It is very normal to worry about how to camp alone and the fear of the unknown and possible boredom as well as security. However, you don’t have to worry that it will be boring and that there will be no fun things to do while camping alone. Even if you’ve experienced camping alone and seeking to improve on the experience, this article provides a detailed guide to making camping alone fun with tips, a list of items to bring, available fun things to explore, and things to avoid while camping.
Anyway, if you didn’t think camping alone could be fun, you wouldn’t be considering it and because you considered this to be a fun adventure, that is why you seek to know how to camp alone and useful tips when camping alone to help you get by and have an exciting experience to its fullest.
What do you look to achieve while camping alone? Here are some of the best things to do while camping alone and all the information you need to make the experience worthwhile.
How to Camp Alone
There are some tips to follow that could make your solo camping experience enjoyable and the preparation down to travel and actual camping amazing. Here, you’ll look at possible fun things to do and other things to consider while camping alone, anything to make camping alone an experience to look forward to.
Tips Camping Alone
Here are some things you should know and heed to while camping alone:
Don’t Make Your First Camping Experience a Solo Camping Vacation
To go solo camping, you should have already camped with family or friends and have experienced all the camping activities while camping with family and friends. This will help you know how best to prepare your physical and emotional camping needs for when camping alone. The prior experience will help you know what to expect, build you up for an experience alone, and make you confident and less frightened about the ordeal.
Camp at Familiar Campsites
Since it’s best to have had a prior experience of camping with others, it means you’d have had some campsites that you are familiar with having camped there before. When going solo camping, always choose any of these campsites you’ve already experienced before, for safety and confidence.
With a better experience camping alone, you can make your next solo camping at new locations. You can check out the best campsite for you that will suit your goal on campspot.com.
Plan and Prepare for Emergencies
Camping alone requires extra meticulous attention to safety and security details with health challenges being a part of it. While camping alone, there will be access to little or no care if you encounter accidents or health crises unlike it would be while camping with family or friends. Here are ways to prepare for emergencies:
- Pack a First Aid Kit
Your first aid kit should contain over-the-counter medications, painkillers, your prescribed medications, bandages, cotton wool, and every other necessary healthcare tool for immediate treatment and care in the case of accidents, fever, allergies, and bruises.
- Take up Health and Safety Classes
You may not know how to use the basic things in your first aid kit and that’s as good as not carrying it in the first place. It is best to have basic knowledge of how to use the items in the case of health challenges, accidents, and emergencies in order to stay safe while camping. Other courses like self-defense classes are also great.
- Review your Health Insurance
Review and go through your health insurance to be sure it covers major accidents and emergencies during camping. This will save you a lot of costs especially if camping in a faraway state or country. In the case of accidents with no access to immediate good healthcare facilities, health insurance will ensure fast evacuation and treatment without having you break the bank in the process.
Be Self-Sufficient
If you can’t take care of yourself by yourself, then solo camping might not just be for you. But the good thing is that anything can be developed. Yes, you can grow your self-confidence and get better with the experience so it’s best to prepare your mind for it and be ready to be all about you and self-care. That’s one benefit of self camping, it gives room for you to get better with self-care and love and your confidence in surviving alone.
Here are some things that will require your self-sufficiency while camping alone:
- Meals preparation
- Tent pitching and decoration
- Cleaning up
- Camping entertainment and other activities.
Pack Every Necessity
Camping alone requires extra carefulness while packing. You don’t want to get to the campsite to realize you forgot your toiletries or other camping essentials that you’d need throughout your camping trip.
That’s going to ruin the vacation before it even gets started. So it’s safe to say that when you feel you’re packing too much, you might just be packing right because it’s better to be overpacked than to be found looking for how to survive alone in the middle of nature without all your necessities.
Since you’re going to be packing so many things to stay on the safe side, pack a very lightweight tent or go for camps with provisions for tents or cabins onsite to help make the baggage less.
Fun Things to Do While Camping Alone
You can actually have so much fun with nature, engaging in all the fun things to do while camping even while camping alone, and for me, solo camping is as much fun as camping with groups depending on my camping goals per time.
So if you chose camping alone, I would love to assume that the goal is to enjoy some solitude and tranquillity surrounded by nature and to heighten your sense of awareness and self-confidence. On that note, the fun things to do while camping alone will be tilted towards these aforementioned goals, and the things to do while camping alone include:
Explore and Engage your Creative Side
Because of the peace that comes with being alone and surrounded by nature, my first urge while camping is to explore my artistic side. When it comes to creativity, there is simply so much to discover.
In addition to using my imagination to develop incredibly unique characters for my fictional work, I also enjoy painting, carving, sculpting, tie-dying, knitting, and even jewelry creation. You would even be perplexed as to how you did it after the jinx breaks because there are simply so many creative things to accomplish and camping alone makes birthing these things easier.
Before you leave for your camping trip, pack as many materials as you would like to use to explore and express your creativity. When you go camping alone, you might find the inspiration to engage in the arts, and who knows what will result from that? So pack even the items you might not think you’ll need.
Read also: 16 Amazing Things to Do While Camping for Adults
Hike Trails at Your Pace
Hiking trails especially when camping around hills or mountains is a must for any camper. Solo camping makes hiking even more fun because you don’t have to go beyond your limits to meet up with your group or prove a point and you can do so at your own pace without the limitations or demands of having to cater to the need of others while at it.
Read also: Tips for Planning a Perfect Vacation on a Budget
Engage Other Campers
Solo camping isn’t an excuse to be a loner. I understand you are seeking some solace alone and the solitude will do a lot of good to your mind, but talking to fellow campers in the campsite when it is suitable for you will do a lot of good to your moods.
Check out these 5 Quirky Things to Do While Camping In the Rain
I love to network, and solo camping is a great opportunity to build a network that might be helpful even outside of camp or maybe just within your stay in camp. Engaging campers does not mean neglecting our solitude and inviting noise and distractions. Create some boundaries and stick to them.
Record your Camping Experience
I love o document my activities and especially rare events like solo camping deserve to be recorded for future reference and memories keepsake. You can also start a travel vlog or blog and put up visual content or write about your camping experience for the like-minded public to access and share their thoughts. It is really one of the most fun things to do while camping and you can spend a great time alone editing your content to perfection while camping.
You will love these 9 Useful Tips on How to Prepare For Camping.
Remember, nature inspires and this is sure going to be very creative while you are at it. Here is how to start a travel blog and make money from it. You should also check out these most sought-after cheap vlogging cameras for this purpose.
Try Cooking Your Meals
Don’t just pack processed and canned foods for your solo camping vacation. You can go out to fish, catch a fish and come back to prepare a barbecue, but then this depends on whether you are camping by a water body.
There are other ways to explore cooking your meals while camping and they include packing your groceries before the trip and having them preserved in the best way possible to be cooked at the campsite. For this to happen, including a camp cooker and nonstick pots in your camping essentials list is a must. You can also cook with your campfire, where carrying a cooker might be too stressful.
Engage in Available General Camp Courses and Fun activities
Just because you are camping alone doesn’t mean that you will stay stuck in your tent doing just what you like each day. One of the best funs of camping is going out there to explore the available fun things to do in the campsite provided by the campsite.
Some of these activities in the campground facility may be swimming in natural pools, tree climbing, ropes courses, fishing, sports activities or competitions, etc and you should engage in them all to have the best time of your life while camping.
Go for Long Night Walks
Long night walks while camping alone are very soothing and a great way to purge one’s self of negative thoughts and imaginations. It is also a great way to gain insights and inspiration on subjects that had laid dormant in your mind. It soothes the soul, builds your confidence, and takes away fear. Be sure not to get carried away that you wander too far away from the safe zone.
Meditation
Practice quiet reflections and meditation while camping alone. It is not just one of the fun things to do while camping alone but a very helpful activity for your mind and personality.
Journaling
Camping alone leaves enough time to go back to discussing details with your silent friend in your journal. You’ll have a great time journaling without distractions and the words will flow ceaselessly.
Also read: What is Stealth camping? The Ultimate Guide.
Hook Up With a Romantic Interest At The Campground
It’s not a crime or out of place to get entangled in a sizzling-hot romantic moment and possibly never see the person again after. In fact, it is fun and one of the fun things to do while camping to look forward to. Now, this can spur up the need for extra camping activities that involve other people, and here are a few sensual couple camping ideas that will help better the experience. Be sure to not let this interfere with your initial solo camping goals. Learn to balance things out and be clear on your demands and needs.
When Is The Right Time To Go Camping Alone?
There’s really no right time to go camping alone. Solo camping should happen when you are mentally ready to survive on your own and cater to yourself without interference. The season you choose for your solo camping will depend on your camping goals.
If you’re looking to engage in adrenaline-rush activities then you might consider camping in the summer but if you just want to enjoy the tranquillity and stay stuck up in your tent with very few outdoorsy adventures, the winter or any time of the year is just perfect to experience your solo camping thrills.
What To Bring While Camping Alone
Camping alone requires extra carefulness while packing. You should make sure that you’ve packed every basic and extra because you are there by yourself and taking care of yourself is paramount. Some camping essentials while camping alone include:
- Campsite basics
These include tents, a sleeping bag, blankets, torchlight, a water can, clothing items, shoes, food, and the general things you need for camping whether you’re camping alone or not.
- Camp Cooking Utensils
You shouldn’t look forward to borrowing your cooking utensils from strangers. And since this isn’t a family camping trip, packing up the items to cook rests solely on you and you shouldn’t fail to include them unless you’re ready to starve to death. They include pots, spoons, plates, a manual blender, a camp cooker, fire starters, a jerrycan, a cooler/warmer, etc.
- Bug Spray
- Personal Comfort Items like throw pillows, your perfumes, familiar room freshener, portable house furniture, toys, pets, etc.
- Camera in a case with a tripod
- Power bank and cables
- A First Aid Kit
Why You Should Go Camping Alone
Here are some of the greatest benefits of solo camping that you may not get while camping with a group of family and friends:
- Bliss in solitude.
- Heightened sense of environmental and security/safety awareness.
- Self-discovery.
- To build self-confidence and sufficiency.
- Adventure and fun.
- Extraordinary arts and heightened creativity.
- Inspiration for innovation and strategy development.
- Avenue to cater to yourself and your needs alone without worrying about others.
- To enjoy our own kind of fun without fear or guilt.
Check out these Camping Guide: 15 Awesome Things to do While Camping at Night
Conclusion
As part of the fun things to do while camping, pack enough personal fun and comfort items to give you a familiar kind of fun alongside the new thrills of the adventures of camping that you will be experiencing.
At some point, you might wish you camped with your group of friends and may begin to think of the tons of crazy things to do while camping with friends that you could have done, but solo camping is a different kind of fun and you should embrace it wholeheartedly.
Other tips to consider while camping alone include:
- Telling loved ones where you are camping and the details of your trip. We are not hoping anything happens but then, but staying safe is paramount while solo camping.
- Embracing your fears and telling your mind that you are safe; camping isn’t entirely scary but you know the idea of being alone in the middle of nowhere surrounded by nature and many unknowns can be quite unsettling.
- Checking the weather forecast to carefully plan your most favorable time to camp to meet your goals and to know what to bring while camping with regard to the weather condition.
It is very usual to have fears and reservations about packing your backpack to go on a camping adventure alone but you can overcome the fear if you consider the tips and the possible fun things that you can engage in while camping in this guide.
Camping alone can be just the perfect camping vacation you need to have all the fun and adventure there is. Consider camping alone as so many things that mean fun not some monotonous suicide mission that leaves you drained and lonely the entire time.