Why Is Camping Fun? What Camping Can Teach Us? What Are Social Benefits?

If you have never gone camping, you must wonder why campers are so excited to go, and why you had to leave the comfort of your home to sleep under less-than-comfortable conditions. 

Unlike what you imagine, camping is a fun activity that everyone should take part in some time in their lives. With the beauties of nature within reach, the exciting adventures, and the opportunity to learn a lot, camping is really special.

Let’s talk about why camping is fun and why you should go camping a few times in your life.

What Makes Camping Fun? Why Do You Enjoy Camping?

Whether you’re a child, teenager, or adult, camping is a fun experience. With the city behind you and nature in front of you, there’s a lot of fun to be had, and a lot of memories to be made.

Here are some reasons camping is so much fun.

1. A lot to explore 

When you go camping, you are in for an adventure. Nature offers you all you need to entertain yourself as you discover a lot in your surroundings. 

Whether it’s taking a walk, hiking, cooking with a campfire, swimming in the lake, or exploring wildlife, there’s a lot of nature at your disposal, depending on where you go. 

Your imaginative skills are at their most active when you’re out camping because you’ll discover a new side to your environment and find out things you can do to keep yourself busy daily.

2. A break from the stress of everyday life

When you bid the city goodbye and go camping, you’re leaving the pressures of daily life behind. That action can seem like a weight lifted off your shoulders.

You don’t have to worry about school, work, the pressures of parenting, or the daily chores you have to carry out. Instead, you can bask in the peace and calm that comes with camping.

You can do fun things with your friends and relatives without the business of today’s world getting in the way. 

3. You build and follow your own schedule – Improvement in Organizing skills

Say goodbye to strict and rigid schedules and enjoy deciding what to do at all times when you’re camping.

You can find your own system, and rhythm, and do what you want to do. Bedtimes, meal times, and wake-up times are all up to you to dictate, as well as the activities you want to carry out daily.

4. You get to go traditional

You’ll be surprised at how much fun it is to do things the traditional way; whether it is building a fire to keep warm or for cooking, going fishing, or having your bath and toilet time the very traditional way.

Sleeping in a tent away from your warm, cozy bed is an interesting and fun experience to have. If you’re also able to go hunting or fishing for what you eat, you’ll find that the process becomes all the more memorable and enjoyable.

5. Nature is all around you

Nature is beautiful, and being a part of it is quite an exciting experience. From sleeping outside to interacting with your environment, you’ll feel at peace when camping. 

Camping takes you to that place where you are physically and mentally present with nature and you feel at home. It connects you with the life that our ancestors lived.

You also enjoy the pure pleasures of seeing the sun rise and set, watching the stars, hearing the birds sing, and hearing the sounds as the rivers flow.

How Do You Make Camping Fun?

If you’re going camping for the first time, or you’re wondering how to make your next camping expedition more fun, try these activities and you’re set to have lots of fun.

1. Go Camping with People Who Are Dear To You

Whether you’re going with friends or family, ensure that the people you’re going on a camping trip with are people whose company you enjoy. 

You’ll be spending a lot of time with them and carrying out activities too. You need to be sure that you’ll get along well and enjoy similar activities. Otherwise, you won’t be able to have fun no matter how much planning you do. 

2. Choose your campground right 

Depending on the kind of camping expedition you want to have, there are a lot of campgrounds to choose from; whether public or private.

For outdoor camping, look out for lakes, trails, beaches, rivers, and other places where you can spend time and take walks. If you’re going to a public campground, always reserve in advance and decide how close to other campers you want to be.

You don’t even have to go too far from home to go camping. If there’s a beautiful venue close to home, then pitch your tent, hammock, or take your RV there.

3. Plan fun activities 

Never go camping without planning fun activities that you’ll be engaging in, especially if you’re going as a group.

You don’t need to make a rigid schedule, but you can simply bring along things or plan activities you’ll be carrying out during your camping expedition.

You can have your friends bring different games such as scrabble, cards, Frisbee, or other games they can lay their hands on.

You can also play games amongst yourselves that don’t need any equipment, such as impersonation games, dancing competitions, or fireside storytelling.

As for the outdoors, you can go scavenger hunting, engage in rock climbing, play football or volleyball, or ageless games like tag, Capture the Flag, Hide and Seek, or Tug of War.

If you’re camping near water, you can go swimming, fishing, boating, or even engage in water skiing. 

Rainy days don’t have to be boring; you can ignore the bad weather and spend time indoors playing board games, reading books, journaling, or creating art.

At night, you can tell scary stories, engage in stargazing, or make s’mores using your campfire. 

Whatever time of the day, there’s a lot you can do to make camping fun.

4. Make delicious meals 

Make a camping meal menu to ensure that you’re eating delicious meals while you’re camping.

Nobody says camping food has to be boring, and you can spice things up by trying out new camping recipes and modifying the ones you know. You’ll find a lot of camping recipes online.

Always plan for the total number of meals you want to eat and then make room for some extra so that you don’t run out.

What Camping Can Teach Us?

While camping is a lot of fun, there’s also a lot to learn from camping apart from having tons of fun. Camping teaches us some personal and life lessons that we take with us throughout our stay on earth.

Some of these lessons are simple, and some are quite deep. Here are a few important things camping teaches.

1. Resilience 

Camping can sometimes be challenging, but these challenges allow you to develop resilience and perseverance. As you work hard to find solutions to the challenges you face while camping, you become more resilient and productive.

2. Responsibility

Going on camping expeditions has a way of teaching you to take responsibility for yourself and other activities.

You’ll have to make your meals, clean your environment, make your bed, wash your sheets, and even dispose of your trash. Just like that, you learn to be responsible for a lot of stuff.

3. Independence

Camping activities are the first step towards independence for many people, especially the young ones who haven’t been away from their families before.

During camping expeditions, you learn to make decisions for yourself and be responsible for your decisions. You also begin to do things for yourself, which will most likely continue after you’ve left the camp.

When you go camping, you are out of your comfort zone, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Instead, you learn to be comfortable in a situation that’s not usually a comfortable one for you.

4. Learn to appreciate the little things of life

Camping teaches you to see the world from a different lens, where every little thing matters and even the simple meals you make on a campfire are delicious.

You learn to better appreciate the things you had often overlooked, such as water, food, a place to lay your head, and the beauty of nature. 

When you go camping, you learn to not take anything for granted. You also learn to better appreciate the things you have in your life.

You’ll most likely appreciate your comfortable bed, warm home, and comfortable bathroom more after a camping experience.

5. Self-Confidence

All the activities, hurdles, and experiences you gain from camping give you a confidence boost, especially if you can try new things and be successful at them. 

There are so many opportunities to build more confidence in yourself and your abilities when you go camping. You’ll even be surprised to find how many personal skills you’ll discover while camping.

6. To love the Outdoors

These days, many people don’t place much importance on the outdoors and would rather spend all day indoors on their phones and other devices. If you ask them, they might tell you that the outdoors doesn’t hold any interest to them. 

However, when you go camping, you’ll learn that there’s so much to learn about the outdoors. You’ll also discover that spending some time outdoors makes for a balanced life experience.

What Are the Social Benefits of Camping?

Beyond the personal lessons we learn from camping, there are also social benefits of camping that positively affect how we relate with and around people in our families and the larger society. Here are a few of them: 

1. Social Connection and better relations 

When you go camping with family or friends, or even if you go alone and make friends with other campers, you’re able to build strong social connections. 

Doing things together, spending time, having conversations, and engaging in activities helps you connect with the people you’re on the trip with.

You get to understand yourselves better as you spend time with them, and make memories that will last a lifetime.

2. Improved Family Bonding

Sometimes, a few days of camping can bring you closer to your family than years spent living under the same roof.

Due to the manner of privacy, we maintain amongst family members these days, camping might provide the best opportunity for family members to engage in bonding activities.

When you spend time-solving problems and overcoming hurdles that come your way when camping, you’ll learn how to work well with your family members.

Camping as a family helps kids learn a lot about their parents and vice versa, especially if you take time to engage in storytelling.

3. Teamwork

When you go camping with others, engaging in teamwork is unavoidable. However, it helps you to build teamwork and team play skills, such that it becomes easier for you to work in a team, either at school or your place of work.

Camping supports cooperation and teamwork in a manner that is fun and comfortable.

You might be living with people who were strangers until you met them in camp, but you’ll feel comfortable being with them and even learn how to work with them regardless of your differences.

You also learn to respect others and their opinions and take them into account when making decisions.

4. Leadership Skills

Leadership skills can be developed when camping, and these skills never leave you. If you are asked to lead a team or you’re in a situation where you have to make decisions on behalf of the people you’re camping with, you’ll learn important skills.

Such skills include conflict resolution, collaboration, decision-making, problem-solving, and communication skills, amongst others.

These skills are important at every stage you find yourself in life, and they make your social life better.

Final Words:

Camping is beyond going away from home to spend a few nights. It is a fun and exciting experience that everyone needs to engage in at least once in their lives.

There’s so much to experience and so much more to learn when you go camping.

Although you have discovered most of them in this post, there is so much more to experience for yourself when you go camping.