New to camping, or have never been camping before? Follow these essential tips for the beginning camper and you’ll handle everything like a pro even if it’s your first time camping.

If you’ve never been camping before or have only gone camping once or twice it can be daunting when your kids talk you into planning a trip to the outback. Here’s your essential guide so that you don’t screw everything up and be the person that ruined camping for a new generation of kids.

When you’re ready to buy gear, check out this post for great gear recommendations!

Essential Camping Gear

Walk into the camping section of a sporting goods store and your head will spin trying to take in all the gear that you can buy. Do you really need everything on the shelf? Quick answer is no, longer answer is wow, that would be cool to have all that! You can get away with a pretty basic list and be comfortable.

For a comprehensive printable list of essential camping gear click here!

Tent

This is the big one and sometimes it’s hard for the beginning camper to grasp exactly what they need. Well, it depends on how many people that are going to be participating in the activities. Most dome tents will fit the bill for whatever you want to do, they come in 2 people up to 12 people. Look for one with more headroom if you’re taller or want to stand up in the tent. If you have older kids, you may want to get one tent for the adults and one tent for the kids.

Sleeping Bag

Sleeping bags come in different “seasons” and sizes. The season of a bag refers to what temperature it’s good for, usually three or four seasons. Any three-season bag is good for most camping in the spring, summer and fall. Don’t forget the pillows either.

Don’t feel like buying a sleeping bag? Old sheets and blankets work just as well.

Air Mattress/Pad

Either one is good, if you’d rather camp with all the comforts of home, get an air mattress (preferably one that fits in your tent). Make sure that you have power where you’re going to be camping or bring a portable battery pump. If you’d rather have the whole “roughing it” camping experience, then get a mattress pad. The goal is to get something between you and the ground.

Cookware

You can get a lot of fancy “made for camping” cookware, or you can go with the O.G., a well-seasoned cast iron skillet. Add a pot and a percolator for coffee to round out your collection.

Plates/utensils

Buy a reusable set and forget about it, or, pick up paper plates and plasticware when you’re at the grocery store.

Camp Stove

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You can choose to wait around until the campfire is ready to cook on, or you can set up a propane camp stove and have your coffee ready 10 minutes after you wake up. If grilling is your thing, then you can buy a portable grill relatively cheap.

Cooler

Unless you plan on catching and trapping your meals every day, you’ll want a cooler to keep the food cold and the drinks chilled. You don’t have to buy the top of the line Yeti, a 50 quart cooler from Target will do. Bonus tip – buy one cooler for food and a smaller cooler for drinks.

Lanterns/flashlights

Yeah, these will come in handy when you’re trying to find the way to the bathroom at two in the morning. You can pick up a propane lantern, or the modern LED equivalent. Headlamps are convenient for hands free illumination.

Storage Bin

Pick up a storage bin to store your cookware, plates, matches, bug spray, etc. It’s easy to transport and it’ll keep your campsite organized.

While this isn’t a comprehensive list, it’ll get you headed in the right direction, and you can add as you see fit.

Want to see a more comprehensive list with actual equipment recommendations? Then get to clicking right here.

Entertainment

Some people are content with just hanging around the campfire at night. Some people go from sun-up until sun-down and spend very little time at the camp site. You might like to sit around the campfire reading a book. The kids might need more than that, in that case you can bring table games, cards, or even beanbag toss to occupy some down time.

Now Put it all Together

Don’t make a beginning camper mistake and wait until you get to your destination to find out that the bargain tent that you bought “on sale” was on sale because it was missing the tent poles. Head out into the wilds of the backyard and set everything up like you would be if you were camping. The kids will love it, and you’ll know which “tab A” goes into “slot B”.

Try out the camp stove, turn on the lanterns, and fill up the air mattress. You’ll be familiar with the equipment, and you’ll avert the rath of your spouse when you find out that the air mattress leaks before you’re miles from nowhere.

Where and When to Go

National parks, state parks, or even just a KOA are all options. Once you’ve decided what area you want to visit, check out their webpage and see what amenities and facilities they offer. You’ll want to know if the campgrounds are open, if they’re near the attractions that you want to see, or even if they have showers near the campsites.

You’ll want to make sure that when you want to go is compatible with what you want to do. You don’t want to find out that the reason the campground reservations were so wide open is because you decided to go during the rainy season.

Reserve a Spot

Depending on what time of year it is, you can make reservations at some campgrounds the week before you plan on going, other places there might be nothing available for months in advance. The more popular the area that you’re going to, I’m looking at you National Parks, the more advanced notice that you must give so you’ll want to reserve your spot as soon as possible.

Most places have online reservation systems so you can easily select your dates and campsites. From the portal, you’ll be able to see pictures of the actual campsite that you’re looking at, also if it’s near the bathroom, or if it has electricity, or water. They’ll also have any notices posted that you might need to know, such as closures or even if campfires are allowed.

Where’s an easy way to find available campsites you ask? We say the NPS Campground Locator of course.

If needed, you’ll want to see if pets are allowed and what areas they’re allowed in. Some places allow dogs, but they’re not allowed to be left alone for more than 30 minutes, and they may only be allowed in the campgrounds, not on the trail. So, make sure to check so you’ll know if you have to leave Rusty at the dog sitter.

If you’ve decided where you want to go and there aren’t any spaces available, you can call reservations to see if there are any cancellations, or you might need to expand your advanced search time, or area. Don’t despair if you can’t find something right away, lot of the more popular national parks and state parks will have privately owned campgrounds outside of the park boundaries that might have openings.

Preparing to Go

You’ve made your reservations and it’s finally time to pack for your trip. Do yourself a favor and make a list of what you want to take, including groceries. You don’t want to leave everything on the to do list and packing the family truckster for the morning that you plan on leaving because, guaranteed, you’ll leave later than you planned, and you’ll forget something.

When making a grocery list try to preplan all your meals and snacks. That way you’ll buy just what you need, and you won’t have that ten-pound watermelon that you bought on a whim taking up all the cooler space. Speaking of coolers, if you can, freeze all your meat, that way it’ll keep longer and will help cut down on the replacement ice needed.

Bring resealable quart and gallon bags for leftovers, and to put snacks in for when you’re out and about.

Hydration (Water)

Bring plenty! Don’t fall into the buying a couple of cases of .5-liter bottles trap. That’s just a waste of money and plastic. Pick up water in gallon jugs, not as much waste and you can fill your hydration bladder with them more easily.

In an emergency it’s always good to have some type of water filtration device handy.

At the Campground

You’ve arrived at your destination on time and during daylight because you took the above advice about packing before the morning of and you’re ready to set up camp. Now’s the fun part.

Setting Up Camp for the Beginning Camper

Try to get there as early as possible, no matter how many times you’ve set up your campsite, it’s always easier to do it during the daytime than when it’s dark. Look for a level, rock free area to place your tent, that way you won’t have your spouse rolling into you and forcing you into the corner all night. It also protects the bottom of the tent from damage.

Set your chairs, camp stove, bedding, food, and lanterns for ease of access. It’ll make your stay more enjoyable if you’re not fumbling around in the dark looking for the matches so that you can light your lantern.

Cooking

Some campsites have picnic tables and grills already there (you’ll know if they do because you were able to see it in the pictures of the campsite when you booked online). If not, lucky for you that you brought your camp stove or portable grill. Grab your cookware from your neatly packed storage bin and commence to prepare that feast.

Just remember to check with the rangers or hosts to make sure that open flames are allowed.

Food and Garbage Storage

Where there’s food and scraps at a campsite, there’ll be critters, raccoons, skunks, even bears. Don’t make a beginning camper mistake and feed them, it’s not good for them, and they won’t want to stop at that one marshmallow that you threw on the ground. Keep your cooler within sight, and if you’re going to be away for a while, put it in your vehicle. Don’t think that because it’s hard to open they won’t be able to get in it either, unless you have a padlock on the cooler, they will get into it. If they’re big enough, they’ll just tear it apart, so much for that $500 Yeti.

Store all garbage away in the campground garbage cans. If you’re in bear country, they will have bear proof receptacles, use them! The last thing that you want is a bear rummaging through your camp at 2 AM like one of your drunken hockey pals looking for the leftover chicken wings.

Pack it in/Pack it Out

Be a good camper and clean up your campsite. Whatever you brought with you, load it up back in your vehicle. If you have garbage cans available, then use them. If not, pack it out with you. Leave your campsite at least as clean as when you got there. The rangers/hosts with thank you and the next camper will thank you.

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It’s the first week of April and already three people have died at the Grand Canyon in a span of barely three weeks. The latest was a 67 year old man who fell to his death. Holy crap, you would think that at 67 years old you would be cautious enough to stay away from the rim. In March a lady was mauled by a Jaguar while trying to get the perfect selfie. We shouldn’t need these reminders that nature is brutal and unforgiving.

Yosemite has had its share of deaths too. Just last year a couple fell to their death while trying to take a selfie. This isn’t limited to just the United States Parks either. In July of 2018 three vloggers died after falling at Shannon Falls, Canada’s third tallest waterfalls.

This post isn’t to scare you into staying inside and only venturing outside once you’re safely covered in bubble wrap. The whole purpose of this blog is to get people out and get a little out of their comfort zone. But when you do go out and adventure you have to always keep in mind that nature is brutal and unforgiving so plan accordingly.

Check Your Surroundings

Hey, I understand pushing the limit, I’ve continued hiking above the timberline to Chasm Lake in Colorado while there were thunderstorms raging in the area just so I that I didn’t have to turn around before getting to the lake. I love going up to the rim of canyons where there’s no safety railing. Take a trip to Toroweep Overlook, 3,000 feet straight down and there’s no rail. Hell, there’s no other people there either. The closest ranger station is 3 miles away and you need a high clearance vehicle to get there.

Standing on the edge with nothing between you and the ground except for 3,000 feet of air is exhilarating. But I was also very much aware of my surroundings. That crack that you don’t see in the rocks? Guess what? You trip over it because you have your eyes on the viewfinder while your trying to frame that perfect shot. Then it sends you to the bottom in a hurry. And with a 3,000 foot plunge you’ll have an incredible amount of time to think of how much of a dumbass you are. That crack doesn’t care. It’ll be there for the next unsuspecting person, because nature is unforgiving like that.

Stay Away From the Wildlife in the Wild

Do a search for stupid people around wild animals. There are so many of them you can have your choice, reading about them or watching them on YouTube.

Yellow Stone and Rocky Mountain National Park are some great places to view wildlife in their habitat. In their habitat. That’s right, this is their territory. That moose that you’re trying to get a selfie with weighs up to 1,200 lbs and sees you as nothing more than a threat. If you get him mad, I hope that you’ve got your will in order. Those bear cubs that look so cute you just want to go up and play with? Their mother will come and knock you down in a hurry. Hopefully you get back up.

Stay Away From the Wildlife in the Zoo

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I don’t know what it is about people seeing animals in the zoo and they think that they’re tame. The lady who was mauled by the Jaguar in Phoenix was the second one mauled by the same Jaguar because somebody else thought that it was a good idea to get a selfie with a cute little cat. That little cat sees you as nothing but it’s next meal. You get too close to it and it’s going to get it’s fork and knife out for dinner. Do you know why? That’s right, nature is brutal and unforgiving.

Just Be Aware

That’s all you need to do. Be aware of what’s around you. Take all the selfies on the rim that you want, but check your surroundings. Is the ledge wet and slippery? Find a different spot that’s dry or stand a little farther away from the edge, I can assure you that nobody on your Instagram feed will know the difference.

When you’re tracking that moose along the road, give him a little extra room, I would bet that he can run faster than you. At the zoo, there are fences and culverts in between you and those tigers for a reason. Don’t try to circumvent them because you think you’re smarter than the zookeepers. It won’t end well because you’re not.

Getting out and experiencing nature in its element is nothing short of spectacular. Practice the proper etiquette when you’re out and everybody will go home happy.

The only wild animals in Key West are the people on Duval Street at 3 in the morning, you probably want to avoid them too. Stay safe and go there for a perfect three days.

Pin it!

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There are so many hotel booking sites out there. Which one do you use? You’ve got the little gnome pushing you one way, you’ve got that little owl acting all uppity and pushing you to use his way, and then there’s that really friendly, hip guy pushing another way.

Well, don’t worry, we’re here to break them all down. Well, not really all of them, there are literally hundreds of them! We’re just going to do the top ones so that the next time that you need to get a hotel you’ll know just where to go. Travel tip: make a burner email at the email provider of your choice and have all travel deals sent there.

Booking.com

This one is first alphabetically, besides the Airbnb one, it’s also first because it’s my go to website when booking hotels. They consistently offer the lowest prices, they price match (to be fair, most sites do), and once you book twice you qualify to be a Booking.com Genius which gives you a bigger discount. They have a very comprehensive search engine with a lot of options. The only time that I don’t use Booking is when I’m packaging a hotel with a flight or I’m booking a major hotel that I have points with.

Orbitz

I have a friend who is a walking, talking billboard for Orbitz. I would rank them just after Booking.com. They have competitive pricing plus they have promo codes that you can use to save an extra 10%. Orbitz also has a branded credit card that gives you points as you spend so you can save money on your trips. They also give you Orbucks each time you book through them, which comes in handy for saving money on future bookings.

Expedia

I’ve found some good package deals on Expedia and they also have member pricing if you sign up for their email list. It’s a decent all around travel planner and you should definitely use it for price comparisons, especially if you’re looking for a flight + hotel package.

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Hotels.com

The appropriately named Hotels.com is probably the most famous hotel booking site. They offer a couple of perks that can save you a lot of money. After you book ten nights, together or seperately, you get one night free! The also have Secret prices, but you need to be member to receive those. I know some people who love Hotels.com and use them all the time.

Travelocity

Travelocity features travel codes and hotel sales that can save you money on hotels. What I really like about Travelocity is their “Travel for Good” program. If you need a hotel when you’re going to do volunteer work for one of their chosen charities, they’ll discount the hotel, which is nice. Check out there website for more details.

Airbnb

What a better way to spend a vacation than in someone else’s house so you can go through all their stuff? Actually, most homes on Airbnb are permanently set up as vacation rentals. But that’s even better. Why take the family to a cramped hotel room when you can get a whole house? You can bring Grandma and Grandpa along with you’re annoying Uncle Bob, the family prankster.

HomeAway

HomeAway is pretty much the same hotel booking site as Airbnb. It’s the rebranded VRBO which offers homes for vacation rentals. If you’re looking for something bigger than a hotel room, look here. They have different listings than Airbnb so be sure to check them out.

Kayak, Tripadvisor, Trivago

I put all three of these in the same category because they all do pretty much the same thing. They’re great for searching multiple sites at the same time so you can see what prices are on all the hotel booking travel sites. When you click on the price that you want it will take you to that travel site and you book through them.

What I like about all three of these is that you can see all the reviews that you can handle. Remember, always take reviews with a grain of salt as not all reviewers are equal. That one guy complaining about about the lack of a concierge service in a Motel 6, yeah, disregard his review.

So after checking out all the websites, you say, “Hey, all these websites look the same!”. Well, there’s a reason for that. There are two parent companies that own most of these sites so that’s why they all look the same and the prices are so similar.

Use them all, or find one that you like and use it. If you can’t find a particular property that you’re looking for, look on one of the other sites as not all properties are on all sites.

Need to fly to your destination? Be sure to check out our post and make sure that you don’t overpay for your flight. Read all about it here.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Hotel Booking Sites appeared first on Get Out and Adventure.

I’ve seen tons of articles about how to find cheap flights, some of them are good, some of them pretty much suck. After flying around the world for an extremely cheap company, and being a little “frugal” myself, these are the methods that I’ve found to work best.

Your spouse comes home one day and informs you that you’re going on a family vacation. “Great!” you say, “where are we going?” “Oh, we’re going skiing with my family in Colorado, isn’t that wonderful?”

You’re world spins to stop. Crap. Not only are you going to be cooped up in a condo with your spouse’s family, now you’ve got to listen to your brother-in-law (you know who I’m talking about) go on and on about how he scored his flight so cheap. “What?” He says, “you paid how much for your tickets? I would never pay that much for my tickets.” “You’re so savvy Judd,” you reply, while in your mind you’re dumping his craft beer over his head and soaking his Che Guevara shirt.

Well, don’t worry. I’m here to show you how to score some sweet sweet low priced tickets. For the most part these are for somebody who’s got a few months notice, but some of these can be used if you’re traveling on short notice. If you follow my advice you’ll be able to wipe that smirk off of your vest-wearing brother-in-law’s face. Unless he’a a churner (see below), you can’t compete with that kind of crazy.

Research

Research is the number one rule of how to find cheap flights. You log onto Kayak, you put in your information, and it comes back $400 round trip from Chicago to Denver. Is that a good price? You don’t know because airfares are constantly changing. That’s where research comes in. Most sights will let you sign up for a low price alert and they’ll email you when the price goes down (see the burner email trick below). You can sign up for that, or you can log on everyday and see what the price is doing. Some sites have a “buy or don’t buy” feature, I don’t trust that because they’ll say buy when the price comes off the very highest price but isn’t at it’s lowest yet.

Sign up For Alerts

How to find cheap flights? Sign up on all the travel companies websites. They’ll send you flight pricing updates, who’s having a sale, and even short notice flight pricing. Got a free weekend? Yeah, when that Orbitz email comes in and says fly round trip to Miami in February for $100, jump on it.

Companies to sign up for? The top ones are Orbitz, Travelzoo Top 20, Expedia, Kayak and Southwest Airlines. Don’t want all those emails cluttering your inbox? Sign up with your favorite email provider for a new travel deals email just for travel deals. Because once you do a search and you’re signed up, the emails will be hitting your inbox hard and heavy.

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Search Engines

There are plenty of different search engines to use to find cheap flights, but you have to understand the difference between them. Kayak searches flights and tells you where to find them, but they’ll redirect you to another site when you go to pay.

On other sites like Expedia, Orbitz, and Priceline, you are making the transaction with them directly and your contract is through them. They’re all good ones to go through, you just have to know who you’re contract is through when something wonky comes up.

The search engine that currently has all the travel blogger’s hearts aflutter is Momondo. Once you use it you can see why. It offers so many options, it’s really user friendly, and it consistently brings up the cheapest airfares.

+ or – 3 Days

This is a great tool to find cheap flights if you’re schedule is flexible. If you enable this feature in your search engine, a matrix will show you flight pricing for up to 3 days before and 3 days after the dates that you input. This way you can really see what days the cheapest flights are on.

Southwest Airlines

If you think just going on to a major matrix is the only way to find cheap flights, then let me tell you why you’re wrong. Southwest Airlines can only be booked through their own website. But what’s great about their website is their Low Fare Calendar, and it’s just what it sounds like, a calendar with low fares. Just find the date and fare that you want and book away. When you’re comparing prices to other air lines, remember that Southwest lets you check your first two bags for free, while the other airlines can charge up to $40 per bag. So, load up your two free checked bags and enjoy your vacation.

Are you using these tips because you’re flying to Cozumel for vacation? Then make sure that you check out our Perfect Five Day Itinerary.

Branded Credit Cards

This doesn’t get you cheap flights, it gets you practically free flights (you still need to pay the taxes). All of the major airlines have at least one branded credit card company that’ll give you miles for every dollar that you spend. Bonus, if you use them to book your flight they’ll usually let you check one bag free for each person that you buy tickets for. Bonus Bonus, if you spend a certain amount of money within the first three months they’ll spot you up to 60,000 miles. That’s the equivalent of two round trip domestic tickets.

Capital One Venture

This one is similar to a branded credit card, but it doesn’t lock you into just one airline. You rack up miles or points every time you use the card. Once you have enough points, you can go ahead and book your flight, pay with the Cap One card, and they will reimburse you for the cost of the tickets.

Budget Airlines/Basic Economy Fares on Major Airlines

Hey, what says cheap flights more that budget airlines? While the initial price might seem really low at first, that just gets you on the plane. You want to check bags? That’ll cost ya. You want to sit? Yeah, that’ll cost ya. You want to carry on? That’ll cost ya. You want the flight attendant to say hi to you? That’ll cost you too. I’m looking at you Frontier Airlines.

While I’m not a fan of budget airlines, some people love them, I feel that they are best for quick commutes when you have a small carry on. But beware, if for some reason the flight gets cancelled or the company decides to shut down (happens to the extreme budget carriers usually outside the U.S.) you could lose your money and they don’t have to put you on another flight.

Fly Into Another Airport

Another way to find cheap flights is to see if it’s cheaper to fly into a nearby airport. You have to be careful with this one though because it might be cheaper to fly into another airport, but other things might be more expensive. The rental car could cost more or the taxi/Uber extra cost might cancel out the savings. But sometimes it really works. At one time United and American were both at $500 RT Houston to Cozumel. Southwest’s Wanna Get Away fares were $90 each way to Cancun. After flying into Cancun, taking a private shuttle to the ferry in Playa Del Carmen, paying for the ferry, and taking a taxi from the ferry to the hotel, it was still half the cost of flying directly into Cozumel.

Instead of flying in to Key West you might save a lot of money by flying into Miami and enjoying the beautiful drive through the Keys.

Fly Off Season

This is a good way to find cheap flights if you’re not a slave to the typical family with kids schedule. Fly anywhere around the holidays or the middle of the summer, you’re going to be paying top dollar. Fly to Florida in September or October, the weather is sill nice and you’re not fighting for overhead luggage space with families with strollers. Want to get your ski fix in? Fly to Colorado in January or February It’s a little colder outside, but lift lines are short and airfares are cheaper.

Churning Credit Cards

These people are insane! They have spreadsheets so that they are aware of how much their spending on each card. This is the ultimate cheap flight. Every penny these people spend is done using a credit card. They’ll have three or four branded credit cards and put every expenditure on those cards. they do this until the yearly fee comes due, then they cancel the card and sign up for a new one. The key is to pay them off at the end of the month, and that’s where people get into trouble. They don’t pay them off and jack up their balances, and get caught in never ending spiral. Then they can’t cancel the card and have to pay the yearly dues.

Package Your Flight with A Hotel

Airlines, and vacation search engines all offer you discounts when you book both at the same time. Sometimes you can get deep discounts, but this is another area that you have to be flexible because they might not offer the specific hotel that you want.

Cheap Flight Fake News

There are a number of myths out there about finding cheap flights, so do yourself a favor and don’t fall for them. I’ve seen so many blogs pumping a myth that I know is wrong and it’s amazing how they get away with just putting out information that they’re too lazy to verify.

• Searching incognito – I fell for this one once and it’s all BS. I’ve had multiple windows open over multiple days and guess what? The pricing in the incognito mode and regular mode wasn’t any different. Websites are not set up to give you higher prices every time you do a search. So search away and you’ll eventually find that cheap flight.
• The best prices come out on Tuesday afternoon – Wrong! I don’t even think that the airlines themselves know when their algorithms are going to predict a fare sale.
• Websites that predict when to buy – You’ve seen that little box in the top left corner of Kayak predicting the future of the price. Yeah,it’s fake, it just a guess. Don’t believe it, if you’ve done you’re research like I told you above then you already know that.

Other Ways to Find Cheap Flights

There are other ways to find cheap flights that I didn’t cover because some things are more trouble than they’re worth.

• Sometimes you can find a cheap flight that has a layover in a city that you want to go to. So you buy a ticket to somewhere you don’t want to go to thinking you’ll just get off the plane at the layover city where you do want to go. It’s not worth it. Airlines frown on this and you can’t check any luggage, unless you want it to go to the final destination. Happy traveling luggage! Nice knowing ya!
• Flying multiple airlines on one trip. Yeah, make sure that you have all your connection times right or you might be stuck in an airport for hours because the two schedules didn’t match up and you missed that second flight, but don’t worry, airport food is notoriously cheap.

Follow these steps and you’ll be flying the friendly skies like a pro with a little extra cash in your wallet. And that pales in comparison to the thrill that you’ll get when you shut down your blueberry-vaping brother-in-law.

So you followed these steps and you found the super cheap flight to your dream destination, what hotel search engine are you going to use? Don’t worry, we’re not going to leave you out in the cold on that one either. Check out our post of hotel booking sites and you won’t go wrong.

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