cheryl
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The 18 New Rules of Camping - Outside Online
In the past decade, camping has exploded from the outdoorsy set’s humble pastime to the most popular way to spend downtime. A record 78.8 million U.S. households camped at least once in 2018, says the 2019 KOA North American Camping Report, and for the first time, 51 percent of new campers were nonwhite. Popular apps like Hipcamp have made it easier to find and book sites on private and public land, and the company is so buzzy that last year, Jay-Z and Will Smith (among others) became investors. The rise of glamping has also helped to make sleeping under the stars trendy: in 2019, Google searches for the term, which began in 2007, reached an all-time high. And #vanlife has fully mainstreamed, with 7.1 million posts on Instagram. Even as the U.S. remains under varying levels of lockdown, KOA found that 46 percent of all “leisure travelers” view camping as the safest form of travel once restrictions lift. Experts seem to agree that camping is a low-risk activity, as long as you avoid crowded campgrounds and ones with shared facilities like poorly ventilated restrooms.
Despite the changes that have made camping more comfortable, convenient, and accessible than ever before, all the important stuff has stayed the same—the fresh air, the trees, the sense of escape, and the quality time by the campfire.
In the past decade, camping has exploded from the outdoorsy set’s humble pastime to the most popular way to spend downtime. A record 78.8 million U.S. households camped at least once in 2018, says the 2019 KOA North American Camping Report, and for the first time, 51 percent of new campers were nonwhite. Popular apps like Hipcamp have made it easier to find and book sites on private and public land, and the company is so buzzy that last year, Jay-Z and Will Smith (among others) became investors. The rise of glamping has also helped to make sleeping under the stars trendy: in 2019, Google searches for the term, which began in 2007, reached an all-time high. And #vanlife has fully mainstreamed, with 7.1 million posts on Instagram. Even as the U.S. remains under varying levels of lockdown, KOA found that 46 percent of all “leisure travelers” view camping as the safest form of travel once restrictions lift. Experts seem to agree that camping is a low-risk activity, as long as you avoid crowded campgrounds and ones with shared facilities like poorly ventilated restrooms.
Despite the changes that have made camping more comfortable, convenient, and accessible than ever before, all the important stuff has stayed the same—the fresh air, the trees, the sense of escape, and the quality time by the campfire.