentable campsite and often included electricity, running water, and even bathrooms. The closest thing to camping that Scott did was spending a few nights in a camper. We had been talking about planning a camping trip for a while and then, through the magic of digital marketing and social media advertisements, I stumbled upon Tentrr. 

Tentrr

Booking through Tentrr seemed like the ideal introduction to camping for us, for plenty of reasons, but mainly because 

1. the campsites are fully vetted by the Tentrr staff which means several criteria are considered before the property is accepted into the program (must be on a minimum of 10 acres, must include beautiful land features, must be out of view of any houses or roads, etc.)
2. each site is completely set up upon arrival and includes (among other things):
   • a large canvas tent with queen-size cot and air mattress (some, like ours, have the bunkbed variety) with a wood-burning stove or tent heater, plus a wooden deck with two Adirondack chairs;
   • a stone fire pit with metal grill and a picnic table for meals with dry food storage;
   • an outdoor sun shower (which we didn’t use) and a 5-gallon water container with potable water with a spot to refill if needed; and
   • an outdoor camping toilet, called the Tentrr Loo;
3. there is only one campsite on each of the properties, which allows for some real quality bonding time and minimal distractions.

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Retreat in the Country

The particular campsite we chose was an easy 2 hours (+ change) drive up I-83 in Schuylkill Haven, PA. About 5 minutes out, there’s a little country store with groceries, produce, snacks, a deli and an amazing selection of homemade baked goods (including this killer homemade peanut butter below), a place to get beer with a great selection, and a hardware store for any forgotten camping necessities or grilling accessories.

Meals

Cooking over a campfire was easier than I thought it would be (once we got the fire lit), even if part of the cooking was just heating stuff up.  We had burgers, hotdogs, mac+cheese, and, everyone’s camp fire fave, chana masala, plus late night popcorn and s’mores. Even a little drizzle the next morning didn’t stop us from having our morning coffee, Taylor’s pork roll (aka “breakfast hotdog”) and pancakes from scratch! 

We used this recipe for the mac+cheese. It’s a simple recipe and I followed it pretty closely (without measuring, obvi) but I added gruyere in place of the gouda. And we were WAY too conservative with the heat for fear of burning it so it took forever to heat; next time we’ll put it right on the direct flame, stirring it every now and then.

You can find the Chana recipe I used here. I prepped everything ahead of time — diced the onion, mixed the spices (I didn’t separate any for simplicity purposes and I wasn’t making rice) — and had them ready to go. If you’re planning on making this, don’t forget EVOO, a can-opener, and something to mix AND serve it with (we ended up serving with the grill spatula). It turned out great, although next time, I’ll double the seasoning.

We are not a store-bought pancake mix family and I wasn’t sure how our regular recipe would hold up while camping, but we gave it a shot and it worked perfectly. I mixed the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients at home and combined them right before I cooked them. Don’t forget a large bowl or measuring cup and a whisk to mix the batter, a stick of butter to grease the pan, and a 1/3 cup measuring cup for ladling the batter into the pan. Oh, and the syrup.

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Exploring

Our stay was short, so other than hiking through the woods by our campsite, we didn’t get to explore the surrounding area, but we plan to return to check out places like:

• the local farms in the area (including the one we stayed on)
• Redcreek Wildlife Sanctuary
• Bubeck Park
• Stoyer’s dam and Blue Mountain fishing lakes
• Schuylkill River Park
• Yuengling Brewery

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Packing List

For our first time camping, we did an amazing job with packing (<<pats self on back>>). If you decide to go on an adventure too, here’s what you should have on your list. I didn’t include ingredients for the meals we made nor the contents of our “drink cooler”, but I did include things that you may not think of when planning to cook over a fire.

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• Drink cooler/ food cooler. Depending on how many campers there are and how many nights you are camping you may need a separate cooler for each.
• Extra blankets. This campsite did have the option of adding on bedding, but we also used extra blankets for around the fire AND in bed.  A word of advice: if you’ve never slept on an air-mattress before, the air inside is COLD. We put a fleece blanket on top of the fitted sheets as extra insulation. Something to take into consideration depending on the weather in which you are camping.
• Proper footwear, extra clothes, warm clothes. More than you think you might need, especially for the kids.  You’re gonna get dirty. It might rain. But also, they advise changing out of the clothes you cooked in and storing in your car to prevent any unwanted nightly visitors. We did not do this but probably will next time! And obviously depending on the time of year, bring layers; hats, mittens, ski pants, etc.
• Extra chairs. We brought our folding chairs to put around the fire. The Adirondack chairs stayed on the deck of the tent.
• A 10×10 tent. We didn’t bring one of these, and would have been fine had it not been raining when we woke up. We ate breakfast in the rain and got a little wet, but we were leaving that day so it was ok.  Next time we will bring one of these to eat under in the event of wet weather.
• Fire starters and a lighter. Be sure to bring along a batch of fire starters and a lighter or matches. The campsite provided a few books of matches and we also brought along this electric rechargable lighter (just don’t forget to charge it and bring a battery).
• Fire wood. The campsite may offer firewood at an additional cost, which we selected to buy, but had we stayed for more than two fires we would have needed more.
• Mixing, cooking, serving, eating, washing utensils.  We brought plastic forks/knives/spoons, and I packed our grill tools, but neglected to pack a serving spoon.  Obviously, we made it work, but next time I’ll bring a big metal spoon for serving all the things. If you do pancakes, remember a whisk to mix the pancake batter. We did not bring anything to wash our cast iron pans with (scrub brush). We did the best we could to get the pans cleanish with just water in preparation for cooking breakfast the next morning. Just something to think about if you plan on cooking more than once during your stay.
• Cast iron pans. I did a little research and found these pans and they worked FANTASTICALLY. I’m actually surprised it took a camping trip to get these because I love cooking with them! We used the pot for the Chana Masala, the sauté pan for the hotdogs/hamburgers and the Taylor’s pork roll the next morning, and the griddle pan for the pancakes.
• Something to wear while handling hot stuff.  We got these grill gloves and while they aren’t “heat proof” they do allow for handling the hot pans and the grill and for getting close to the fire (e.g., to roast marshmallows).
• A coffee pot, mugs, and ground coffee. If you’re coffee drinkers, you’ll want to get one of those REAL coffee percolators.  We used this one and it made DAMN GOOD coffee. Plus, all profits from percolator purchases go to fight human trafficking and peace on earth!
• Paper products and trash bags. Or bring reusable to cut down on trash. Paper plates/bowls, cups, paper towels, trash bags (the trash bag the campsite provided was more than enough for us, we used the trash bag we brought to bring home the dirty dishes).
• A folding table.  The site did have a picnic table away from the fire pit to eat at, but we ate around the fire. We did NOT bring a folding table but quickly realized that we needed places to set things down. We made it work with the coolers, but it was a lot of extra work that we could have avoided had we brought a table.
• Snacks. We almost forgot this piece and would have been ok, but it was nice to have something for the kids to munch on while we got the fire going to cook dinner.
• S’mores ingredients. Duh.
• Wipes. To wipe off sticky hands when just water won’t work.
• Flashlights/ lanterns. Our particular campsite provided two battery operated lanterns for inside the tent, but we needed to use flashlights when going to and from the fire.
• Bug bracelets/ bug spray. Also a no-brainer. We didn’t need them on this trip, but we had these bug bracelets and this bug spray, which also repels ticks, on hand.
• Extra gallon jugs of water. For drinking, for cooking, for cleaning, etc.  There is a place to refill the 5 gallon container but you may not feel like trekking to find it.

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Are you guys ready to take the camping plunge? Let me know what you have for meals, what other supplies you bring that I should add to the list, and where you go!

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