Camping for the Whole Summer? Yes You Can! Here’s How… –

Summer vacation means a family camping trip. It’s ubiquitous in our culture. Even families like yours who live in travel tourist destinations, to get out of dodge for a while.

Some families go as soon as school gets out, while some aim for midsummer, and others go for a big end-of-summer blow-out trip and get back right before the start of the school year. What if you could do all three? What if you could make your summer trip last the whole summer? It’s possible!

Taking the family on a super long camping summer trip probably sounds crazy but with some planning, you can do it (maybe not this year since summer is already here, but by next year for sure).

Start With Your Home

You and your family are going to be gone for an extended period. This makes your home vulnerable to, for lack of a better term, predators. A good way to get around this is to rent out your house for the summer. Lots of families need short-term rentals. Talk to a rental agency about renting out your home for just a few months.

NOTE: Make sure that you get your stuff (particularly valuable stuff) out of the house before you allow a renter to take it over. With so many University interns and students flooding into certain areas for summer internships, finding someone to rent your house for a few months should be relatively easy. Alternatively, you can put your property on Airbnb or something similar. Put your valuables in safe deposit boxes at the bank. Use a local self-storage unit for the rest so that you know your stuff is safe while you’re gone.

See to Your Income

There are lots of ways to fund a nomadic lifestyle and a summer-long camping trip (or longer if you want to go full nomad). If you are really lucky, you’ll have an employer who will let you take this extended vacation and still be paid (or even mostly paid).

If not, hopefully, you’ll have an employer who will allow you to telecommute while you are away. If your employer baulks at the idea of your taking off and telecommuting for three months, don’t count yourself out just yet. Talk about perhaps taking a leave of absence and then doing freelance work while you travel.

Plan Your Route Ahead of Time

You might want to see the whole country on your trip. It’s certainly possible to drive through all of the lower forty-eight states in three months. This goal, though, requires your family to spend most of its time on the road. It’s better to pick a few places around the country to spend real time in before you set out. Try to plan for one day of driving for 2-3 days of camping.

That way you can really explore. There are plenty of really great camping spots all over the country. Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, Yosemite, The Grand Canyon, Acadia, Everglades (right in your backyard, Orlando readers!), Shenandoah—all worth seeing and exploring!

Try to plan your route in a loop so that, even if you lose track of time, you won’t get caught across the country with just a few days to make it back.

Has your family done the extended camping trip? How did you make it work?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.

Inspired Camping