Camping in the rain and still enjoying it
Rain does not ruin a camping trip. Wet bedding does. Once your sleeping system is damp there is no recovering it in the field, so almost everything below is about protecting that one thing.
Everything else — cooking, sitting outside, packing up — is just a matter of sequence.
Pitch fly-first, or pitch fast
Tents that pitch as a single unit, or fly-first, keep the inner dry while you work. If your tent pitches inner-first, practise it at home until you can do it in a few minutes, and lay the inner on a groundsheet rather than wet grass while you thread poles.
Peg out the fly properly even if the forecast is mild. A taut fly sheds water and keeps its distance from the inner; a slack one sags, touches, and wicks water straight through.
Run a strict wet-and-dry line
Decide where wet things live and never break the rule. Boots, waterproofs and the dog stay in the porch. Sleeping bag, spare base layers and down insulation stay in dry bags inside, and only come out when you are in them.
A couple of cheap roll-top dry bags do more for a rainy trip than an expensive tent upgrade. Bin liners work in a pinch and weigh nothing.
- Porch: boots, waterproof shell, stove, wet dog towel
- Inner: sleeping bag, sleeping clothes, spare socks — all bagged
- One towel dedicated to wiping the inside of the fly each morning
Cook under cover, never inside
Stoves produce carbon monoxide, which is odourless and has killed people in sealed tents. Cook in an open porch with real airflow, under a tarp, or outside under a shelter — never with the tent zipped up around you.
A cheap tarp strung between trees or over the porch transforms a rainy trip. It gives you somewhere to stand, cook and take boots off that is not either soaked or inside your sleeping space.
Warmth is about dryness, not thickness
Change into dedicated dry sleeping clothes every night, even if what you wore feels only slightly damp. Body heat will not dry a base layer in a cold tent; it will just cool you all night.
Down insulation loses almost all its loft when wet. In genuinely wet climates a synthetic insulated jacket is the more sensible choice, even though it packs bigger.
Pack up in the right order
Bag the sleeping gear first, while the inner is still dry. Then clothes and cookware. The tent comes down last and goes in a separate outer bag so it does not soak anything else on the drive home.
Pitch it again in a garden, hallway or over a couple of chairs within a day or two. A tent packed wet for a week comes back mildewed, and mildew is permanent.
Last updated September 2, 2026. Questions or a correction? Get in touch.