Many RVers were tent campers before buying their first RV. It’s the natural progression in the camping world, isn’t it? Many people go from tent, to pop-up trailer, to RV. (If there were a camper evolution diagram, that’s probably what it would look like.)
Before you bought your first RV, did you tent camp? If yes, what made you decide to make the switch and buy an RV? If you had to go back to tent camping now, would you? Please tell us in the comments below.
And if you have a few minutes, read the history of tent campers. It’s interesting!
My wife grew up tent camping with her family. Myself no tent just sleep under the stars. Rode my horse and pitched camp on the mountain, today you call it boondocking. After marriage we bought a motor home, wife did not want any more sleeping in wet tents. That was over 50 years ago and we still do our camping or traveling in motor home.
I might tent camp again but for my wife it’s a hard “no”. 😎
Last time I camped in a tent I was in the Boy Scouts ! Maybe 60 years ago.
I answered no as I started camping with my parents at age five and they had a travel trailer. When I got married, my wife and I started out in a tent, went to a travel trailer in 79 and back to a tent in 95. Went back to a TT in 04 and finally the Motor Home in 09.
Started motorcycle camping with a tent for about 6 years. Then bought a small pop up trailer designed to be pulled behind a motorcycle made by Bunkhouse, and used it for another 25 years. Basically a tent on wheels, but no more sleeping on the ground and able to stand up inside.
We now have a toy hauler, but still use the small trailer occasionally.
I have camped under the stars, tents, in vans, truck camper, pop-ups and trailers but never in a motor home. We are in our 70’s and have a small trailer but still camp in a tent from time to time.
Started tent camping as a Boy Scout and continued as a Scout Leader for almost 30 years. No longer a ground dweller and we now have a class A motorhome.
Growing up was a tent. My first. And last hunting trip in the southwest when getting out of the tent was met with a rattle snake then it was to a camper. Ground sleeping hasn’t happened since.
GPMedium. Yes, that’s a tent.
Last actual tent use was during deployment for Hurricane Michael communication support.
Still have tent, will use RV for next deployment.
We tent camped a few years, but it was auto/motel trips with grandchildren that led to the RV. One short trip with six in the car and DW suggested we consider a motorhome. She was reading my mind. Just one more reason to love that woman!
I tent camped with the Boy Scouts and my parents until they bought a Hi-Lo, and later on a travel trailer. After I was married, my wife and I saw a pop-up in the neighborhood For Sale and decided to give it a try. That was 1978 and we are still camping but we have upgraded to a 5er along the way. Tent camping now would be torture.
Yes. We started with a tent. Went to a travel trailer and I loved it. Sold the travel trailer and back to a tent (I hated it!). Big tent, air mattress, mini fridge, fan, microwave. All the comforts, I still hated it. Then to a pop-up camper. It was ok, still not what I wanted. Finally back to a travel trailer and I am back to loving camping!
As a child it was an Army Surplus, umbrella tent. We had a pop up trailer, might as well have been a tent.
We’ve done it all (almost, anyway). Backpacking, tent camping, pickup camper, tent trailer & now motorhome. I lived in a small trailer (17′) for a few years, but didn’t move it around. And my earliest camping was just our on the ground by a lake it stream with my parents & siblings.
I camped with a half of a tent, my fellow Marine had the other half. Lol
Started with camper shell on the back of my 86 toyota pickup. Graduated to a small tent trailer, then to a single axle travel trailer, then to a 25′ dual axle travel trailer, then to a 35′ diesel pusher and then on to my current 44′ diesel pusher. No tents except in Boy Scouts and the Army.
99 nights in my fifth wheel this year so far, about 25 in a tent and I’m about to do 25-30 in my pickup shell. (I will get the 100th RV night in December)
Started in a tent as kid with my parents, thousands of nights in tents since then in Europe and the US. Had a van conversion in the early 80s, then back to tents mostly carried by motorcycle. Bought my first travel trailer in 2016 and then a 5th wheel in 2019.
I tent camped back in the early 1970s. I became involved with other activities and never tent camped again. In 2010, I bought a new 2010 Casita Spirit Deluxe Travel Trailer I could SAFELY tow with the minivan I then owned. After driving from NY to TX (to pick up my “egg”) I headed out to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert for my first trip to the Burning Man Event (returning in 2011 & 2012). Over 4 years, I put 50,000+ miles on that little “egg”. I quickly realized I really enjoyed the RV lifestyle and, in 2014, “graduated” to a Super-C that I now full time in. Now if we could just get a better handle on covid 🙁
Tents with Boy Scouts, backpacking tents in the Rockies with friends, cartop tent with wife, Coleman popup trailer with family, Aliner popup by myself, now an Airstream.
I said “No,” but I did it once with friends and hated it. The trip was spur-of-the-moment and I had no gear. I froze during the night and swore to never do it again and I haven’t.
We used a tent for years, until wife said she wasn’t going to sleep on the ground any longer until they placed her in the ground.
Tent, pop up, new pop up, hybrid, bigger hybrid, travel trailer.
I tent camped before marriage (60 years ago). After marriage wife said she would not sleep on the ground (there are ticks, chiggers, spiders and snakes in Oklahoma). I fabricated an Army surplus tent top for a little utility trailer and we had our first RV. Graduated to pickup campers when we had kids (we had 4 of those) and then to class A motorhomes after the kids left home. We have had 5 gas powered class A’s and now 3 diesel pushers. We are still enjoying camping and traveling and are not ready to quit yet.
Yes for YEARS.
Camping with a tent is camping.
Parking in a campground in an RV is “pamping” (park-camping).
Tent camping from the time I can remember. As I grew older we backpacked in the mountains and loved the cool of the days. Graduated to a used Palomino pop up and wore it out. Sold that one and went to a Jayco pop up and a good improvement. After a trip into Yellowstone and grizzly bear country wife wanted a hard side. Now a travel trailer. We have used it for a few years but now retired we want to move up to a Class C.
We took the route that I have since discovered is common among RVers: (1) tent; (2) pop-up trailer (Jayco); (3) 33′ trailer (Holiday Rambler); and, finally, (4) 33′ foot Class A (National Seabreeze). We lived in the Holiday Rambler full-time for 4.5 years and are now living in the Class A (going on three years).
I did all of the tent camping I cared for while in the Army. In fact, I got my first RV while still in the Army so I could camp with my family on weekends and vacations in more comfortable conditions.
1963 VW Westfalia, sold it for a VW Thing and tent camped, sold it for a newer VW Westfalia, and have stayed with van camping ever since.
As a child, my family had a huge old canvas tent that slept ten at times – our family of five and our friends’ family of four, plus their niece. My husband and I inherited it when we married and used it for several years before upgrading to a popup, then a small travel trailer, then a large travel trailer. But the most fun ever was camping in that old tent!
Hi, Diane. I bet you can vividly remember the smell of the canvas, right? I sure can. Have a great day. 😀 –(the other) Diane
I camped a few times in a tent — more in a jungle hammock — but what influenced my RVing the most is years cruising in sailboats.
To answer why I went from tent to RV? D.W.!
A compelling reason, for sure. (Smart man.) Have a great day, Tom. 😀 –Diane
Same here!
Good for you, Herman! Another smart man. Have a great day. 😀 -Diane
I first camped with my dad in the 1950s in an old Army surplus tent then went up to a travel trailer. When my wife and I started to camp we also started in a tent then started our journey to bigger tent, to small trailer, to large trailer, then onto Class b, class C, then class A, and now a diesel pusher. At 45 ft. I don’t think we can get any bigger.
Haha this is a very long story! In the 50s I was a boy scout and mostly camped in pup tents except at Philmount Scout ranch in New Mexico and then under the stars with just a bedroll while on a week long mountain hike where we slept in our sleeping bags under the stars above timberland and ate dehydrated food mixed with mountain stream water. Then as a young adult camped in a pop-up tent at national parks around the country. At middle age I move up into a LLB wall tent that had a floor and screen room porch. Then camped all over the US in hightop Ford E150. Then in my 50s bought our first rv, a very basic 29ft 5th wheel. Took it to every state West of the Mississippi for two and a half months, our dream trip to most of the big national parks. Had so much fun we traded it in on a huge new Montana 5ver with king bed, multiple tvs, and a fireplace towed with a new F350 diesel. 4 years later traded that in for our first MH (we now have our third motor home. Now at age 80 still on the road.
Good for you, Bill! And it’s a “long” story because you have lots of adventures to relate from your 80 years of camping and travels! What a bunch of great memories. Have a good night. 😀 –Diane
Still on the road and currently in Maine but heading south in a week or two.
Don’t know how many years I have left now but gonna keep on keeping on!
Way to go, Bill! That’s great! We hope you have many happy and healthy years of traveling left to enjoy. Take care. 😀 –Diane
I spent the summer in Maine working for Acadia and loved it. Will be back next year to do all over again. And forgo those 90 degree heat days.
As a kid more times than not we just threw our sleeping bags down on the ground and just slept in them, no tents. Joined the military (23+years) and slept in Pup Tents, poncho liners and GP Mediums until retirement. Now I enjoy the comforts of home.
I slept in a tent a few times when I was a kid. In my late 20s, I used to go snowmobile camping and just threw a sleeping bag down on the floor of a fishing lean-to miles into the woods. Now, a 44 year old class C is my home away from home.
I answered tent, but actually it was a WWII jungle hammock. Off the ground and actually very comfortable.
We were young and poor. Tent was only option. Moved to Wyoming and went elk hunting. Froze! Bought Truck camper, the first of many. Presently have arctic fox 990, some 60 years later. And still have some of the camping gear (the tent died….)
My wife; Yes to tenting (and some pop-up campers with her parents)
Me; No to tenting. Tried tent camping once, in Holland. Really hated it.
Was 12 months old on my first RV trip, in a rented truck-camper. We did that until 6th grade. Next RV was a summer rental class-a. Late 1980s family purchased a used Jamboree class-c. In ’96 parents got a class-a. When my step-dad passed away, the wife and I we got my parents ol’ RV. We have been running her since 2017.
I started tent camping with my mother in the mid 80s and then with my husband and then with our daughter after she was born. Talk about trying to heat a bottle on a gas stove. Not fun. But we had a blast camping with a tent until we ended up having to dry out every time it rained. It was 2006 we got a pop up after a disasterious camping trip ever. Then in 2016 a trailer and then 2018 a bunk model. Now that I have a seasonal site in Maine I am getting a permanent trailer next year. Will never do a tent ever again after being able to have a home on wheels.