Survival / camping tips?

Tip the nice concierge at the end of the hall well and enjoy the ladies that night ....

So many tips for tent camping .

Pack as light as possible if hiking
Always put your tent on a high spot on the ground
You're gonna need water , if you're hiking then you'll need a way to purify drinking water (tablets,boiling,survival straw)
To make it extra cool and wilderness like ,use mess kits and dried food
Multiple ways to start a fire , flint and steel is still my favorite .keep some matches dry,you could even bring a road flare incase all else fails.
DRY SOCKS ! they can turn an incredibly awful day into heaven by putting on dry socks.

There is alot more info that others I'm sure will add.

My middle boy is big into scouts. We camp once a month 12 months a year with our troop. He's 11.
cold, hot, rainy, we camp. I never camped as a kid so I learn along with him. It sure makes our trips to Cabela's and Bass Pro more exciting. I get the wants so bad in the camping section!
There is so much to learn, the only advice I can give is pick just a few things like fire building, navigation, identifying nature (tracks, poo, plants).

One of my favorite light fire starting helpers is to collect dryer lint, fill up cardboard egg cartons, put a wick of some kind (floss even works) in each portion of the carton and then pour wax over them. you can break them apart and then use them as convenient fire starters. And yes, pack light. I use a "women's" specific sleeping pad because the shorter length packs tighter and I just put some of my outerwear down under my feet for padding. It's easy to get carried away with the weight weenie stuff when it comes to camping gear.

Also, when it comes to your gear, buy good stuff the first time. Shitty camping gear isn't worth the cheap price. There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad gear.

We camp a lot, not much rugged stuff, but we are often driving long distances to new ride spots and we always camp when we do that.
This book is pretty awesome, I got it for Christmas a few years ago by my request, and it might be a good one for you to pick up so you can go through it with your kiddo. You can learn together, that might end up being more fun than you'd think!
https://www.amazon.com/SAS-Survival-Guide-Collins-Gem/dp/0061992860/ref…

The egg cartons with lint and wax is one I always use. No wick needed though, I just light a corner. Nothing beats birch bark for lighting fires. Another quick way is to gather the dry twigs that are always on the underside of the branches of spruce or other conifers. Hold onto a bundle and light it with a match etc. then feed it under your teepee of twigs feeding in larger stuff as it grows. Doritos also make excellent tinder! Lot's of ways to start fires. One I've not tried yet is fashioning a magnifying glass out of a piece of clear ice, assuming you have sun to work with.

Always fun to build cooking implements. As simple as splitting the end of a 3' or so thumb sized stick a few inches at one end to make a handy toast holder or a hand held grill made from a Y shaped chunk of willow or similar. Leave one side of the Y about two feet long or more and the other side a foot or less. Bend the longer side around and capture the end in the crotch of the Y. Cut some smaller twigs and weave them under and over the shorter part of the Y which is now in the center of your roundish grill. Good for a few uses before it burns up. Leave the base of the Y 2' to 3' long as it is meant to be handheld.

Not familiar with plant life in Belgium, but teach him how to find natural tenders for fire starting regardless of weather. Bring an emergency blanket and garbage bag and teach him how to make a super shelter, or Palmer furnace. Google those, if not familiar with them. Learning how to use a compass PROPERLY is a big one. Maybe build a debris hut, or lean-to. Make some bannock over a fire with just tin foil. Burn some hardwood, make charcoal, and make a water filter.
So many things can be taught in the woods, or even a park for that matter.

We camp a lot as well mostly with my son's BSA Troop. I'm leading a MTB camping trip next weekend in the Francis Marion Forest. What never gets old is bleeping the siren on a bullhorn a couple of hours after nightfall. The coyotes start howling with some usually being near the camp. That's when we find out which Dads on a trip are comfortable in the woods.

First time camping trip.... just concentrate on having fun and you can have a great experience that you can enjoy time and time again. Don't set yourself up for disaster. Camping is a lot of fun but sometimes it totally sucks if you are under prepared, cold, wet, hungry ect. For the first time I would go to a camp ground or an already existing camp site. Take a bicycle, some games, hike during the day, just be outdoors, enjoy the campfire, enjoy the night, the stars, the noises and being outside. Get a big light where you can shine it on animals and just take in the experience. I would do fun campfire stuff like cook mountain pies or smores, hot dogs, marsh mellows, potatoes and corn in aluminum foil. I know different culture but bacon and eggs for breakfast. Take chairs, just go to have fun, not rough it and you will have a great time with your son and you will be more likely to do it again and again. As he gets older and you all camp more, start getting out into the wild more and more, like fishing trips ect. Make his first experience a fun one, not a survival of the fittest situation.

We did weekends once a month when my kids were under 12. Great times that you and they will never forget. Some of our best memories were when unexpected shit happened and we had to make do somehow. My kids are in their 20's now and one day we decided to go camping at Kern River for old times sake. We had the best time ever. They held on to those memories.

Enjoy your time with your young children. Don't worry about being in Belgium, hell, we would pitch a tent and camp out in the back yard. They thought that was heaven.

Whatever you do, don't try to start the fire via Tom Hanks' method in Castaway. While it does indeed work, it won't be worth the 4hrs of lost time and the helpless feeling that will overwhelm you for the first 3:59 of what seems like wasted effort.

I'm pretty big into backpacking around the Adirondack mountains here in NY. Best advice I can give is to not use any Cotton clothes. A lot of it for me was just fine tuning My gear overtime, what you need for certain seasons/amount of food/ bring extra socks!!

i know this doesn't necessarily apply ONLY to camping, but here are a few of my "survival" tips on my snowmobiling and adventure rides. i also carry most of this stuff in my search and rescue kit.

-always carry a couple tampons. they're highly flammable, take up no room in the pack, are light, and if you have a gas tank you can use the string to dip it in to get fuel for easier lighting. the plastic shell and wrapping also helps keep them water proof.

-always carry a head-lamp of some kind. flash-lights are good, but hard to use if you're alone and trying to use both hands for anything.

-two way radio and GPS device is a must. my GPS (Garmin Rino) doubles as a radio.

-space blankets are good to have, small, compact, functional.

-pack light but smart. i always have an extra layer, even if it's light, it's dry. i freezer pack my extra layers to stay super compact and dry, no matter the conditions.

-i carry two collapsible saws. the first is a chain-saw in a can, very handy... the other is a handle saw that folds up to about 10" x 1".

-water and food are obvious, be smart about what and how you pack it.

-no cotton clothing. cotton sucks.

-oh, and ALWAYS carry extra socks. fucking sucks to have wet feet, no matter how warm/cold it is.

-flask of whiskey is always nice. once you know you're safe you can Chevy Chase it and let the boy take a couple snorts.

As said before pack lightly based on your trip. I am interested in moving towards hammock camping for short trips. It seems to pack pretty lightly and less tear down.

JRT, I basically exclusively hammock camp all year except for winter. Works really good, like REALLY good, especially if your only with a partner or two. I'm looking into this 2 man hammock I found for my lady and I hehe

Nice JJ wells! I went with a group last weekend and borrowed one. I was surprised how well it worked out.

Start slow. Camp in a campground first with water and bathrooms in a tent. Find out how things work. You can day hike from there. Back packing all your things is a lot of work, not just the hiking. Fixing meals and having water takes a lot of effort and planning. It doesn't have to be a painful big adventure to have a great time.