Camping in Kerry

are you Irish kids planning on camping in Ireland? or coming from somewhere else?

Where abouts in Kerry ?

We are planning on camping around tralee/dingle/Kilarney all in Kerry Ireland

You will need to bring your own tent(s). You may prefer to all get a single person tent each as this may be simpler for you all to work out your costs. Also, they are a lot easier to put up and take down than a huge tent for multiple people and cost a lot less to buy.

You'll also need a sleeping bag (avoid the mummy shape ones - they aren't as comfortable as you'd think), maybe a roll mat or blow up bed to lie on if you want, consider what you want as a pillow - blow up or a proper pillow or a jumper over your rucksack. That's the basics.

You haven't answered whether you are Irish or visiting Ireland from somewhere else, so can't advise properly on prices, but a basic tent in England is about £20, a basic sleeping bag about the same price, and I take my own pillow - my one comfort thing!

If there are kitchens at a campsite then contact the campsite owners to ask about plates, cups and cutlery. Personally I'd expect to be taking everything of my own to cook with and eat on. Then you need to consider whether you need or want a cool bag/box for milk, fry up material or booze (yes, I know the OP is 17. I'm realistic).

The bathrooms will be very basic, usually there will be loo roll, but that's it. So you'll need to take a towel and all your toiletries of course.

Camping can be done very expensively or very cheaply - I prefer the latter. But then I'm now 30, been camping since I was a small child with the parents and can put up my ten year old, 2-man Eurohike dome tent in five minutes in the dark with pouring rain and gusting winds. It's all down to practice. Before you go, make sure you've practiced putting up and breaking down your tents so you don't look like twits on arrival at the campsite.

Are you going to be driving around or using public transport? You'll need to consider the volume of luggage you'll be taking and how you're going to carry it if you're moving around. Don't want to have an unwieldy and bloody heavy rucksack, plus a tent, plus a sleeping bag, plus a roll mat, plus cooking equipment, plus food.... even between a few of you!

Hope you enjoy it - I love camping.

Thanks very much for the advice it gives me a idea of what we will need. would not have brought half the stuff.

It's difficult to know what you'll need until you sit down and write a list. Then you can cut the list back down further until you have a more realistic list.

If you're going for just a few days then you'll not need much in the way of clothes. If you're going for any period of time, cut back on clothes and add some handwash liquid into your kit bags and accept you'll be washing your dirty kecks in a sink at some point!

Of course, if you're going to sites with no cooking facilities, you will need to plan what you'll do instead - cold cereal and milk for breakfast or a trip to a cafe for something? Lunch will probably be out anyway, but dinner - are you going to want to take a gas cooker of some description to cook on or will you eat out somewhere again? Of course there are then cost implications with that.

Sit down, write a list, have a look at some online guides but take them with a pinch of salt, and work out how much it's going to cost you so you're not going to be shocked!

Ooh, torches. How could I forget that! If you're going to use your mobiles as entertainment or as your torch, you'll drain the battery fast. There may be somewhere at the campsite you can plug them in to recharge, but there may not. That's when you become quite canny at spotting places like coffee shops who may let you plug in your phone for a bit. Branded places like Starbucks, McDonalds etc have free wifi and so they usually have lots of plugs for people to use. But whether there will be anything like that where you'll be, I'd be surprised.

But always take a torch - easier than your phone.