Teenagers are easily bored! So, finding the right camping activities for teens will help make your family camping adventure fun for your teenagers.
Parents today have a difficult time bonding with their teens. It can often be difficult to tear your teenager away from Facebook, their cell phone and those computer games and really enjoy spending time in the great out of doors with their entire family or even just a parent or two.
If you want your teenager to get enjoyment out of that family camping trip, you better be prepared to provide them with plenty of activities they will enjoy.
Table of Contents
Let Them Bring Along a Friend
If you have only one teenager, then consider allowing them to bring along a friend to join in your camping trip.
After all, everything is more fun when shared with someone your own age and teens tend to enjoy themselves more when there is a friend, cousin or brother near their own age to help break up the boredom and join in activities with them.
My oldest son was three years older than his nearest sibling and once he became a teenager, our camping trips became a gripe fest for our teen.
He didn’t want to do anything except sit around camp and complain, until we suggested he invite a friend on one trip.
The change in him was unbelievable. Suddenly he (and his friend of course) was interested in fishing, hiking and even doing camp chores.
They even organized short hiking trips for the younger kids and made up games to play with them.
Of course with some teenagers you still need to provide activities they might enjoy and find interesting.
So, here are a few camping activities for teens that have worked for our younger friends who still have teens at home.
Camping Scavenger Hunt
This is one of the camping activities teens really love. I have a friend who has three teenage boys and she comes prepared for that camping boredom to sit in.
The minute she hears a complaint she pulls out a list of objects for scavenger hunt perfect for the area that they are camping in and sets up a competition.
The winner gets out of camp chores for 24 hours! The boys love the challenge and of course the reward is well worth the time and effort to try and find every object on the list.
GPS Treasure Hunt
A new take on the scavenger hunt that teens of both sexes seem to enjoy is taking part in a GPS treasure hunt.
One of the parents hides a “treasure” in the woods (It can be anything from concert tickets, to the latest lipstick, to a bit of cash in container). And then gives the teen or teens the GPS co-ordinates to the treasure.
The teen must then use the co-ordinates to seek out the treasure. I know a couple that has 4 teens and hides four treasures at different locations. So, each teen can find their own treasure and the parents tell us that more often than not their kids work together to find each treasure.
Let them Try New and Exciting Camping Activities for Teenagers When Possible
I know one set of parents who can afford to camp pretty much anywhere they like and they try to choose campsites that give their teens access to different types of activities they have never experienced before.
Once they camped somewhere out West where the park rangers would hold special “teen experiences”.
Teens could sign up for the activities they liked and the teens in this family took part in tracking activities, zip lining, and even a log rolling contest.
Now adults themselves, these once bored teens still talk about this being favorite camping trip of all time!
Supply Some Camping Activities for Teens Yourself
Since we did a lot of camping in primitive campsites, there often weren’t any activities readily available, so we brought along our own activities.
We’d bring a net and the equipment to play volleyball or badminton, frisbees, and other equipment that our kids could use to keep themselves entertained.
We even held fishing contests and brought along inner tubes and had inner tube races and played our own version of inner tube water polo.
One thing we discovered both from our own experience and from talking to other camping families is that if you start camping with kids (read fun camping activities for toddlers) when they are young, they will still enjoy the activity when they reach their teens and well beyond.
Just last summer one of my sons and my adult niece (her husband and their children) joined us at our campsite for a couple of nights and everyone had a great time!
This will be a godsend for many parents who love to camp with their children. Our children usually didn’t get bored camping because when they were around there were no electronic gizmos to get them addicted. They enjoyed hiking and helping us set up camp. There was always something new to see, and the kids enjoyed being together. Camping is one of the best family activities I can think of.