A travel checklist is one of the handiest tools you will ever have when it comes to preparing for your first holiday camping trip. Regardless of what you might expect to take on a camping trip, what you really need will only become evident when you are miles from nowhere with no newspaper to help you light your campfire – because you never thought to pack any. By creating a travel checklist, breaking it down into categories and covering everything you might need for such a holiday, you can ensure that you will have all you need for your family to enjoy its time away from it all.

Your camping trip’s travel checklist should be broken down into several very important categories including: shelter, food, clothing, emergencies, sporting equipment, miscellaneous. The reason for this breakdown is simple – you must essentially pack for everything imaginable. Let us take a look at these travel checklist categories further.

Shelter

If you are going on a camping trip, then you will need to secure a form of temporary shelter for the duration of your holiday. You will need a tent, a pop-up trailer, a hard-top trailer, a yurt – anything really, unless you plan on renting a cottage or cabin in the woods. If you do not have a tent or some other shelter then you will need to buy or rent one. Also included in this category is everything that you would normally find inside a shelter such as a cooking apparatus, pots and pans, plates, glasses, utensils, a lighting source, bedding, pillows, a barbeque lighter, matches, newspapers, etc… all of these items can be purchased at camping stores or you can also buy disposable varieties of all these necessities. Making a list of everything you might need in order to cook, live and feel comfortable should be on your list.

Food

Think of all the meals you will need to prepare during your camping trip and plan ahead. If you have to feed only two people, then you will not need as much food as if you have a family of five on your hands. If you plan on supplementing your meals with fish or game that you catch while camping, then make sure that you have the spices and anything else you might need in order to prepare it properly. Again, your best strategy is to create a travel checklist and write it all down so that nothing is forgotten.

Clothing

Plan for every type of weather! Cold, warm, humid and rainy – and do not forget to include your toiletries. It might be a pain trying to fit everything into your vehicle, but you will not be sorry if you need something and you have it handy.

Emergencies

One of the most important categories to include on your travel checklist is the emergency one. On it you should include a good medical kit, bug repellent, allergy medication, anti-itch cream, after-bite, an analgesic and any other medication that you or a family member needs to take on a regular basis. Think of everything you might need in an emergency situation and put it on your travel checklist so that it does not get left behind.

Sporting Equipment

No camping trip is quite complete without a good game of Frisbee or an afternoon spent fishing. Therefore, think of the sports your family might enjoy on your holiday camping trip and include the equipment for those activities on your travel checklist. If you plan on going boating in any capacity, then you should absolutely include life jackets for every member in your family.

As long as you plan properly for your first camping trip by making a travel checklist, you will have everything you need to have a safe and fun time.