Taking a van camping vacation has some great advantages over motor homes and just plain hotel stays.
If the van is equipped with a bed, small stove and a fridge you can get by at just about any campground or camping area.
An internal toilet facility is nice but we covered a great many miles on vacations and found there were more than enough places with facilities.
If we occasionally camped in an non-formal setting, roughing it is part of camping.
Just make sure you always have plenty of rolls of toilet paper on board.
We decided one year to take a mid-August trip with our two small children aged 8 and 4 to upstate New York to sight see.
With the van fully loaded with food and suitcases, fishing poles and bait, off we went.
Since this was before GPS's and the MapQuest, we actually had to use a real paper map to find our way.
Every time we stopped somewhere we gathered all the tourist brochures for places to visit.
While riding, the wife and kids would go through them all to see what we were close to and what they wanted to see.
Each night we all sat around the campfire and figured out our direction for the next days ride and what we were going to see.
Ausable Chasm, Niagara Falls, Howe Caverns, Indian Museums, Fort Ticonderoga, mineral caves, and Lake George were all absolutely worth the ride.
Each day brought new and exciting things to see and do.
The kids were ready for bed each night totally exhausted.
The van easily slept all four of us and the campgrounds had great showers and rest room facilities.
Some campgrounds had small restaurants if we were really hungry that day and just could not wait to cook it at the campfire and it was always a treat.
Many days cold cereal or eggs, bacon and a muffin perhaps, hit the spot.
By combining the occasional restaurant fare with cooking ourselves, our food dollars went a long, long way.
The fridge in the van was twelve volt and kept things nice and cold.
Along with a chest cooler packed with ice, normal things like having milk with our coffee and tea or ice for iced tea was really easy to maintain.
A good cooler of ice will last three days if you do not abuse it by opening it every three seconds.
On weekdays we would occasionally stay at a local hotel or motel for the night for a change of pace.
The kids got to see TV for a few hours, we slept in a real bed and the toilet was only a few steps away.
Camp ground facilities are seldom that close by.
Again by staying at a motel only during the week on off days, the rates were much lower than weekends.
The highest fee we paid at a campground to park was $10 and many were only $4-$8.
The $10 campground had a beautiful pool, miniature golf, coin arcade, laundromat and breakfast, lunch and dinner restaurant right in the campground within walking distance to all of them.
With the hot August weather we stayed three days to use their great pool.
As we crossed New York and approached Lake Champlain the weather really got us one night.
We arrived at a campground rather late after dark ((try never to do that) and were directed to an open area for van parking that had fire rings and a picnic table.
Due to the late hour we had a cold sandwich and settled in for the night.
About 2 AM or so I awoke shivering like crazy and could not for the life of me figure out why.
It was in the high eighties the day before.
I exited the van to look at the thermometer we have mounted on the outside of the van and it was 32 degrees! I could not believe my eyes and had to look twice.
We had no clothes with us for those temps that was for sure.
I quickly bundled the kids up with jackets and extra blankets and the wife and I sat up the rest of the night running the van for short periods to keep the inside warm.
Morning took forever to come.
With the dawn, the temperature slowly rose and around 7 AM or so I was able to build a nice big fire in the fire ring to keep us warm.
It really felt good and when the kids awoke they were of course oblivious to the entire episode.
We had a hearty hot breakfast that day.
One of the things I do remember about that place was a river was within 500 feet or so.
The water was slow and peaceful so we could not resist throwing our lines in the water for a while.
I think all four of us caught something but I do know we had plenty for a good fish fry dinner that night.
Best part, it was fresh and it was free.
All in all we spent about three weeks on this trip and came home with tons of souvenirs, great tans, lots of brochures for future trips and for the wife and I, a better appreciation of what our state had to offer.
Pete Ackerson
If the van is equipped with a bed, small stove and a fridge you can get by at just about any campground or camping area.
An internal toilet facility is nice but we covered a great many miles on vacations and found there were more than enough places with facilities.
If we occasionally camped in an non-formal setting, roughing it is part of camping.
Just make sure you always have plenty of rolls of toilet paper on board.
We decided one year to take a mid-August trip with our two small children aged 8 and 4 to upstate New York to sight see.
With the van fully loaded with food and suitcases, fishing poles and bait, off we went.
Since this was before GPS's and the MapQuest, we actually had to use a real paper map to find our way.
Every time we stopped somewhere we gathered all the tourist brochures for places to visit.
While riding, the wife and kids would go through them all to see what we were close to and what they wanted to see.
Each night we all sat around the campfire and figured out our direction for the next days ride and what we were going to see.
Ausable Chasm, Niagara Falls, Howe Caverns, Indian Museums, Fort Ticonderoga, mineral caves, and Lake George were all absolutely worth the ride.
Each day brought new and exciting things to see and do.
The kids were ready for bed each night totally exhausted.
The van easily slept all four of us and the campgrounds had great showers and rest room facilities.
Some campgrounds had small restaurants if we were really hungry that day and just could not wait to cook it at the campfire and it was always a treat.
Many days cold cereal or eggs, bacon and a muffin perhaps, hit the spot.
By combining the occasional restaurant fare with cooking ourselves, our food dollars went a long, long way.
The fridge in the van was twelve volt and kept things nice and cold.
Along with a chest cooler packed with ice, normal things like having milk with our coffee and tea or ice for iced tea was really easy to maintain.
A good cooler of ice will last three days if you do not abuse it by opening it every three seconds.
On weekdays we would occasionally stay at a local hotel or motel for the night for a change of pace.
The kids got to see TV for a few hours, we slept in a real bed and the toilet was only a few steps away.
Camp ground facilities are seldom that close by.
Again by staying at a motel only during the week on off days, the rates were much lower than weekends.
The highest fee we paid at a campground to park was $10 and many were only $4-$8.
The $10 campground had a beautiful pool, miniature golf, coin arcade, laundromat and breakfast, lunch and dinner restaurant right in the campground within walking distance to all of them.
With the hot August weather we stayed three days to use their great pool.
As we crossed New York and approached Lake Champlain the weather really got us one night.
We arrived at a campground rather late after dark ((try never to do that) and were directed to an open area for van parking that had fire rings and a picnic table.
Due to the late hour we had a cold sandwich and settled in for the night.
About 2 AM or so I awoke shivering like crazy and could not for the life of me figure out why.
It was in the high eighties the day before.
I exited the van to look at the thermometer we have mounted on the outside of the van and it was 32 degrees! I could not believe my eyes and had to look twice.
We had no clothes with us for those temps that was for sure.
I quickly bundled the kids up with jackets and extra blankets and the wife and I sat up the rest of the night running the van for short periods to keep the inside warm.
Morning took forever to come.
With the dawn, the temperature slowly rose and around 7 AM or so I was able to build a nice big fire in the fire ring to keep us warm.
It really felt good and when the kids awoke they were of course oblivious to the entire episode.
We had a hearty hot breakfast that day.
One of the things I do remember about that place was a river was within 500 feet or so.
The water was slow and peaceful so we could not resist throwing our lines in the water for a while.
I think all four of us caught something but I do know we had plenty for a good fish fry dinner that night.
Best part, it was fresh and it was free.
All in all we spent about three weeks on this trip and came home with tons of souvenirs, great tans, lots of brochures for future trips and for the wife and I, a better appreciation of what our state had to offer.
Pete Ackerson
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