Camping with Loved Ones: A Guide to Camping and RVing with Grandparents and Extended Family
Camping with extended family is a great way to bond and create lasting memories. With so many people to consider, it's important to plan and coordinate the trip carefully. Start by choosing a family-friendly campground that offers amenities such as playgrounds, fishing ponds, or swimming areas. Additionally, make sure to coordinate the meals, assign tasks, and set expectations on what everyone should bring and what they should do.
To make sure everyone is comfortable, coordinate the sleeping arrangements and make sure that everyone has a safe and comfortable place to sleep. Or if you’re like our family, we each have our own travel trailers, so the only thing we need to worry about is booking campsites next to each other. It’s also important to keep everyone entertained, planning fun activities such as hiking, fishing, games, or campfire sing-alongs.
With some careful planning and coordination, a camping trip with extended family can be a fun, safe, and enjoyable experience for everyone involved. By planning ahead, everyone can relax and focus on spending quality time together, making memories, and enjoying the great outdoors.
*side note: we have AMAZING family on both sides, we each love our in-laws and want to spend time with them. If your family is not the same, do not force yourself into something that won’t be enjoyable for everyone.
Camping and RVing with friends is great, going out as a big family is even better. And when done correctly, RVing with multiple generations is the best! It may take some extra planning and finessing, but it is always worth it. We have both been traveling and camping with our own grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles for ages, and now we are overjoyed that our kids get to do the same. There are lots of ways to help things run smoothly, so here are a few things to think about.
Before you plan the perfect three-week road trip across the country, make sure you start small and RV in a relatively nearby campground with everyone. It’s much easier to work out the kinks in a weekend and maybe foresee some future issues, like the kids running around outside in the morning before grandpa has had enough beauty sleep. We love to use these little trips as a time to bring travel books, bucket lists, and Pinterest to the campground and dream up our big future trips.
Watch out for too many cooks in the kitchen when it comes time to make decisions. Everyone should sit down and agree on where to go and what to do, but when it comes down to it, select one or two people to make the final decisions and reservations. For us, my mom and I do all of the planning, everyone else just offers input.
It might be uncomfortable, but you really should talk about the general budget to everyone you’re traveling with. I could give you 100 stories just from our two extended families of times when budgets were disproportionate and that became an issue. If you’re completely against it or uncomfortable with talking about money with family, then at least make your plans clear. Are we going for helicopter tours around a national park? Or finding the free ranger talks during your visit? Can you meet in the middle with horseback rides?
Stay in your own lane. Literally. One benefit or drawback you’ll need to identify is getting there. Is it better for you to caravan together? Do you find comfort in being together in case something goes wrong? Or does someone in the group maybe have a lead foot compared to everyone else and it’s a constant game of keeping up? Maybe one person needs to take more reststop breaks than everyone else? Find a travel style that works for your whole RVing group. Do not feel like you have to get there together. Instead, you can plan on a meeting time, like check-in, and everyone sets their own starting time and pace.
Plan meals ahead of time. Potluck style will always be the easiest - if dad is a grill master, assign him to that duty while grandma makes the sides and aunty is the queen of desserts. Keep it simple. But if someone has a special diet, don’t be afraid to cook meals separately and come together at one table to eat. My parents are keto, but we love pasta, so on the days we aren’t eating the same thing we just plan to meet in the middle at 6:00 and eat together. And don’t forget, you are on vacation, so please treat yourself to a night of no meal prep and no dishes, eat out, and experience local cuisine.
Do NOT spend 24/7 together. Forcing everyone to be together the entire time is not your best bet. Build-in time blocks for everyone to do their own thing. This is our number one platinum rule with multi-generational travel in general. Our little family wants to do all the things - we sightsee, hike, drive the area, search out the best food truck in town and yes, we stop to see the world’s largest ball of twine. And we do it until we drop. My parents would much rather be sitting back at camp, reading a book, enjoying a cold beverage and hanging out with their pup. On the flip side, we all love a gentle hike through the forest to go see a million-dollar view or heading to any nearby body of water and spending the day in the sun with a picnic. So we’ve come up with a pretty simple solution - we spend about 60-70% of the time together doing things we mutually love and then sprinkle in a few days where we ditch each other. My parents would probably say the best part is that their ears get a break from the constant noise of three young boys. And I don’t blame them!
Slow down. On the same note, not all members of your family might be able to go, go, go. RVing and camping looks very different when my grandma comes with us. So we make concessions because the time spent with her is the most important. These are the times when driving tours are a better idea than a hike. Or your days may just be crosswords, card games, and some time at the pool. It’s okay to change it up for our less nimble loved ones.
Be firm on your ground rules, but leave the soapbox at home. This really can apply to any number of things. Case in point, I’m very specific on what my kids can and cannot eat/drink and it is never more apparent of how “mean” I am than when my boys are with their friends or cousins. No set of parents is right or wrong, just different. So I don’t go around preaching my style and making everyone uncomfortable. Instead, I talk to my kids alone about the decisions we make in our family and that even though we’re on vacation, rules are still rules. Very rarely I’ll get a puppy dog look and if it’s not a big deal I give in because, in the end, it’s not the end of the world. On the flip side, if your dad suddenly goes on a tangent, you can calmly redirect the conversation to tomorrow’s sightseeing plans or stargazing or how to make the best peanut butter and jelly. And if you get desperate, I bet you have at least one kid who needs a shower. Like right now.
Simplicity rules. When your days are overwhelmed by perfectly timed activities, showtimes you can’t miss, seven-course meals, and everyone has to be on their best behavior, something is bound to go wrong. When planning your RVing trip together use simplicity as your overlying rule. Sure you may not see everything in Yellowstone, but that’s okay.
Relax. That’s it. Before you know it, this trip will be over.
We thoroughly enjoy traveling with our extended family and though we may come upon a couple of issues, we try to get past them quickly and move on. It can be very fun to travel big. We would love to hear what are your tips for traveling with others. Share them below!