Our First Camping Trip

Sorry for the radio silence, it's been non-stop here recently! I'm only just getting around to writing about our camping trip, back during the May Spring Bank holiday.

Choosing the destination...

For our first trip we headed up to Beacon Farm in a little village called Sneaton, near Whitby. I'd heard good reviews of the site and Whitby is somewhere we visit often so it seemed like a good place to start.

After 2hrs of driving, the kids were anxious to stretch their legs so, thankfully, check-in was nice and quick. We paid for our 4nights and then we were free to choose where we wanted to pitch up, so we parked up and had a wander around. We found a great level spot in a good-sized field so brought the car over and set to pitching the tent.

I'm so glad that we chose a bell tent as it was so easy to pitch; we were all done in under 20 minutes and then the boys headed off to the play park whilst I set up inside the tent.

I also set up the tarp over the tent door, I'm glad I did as we had rain every day of our trip and the tarp stopped the inside of the tent getting wet any time we went in or out.

The site itself is lovely. We had (distant) sea views, well-maintained fields, and clean toilets, showers, dish-washing areas. The farm is also well-known for its ice cream and has an on-site cafe and ice-cream parlour. The cherry ice-cream is delicious!

The boys had an amazing time, making new friends on-site, spotting the steam train in the nearby village of Ruswarp, and exploring Whitby. They loved sleeping in the tent, even if they were cold to start with, but we soon sorted out the right amount of layers for them to sleep in. :-)

So...what did we think?

Well, we definitely want to go camping again! The boys really enjoyed the freedom of being able to roam around the campsite (mainly to the play park), and I enjoyed just being outside so much. Cooking food was a bit of a challenge but I know that will get better with experience.

We had a bit of a rubbish end to the trip...all packed up and ready to set off yome when the car wouldn't start...flat battery! (note to self: don't let the kids sit in the car, listening to the radio, whilst I pack the boot!). AA to the rescue though! We made it home safely but, unfortunately, I dropped my phone resulting in the loss of all our photos, aside from the few I'd sent to family whilst we away.

So, whilst we may not have the pictures to prove it, we all had a great time camping and are planning out next trip already.