How Long Should your Camping Trip Be?

I guess you are a beginner camper if you are reading this post, if I am right welcome to the camping community. Camping is actually one of my favorite things to do, it refreshes my mind and gives me life, I was a beginner camper too and I know what people ask when they start out.

One of the questions is how long should a camping Trip last? this question arises in many beginner campers’ minds when they are planning a camping trip.

How long should you stay on a camping trip? While this question depends on many factors like, where you are camping, the number of people you are camping with and the season you choose many resources say the ideal stay on a camping trip is from 2-4 days, anything less than 2 days is too short and if it is longer than 4 day it might be boring.

But what you have to know is there is no rule to this you can stay for a day or for months if you don’t get kicked out of the campground. So don’t worry that much about how long you should stay, instead of that think of what is the ideal length of a camping trip.

How long do people usually camp on average

pie-chart-of-the-average-stay-of-camping-trip
copyright campingtipz.com

I have asked some campers I know and people on social media the number of days they stay on a camping trip and I have got 100 answers and calculated the average stay and resulted in 2.66 days which is an answer I expected.

The majority of people I asked stayed for 3 days with the second largest being 2 days. Besides the tiny research I have made, there is research from the 2017 American Camper Report which reports more than half of the people who go camping stay 1to2 days, and 35% stay for about 3to4 days and about 10% stay 4+ days.

What you have to know is there are many things that can affect the length like for example the type of camping, the number of people camping and some other factors.

There are 6 types of camping and all of them have different comfort levels which means people won’t stay the same amount of time. the same research 2017 American Camper Report shows RV campers often stay longest, on average RV campers camp for 3.7 nights, while tent campers camp for 2.5 nights. which made me think there is a correlation between level comfort and time of stay.

The other thing is some campgrounds have a limit on the number of days you can stay, so take a look at the rules and regulations of the campground to find out more.

The second question is does the number of people camping affect the time of stay? the is no research done about whether the number of people camping affects the time of stay but if you ask me I would say there is. for example, I stay longer if I am camping alone and vise versa.

What is the ideal number of days to stay on your trip?

This question totally depends on you, but there are some deciding factors like the season, your budget and your experience. All of this can affect the ideal stay. Take for example your camping in the winter season it is definitely hard to stay for more than 2 days.

The weather condition affects your camping trip more than anything does, what is the best season to go camping? check this post I have written on that but the short answer is to avoid camping in a harsh season and if you do, it will be almost impossible to stay more than 3 days for a beginner camper.

People stay longer in summer and autumn and the reason is obvious and it is because things are simpler and there is less hassle compared to other seasons.

What about your budget, does it affect how long you can stay? this also matters a lot. for example, if you have a limited budget and you want to camp for a long period, it might be possible but it’s long as you won’t mind getting out of your comfort zone.

For the sake of answering the question, I would say the ideal number of days on a camping trip is 3 days.

Short camping trips

1-3 nights can be considered as short camping trips, and they are the most common among many people, they are enough to refresh your mind and reconnect to nature too. If you are camping for the first time I would recommend you to go for this.

Pros

  • Less costly
  • Easy to plan
  • Can be done with toddlers
  • You won’t need that much gear

Cons

  • You won’t get the full experience(it’s like a trial version of camping?)
  • You can’t go to campsites which are far

long camping trips

Long camping tips are not that much common these days cause everyone doesn’t have time right and it is not easy too but if you have the time and the tiny bit of experience I bet you would love it.

As I have said if you are planning for a long stay you need to have some kind of experience before because it is not that easy to stay for more than 4 days. You might need many things you might have not thought of while you were at home.

First and for most, if you are planning for a long campaign trip you need a good checklist to help you get everything you might need. you can check this camping checklist form rei for that. now let us go to the pros and cons.

pros

  • you can get a great experience and learn new things
  • you can refresh your self

cons

  • you need a bunch of gear
  • it can get boring
  • needs high budget

How to make your stay more interesting

So whether you are staying for a long time or not it is hard to stay away from all these technologies which have become part of our lifestyle.

There are many ways to have fun that makes you think nature is amazing, take a soccer ball and play with your friends or families. If you are solo camping go out for hiking or go by the river in this way even your long camping trip feels like half a day.

The second thing is make sure you choose the right campsite, they might be a little expensive but trust me they worth your money.

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