Guest of the week: Alexandra Khalifa, family camper in a tent/camping car

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Alexandra Khalifa lives just outside Stockholm with her family, husband and 5-year-old daughter. Alexandra has always enjoyed travelling and doesn't let children or a limited budget stop the family from going on exciting camping trips, both in Europe and on the other side of the world.

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The family has previously holidayed in tents in southern Europe and has recently returned from a trip to Australia, where they travelled around in a simple little camper van. We asked Alexandra what it's like to holiday in a tent or camper van when travelling with children. If you want to follow Alexandra in her everyday life and on different trips, you can check out her blog. Tenderlyn.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your family?

My family consists of me, my husband Peter and our daughter Stella who is 5 years old. I work as a preschool teacher since one year and Peter works at SMHI's IT department. We live in an apartment in the Stockholm suburb of Märsta. I have always liked to travel but it was after I had been on a "Work and travel" visa in Australia in 2008 for a year that I really got a taste for travelling. Stella's first trip was a 2 week charter in Turkey when she was 3 months old and since then it has just continued.

You and your family have gone on camping holidays before. Can you tell us a bit about those trips?

In 2013 we went on a five week car holiday in Europe where our main accommodation was in tents. Stella had just turned two years old. We travelled through northern Spain, the entire French Riviera, northern Italy, Prague and then home to Märsta.

That trip, like almost all our trips, came about because I had an idea. I decided in the spring that I wanted to go on a car holiday in the summer and that I wanted to try camping and a few months later we were on our way. Neither of us had any direct experience of camping, so it was all new and we had no idea what campsites in Europe looked like and what facilities would be available.

I had experience of campsites in Australia that were very well equipped with "camp kitchens" with grills, stoves, refrigerators etc but we realised that this was not available anywhere in Europe. We made many mistakes. For example, we didn't have a good place to store food because we had a fridge that worked in the car on 12V, we had thought that there would be a fridge in the "camp kitchen" as in Australia, but there wasn't and our LPG tube that we had for our Primus kitchen was basically impossible to fill in France.

In the summer of 2015 we also went on a car holiday down to Italy, but this time we chose to stay in apartment hotels and camping cottages because the trip was not as long.

What are the best and most challenging aspects of camping with your family on holiday?

The best thing we thought was that you felt very free to be outside almost all the time, children like to be outside and have room to move around. In hotel rooms it can sometimes be very crowded and it is easy to get restless. Another advantage is that it is nice to be able to cook yourself and not have to go looking for a good restaurant for every meal. Of course, you can also get away with this if you live in a cottage or apartment hotel, but then the price is often a little higher.

The most challenging part was definitely the heat! Not being able to walk away to a cold room when you wanted to, but the only place you had to rest was a steaming hot tent (southern Europe gets very hot in the summer). But then of course it was also difficult to know what you needed to have with you, especially since we did not have much camping / tent experience and especially not with a small child. You don't want to take too much with you but you also don't want to miss anything important.

You recently travelled around Australia in a small camper van. Can you tell us a bit about the trip?

I have longed to return to Australia ever since I was there in 2008 because it's a wonderful country. But it is quite far away and you don't really go there for a long weekend. Since I have been studying at university for a few years, it has been a bit difficult to save money, but this summer after working full-time for a year, the trip finally happened!

We were away for 4 weeks. We had chosen to rent a small "campervan" as it is called in Australia, it is a motorhome but smaller and of a simpler model. It had 4 car spaces, four beds, kitchen and cold water but no sewage tank and no toilet or shower.

We chose to rent a smaller car partly because it was cheaper but also because we didn't want to feel limited in where we could drive with it. We could easily take this car into town and park it in a regular car park, which is not always easy with a large motorhome. Since we knew that we would basically only stay at campsites, we didn't mind that it didn't have a toilet and we didn't feel like emptying a campervan toilet anyway 😉.

We travelled from Cairns on the north east coast to Sydney on the south east coast. Although all campsites had outdoor kitchens free to use, we basically did all the household chores in the car, cooking and washing up. The car was quite cramped so we wanted to sit outside and eat, but if necessary, for example when it was raining, there was a table that we could sit inside and eat at.

What are the best and most challenging aspects of holidaying in a campervan?

The best thing is clearly that you have everything with you all the time! I'm sure everyone who travels with a motorhome feels this way, but we definitely found it convenient that it was so small (Toyota Hiace with raised roof). Compared to camping, it's easier when you arrive at your destination, you just need to rearrange your bags a bit, plug in the power cord and then you're basically done. If you have a tent, you have to start by pitching the tents, which usually takes a little time. A campervan is also a bit more rainproof than a tent.

The most challenging thing was that at least our camper van had absolutely no storage spaces for clothes / bags so the bags had to be left out all the time and the clothes had to be rummaged for in the suitcases, which of course becomes a bit difficult for 4 weeks. I must also admit that it was a bit hard to be woken up some nights by the daughter who wanted to go to the toilet and have to go out and walk all the way to the toilet blocks in the middle of the night.

But all these were really small things and I really think a small campervan is a great way to travel! When I was in Australia the first time, we also had a campervan that we lived in, for about 7 months. However, it was a converted ordinary van so it didn't even have a kitchen or water in it, so we had to have an external primary kitchen and cook outdoors.

Do you and your family have any travel plans for the future? Let us know!

We have a charter trip to the fitness resort Playitas on Fuerteventura booked in November, this will be the third time we go there. We like being there, the combination of sun and bath with the possibility of training and movement. We have also booked a weekend in the Säfsen mountains now in September, I got it into my head that I wanted to hike in the mountains ... and usually it is as I get it into my head hehe.

What are your top tips for families with children who want to camp in a tent or small caravan?

Now Stella has become quite a traveller from birth and is used to going to different places, but my tip is really not to worry so much! Children are adaptable and if you yourself as a parent are calm and do not worry, it usually goes well.

Sure, you may have to compromise a bit and, for example, take in a large campsite with playground and pool even though you would really like to stay at a small simple campsite with peace and quiet (we usually vary, sometimes a large and sometimes a small one) but it is still small compromises I think. And if you are on a car holiday, it is just to change your travel plans and go home earlier in the worst case or take in a hotel instead of a campsite, if you only have a regular car, there are usually hotel car parks.

I definitely think it has been nice to have your route fairly planned in advance, then you know roughly how far you are going to go per day and it is easier to go far when you know where the goal for the day is. We usually load up an iPad with a lot of children's programmes, so driving is usually not a problem. We've travelled 100 miles in a day and it's worked well, even if it's not ultimate.

But my best tip is simply - just go! You do not have to do as we do and go on a 5 week long holiday the first thing you do, you can start by camping just a weekend for example. And it is perfect to live in a small car / tent when the children are small, because then they do not take up so much space.

Finally, a question we ask everyone we interview: What is your dream destination?

Hawaii! It looks so lovely there with nature, the sea, surfing and so on, I think I would like it there. There seems to be a relaxed atmosphere, which I like.

Thank you Alexandra Khalifa for sharing your experiences and thoughts!

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