Camping really is a great way to spend time with the family and is a very affordable option for a family vacation. You don’t need to worry about getting a hotel room, or flying or driving very far because you can camp close to home. The problem with tent camping is that for people who aren’t big fans of the outdoors is that you have to sleep outside on the ground.

The thought of sleeping outside on the ground can make some people cringe. For those of you who feel that way I completely understand. I have woken up a few times in the middle of the night uncomfortable and with rocks poking me in the back.

But you don’t have to be uncomfortable; you can make your tent feel a little bit like home by having tent fans and a camping bed. Today there are a lot of ways to make your camping experience much more comfortable but it is all in your hands. You have to make some adjustments to make your tent feel a little more at home, Mother Nature certainly isn’t going to do that for you and unfortunately most tents are going to come fully equipped with the stuff to make you feel like you are at home either.

These are a few suggestions of the ways you can feel more at home on your next camping trip.

1. Get A Cabin Tent:

If you’re camping with your family I can’t stress how much a cabin tent will improve the experience, especially if you have some older kids. Space and privacy are two very important parts of our home environments and these things can also be essential while camping. A cabin tent for your family won’t solve all of your space and privacy problems but they will help significantly!
Cabin tents are made with the thought in mind that you want to have your own spaces whether you want them for sleeping or living and so they are divided into multiple rooms. You can find a 2 room tent and sometimes a 3 room tent, given you aren’t going to have a long hallway and sturdy walls, but it will give you more of that feel of home. Even if privacy isn’t your concern, the extra room lets you divide the space into different areas for different functions. For example, you might want one room to sleep in and another room to put all your stuff in. Maybe you want one to sleep in and another as a family room or dining area. You can’t do that in a smaller tent but you can definitely do it with a larger tent. So getting a family cabin tent is a great way to go.
The only time you don’t want one of these is if you are hiking or backpacking into the area. These aren’t exactly hiking tents. They are big and heavy and backpacking one into a campsite that is a good distance away is not what you want to do. However, if you are able to access your site easily without carrying it very far, it’s a great option.

2. Get an air mattress:

Ok, you don’t NEED an air mattress to go camping but let me tell you, it will dramatically improve your experience. We are all accustomed to sleeping on a nice soft mattress at home, hopefully, and then we go out camping and we sleep on the hard ground. Outdoor enthusiasts can’t understand why the typical person doesn’t find this prospect thrilling but it just isn’t what we are used to.
Air mattresses mimic what we have come accustomed to at home. They aren’t perfect and they aren’t exactly like that nice king size mattress we have at home but they are much better than nothing. You can find different styles to meet your needs. If you want one to be raised up and make you feel like you are sleeping get a raised air mattress. If you aren’t looking for that you can get one that isn’t elevated at all. Maybe you just want to settle for a camping pad, it doesn’t really matter, the point is to just find something to sleep on that lets you sleep like you are at home and not like you are sleeping on a pile of rocks.
However, you have to make sure to find an air mattress that will fit into your tent. If you have a small tent than it isn’t going to fit then you may as well not have brought it at all. So you need to make sure you have a tent size big enough to accommodate the amount of campers, your things and the air bed.

You can also trying camping cots if you aren’t a big fan of air mattresses and want to be raised a little bit higher off of the ground.

3. Get a Tent Fan or Tent Heater:

You might not find this necessary but I think this is really important. When you go camping temperatures can go to both extremes. In the summer it can be really hot and never cool down and in the winter it might be really cold and your sleeping bag might not do the trick.
When you buy a tent you need to look at how well the tent is ventilated because this plays a crucial role in how well your tent cools down. The type of material your tent is made of also plays a role. But if you are camping for a vacation and decided to save some money by buying a cheap tent, you probably didn’t pay attention to how well the tent is ventilated. You might not even know what this means or how that is achieved.
Essentially, your windows and doors are going to play a big part in the veintilation and keeping you cool or even warm. Not enough windows and the air won’t circulate. Sleeping with the windows up and the rain fly on will sometimes not allow you to sleep with the tent windows down. Obviously, if it is raining you will need the rainfly on. But many tent brands, like Coleman, make tent fans and heaters as a way to get around poor ventilation. You just have to make sure you get one that uses batteries and that you have the batteries for it!

4. Get a Tent Light or Camping Lantern:

While we are on the subject of making your tent more like home I should mention getting a tent light. This is unless you get one of the tents like the Coleman Vacationer that comes with the ability to have light in it, it even has a lightswitch! Electricity has become a mainstay and necessity in our lives. Some go camping to escape this and to live one with nature but that generally isn’t what family camping is about. Adding a tent light can really improve the situation and make it feel a little cozier. Say it is raining outside and you can’t go sit around the campfire. If you have a tent light or even camping lantern you can have light to play games or read in the tent. Sure you can use a flashlight but they usually don’t light up the area as well as you need it to, unless you spend your time holding up with your hand the whole time. No one wants to be the flashlight monitor.

5. Make sure it’s waterproofed and made for the time of the year you are camping:

This is the most important thing you can do when you look for your family cabin tent. You have to make sure that the tent you get is made to withstand the conditions you are camping in. Usually, this just means a basic 3 season tent is sufficient however, sometimes it isn’t. You need a 4 season tent if you are camping in the winter.
Now like I said a 3 season tent should be perfect for you but not all tents are made equally. That’s something I like to say a lot. They aren’t. Nothing you can buy is going to be the exact same quality as other things. Sometimes they are made inexpensively and sold as inexpensive tents. When this is the case you could have some real problems if you are camping in windy or wet conditions. If you buy an inexpensive tent you run the risk of it not being able to handle everything Mother Nature wants to throw at it. So keep that in mind.
A way to make sure your tent can stand up against these conditions is to look for a tent with quality tent poles, look for tents that have been double sealed and have weatherproof material. Now I say look for a tent that is sealed but this usually isn’t good enough. Often, you need to go above and beyond what the manufacturers did and get some stuff to seal the seams yourself. It is easy to do and inexpensive.
The other thing you need to pay attention to when you buy a tent is to make sure it comes with a proper rain fly. This is the shield and cover of the tent. It’s going to act as an umbrella and keep the rain from penetrating the tent and hopefully prevent any leaks from occurring. 2nd, make sure you have a tent footprint or ground cover. This keeps the water from getting inside the tent from underneath. Your tent is a shelter right? If you don’t make sure it has these safeguards in place it isn’t going to be much of a shelter. At best it could be like sleeping under a tree with huge branches, sure it might stop some of the rain from falling on you but you’re still going to end up pretty soaked.

Looking to buy the most popular tent fans, air mattresses and cabin tents check out our compiled list o the best selling tent fans, tents and air beds on Amazon You also might enjoy our article about how some of your camping equipment can be handy in an emergency.