road trip

hi all, we are migrating with our four very young children in november and for the first three months we are considering a road trip around part of the coast of Australia, we are trying to decide what would be the best type of trailer tent to purchase, we are a family of 6 with four children under 5 years old, can anyone help us out with the best type of trailer tent to suit our family, it needs to be pretty quick to erect as we wouldn't have the time to faff about while the four youngsters, it would also need to be large enough to accommodate our family, any help would be greatly appreciated.

I've moved your post out of the migration forum to the flights/holidays forum.

Hopefully someone will be able to help.

FWIW those will be the very hot summer months you are planning to travel in. Research what the temps could get up to as honestly, arriving and acclimatising to such high temps with young kids and camping may well not be easy or pleasant. Also consider the fire risk in certain areas. Will depend on where you are planning on going.

Like snifter, I'd have strong reservations about doing that with 4 under 5's. I'd recommend experiencing an Australian summer first in (preferably airconditioned) accommodation before trying a camping trip.

Summer is just not pleasantly warm - it can be uncomfortably hot, especially in a tent, with problems you may not have encountered before - kids with heat rash, unable to sleep because it's too hot, bitey things which you and the kids aren't used to - ants, spiders, even snakes - and restrictions on lighting campfires because of bushfire risk. That's likely to be the situation in the southern part of Australia. If you go further north you may not get the extreme temperatures but you will get more rain - summer months are the rainy months in the tropical and subtropical north of Australia.

If it were me with 4 young kids under 5, I'd try my first "camping" trip in a holiday park with an airconditioned cabin, cooking and washing facilities and a closely supervised pool (but have your children taught to swim as soon as possible).

I think you're mad. For one thing (as others have said) it's not a great time to take kids camping. For another thing, migration is expensive. Are you sure you've got enough cash to see you through six months of job-hunting, buying a car, paying a rental bond, setting up home, PLUS three months of holiday as well?

Remember, you'll have the rest of your life to enjoy the Australian bush!

...........a lovely idea but as others have said......could be challenging...!

...........perhaps have a look at something like this for your first camp....

...........even trying out a cabin first.... https://www.big4.com.au

............if you join they often have special deals......and cater for children.....

...........whatever you decide,enjoy......lots of beautiful places to see.....

Sorry, but I wouldn't even think about camping in summer with kids that young. I'm an experienced mountain leader with good knowledge of kit and weather and have resorted to a mountain tent for sleeping in (low so less wind pressure) and simply a tarp for shade during the day. Large tents (even those on a trailer) tend to get trashed in summer storms that are pretty regular, which is seen as an acceptable risk for adults and those that have the time to either drop them before the storm trashes them, and then re-erect after storm passes, or leave as is and hope that it may just withstand it. If you're an adult with nothing else to worry about, then camping is seen as a challenge as well as leisure, but I certainly wouldn't put kids that age through it.

I have camped in nsw n Victoria in summer n that wasn't too bad very short term but in qld I thought I was going to die lol and everyone advised me against it but at the time it was my only option n I thought it would be great compared to freezing Scottish camping but it wasn't...it was only just bearable but I didn't have kids to worry about....winter is better for camping...depending where u are...oh also a storm destroyed my tent in the end and cracked my windscreen! I wouldn't camp in november especially being new arrivals with kids..I don't think it will be enjoyable...maybe do that once your settled and can pick a better time to go

One more thing to consider is that often sites are booked up certainly many months - often years - in advance for the Christmas and school holiday season.

Well this is all very negative. I've camped in the summer and think it can be wonderful in the right place. My recommendation - south coast of NSW (Sydney south); through the Gippsland coast in Victoria and then hop on a ferry to explore Tasmania. Come back and camp the great ocean road up towards Adelaide. If you stick right along the coast the days shouldn't get too hot and it will cool down (most nights). I wouldn't go much further up/north than this in the middle of summer.