Being raised my two teacher parents, I used to spend long summer holidays under canvas in France. It was one of the rare times of year I wouldn’t hear my mum and dad moaning about OFSTED or marking and (apart from the odd occasion) I would get along with my little sister really rather well.

One of my favourite things about camping is that you are totally free to look utterly horrendous in public without so much as a raised eyebrow or judgemental frown. Let’s face it, when you’re trudging through a field to brush your teeth and have an emergency wee, matching your shoes with your jumper is not a top priority. 

More than that though, I love the freedom that camping brings. There’s nothing like the pleasure of watching your kid run around in a field, making friends with other children, while still wearing her pyjamas. You can do what you want, eat when you want, go to bed when you want and live according to the rhythms of nature.

Despite my love of canvas, I’m no Ray Mears. I’m very much a “mild” camper over the “wild” sort (in fact, I discussed this very subject recently on Woman’s Hour *cheeky plug*). I like to be comfortable, with cushions and duvets and a tent that I can stand up in.

Enter, the Coleman Galileo 4.

We set off on a mini camping break earlier this week, to test out the Coleman Galileo 4. I was looking for comfort, ease of use and – very importantly – a tent that fit back into the bag it came from once it was time to put away. I’m pleased to say, the Galileo 4 was all of those things and more.

It’s a big tent, sleeping four people in two compartments, with a separate living area at the front. When we arrived it was a hot day, so I zipped open the front “door” along with the side “door”, and opened the back “window”. It was airy, without any hint of sweaty canvas.

If you want to keep the flies out you also have the option of zipping up the door but unzipping one layer to reveal a fly-proof mesh that also features on the inner bedroom compartments.

There are only three poles to the tent, so it’s easy to put up. In fact, the (self-proclaimed) Northern Love Machine and I managed it without an argument, which is a first. The inner compartment simply hooks to the clips on the inside of the main tent and was up in about two minutes. All in all, the whole tent was erected (*snort*) within half an hour. It took us twenty minutes to take it all down and packed away. Easy peasy.

In terms of comfort, it’s roomy enough for the three of us and all our luggage (we don’t travel light). Even my lanky husband could stand up, which is no mean feat when you’re 6ft 5” tall.

Our camp breakfasts were cooked on this little number, a one burner stove from Camping Gaz. It’s the perfect size for a short camping break and cooked our sausages quickly. Delicious.

With a tent up and breakfast consumed, it left us plenty of time to enjoy the surrounding beaches and countryside. We picked a campsite just half an hour from my parents’ place on the other side of Devon, on the Cornish side of the border near Bude.

Cornish Coasts campsite near Widemouth Bay was the perfect size for a couple of nights, with exceptionally clean toilets and shower facilities (complete with pretty bunting and funky toilet seats), a play area and a lovely intimate setting spread over a couple of fields.

We had a brilliant time and have already vowed to return before long. I love camping, and I’m pleased to say my formerly camping-phobic husband is starting to love it too. That’s what I call a result.

***

I received a Coleman Galileo 4 and Camping Gaz stove for the purpose of this review. 

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Three weeks ago I was checking the long-range weather forecasts constantly. Not content with just one website, I’d check three or four – at least five times a day – to try and come up with the best outlook. I was desperate for sunshine for the first week of the summer holidays.

As our glamping holiday at Trevella Park in Cornwall approached, the rain thundered down with increasing ferocity, becoming heavier with each passing day. I was resigned to the prospect of our first family holiday being a complete washout.

As luck would have it, it wasn’t. The sun shone down on us for the entire week we stayed in our Safari Tent at Trevella, although it wouldn’t have been such a bad thing if the rain had followed us down to Cornwall, seeing as our accomodation didn’t really count in the realms of camping as I’ve formerly known it.

Having grown up with long summers in various tents in France, I’m used to the finer points of camping. I spent my school holidays trekking across soggy fields for a wee at 3am, or lugging bowls of washing-up to the nearest wash block. I was used to sleeping on flat lilos in a two man tent, waking up with sand in my ears and the hot sun making any form of lie-in unbearable. Tent pegs and guy ropes and awnings are a part of my holiday DNA.

Not anymore.

When you glamp (to “glamp” is to “camp” the “glamorous” way) you give up all that stuff. Instead, we slept on proper beds, in a pre-made tent the size of my cottage. Our floor was a wooden one. We had a kitchen complete with microwave, fridge, kettle and TV. We even had our living room area, with the futon sofa coming in handy for my parents’ fleeting two night visit.

There was even a big verandah with a table and six chairs, so we could while away the evenings in the outdoors and watch the sun go down. Or play stacking tubs. Whatever.

The tent came equipped with almost everything we could have needed. There was no need for plastic camping plates or old knives and forks. We did end up buying a cheap chopping board from the Morrison’s situated just down the road, along with a couple of 40p wine glasses, but to be honest we could have done without these frivolities.

We took along foam bed guards for our toddler, but if she hadn’t recently made the transition from cot to bed then we would have simply hired a travel cot from the reception. Ditto with the highchair.

For me, the main advantage of staying in a Safari Tent was to give my daughter the experience of camping, while saving myself or the (self-proclaimed) Northern Love Machine the headache of putting up a tent with a toddler in tow.

The mornings waking under canvas, the evenings watching the sun go down, the eating outside and the freedom to play in a safe, green and open environment…. all of these were huge pluses to staying in a Safari Tent.

We still felt (sort of) like campers, taking our washing-up to the nearest wash block in the evenings and plodding past the hardcore campers in the mornings with our toothbrushes, dressed in last night’s pyjamas. But when it came to making a cup of tea, or warming up Frog’s milk, or switching on CBeebies in emergency tantrum situations, it was glamping all the way.

In terms of the facilities on offer beyond the realms of our wooden verandah and enclosed glamping field, there were two wash blocks to choose from.

For families with kids as young as Frog (so if you have babies or toddlers) it may be an idea to bring your own baby bath. This is because there are only shower facilities available, excepting the one bath in one of the family cubicles in the toilet block at the lower end of the campsite.

If you have shower-phobic children (like mine) this could make washing the sand and mud away at the end of a busy day playing, a bit of an ordeal. On the other hand, if your kids are happy to shower, the family rooms in the newer toilet blocks are more than spacious enough, but be prepared to queue during high season as this is the preferred block for families with kids.

Trevella Park has a lovely relaxed, family atmosphere. It steers away from organised evening entertainment and doesn’t have an on-site bar, although there is a cute little cafe where you can grab your evening meal if you can’t be bothered to muck around with the barbecue or camping stove.

There are two playgrounds. One is for young children (which Frog loved), with your basic swings, slide etc and another is an adventure playground for slightly older kids, with all sorts of wooden play equipment, ropes and bridges.

There’s a heated outdoor swimming pool and two well stocked fishing lakes, which are a great destination for a leisurely evening meander. My dad (the family fishing enthusiast) tells me these lakes made “great fishing”, stuffed with “carp and other fish of the coarse fishing variety” (I have no idea what this means).

If you have older kids and you’re used to the kind of sites that put on evening disco’s and magic shows (I’m looking at you Northern Mum) you don’t need to worry.

With a laid back family atmosphere, play areas and lots of campers, the children all seemed happy to amuse themselves, making friends and enjoying playing outside in a safe environment. This, of course, meant their parents were free to kick back and enjoy a cold glass of wine while tending to the barbecue. Everyone was happy.

When it comes to beaches, you have countless options.

The nearest beach is Crantock Beach, around 5 minutes drive from Trevella (with a carpark free for National Trust members). A beautiful river flows into the sea here, clearly evident at high tide. This is where you’ll find a roped off swimming area that resembles a swimming pool, so clear and calm is the water.

Further along on the main beach you’ll find surfers and bodyboarders, with lifeguards manning the waves and keeping a watchful eye over any over-ambitious swimmers.

We also ventured to Polly Joke Beach, just around the headland (although a steep climb down from the carpark means this probably isn’t the easiest beach for young families to access) and to Towan Beach on the edge of Newquay Town. For the serious surfers amongst you, Fistral Beach in Newquay is the place to be seen.

Whichever beach you plump for, you’ll be sure of clean, wide expanses of sand, perfect for making sandcastles, with various rockpools crying out to be explored.

If you tire of beach living, there’s a whole host of other things you can do. Situated a short drive from the picture perfect resorts of St Ives and Padstow, Trevella Park is a great location to explore the surrounding parts of Cornwall.

Or if it’s child-friendly day trips you’re after, I thoroughly recommend Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay, down by Towan Beach. Frog loved to press her nose against the glass and peer in at the giant lobsters, sharks and octopus.

We also visited Lappa Valley Steam Railway, around 15 minutes from Trevella Park by car. This was our favourite of all the places we explored, as the outside setting made it easier to keep our constantly nosy inquisitive toddler occupied.

With three railways complete with mini trains to ride, a canoeing pond, pedal karts, adventure play areas, crazy golf, cafe and maze, this place has enough to keep kids occupied for hours. And it’s in a beautiful setting, amidst the old tin mines that this part of Cornwall used to thrive upon.

If you’re really keen on day trips, Newquay Zoo is also worth a visit. But be warned – there are peacocks roaming free, which are like a red rag to a bull for a bossy, over-affectionate toddler…

It’s difficult to sum up how much this holiday meant to us as a family – and how much we needed to spend a week together away from home and work and the stresses of “real life”.

I woke every morning to the sun on my face, with my two year old babbling away in my ear and the knowledge that the day ahead would be a good one. The best in fact.

You can’t want more than that from a holiday.

***

More information:

A Safari Tent at Trevella Park, accomodating up to 6 people, costs £522 per week during the main weeks of the school summer holidays. You can find out more about glamping and mobile home prices here.

***

Disclosure: We were provided with a 7 night break in a Safari Tent along with a Cornwall Pass by the Cornwall Tourist Board, giving free entry for up to 2 adults at all the attractions featured in this post. All views are my own.

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That word will either conjure up nostalgic memories of being at one with nature, free in the open countryside, with the fresh smell of morning dew in your nostrils as you wake at dawn. Or it will conjure up pure, unadulterated panic.

It’s a fact of life – just as there are dog people and cat people – there are campers and non-campers.

I am very much a camper. Unfortunately, however, I married a non-camper. I know, how on earth will this marriage work?

For me, camping is exciting. It’s childhood holidays playing in the outdoors, freed from the shackles of city life and negotiating pavements on a bike. It’s barbecues and swimming and sleeping bags and night trips to the loo with a torch.

But my husband is a camping virgin. He doesn’t “do” camping. The idea of a week in a tent is one that makes him visibily shake. He winces at the thought of sleeping under canvas, where wolves could get to him at any moment and bears are less than a whisker away. (I’ve explained that camping in the UK is different to camping in Canada, but he remains unconvinced.)

So it was perhaps a risky move to accept an offer of a holiday to Cornwall this summer, where we will be… camping.

It’s not just any holiday, you see. It’s a review holiday, meaning we get to test the facilities at the swanky and really rather beautiful Trevella Holiday Park in Crantock, Newquay.

At first my husband was excited at the thought of a “free” holiday (as in, he won’t actually have to do any work for it, and won’t have to fork out any cash either). But when the “C” word was mentioned, his face fell.

So I explained that, in fact, it’s not really camping at all. Not in the sense that he knows anyway. It’s Glamping. We arrive at the site, to find the tent already erected. There’s not even a tent peg in view. And when I say tent, I actually mean canvas house.

This is a Safari Tent. With proper beds, duvets, bedrooms and a kitchen. There’s even a wooden deck with table and chairs outside so we can enjoy the sunset while Frog sleeps soundly in her bed “indoors”. (Who am I kidding, this child is going to be far too excited to sleep.)

We will spend the days rambling around the beach and the stamping ground of my postgraduate year at Falmouth (or “Falbiza” as we liked to call it). We’ll swim in the gorgeous heated swimming pool on site. Frog’s grandad can fish in one of the plentifully stocked lakes. We may even do a spot of crazy golf. And I don’t doubt Frog will spend much time at one of the hugely exciting play areas.

So why am I so worried? Is this the end of my marriage? Any tips from campers who have managed to convert non-campers would be much appreciated…

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I’ve spent the last ten minutes sitting here trying to think of something funny or witty or remotely unique that has ever happened to me involving trees.

There was the time I got stuck in the tree house at my cousin’s and had to be rescued. Not particularly original. I mean, we’ve all done that haven’t we?

There was the time I was horrendously, hugely, sweatily pregnant and spent two weeks hobbling from the shade of one tree to another before eventually giving up and sitting in a paddling pool for four days.

There was the time I freaked out during a camping expedition and truly, genuinely believed the trees were alive and were coming to get me. (I think this may have coincided with my first taste of alcohol, aged 14).

But I’m sure all of the above have happened to pretty much everyone, right?

So, I’ve decided to make my debut Gallery entry let it speak for itself. This week’s theme is (yes, you’ve guessed it)….Bananas! Okay, only joking, yep it’s Trees.

As I haven’t joined in The Gallery before, I’ll explain what it’s all about (mainly for you, mum). Every week a theme is posted at Sticky Fingers and we have to find a photograph to match it.

As I rather enjoy a walk in the woods with Frog and her big-next-door-brother Arthur, I thought I’d share a picture of one of these moments. As ever, it’s taken by the lovely Caroline Gue (who is fabulously talented etc etc and if you haven’t already done so, you should check out her website).

So, without further ado, here’s my entry to this week’s Gallery, theme of Trees…

Arthur and his trees

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