Last week we were lucky enough to take a little ‘middle of 4th term, pre xmas craziness’ break down to the Peninsula to hang out out with some friends and relax at the Big 4 Bellarine Holiday Park. Not having taken my kids camping before, we decided we should head to a caravan park and give the kids a taste of the camping lifestyle.  What made this even more perfect was that I got to hire a cabin next door to the site where my boys would all pitch a tent. Perfect. They get to experience sleeping in a tent and there is no need for me to stress about getting out in the night for a toilet stop, leaking tents or a hard mattress . No I’m not that precious (well maybe a little), but I just like a few comforts and previous ghastly camping experiences have put me off, for well, pretty much life. So off we trotted and arrived at Big 4 Bellarine, which is all pretty swish when it comes to holiday parks. My girlfriend Kate who was staying with me, walked in the door of our unit and burst out laughing. “This isn’t  camping! This is glamping!” So we set ourselves up in our glamorous abode and watched as the boys put the tent up, then took it down, then put it up again.

What I do love about the whole camping experience is the sense of community. The friendliness of passers by and neighbours (as long as you have wrapped up your card game by 4am). I love the whole idea of kids running or riding off around the park returning only for food and refreshments. Never did we once hear any of the kids say “I’m bored…or what can we do?”. And if they had uttered those words, one would only have needed to respond with a “go for a bike ride, take out the scooter, hire a go cart, go for a swim, play tennis, bocce, cricket, croquet, footy, soccer, jump on the jumping pillow, go to the playground, shoot some hoops,  take the BMX over the dirt jumps or fly on flying fox”. Needless to say there was little technology needed save for a few games before bed, some music in the tent or a movie before bed.

As we are all gearing up for Christmas and the summer holidays, I hope you all have some fun times planned with family whether you are going beach, bush, camping, ‘glamping’ or living it up in a 5 star resort. Going away with great company makes it pretty hard to have anything but a fabulous time. Cant wait to do it all again next year.

There is something wonderful about seeing the freedom of kids riding around at dusk, all dressed in pyjamas, getting every inch of sunlight squeezed out of the day, ready to do it all again tomorrow…….

Is your family a camping family? What are some of your favourite holiday memories as a child?

If you want to check out Big4 Bellarine then go to their website or like them on Facebook where you will hear about any specials or upcoming holiday deals. This was not a sponsored post but after meeting owner Sophie on a conference, I was inspired to get my family down to her park. She certainly didn’t let us down and we were looked after beautifully.