How many people camp for recreation or to save money on hotel expenses when you and your family travel?
I worked with a woman who had a family of 5. She said she has saved hundreds throughout the years on all their family trip by camping. They camped at Disneyworld, Wisconsin Dells, and many other spots.

On a side note kids love it if you pitch a tent in the backyard and they can play in it.

We are not taking any "big" vacations this summer, but do plan to try and take the kids camping this year. They are now 4 and almost 7 so were ready!

My dh and I did that on our Honeymoon we camped a few nights did some nights at hotels, I suppose we did save a bit of money! (we drove cross country and had 3 wks)

We love to camp. So I guess we save some money. When dd has friends over, they like to toss a tent up in the back yard. They find things to do that doesn't cost any thing and they have a great time.

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I have only camped once but would love to go camping again and wouldn't mind at all doing that instead of staying in a hotel. As long as I'm close to a bathroom and they have showers, I'm fine.

we camp alot but the saving money really hasn't been the deciding factor. There were no hotels close to some of the places we wanted to go. Dh's hobby is to restore and show antique tractors and gas engines. Not many hotels or even motels out in farm country.
we do camp when we go up to dh's parents land. we camp there to save money. I would prefer a more luxury camping that includes my own toilet. we don't usually take vacations other than dh's hobby stuff and going up north. BUT when we take big vacations we splurge and get a room.

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allgirls, mom to 3 girls

We camp every summer. DH and I used to backpack together for a week at a time "back in the day". He's very outdoorsy. (I like it, but miss flush toilets!) We have all the gear we need to hike in or car camp. With the kids, we have only car camped, but they LOVE it.

Also, we're in a forested neighborhood, and have birthday slumber parties in our yard. We roast marshmallows in the fireplace, watch a movie, and then go outside and set everyone up in a tent for the night. We give them all their own flashlights. You should hear all the giggles! DH sleeps out there on the deck to keep an eye on them.

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Attaining financial freedom is like eating an elephant . . . it takes one bite at a time.

I'm not so sure camping saves any money for us. We go to camp grounds and we have to pay per night, plus food and i still need to purchase new inflatable mattresses. Sooooooooo it won't be a cheap trip for us.

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Jodie....Wife to Andrew (1995)
Mommy to Riley (2000) and Wyatt (2003)

I suppose if we were to go somewhere that we would camp instead of staying in a hotel, that would save us money. As it is, though, we go camping for fun and that costs us more money, lol. We haven't been camping for a couple years, though. Hopefully by next summer the boys will be old enough for us all to enjoy it.

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I do not mind camping. But I do not consider it a vacation. If I go on vacation I do not want to worry about cooking and cleaning (I don't mind taking a cooler on vacation for lunches etc). That being said - I think that start up with camping is somewhat expensive. Like we bought a tent on clearance - mainlly with the thought that we could sleep in the backyard. But we don't have cooking gear or good sleeping bags etc.

We live in the RV capital of the world. Literally. Many people around us have some sort of camper and go camping regularly. Again, to ME this is not a vacation. And again the start up for them is larger altho I know that many people get used campers etc.

I'd rather save up for a $50 motel.

we love camping..we get sites that have NO hookups too...