Mark: Hello! My name is Mark, and I am a camping expert for L.

L.

Bean in Freeport, Maine. Today, I would like to talk to you about family camping.

Family camping is a great economic alternative to some of the more expensive family vacations. It's a wonderful way to spend time together, to celebrate the outdoors and to have a healthy activity.

When you go family camping, there are several pieces of equipment that you are going to need. The first thing is going to be your tent. When you buy a tent, you need to think about how many people you are going to be in the tent with, and how big they are. For family of four, a cabin style tent such as this would be a great option. Plenty of room, lots of screen mesh for breathability.

The second thing you are going to need is a sleeping bag and sleeping pad. Sleeping bags like this, camp style bag are perfect for family camping. It's got a cotton interior, and it's very comfortable, plenty of room.

You could sleep on the floor but you have a much better time of it, if you have a pad like this one.

Another thing you'll need will be a way to prepare food and serve it for your family. A two burner stove like this propane stove would be perfect for a family. You can cook more than one thing at a time on it, such as pasta and sauce, where in the morning you can be cooking coffee and preparing eggs at the same time.

You will need pots, you will need cooler, something to store food in, you will also need some water. As you can see, this picnic table has been set up underneath this screen house, and while it's not an essential for family camping, this screen house could make mealtimes a lot more comfortable.

Most campgrounds will provide you with picnic table and benches attached, but after your evening meal, your family is going to love sitting around the campfire and enjoying s'mores, telling stories, may be singing songs. Camp chairs like this make it much easier and much more comfortable to do so.

As it gets darker at your camp site, you want to have some options for lighting, to keep yourself safe and also to provide a good comfortable atmosphere. Option such as these, this lantern light here uses a crank power and solar energy, so you are being friendly to the environment, same goes with this flashlight, crank and solar energy.

You'd want to have a lantern probably inside your tent and probably at your picnic table as well.

Other options include headlamp such as this give you easy, hands-free lighting to make reading possible, and also make it easier for you to get around the campsite off the dock.

So those are some of the things you'll need to consider before you go family camping.