Everyone has a different level of comfort when it comes to camping. You and your family might be totally comfortable “roughing it’ with very few amenities or you might consider it “roughing it” to not be staying anywhere near a spa. When you’re going camping with the family you need to think about what amenities are going to make life easier with the kids around.

You might not mind having to haul water from a community spigot a half mile away but when you have to do it with a toddler in tow three or four times a day then you might think it’s a pain. Even if you have liked “roughing it” in the past if you have children that are camping with you, then you definitely should consider finding a campground with these amenities to make your vacation and theirs more fun.

1. Bathroom facilities – Using outhouses or pit-toilets might be fun for the kids but when it comes to sanitation and keeping kids clean, they are no fun at all.  If your kids are older they will probably not want to use anything but a regular flush toilet, and if you have little ones, you will want to be around a proper bathroom with plenty of hot water and soap.

2. Showers – Going more than a day or two without a hot shower is no fun and not relaxing.  Make sure that you bring flip flops to wear in the shower and make sure that you check out the cleanliness of the shower before you go in, but having a shower on site should be a must for any campground.

3. Dump station for trash – Unless you want to end up having trash with you throughout your vacation and having to carry it out of the park or campground with you check to be sure that there is a dump station or trash dumping ground on site.

4. Electricity and water hookups – This is really only important if you’re camping in an RV but if you are planning on using your RV as a place to shower, cook, and relax you will need electricity and water hook ups.  Not every RV campground offers them to double check before you reserve a campsite.

5. A pool, playground or community center.  No matter how great all that family together time is, eventually you and the kids are going to need some time apart. As long as the campground has a pool or a playground, you can send the kids off to find some other kids to play with for awhile. Just make sure if it’s a pool that there are lifeguards are duty.

If the campground has a community center often, they will have video games, computers, TVs and DVD players so the kids can hang out there during the day for awhile and you can meet up with some other parents there at night.