Camping With Kids: What to Know, What to Bring, Where to Go

Camping with children is not harder than camping without them. It is different, and almost everything that goes wrong on a family trip comes down to three decisions made before anyone left the driveway.

This is what we have learned from customers who camp with their kids, and from doing it ourselves. It is not a checklist scraped off another site.

The three things that decide how the trip goes

How far you drive on day one

The most common mistake is treating the drive like an adult drive. A six hour run that you would knock over without thinking becomes eight hours with stops, and you arrive with tired children at dusk trying to set up camp in fading light.

Pick somewhere close for the first trip. Two or three hours. If it goes badly you are home in an afternoon, and if it goes well you have proved the setup works before committing to a week in the bush.

How long you stay

Two nights beats one. One night means you arrive, set up, sleep badly because everyone is excited, then pack up. Nobody enjoys it. With two nights there is a full day in the middle where camp is already up and the trip actually becomes a holiday.

Beyond about four nights with young children, plan on a resupply or a laundry stop rather than carrying everything.

Where everyone sleeps

Work this out at home, not at the campsite. Count the people, count the sleeping spaces, and be honest about whether a five year old is sharing with a nine year old without an argument. If the answer is no, take a second shelter. This is covered properly further down.

Choosing a campsite when you have kids

The site that suits two adults is often the wrong site for a family. What changes:

• Flat ground matters more. Not for comfort, for containment. A toddler on a slope ends up at the bottom of it, and anything on wheels goes with them.
• Toilets close, but not too close. A two in the morning walk with a four year old is different at thirty metres than at three hundred. Directly beside them means noise and foot traffic all night.
• Shade for the middle of the day. Australian summer camp between eleven and three is unbearable without it, and children feel it well before adults complain.
• Look at where the water is. Creeks, dams and beaches are the reason to go and also the thing you will spend the trip thinking about. A site with the water visible from camp is easier than one where it is around a corner.
• Check who is next to you. Generator sites and group camping areas are fine for adults and hard with an early bedtime. Many parks separate them, so read the site map rather than picking on the photo.
• Reception, deliberately. Decide whether you want it. Plenty of families choose a site with none, and plenty regret it the first time somebody is unwell.
• Something for them to do on site. This is the one most people underrate. A site with a creek to swim in, a bike track, a playground or a holiday activities program buys you hours you would otherwise spend entertaining them. Remote and beautiful is worth doing, but not on the first trip with young kids.

What a site like this actually buys you

A campsite with something on it is not a soft option. It is the difference between a weekend where you sit down with a coffee and one where you are the entertainment from six in the morning. The kids find other kids, they come back tired, and everybody sleeps.

These are bush camps and national park campgrounds rather than holiday resorts. If you have bought a rooftop tent you did not do it to park next to a water slide, and the good news is the activity at these places is the place itself: a creek, a gorge, a river to paddle on. Two of them are ours.

Queensland

• Murphy's Creek Escape, Upper Lockyer, foot of the Toowoomba range. (one we use) Creek and rock pools running through it, backing onto national park. Flying fox, ropes course, archery and mountain biking on site. About 90 minutes from Brisbane.
• Bigriggen Park, Rathdowney, Scenic Rim. (one we use) River frontage with swimming holes, a BMX track and a kiosk, and you can have a fire at night. Roughly 90 minutes from Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
• Booloumba Creek, Conondale National Park, near Kenilworth. Creek swimming holes, waterfalls and rainforest walks. Access involves creek crossings and wants high clearance four wheel drive, which rules out most of the caravan crowd and is half the appeal.

New South Wales

• Ganguddy, Dunns Swamp, Wollemi National Park, near Rylstone. Swimming, paddling, kayaking and fishing on the dammed Cudgegong, with wombats, wallabies, turtles and platypus around camp. Two wheel drive accessible and cheap.
• Bendeela, Kangaroo Valley. Free camping on the river with toilets and drinking water, swimming and canoeing, and a wombat population the kids will not stop talking about. Look at them, do not feed them.
• Cattai, Hawkesbury River. Fishing, canoeing and kayaking with open space for bikes, and close enough to Sydney to be a genuine first trip.

Victoria

• Lake Catani, Mount Buffalo National Park. Swimming, fishing, canoeing and walking tracks a child will actually finish. Proper alpine bush camping, so pack for cold nights.

Western Australia

• Lane Poole Reserve, Dwellingup, about 100km south of Perth. Jarrah forest with the Murray River running through it, and several camping areas along the bank. Safe swimming spots, canoeing, fishing and rope swings. Nanga Mill suits younger kids best for the facilities, and the sites are two wheel drive accessible.

Northern Territory

• Mataranka and Bitter Springs, Elsey National Park. Thermal pools sitting around 34 degrees all year, in palms and tropical woodland. Mataranka Thermal Pool is the contained one and suits little kids. Bitter Springs is longer and deeper, better for floating downstream and walking back, and too deep for the youngest. Jalmurark campground is inside the park on a sealed road.

North of the Tropic, take the crocodile signage seriously. Swim where the signs say you can and nowhere else, and check current advice for the specific waterhole rather than the park as a whole. Access to a lot of Top End swimming also closes through the wet, so the season decides the trip before you do.

Check access, fees and fire rules before you go. Conditions, closures and booking arrangements change through the year and we are not the ones running these places.

If you are heading further north we have longer touring guides for Litchfield, southern Kakadu, the West MacDonnells and Cape York, which cover season, permits and what the run does to a tent.

This list is a starting point rather than a directory. If you have a spot that works with kids, tell us and we will add it.

Book ahead in school holidays. That is when you can go and when everybody else goes, and the good family sites fill months out. Check the relevant park authority for current closures and fire restrictions before you commit, because they change through the season.

What to bring

Grouped by what it is for, rather than one long list you read once and forget.

Sleep

• A sleeping bag or bedding rated for colder than you expect. Inland Australia drops hard overnight even after a hot day
• Whatever they sleep with at home. The toy, the blanket, the specific pillow. This is not sentimentality, it is the difference between sleeping and not
• A head torch each, and a spare set of batteries
• Something to block early light if your children wake with the sun

Food and water

• More water than you calculated. Kids drink more when it is hot and playing, and you will use it for washing hands far more than you expect
• Food they already eat. A campsite is a bad place to introduce new meals
• Snacks that survive heat and a day in a bag
• One easy dinner held in reserve for the night you arrive late

Clothes

• Layers rather than one warm thing, because mornings and afternoons are different seasons
• A full change more than you think. Water, dirt and food happen
• Closed shoes for around camp, not just thongs
• Sun protection you can reapply without an argument

Around camp

• A first aid kit you have actually opened and know the contents of
• Insect repellent suited to children
• A camp chair each. Sharing causes more disputes than it saves space
• A tarp or awning for shade and for rain, which doubles the usable space when the weather turns

Keeping them occupied

• A ball, a deck of cards, a bucket and spade. Simple beats complicated
• A torch of their own, which is more entertaining than it sounds
• Something for the drive that is not a screen, for when reception disappears anyway

The ones people forget

• A doormat or offcut of carpet at the tent entrance. It keeps most of the dirt out of the bed
• A rubbish system, because you are carrying it out
• Wet wipes, well beyond the age you stopped needing them
• A hard copy of the site booking and the park map, for when the phone has no signal

Rooftop tents and children

This is the part we get asked about most, so here is a straight answer rather than a reassuring one.

The ladder

Every On The Horizon tent uses a 2.3m telescopic ladder at an angle. It is not a staircase. There is no Australian standard setting a minimum age for a child using one, and any brand that gives you a specific age has made it up.

What actually matters is not age:

• Do they climb ladders confidently at home? If not, the answer at a campsite in the dark is also no
• Will they need to come down at night? This is the real question
• How do they handle being woken? A child who moves before they are properly awake is the situation to plan around
• Who sleeps on the outside? An adult between a small child and the opening is the simplest control there is

Families with toddlers generally do one of two things. Either an adult carries them up and down so they never use the ladder alone, or the toddler sleeps at ground level. Both are reasonable, and which suits your child is your call rather than ours.

The two in the morning problem

The most common regret people report is not the sleeping, it is the night time toilet run. A ladder in the dark with a half asleep four year old is genuinely harder than unzipping a ground tent.

What families do about it: a head torch clipped inside the door rather than packed in a bag, a bottle for the youngest so most nights involve no ladder at all, fewer drinks in the hour before bed, and parking so the ladder lands on flat ground rather than a slope or loose sand. Sort it before the first trip.

What gets easier

• Setup is 30 to 60 seconds by one person. One parent pitches camp while the other minds the children, instead of both being needed on poles
• Bedding stays inside between trips. Bedtime is not a twenty minute unpacking job with tired kids
• You are off the ground. No wet ground, no ants through the groundsheet, no puddle under the mattress if it turns
• Camp moves in a minute. Which matters far more when a bad site means unhappy children

Which tent actually suits a family

Four of our five tents sleep two adults. One sleeps three to four. We would rather tell you that here than have you find out with the tent on the roof.

Tent	Sleeps	Across
1.4, 1.4X, 1.4Z	2 adults	Between a double and a queen
1.5 Pro	2 adults	155cm, wider than a queen
1.9 Penthouse	3 to 4	190cm, wider than a king

The 1.9 Penthouse is 210cm long, 190cm wide, and holds 110cm of height right across the platform rather than tapering at the ends. With children that last part matters more than floor area, because nobody is stuck in the low corner.

Two adults and two small children fit in the 1.9. Two adults and two teenagers is a stretch, and most families at that stage run the tent for the parents and a ground tent or swags for the kids. That is a normal setup and it works well, because one space is no longer doing everything.

A family tent is heavier than a two person tent and it goes on the same roof, so check the fitment guide for your vehicle before choosing. We have guides for the Ranger, Hilux, Prado, D-Max, Triton, Navara and Silverado, and if yours is not there, ask us rather than guessing.

Weather, honestly

Our tents use 350gsm ripstop poly-cotton canvas under a hard shell lid. That is water resistant, not waterproof. No canvas tent is fully waterproof whatever a brand claims, and we would rather say so now than have you find out with children in it.

Practically: rain is fine, and the hard shell keeps the canvas folded dry while you drive. Closing the tent up wet and leaving it that way for weeks is what causes problems. Let it dry before it goes away for the season.

The first night, realistically

Nobody sleeps well the first night. The children are wound up, the noises are unfamiliar, and somebody will be awake at three. This is normal and it is not a sign the trip was a mistake.

Night two is usually the one people remember. That is the argument for two nights rather than one, and for going somewhere close enough that a rough first night does not cost you a whole holiday.

What we would take

Everything here answers something above rather than being a list of what we sell. All of it goes up and comes down fast, which counts for more when there are kids waiting on you.

See everything we make, or tell us what you drive and we will tell you what fits.

Take the touring pack with you

Forty pages on setting up, packing down, where to camp and what to take, written to be read offline where there is no signal. It comes with the fitment for your vehicle when you put your name down. Use the form on this page, or tell us what you drive.

Common questions

What do I need to know about camping with kids?

Keep the first drive short, stay two nights rather than one, and work out where everyone sleeps before you leave home. Those three decisions cause most of what goes wrong on a family trip. Expect a bad first night, because almost everyone has one.

What should I bring camping with kids?

Bedding rated colder than you expect, whatever they sleep with at home, a head torch each, more water than you calculated, food they already eat, a full change of clothes more than you think, closed shoes, a first aid kit you have opened before, and a doormat at the tent entrance.

What should I look for in a campsite with children?

Flat ground, toilets close but not directly beside you, shade for the middle of the day, and a clear view of any water. Look for something for them to do on site, a creek to swim in, a bike track or a holiday activities program, because that is the thing that buys you hours. Check the site map for generator and group camping areas, decide deliberately whether you want phone reception, and book ahead in school holidays.

Where can you go bush camping with kids on the east coast?

Murphy's Creek Escape at the foot of the Toowoomba range and Bigriggen Park at Rathdowney are the two we use, both about ninety minutes from Brisbane. Booloumba Creek in Conondale National Park has creek swimming holes and wants a high clearance four wheel drive. In New South Wales, Ganguddy at Dunns Swamp has paddling and wombats, and Bendeela in Kangaroo Valley is free camping on the river. Check access and fire rules before you go.

Where can you camp with kids in WA and the Northern Territory?

In Western Australia, Lane Poole Reserve at Dwellingup, about 100km south of Perth, has the Murray River running through jarrah forest with safe swimming, canoeing and two wheel drive access. In the Northern Territory, Mataranka and Bitter Springs in Elsey National Park are thermal pools sitting around 34 degrees all year, with Mataranka the contained one for little kids. North of the Tropic, swim only where the signage says you can.

How long should a first camping trip with kids be?

Two nights, somewhere two or three hours from home. One night means you arrive, set up and pack up without a day in the middle. Staying close means a rough first trip costs you an afternoon rather than a week.

Can kids sleep in a rooftop tent?

Yes, and plenty of families do. The practical limits are the size of the tent and how your child manages a ladder. Four of our five tents sleep two adults, so a family of four needs the 1.9 Penthouse.

What age can a child use a rooftop tent ladder?

There is no set age and any brand quoting one has invented it. Judge it on whether your child climbs ladders confidently at home, whether they will need to come down at night, and who is sleeping between them and the opening. Toddlers are usually carried up and down rather than climbing alone.

Can you camp with a toddler in a rooftop tent?

Yes. Families with toddlers either carry them up and down so the child never uses the ladder alone, or sleep the toddler at ground level. Plan the night time toilet run before the first trip rather than working it out at two in the morning.

Which rooftop tent is best for a family of four?

The 1.9 Penthouse. It is 210cm long and 190cm wide with 110cm of height throughout, and it sleeps three to four. The 1.4 range and the 1.5 Pro sleep two adults and are not the right choice for four people.

Is a rooftop tent easier than a ground tent with children?

For setup, bedding and staying off wet ground, yes. Setup is 30 to 60 seconds by one person, so one parent can pitch camp while the other minds the kids. For night time toilet trips with a young child, no. That trade is the honest summary.