The reservations are made. The route is decided. The bags are packed. The hiking gear is loaded.
The.
Cell.
Phones.
Are.
Off.
With a promise to disconnect for the long weekend, your family is headed to one of the campgrounds with cabins that you found. The entire family was part of the selection process. With the only limitation being that they needed to limit their search to cabins in Louisiana or the surrounding states, your two teenage daughters embraced the search. In the past, family camping trips had involved ground clothes and tents, but for this adventure you promised the girls that in exchange for a weekend without their cell phones you would spring for any on the campgrounds with cabins within a two hour radius.
It was no surprise that your 16 year old spent her time looking at the campgrounds with cabins that were in the higher price range. Obsessed with the glamping options she had been seen on a couple of her social media sites, your youngest daughter focused on places that felt like a hotel, but were really out in the wilderness.
Your older daughter, on the other hand, was after an adventure. She was looking at locations that included rigorous hiking trails or scenic rivers to kayak. The cabin amenities, she said, did not really matter. The fact that she would not be sleeping on the hard ground in a tent meant that she was willing to be open to any kind of indoor accommodations.
The search for the perfect campgrounds with cabins was so fun, in fact, that in the end the family simply could not narrow the choices down to one. As a compromise, the girls had actually asked if they could have more than one weekend away this summer. They lobbied that the glamping location would be better later in the summer once the temperatures would be really hot. The adventure camping trip was on dick this weekend.
More than proud of yourselves for the idea of letting the girls pick the destinations, you and your husband are looking forward to a weekend of no technology. No phone. No television. No music. No deadlines. Your have all four promised to let nature provide the soundtrack, and to embrace this time away from the hectic schedules you lead of work, volunteer, and other commitments.
Is Your Family Ready for a Weekend to Disconnect from Technology and Reconnect with Each Other?
Whether you are looking at cabins in Maryland or campgrounds in Mississippi, if you have not considered camping in the last decade you might be surprised with what you will find. With a variety of options from rock climbing to hiking and accommodations as varied as a simple cabin without electricity to luxury accommodations, the places to camp are increasing every year. In a time when more and more parents want to help their teenage and young adult children reconnect with nature, though, it really should not be that surprising that camping is an increasingly popular past time:
- Giving themselves plenty of time to prepare for their next outdoor adventure, 43% of campers planned their trips at least one month in advance.
- Estimates indicate that of people who currently camp, 85% of them took their first trip between birth and the age of 15.
- The average camper in the year 2013 went on 5.4 camping trips. Each of these camping participants, whether they stayed in a tent, RV, cabin, yurt or bivy, spent an average of 14.9 days camping.
- One of every three campers did not make advanced camp site reservations. The chose instead to head out without any definite plans, simply a basic destination in mind.
- Unilke the die hard adventurers who are after something very specific when they camp, the single biggest motivator for going camping for 47% of adult campers is the simple joy of camping in and of itself.
- The adults with children participated in camping at a rate eight percentage points higher than their peers without children. Among these parents, those with children between the ages of six to 12 participated at the highest rate, which was 19%
- Several camping sites are very affordable.
- Instead of vacationing in expensive hotels, campers enjoy the outdoors.
- Did you get to go camping when you were a kid?
- Everyone deserves the chance to give camping a try!
