With time the world has adopted different ways to explore and spend time with nature. Such as going with just a backpack to spending nights in the great outdoors within a luxury RV camper. You have plenty of choices to camp under the blue sky. Do you want to know about the types of camping? Read on!
In this article, the Camping Explores team has gone through various articles webpages, and case studies to share this informative article with camping lovers. Here you will learn about the top 19 types of camping that can help you to plan your next outdoor adventure.
What is Camping and the Main Types of Camping?
The basic definition of camping is spending your leisure time outdoors, especially in a tent, for one or more nights. Outdoor adventure is usually hanging out in any natural places like woods, lakes, waterfalls, greenery areas, mountains, and the seaside.
The purpose of camping is to explore new things and to interact with nature in the spare time of tough daily routines. It makes campers able to enjoy new destinations and the incredible beauty of nature.
In the modern era of outdoor adventure, recreational vehicles are more popular and reliable than other types, we will discuss all types of camping in detail.
Types of Camping
In the world of outdoor adventures, 96% of people enjoy being in nature, there are more than 16 types, with family and friends, according to camping Statistics.
Camping involves fresh adventures, including packing a backpack and being a wanderer across a road.
Camping has been there for a long time. Do you want to know how many types of camping have been uncovered till now? Read on!
After reading about these different types, surely you will be excited to plan a trip to a campsite.
Here are different types of camping to help you decide which type works best for you.
Read More:
1. RV or Van Camping
RV is short-term for recreation vehicles camping. Recreational vehicles and vans are two major trends for campers. Let’s talk about RV first.
Rv camping is a popular way of reaching out and interacting with new atmospheres.
RVs are as simple homes on wheels equipped with almost all the gear you need as a camper including a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and some space to chill out.
RVs are mobile homes where you can enjoy everything alongside being a camper some miles away from your home.
Van or campervans are mini RVs but, with fewer facilities.
They provide campers with sleeping space and storage room. Van can be easy to drive. Gear in Modern campervans includes a water tank, gas cooker, and some other essential facilities to make it easier for a camper.
Campervans cost less compare to RVs, so if your budget is low you can go with campervans.
If you don’t feel comfortable on the ground inside a tent then RVs and campervans are the best choices to go with. You can enjoy both scenic natural beauty and home-like shelter and protection in campervans and recreation vehicles.
2. Tent Camping
It is one of the most common and classical types of outdoor adventure we all are familiar with. It is so simple that you just pitch a tent on a campsite or anywhere you feel comfortable and venture into the wilderness.
The tent is a good choice if you are going with friends or family, you can help each other by pitching the tents and managing all the basic requirements.
One of the best treats of tent adventure is cooking food in the open fresh air surrounded by natural sceneries and birds’ chirping sounds. Make sure you don’t throw food and waste because this can attract wild animals that might make trouble.
3. Bicycle Camping
This type has become a pretty popular kind of outdoor adventure today. Most solo campers prefer bicycles. They find it a more convenient and cheaper mode of travel.
Here campers just start their journey with trip essentials on the bicycle and set up a tent in any safe zone at the end of the day to sleep. You don’t need to worry about your camping gear weight as the bicycle carries it.
The biggest benefit of bicycle camping is that it is free of fuel consumption, and the most eco-friendly and economical way to travel.
It is also a healthier way to travel. With a bicycle, you can camp in any remote area which you can not explore with RVs or Camper vans.
So if you have some experience and looking for a kind more affordable and cheaper than RVs or campervans, the bicycle is the next best option.
You just need a reliable bicycle, a tool kit, a puncture repair kit, and a spare tube.
4. Backpacking/ Hiking Camping
Backpacking is an antique kind of outdoor adventure, and many campers love backpacking. Backpacking is placing important items of the trip in a backpack and carrying them on your journey.
That is the reason campers eliminate backpacking gear as much as possible.
Backpacks come in different shapes and sizes, so campers make purchases according to their plan. Although backpacking and hiking need some experience and planning, that’s why practiced mainly by expert backpack campers.
If you are an expert backpack camper you can go for long tracks for hiking trails like the Pacific Crest and the Appalachian Trail in the USA or the Great Divide Trail in Canada.
You are out in the woods, walking through some beautiful lake, and then a pitching tent at night. Each of the hours you will spend out there will be outstanding.
5. Survival Camping
It is what its name looks like! it is the most difficult kind of outdoor adventure where campers have to live in extreme outdoor environmental conditions, fighting and hunting in nature to survive.
Imagine being stuck in a remote area without food and shelter and you are hunting for a way back to your civilization, that is what survival is.
There are two major types of survival adventures.
- Base Camping
- Walk out
In base type, campers move to some remote areas and set up a camp where they have to survive on the resources they find in nature, before returning to their civilization.
Walk-out is when a survival camper is dropped into some remote wild environment and has to walk back to civilization by overcoming all the challenges.
It’s the toughest and most real type of survival camping. The camper doesn’t have any type of tent or gear.
Bear Grylls is the most famous and well-known survivalist of modern times. If you have watched his episodes on Man vs Wild, probably you are familiar with this type.
6. Car Camping
Car camping is among the popular ways of outdoor adventure with your friends or family and spending some nights outdoors.
In this type of adventure, campers load the car with gear like food, water, and other materials instead of backpacks. In this type campers don’t need to sleep in the car, they can pitch a tent or tarp to sleep at night.
It will not be a difficult task for someone who has spent years exploring remote areas as a camper but in the car, you can not access remote areas due to route restrictions.
The car allows you to carry gear as much as you need not in the case of backpacking so car camping might be the best choice if your trip destination is not too far.
7. Winter Camping
Over time things have evolved and people finding new ways to camp in four different seasons of the year.
This type has become one of the popular kinds where campers can enjoy winter lands and climb snow-capped mountains and any other campsite of their choice.
It might be difficult if you are a camper who enjoys outdoor trips during spring and other warmer seasons. But with proper planning, you can enjoy winter camping like other kinds of outdoor adventure.
You just need a warm setup to keep you warm and some food. Imagine having dinner on a snow-capped peak. You can not deny the fact that winter camping is one of your trip dreams if you are a camper.
Top 7 must-go campgrounds in the United States.
8. Backcountry Camping
It is usually a type of backpacking where campers have to carry all their gear in a backpack on their own.
You have to survive on what you have brought with you. Here campers carry backpacks for days even for months, according to the length of the trail and campsite.
This type might not be difficult for an expert camper but it can be difficult for a beginner camper, as you have to spend days and nights with wildlife, and chances that you might encounter it.
So you must be prepared to handle such situations, better you already have some planning to cope with.
It is the best choice to spend some time in solitude in nature. So with proper planning and guidance, you can go backcountry and enjoy your party with beautiful nature.
9. Tarp Camping
It is an excellent choice for ultralight backpackers. A tarp tent is a tarpaulin used in place of a tent with some twines and pegs to pitch it. It has lightweight making perfect for ultralight-weight backpackers.
This kind of outdoor adventure requires some experience, as you should know how to set up a tarp in the ground and it must be comfortable and stable enough to protect you from wild animals and other environmental factors in the campsite.
Well-known adventurer and creator of microadventures, Alastair Humphreys is known for camping with a tarp or a “basha” an army slang for simple shelter made out of a tarpaulin.
10. Adventure Camping
It includes going on to nature trip or an organized journey to some remote areas with your friends or family. There are two aspects of outdoor adventure, day and night.
During the day, campers explore the places and at night they take a rest in the camp. They can cook food or they can make plans for the next day’s adventure.
Adventure camping needs experience and discipline as it includes more campers. Advantageously, more people can carry more essential materials with them just by dividing their gear into equal parts.
In adventure camping, campers can visit adventure parks and choose hiking trails. They can explore new natural environments and enjoy adventurous trips.
11. Backyard Camping
It is the easiest and simplest type of camping, if you don’t want to go to remote areas to enjoy camping. It might not seem adventurous but it allows you to enjoy nature and spend some quality time with your family, friends, or family.
The backyard allows you to get familiar with basic outdoor adventure skills like pitching a tent, setting up a fire to cook food, gathering all essentials, and other trip materials without going to any remote area.
It has the advantage that any person can partake irrespective of their age, a child, or an old family member. Here you can plan a future long and remote trip with your family members.
12. Hammock Camping
It is another favorite kind for many campers. As its name seems campers spend their night in a hammock. It is necessary to be some trees to wobble the hammock between them.
Many think it is an alternative to a tent, it is lightweight to carry although many campers feel uncomfortable spending nights in a hammock.
Hammock outdoor adventure is a unique and fun way of spending your nights under a dark sky and thick trees standing like bodyguards around you.
So it does not require much planning and extra experience, you can set it up at the seaside to any waterfall and venture into the wilderness.
13. Wild/Dispersed Camping
It is the favorite type of most campers who love to scout unexplored places.
In this type and most of the other types, campers pay to pitch their tents in the campsite, but in the wild or free type, campers are free to camp in allotted campsites that’s why it is called dispersed camping.
Wild campers have to follow some rules they have to clean up the campsite after you and leave no trace, no dust, no waste food, and no garbage that damages the beauty and nature.
Rules of wild camping vary from country to country. In some countries, wild outdoor adventure is banned, so depending on the destination it might be risky because of crime, wildlife, or weather.
14. Glamping
In glamping, you don’t need to carry sleeping bags or pitch tents on the ground as all shelter is provided by the campsite owner.
Glamping is a kind of outdoor adventure that combines being in nature with luxury and the comfortable feel of the hotel.
Glamping is also known as a glamorous type of outdoor adventure.
It is among the fastest growing types, campers usually have all amenities like electricity, a kitchenette to cook food, a bathroom, and a comfortable bed to sleep in at night.
The majority of campers rent a glamping site just by searching for “glamping near me” on google and booking.
Some campers love to set up luxurious glamping tents on their own. This all needs a high budget, but if you want it to be comfortable and luxurious, you should start planning glamping.
15. Reenactment Camping
The most unique and creative type of camping is a reenactment, where the camper uses the methods and equipment that were used in a certain historical period in a certain area.
Campers may join events to remake historical past events, such as camping methods and technologies used in the civil war era in the USA, the wild west, and Medieval times in Europe.
It is mainly practiced by those who are interested in learning old and historical things. They go for reenactment to experience and feel the old methods of outdoor adventure.
It is a great way to be familiar with ancient history. It can be a source of both entertainment and learning in a single campaign.
You only need the real past event history and all the materials that have been used for camping in that particular area.
16. Overlanding
Overlanding is another good kind of exploring natural areas. The primary objective of Overlanding is the discovery of unstepped caping environments. Overlanding involves going to remote areas with your four-wheeler or truck.
Almost all of the overland vehicles contain a fold-out tent on the roof that way overland vehicles are different from RVs and campervans.
From sleeping bags to food and shelter to other equipment, you carry them all in your vehicle.
Although it is not a popular type of camping. But by joining a group of experienced campers you can avail an opportunity to explore and spend your time within the new natural environment.
17. Canoe Camping
This is yet another type of camping to get out of your daily life schedule and interact with natural habitats and enjoy the fascinating remote areas.
It is somehow different from other kinds as you travel in a canoe on the water.
This type is the water equivalent to backpacking where you have to carry gear for several days, obviously, it depends upon the length of the route and your plan.
It is better for group campers as you can assist each other in any type of trouble you faces in the water.
Always check the weather condition of the area you are planning a trip as bad weather can affect the flow and water level.
Heavy rainfall and wind can be concerns for canoe campers.
So after proper planning and strategy, you can go canoe and enjoy the freedom.
18. Bike Camping
If you are a bike lover and love to camp then this type of camping is the ideal choice to jump into the wilderness and enjoy the beauty.
You can set up a camp at the end of the day. Being on a bike you have freedom on open routes, you can travel to remote areas easily on a bike, and you don’t have route restrictions.
If you have tried backpacking and bicycling then a bike trip will not be difficult for you. You can tie up the gear in your bike as it has an advantage over backpacking.
Bike outdoor adventure does not require that much budget as compared to RVs and campervans, but it offers fewer amenities as you can not carry much gear in only one bike.
A single person or a couple can choose a bike for outdoor adventure, maybe they can go for a long drive, keep driving during the day time and at the night set their tent up in any safe and comfy location and enjoy dinner and an outdoor romantic night.
19. Cabin Camping
It is now among the top types of camping. In this camping national and state parks provide cabins. One of the best features of cabins is that you don’t need to carry all the gear as cabin authorities provide it.
Cabins are structurally like home buildings that protect campers from rain, snow, storm, and other environmental crisis. Here you don’t need to worry about other wild animals too.
Most of the cabins are equipped with a comfortable bed to sleep in and a kitchenette to cook your dinner inside. Their services vary from one campsite to another, according to the environmental conditions.
It is a good choice if you don’t want to carry gear with you and your camping destination is not too far. You can go cabin camping with your kids and enjoy the scenic natural scenery.
Conclusion
So these are the major types of camping you just read about. After reading about all these types you might have learned that experience is the most important factor in the outdoor trip if you don’t have the experience, go with someone who has been there before. This will make your journey safer and more enjoyable.
Best of luck, make a plan, and jump into the world of wilderness.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST ALWAYS KEEP YOUR LAND NEAT AND CLEAN, WHEREVER YOU GO, EITHER FOR A PICNIC TOUR OR CAMPING.
Types of Camping FAQs
The basic definition of camping is spending your leisure time outdoors, especially in a tent for one or more than one nights. It is usually hanging out in any natural place like woods, lakes, waterfalls, greenery, mountains, and the seaside.
RV is short-term for recreational vehicles. RVs are as simple homes on wheels equipped with almost everything you need as a camper including a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and some space to chill out.
Going camping in an RV is RV camping.
