5 Camping Tips No One Tells You About, Per The Internet

There's a lot to learn when you first get into camping, from how to get your tent back in the bag to how to keep your dog close by in your campsite instead of charging into the wilderness to bark at wild animals. While you may have mastered the basics, there are many helpful tips that nobody really tells you about. The absolute best way to learn is by experience. If you don't have much of your own experience, you'll have to rely on others, which means connecting with people who love to camp. 

Fortunately, with social media bringing experts and newcomers to the hobby together, it has never been easier to get some good advice from people who have been camping for years or even decades. To find some of the best tips that experienced campers wish they had known before their first camping trips, we combed through Reddit threads to find the best advice, prioritizing the ones that many other campers had upvoted or affirmed with their own experiences in the replies.

You can definitely take advantage of online communities by asking your own camping questions, but you can also benefit from hiking and camping meetups in your local community. Check if your campground offers group activities, or simply introduce yourself to your campsite neighbors to get to know people in real life who also love camping. You'll probably get some excellent tips to make your future camping trips safer, more comfortable, and more fun — and you might just make some new friends along the way.

Water might just be the most essential thing to pack when you're heading out on a camping trip. It's absolutely vital to stay hydrated, especially if you're going to be out in the hot sun or enjoying a rigorous hike. You will likely also need it for keeping yourself and your things clean. While some might try to bring less water to cut down on weight, being out in nature with no easy access to water is not a good situation to put yourself in. 

While many campgrounds may have a water spigot or other potable water sources, as several commenters on Reddit's r/camping page explain, they can be inconveniently located or even out of service. One Redditor put it this way: "Turned on the water (one of those well pump ones) and out came the darkest water I have ever seen. Now I have a water filter and pressure regulator. ... If not near water I bring gravity and battery powered water filters and try to camp near a natural source of water."

You don't necessarily need a high-tech filtration system to have access to reliable water, though. You can just bring some with you. Users in the thread suggest packing a water cooler or water storage containers. In other threads, campers noted that they often bring smaller bottles of water or 5-gallon containers. Several users even suggested freezing jugs of water when it's hot out. You can use the ice to help keep things refrigerated, and drink it as it melts. However, another user cautioned against freezing your drinking water if you can't be certain it will melt before you get thirsty.

If you can afford to seek out the best camping gear deals and love having the most up-to-date outdoor gadgets when you go camping, there's nothing wrong with that. However, Redditors who love to camp advised those new to the hobby to resist the urge to spend a lot of money on their first camping retreat. 

There's plenty of time to splurge on handheld GPS systems for your hiking trips, portable rechargeable camping showers, and expensive sleeping pads later if you want to upgrade your experience. But you may find that you're fine without them. For your first camping trip, think about getting what you need from the thrift store, borrowing from friends, or even seeing if your local library has any to check out. As one Redditor suggested: "Take what you have at home, even if it's not 'made for' camping."

If you're not used to it, the idea of being out in nature might make you want to stock up for every possible contingency. But if you're just going on a quick and easy camping retreat, bringing more than the basics might be more trouble than it's worth. "My advice: you need a lot less than you think," one r/camping Redditor explained. "The first time I went camping, I brought so much stuff because I figured I'd rather bring it and not need it than not have it at all. I ended up with a stuffed full car and I didn't use 60% of what I brought. If you're questioning whether or not you need something, chances are you don't."

Starting a fire is an important skill that can be tough to learn. Even when you have the basics down, weather conditions like wind, cold, and rain can make getting a campfire going a lot harder than you might expect. To counter that, one Redditor offered some advice to new campers who think they have enough tinder and kindling: "Triple it. Maybe add a bit more. Then try to light your fire."

If you're new to starting a fire, you may want to add some fire starters to the mix, too. There are a lot of good DIY fire starter hacks to help you get your campfire going quickly, but the one that we saw most recommended by Redditors in threads with advice for new campers is either free or extremely cheap: stuffing dryer lint into empty toilet paper rolls. 

Some users also advised dipping them in wax. This strategy works best if you run a load of wash that has all-cotton towels, for instance, rather than synthetic fabrics that you won't want to burn. It can also be tricky if you have furry friends, as one Redditor on r/Frugal reported: "Did it once but it smelled like burning hair for 20 minutes because the lint trap had a bunch of hair from my two dogs in it. Now [I] just use the toilet paper roll with a paper towel shoved inside."

Lying outside your tent as the campfire dies and a brilliant web of glimmering stars appears overhead is one of the great joys of spending the night out in nature. However, chances are that at some point you're going to need to be able to see clearly after the sun goes down. You can definitely pack a flashlight, but experienced campers on Reddit advised that first-time campers might benefit from a headlamp instead.

Not only can it light your way while letting you use your hands, but a headlamp also lets you see where you're going without lighting up the whole campground and ruining the view for stargazing. It's quite common to see kids running around campgrounds getting scraped knees, but the idea of letting your child be loose in nature can be anxiety-inducing, especially given the fact that they might wander off after dark if they get the opportunity. 

According to one Redditor who was tired of their kids tripping while running around after dark, a headlamp can help make the trip better for both you and your little ones: "If you are camping with children, as soon as the sun sets put a headlamp on them. ... Not only does this prevent those all too common trips, bumps, falls in the dark, it helps to know where they are if they wander around."

Unless you are camping in Death Valley National Park in the summer, where nighttime lows often exceed 90 degrees Fahrenheit, you might want to take the advice of the experienced campers from Reddit's r/camping subreddit, who advise being prepared for chilly weather overnight. What counts as a good sleeping situation for staying warm varies from person to person and situation to situation, but there are some general tips that anyone can apply to stay comfortable. While a hammock can be a game-changing setup for people who hate sleeping on the ground, it can also be extremely cold. One Redditor advised: "[No] matter how warm you think it's going to be pack a decent sleeping bag and or under blanket if [you] plan on sleeping in a hammock regardless of the time [of] year."

Bringing an air mattress for camping can make you feel like you're back home and keep you from feeling rocks and tree roots in your back overnight, but posters in r/camping also warned that they can make you feel pretty cold. While you might think being in a bed with blankets would be the warmest choice, one camper advised: "Air mattress[es] that aren't insulated require some good layers between you and them. They steal so much heat." Another option is to put a pad down under the mattress to insulate it, then place a sleeping bag on top and sleep inside, ideally with two people. Then have your blanket on top. For bonus heat, consider a battery-operated heated blanket.

To compile our list of tips, we looked at replies to Reddit posts soliciting advice from campers. Primarily, we sourced our information from this post in r/camping that calls for tips that expert campers had to learn the hard way — through trial and error. We also looked at comments from this post asking for advice people wished they had been given before their first camping trip, another post offering advice to people who had never been camping before, and this post detailing the kind of prep you'll want to do before you get out into nature.

Together, these popular threads featured thousands of replies, so we selected tips that had plenty of upvotes and people responding in agreement. We also eliminated more general advice, like suggestions to make the best of it even when things go wrong or to be cautious around strangers. While these are sound pieces of advice, we limited our definition of camping tips to guidance that is specific to situations someone might encounter when preparing to go camping for the first time or as a newcomer to tent camping in a traditional campground, rather than general recommendations for outdoor travel and activities.