3 Essential Tips for Autumn Camping and Vanlife Preparation

TOP TIPS and FREE PDF Packing List

With summer officially over and the long nights drawing in, the thought of camping during the colder seasons may not be something you welcome. However, with some small adjustments to your packing list, camping during the autumn season can be an amazing experience. Camping in the forest, with such a glorious array of colour or waking up to the crisp misty mornings can be truly magical. Don’t let the cold put you off - remember the saying, ‘There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing’. Just read these autumn camping tips.

Maybe you are new to campervanning and are feeling a bit overwhelmed, or maybe you have taken your first trip already but spent most of your time packing and repacking the campervan? If so, it’s okay! Don’t panic. You can find reassurance and tips in my Beginner’s Guide to Vanlife here.

If you are looking for ideas for how to plan your first trip, click here.

1: What do I need to pack for camping in the autumn? Autumn camping essentials:

Autumn weather in the UK is notoriously changeable so pack layers - thermals, woolly hats, fleeces etc - these can be added or removed as the weather changes. Remember to pack warm pjs, bed socks and hot water bottles for those chilly evenings, torches for the darker nights and waterproofs for the inevitable wet days. Insulating the pop-up roof definitely makes a notable difference. This can be done using a more expensive external cover or simply by using some double foil insulation internally. You can see a video of this here. Make sure you have good quality sleeping bags. We recommend the Vango Kanto Junior Sleeping bags for children.

2: How do I keep the van clean in the autumn?

Vanlife can be considerably messier once the weather turns, but that doesn’t mean it is impossible. You can find out more about my TOP TIPS for packing here, but ensuring mess is kept outside the van as much as possible is going to be really useful. We have a large non-slip, washable mat that provides some insulation from the cold flooring, whilst also helping keep dirt contained. The girls remove their shoes on the mat, so that I can simply remove it from the van and give it a good shake when it’s dirty. (Sometimes I need to do this several times a day.) To clean the floor, I use a large brush which I find has a variety of uses - from dusting off a dirty dog to wiping sand off muddy clothes etc before they come into the van. I sweep all the dirt into a pile and then hoover it up. My hoover is one of the most used items in the campervan! If you don’t have an awning, or prefer not to travel with one on every trip, then we would recommend a small pop-up storage tent. For more campervan essentials click here.

We love our handmade welly rack that lives outside the campervan during the autumn and winter months.

If you only take one TOP TIP away from this blog post , then remember to consider ventilation in the colder months! The colder air outside creates condensation inside a campervan overnight. Keep a window and the vents in the pop up slightly open. It is also worth being prepared with a *microfibre cloth to absorb any excess moisture on the windows.

3: What else do I need to know about camping in the autumn?

As you know, the evenings get darker and cooler quicker in the autumn months, so it is best to have an idea for where you are headed for at the end of each day. Click here to find a Google Map of campsites open all year, or use Park4night or Search4sites to find free wild camping locations or pub stopovers. If you don’t have a diesel heater, then opt for an electric pitch so you can run an electric fan heater. It is also worth considering hard standing over grass pitches during the exceptionally wet autumn and winter months!

As the nights draw in, it is worth considering lighting, especially outside the van! There is nothing worse than heading to the amenity block and not being able to see to get back into the van. These solar, motion sensor lights are great combined with the double-sided magnetic tape, so you can stick them anywhere to the outside of your campervan.

We also appreciate some nice mood lighting inside the campervan, which we have achieved with these 80 LED USE operated lights.

For a list of useful things in your campervan that you might not have thought about, click here.

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