{"id":1667,"date":"2019-09-05T21:56:20","date_gmt":"2019-09-06T02:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carcampingtips.com\/?p=1667"},"modified":"2022-03-10T20:13:12","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T02:13:12","slug":"is-camping-expensive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/decideoutside.com\/is-camping-expensive\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Camping Expensive? Cost of Big Ticket Items Broken Down"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
So, your friends want to go camping with you, and your initial thought is: Oh cool! You’re staying outside in a tent with minimal amenities, this must be an inexpensive hobby! As you’re doing your research, you may get the sneaky suspicion that things aren’t as they seem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is camping expensive? Fuel, food, fees, and gear for a family of 3 for a 2-day camping trip can cost up to $1600. Camping with medium to high quality gear can be very expensive, initially. Even with all the gear, replacement purchases, fees, fuel, and food can cost around $200 for the same family on a 2-day camping trip.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The costs for camping can vary widely from how long you are camping, where you are camping, what activities you are planning to do while you’re camping, and how much gear you already have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Camping is expensive mostly due to the specialized gear. Tents, outdoor cooking gear, sleeping bags, not to mention outdoor clothing all can have big up-front costs that can cost hundreds to even thousands of dollars. Once you have gear, though, camping because relatively cheap–just the costs of food, travel, and reservations. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The cost of camping is almost directly related to how cold it is. Colder weather means better gear to handle the cold weather. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps the biggest indicator of how expensive camping will be for you is how creative you’re willing to be in your gear. If you are okay with improvising gear, DIY, and borrowing what you need, you can cut down costs, tremendously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For 1st time campers, in order of potentially most expensive:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ll break down each of these categories and try and give you an estimate on price of gear if you purchased medium quality gear made for car camping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you were only to go camping and just go home straightaway, then your costs will go down. Sports clothing is one of the biggest culprits of driving up the cost of camping. A single pair of Hiking shoes<\/strong>, for example can cost anywhere from $50 to $100 for medium quality shoes. Regular tennis shoes will work in many cases for short hikes, so it just depends on what you’re planning to do, and how much gear you want to have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n An entry-level to medium quality rain jacket will cost around $50. If it’s not going to rain or if you don’t want to get a rain jacket, that’s another cost savings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another big ticket item is the sleeping bag. As I mentioned above, the colder it is outside, the more expensive your sleeping bag will have to be to handle it. If it’s going to be 40 degrees Fahrenheit outside, you want at least a +15 degree sleeping bag. If you get a 0 degrees Fahrenheit bag, you’ll be spending more (and you’ll sleep warmer).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order of most expensive on average:<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhy Is Camping So Expensive?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What Is Most Expensive About Per-Person Gear?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n