We spend all our year working hard, looking forward to a vacation. We have gone through a hard winter. Rain, wind and other inclement weather. Come the summer, rather than put our feet up or spend some time in the relative lap of luxury by visiting some exotic resort and relaxing or taking gentle exercise at some good quality hotel, what do some people do? Go camping!

Sorry for the sarcasm. But one of the things I have never been able to understand: if you have a choice, why in heaven's name would you want to spend two weeks sleeping under and on canvas with the possibility of some vile insects invading your personal parts, kids screaming if it starts raining, walking incredible distances to reach basic hygiene stations, cook the breakfast in the open air, get stung by alien flying creatures? Need I go on!

Many of you will certainly disagree with my sentiments. You may argue that there is nothing better than "going back to nature", plenty of fresh air and spending quality time with the family. That's as may be. But no one will convince me that anyone would actually prefer to go on a camping trip rather than spend two weeks of comfort and come back completely refreshed from your vacation.

I grant you that it is good to learn what it means to live outside for a while and learn basic "survival" skills in the open air. That's what the Boy Scout movement is very good at teaching. But surely we can leave the survival antics to some greedy individuals to be seen by millions of viewers on some third rate TV show. Sorry to be so cynical.

I appreciate that some folk have tight budgets and therefore hotel holidays are not the order of the day. I certainly understand their reasoning in their selection. However, it would probably be true that the majority of folk who do choose this incredibly tedious form of vacation, would do so to simply save money.

I am also prepared to accept there are people who actually enjoy camping and good luck to them. However, I must ask this question: If you had the opportunity to choose a reasonable resort to stay at, with a good type of hotel, with all expenses paid - or select an all expenses paid holiday on a camping site for two weeks. Which one would you choose? I'm afraid if you choose the latter, then I would have to doubt the integrity or your reply.

Comfort is comfort and I repeat what I said in my first paragraph, after a year of working hard you need to recharge and have complete rest. No one will convince me that two weeks in a tent will wipe away all the stress that goes with a full-time job.

You have probably guessed that I have had a bad experience while camping which I am not going into here, but even after taking that into consideration, I cannot see any useful relaxation purpose to be gained from camping. To those who enjoy the under canvas, outdoor life, good luck to you and happy camping!

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Camping Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Russell