Why I’m Choosing 5 Stars Over a Tent (And No, I’m Not Sorry)

There is nothing I love more than scrolling through the internet, finding the next holiday deal. Sometimes it’s abroad, and sometimes it’s just a simple UK holiday where my family and I can escape for a weekend.

I have been camping a total of two times in my life, three if you include the time I tried “glamping”.

The first time I went camping was when I was living in Chile. It wasn’t that bad because the weather was nice to begin with. That is, until we had a tropical storm and a Tsunami warning two days in. It wasn’t the best first-time camping experience especially with a small child.

The second time I tried camping here in the UK, we went to Dorset to explore the Jurassic Coast, a place I absolutely loved. It has a beautiful beach, plenty of shops and restaurants to explore, and I found plenty to do with the kids. My issue was when we got back to the campsite.

I have friends who go camping with their family every year, and I always hear lovely stories about their time away and how much fun they’ve had. But I realised it just wasn’t for me. I didn’t enjoy sleeping in a tent at all. I thought my kids would find it really fun sleeping in a tent, but as I said, we were in the UK, and all I kept hearing was how they were cold and how my son had put his foot in my daughter’s face.

It wasn’t the lovely family trip of roasting marshmallows around the campfire that I had imagined. At 3 a.m., my tent started leaking. Honestly, it wasn’t that bad; we could have gotten through the night, but I had had enough. I got the stuff into the car, left at 3.30 in the morning, and made the long journey home from Dorset to South London.

I know! I sound so dramatic, especially to camping enthusiasts. I couldn’t do it anymore and decided that camping simply wasn’t for us. The 3.5-hour journey home was far from enjoyable either. We were all cold and grumpy, and the duvets covered the entire back window.

I had some hate comments about this situation last week. A girl made a TikTok saying she would rather stay in a 5-star hotel than in a tent in a field. I appreciated what she meant and told her in the comments that I understood. This led to all kinds of comments from people who loved camping. I got called shallow and was told I lived in fairy land. Reading the comments, I found them quite amusing, but it made me wonder why it was such a bad thing to say that I simply don’t enjoy camping.

I tried “glamping” after the second camping trip, It was in a massive tee-pee. A massive blast of hot air hit my face every time I walked into it; it felt like a sauna.

When I booked this trip, I thought having a bed might make it a bit better, and it did to an extent. But the compost toilets and the tiny showers just still didn’t do it for me. We had fun on that trip, and I didn’t leave early either! But it’s now just an experience we did that I enjoyed, but I won’t be booking again.

My holidays aren’t all 5-star hotels like the angry men on TikTok think. We are looking at a resort holiday in Spain next year, but we also have a caravan holiday in the UK booked for July that I’m really excited about. It isn’t about thinking I’m better than everyone else; it’s just doing what we find more enjoyable as a family. I don’t see why it is such a hateful thing that people take offence to, all because I prefer a bed surrounded by walls and a bathroom I don’t have to share with strangers.

I have never thought badly about anyone who enjoys camping, so why am I being thought badly of for wanting a decent night’s sleep in a comfortable bed?

I have four kids, and my partner and I work very hard as parents. My ‘fairy land’ isn’t about being posh; it’s about having fun, being relaxed, and not having to build our accommodation before we settle in. If wanting a nice, relaxing time being comfortable in a bed makes me shallow, then I’ll happily take that title.