How to survive a no-tech family camping trip

Let me be clear. I don’t hate camping. I just hate being uncomfortable, bored, and watching my phone die slowly with no way to save it. 

So, when my parents said we were going camping with no Wi-Fi, no TV, no iPads and basically no reception, I assumed this was some kind of social experiment. Or a punishment. 

Turns out, it was… survivable. Here’s how to get through a no-tech camping trip without completely losing it. 

The worst thing you can do is act normal and then, once you arrive, casually say, “Oh by the way, there’s no reception here”. 

That’s how you ruin the first 24 hours. 

Tell us before you go. Explain there’s no power, no charging and no scrolling. It still hurts, but at least you’re not blindsided. If you pretend everything’s fine and let us discover it ourselves, the vibes are gone immediately. 

Also, parents: if you say, “no tech” and then sit on your phone replying to messages, that’s illegal. Flight mode for everyone or it doesn’t count. 

If you’re going no-tech, at least be organised. 

Download playlists. Let everyone add songs. Yes, even the embarrassing ones. Singing badly in the car is way better than sitting in silence thinking about how long the drive still is. 

At home, screens keep kids busy while adults do other stuff. Camping is the opposite. 

If parents actually get involved – throwing a ball, playing games, going for walks – things improve fast. When you’re included, you stop thinking about what you’re missing and start doing things instead. 

Attention turns out to be a decent replacement for Wi-Fi. 

Camping doesn’t run on normal schedules. 

You wake up earlier. You get tired faster. You fall asleep without doom-scrolling for an hour first. Somehow, everyone sleeps better even though we are woken up sunrise by parents. 

When your day is full of swimming, walking, eating outside and doing stuff, screens stop feeling essential. You kind of forget about them. 

Also, stars are actually cool.  

Camping has jobs. Cooking, setting up, packing down. Doing stuff makes you feel less bored and more part of the trip. 

At home I’d never volunteer to help cook. Camping? Cooking outside feels different. Less chore, more ‘survival skill’. Like in Minecraft. Everyone having a role makes it feel like a team thing, not something you’re being dragged along to. 

I didn’t think I’d say this, but reading is way better when there’s nothing else to do. 

Books, comics, magazines and craft stuff fill time faster than you’d expect. Without phones, you actually focus. People read whole books. Siblings talk to each other voluntarily. It’s unsettling but better than being bored. 

At the start of the trip, I said ‘I’m bored’ a lot. 

But once you get past it, you end up inventing games, challenges or competitions that make no sense but become the highlight of the day. 

Like skipping rocks across a river or seeing who can find the biggest stick. 

By the end of the trip, the thing you remember isn’t what you watched. It’s the dumb game you made up that had everyone laughing. 

The more you move, the less you miss your phone. 

Beach? Swim, run, throw things. Bush? Walk, explore, climb stuff (safely, obviously). 

If you’re active, you don’t have time to think about screens. And if parents join in instead of supervising from a chair, it’s actually fun. 

This part makes sense. 

Before the trip, look things up together. Choose walks, beaches or activities you’re keen on. When you know there’s something you picked coming up, it’s easier to get through the boring bits. 

No-tech camping sounds terrible at first. And yeah, the first day or two kind of is. 

But once you get past that, it’s not as bad as you think. You laugh more. You sleep better. You stop checking battery percentage every five minutes and start paying attention to what’s actually around you. 

Would I choose it every time? No. Did I survive? Yes. 
 
Would I do it again? Maybe. Just make sure the playlist’s downloaded.