Camping with kids - success stories?

[nomislotsirb]

Galli CC II Air Low

The Galli CC II Air Low is ideal for anyone who wants a large and versatile space on their outdoor holiday and is ideal for family breaks. The pre-attached front canopy creates an ideal social space and can be fully closed over for optimum privacy. Utilising Vango's AirBeam technology and...

www.vango.co.uk

with Carpet and Groundsheet. We have a bedroom for it and set it up as "storage" when we stay >3 days (e.g. for the car seats & boxes).
I don´t have a lot of pictures from the inside but the 3.5 x 3.5m with the little slope of the sides give a great living space.

What we really appreciate is that you can close the front entrance. It gives you extra space to cook in the rain, sit sheltered in the evening without being inside the awning and you can store your dirty shoes, wet suits or whatever without bringing the dirt into the tent or the van.

And yes, absolute pain in the a** if wet and you have to pack away. If wet I don´t bother with rolling it away and just put it on top of the Ovano. I´m lucky that I can dry it at work.

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It's a great awning. We've had the same since last year, and not yet seen any others on sites. The closed in canopy was one of the major plus points. I find it surprising there's not a plan with dimensions of where to place relative to van. Would be invaluable, especially when also have the groundshhet. I did take some pretty rough dimensions before taking it down earlier this year that have helped.

 

[Frigo110]

I just slide it into the awning rail, inflate it and drag it into position. The groundsheet is bigger than the awning so quite easy to grab the yellow handles and move it around. Setup is done in 10-15min.

 

[T5_Kombi_Rob]

We have just bought the Cove from Vango, happy with space and love the porch area, although it doesnt close like it does on the Galli. Easy to set up and pack up. Last week we were in Cornwall with the kids, 2 year old slept great in the poptop but our 4 month old is pretty unsettled at night at the moment. All in all a good trip though

 

[Tomver]

We have two kids, approaching 5 and 2, and loved camping with m. To come back to some of the earlier points in the thread.

We eat together, take our time with the bed routine and have them sleep separately. The youngest in the poptop with a small rail so she doesn’t fall out. The oldest sleeps on the shelf of our Reimo bed with the bench still up.

By the time we go to bed, my wife sleeps upstairs and I sleep next to the oldest. I fold out the bed when I go to bed.

In the future, when the kids get a bit older they will sleep upstairs but until then this works well. I actually love it.

 

[temporarysecretary]

We camp with 7 and 3 year old. We tend to tour so never do more than 3 nights on the same site. Normally more like 1-2 nights and explore from where we camp. This also includes multi country Europe trips.

I'm not a fan of proper awnings as it's more to transport and more to set up. We have a wind out side awning and a pop up 2 man tent which we use to store things in. Child car seats over night. Bedding in the day.

We have folding car seats so if we have to we can sleep 4 in the van without having to put anything outside the van.

If its dry we sit outside, if it's wet we sit in the van. If the outlook for the weather is really bad we move location.

As you have already gone for the pop top you know they are an absolute game changer. I intend to stick with this size van for as long as possible (hopefully forever) as the accessibility is unmatched.

 

[CJW]

We have taken our lad since he was 8 months old and he absolutely loves it. If we’d had two I think a pop top would have been essential. My best tip is to take a small two man tent - not for people, for the endless STUFF.

 

[cubcampgrumpy]

Back from our trip and still have two living children. It ended up with me being in the pop top penthouse with the 2yo and my wife and 5yo downstairs. As @Tomver, I think we'll stick with this until they're happy to sleep together.

Regarding awnings, we used our vango hexaway purely to store all the crap (dog cage, car seats and two bags of clothes mainly). I'm not convinced of the value, particularly given how much room it takes up in the back when we're underway. I'm certainly not taking it on a planned boys trip to Scotland next month (as we'll be travelling much lighter). Might find a tarp awning instead.

 

[Tomver]

Just like the others we use a quick tent as “garage”. We put in there the carseats, and some other small things when we stay somewhere. Helps to organize things on the campsite, definitely recommended.

We have this, folds in in notime into a compact bag. Setting up literally is 2 seconds.

https://www.decathlon.nl/p/pop-up-shelter-tent-voor-2-personen-2-seconds-fresh/_/R-p-336287

 

[Martinf]

We had great success camping with our two daughters. Here we were on a cycling tour on the Isle of Man, but now way back in 1996. Four wheels too but no VW content except to instil a belief that less is more. Great times then and to remember now.