Family Camping on the Baltic Sea

People taking small children camping for the first time tend to look for a playground, a bouncy pillow and an entertainment programme. Understandable, but the order is wrong. The factor that decides whether the holiday is relaxed is the water.

A gently shelving beach means a four-year-old can walk twenty metres in and still stand up. You sit on the towel instead of standing waist-deep beside them. On a steeply shelving beach it is different, and you feel the difference in your shoulders by day two.

The Baltic suits this well, because the absence of tides keeps the waterline in the same place all day. What was safe in the morning is still safe in the afternoon. On the North Sea you have to plan around that.

Site facility lists all look much the same. The interesting points are the ones rarely advertised that make the difference in daily life with children.

Family camping is not one single need. With a baby you want a quiet site, short distances and a sanitary building you can change a nappy in at night. Entertainment is irrelevant; peace is not.

Between four and nine that flips. At this age the playground beats the beach, and a children's programme with fixed times buys parents their first uninterrupted hour since arrival. Sites with organised activities pay off most in this phase.

With teenagers it turns again. Now what counts is wifi, a ball court and whether you can get somewhere by bike in the evening. The most beautiful nature site is little use if the nearest village is eight kilometres away.

An activity programme is convenient as long as it occupies your own children, and tiring as soon as it occupies everyone else's. If the stage is fifty metres from your pitch, you will hear the same songs every afternoon.

Ask where the activity area is when you book, and request a pitch with some distance. Large sites almost always have quieter sections; they simply are not listed in the booking system.

Two or three wet days in a fortnight are normal on the Baltic. They decide how the holiday is remembered. Families who packed only for sunshine end up four to a caravan counting the hours.

Two things help. An awning, because it doubles the usable space and lets children play inside without anyone stepping over them. And a list of bad-weather destinations put together before you leave rather than googled in the rain. On Fehmarn that list includes a leisure pool, a large aquarium and a submarine you can walk through.

As long as no child is at school, there is barely an argument for the summer holidays. In the second half of June or early September the water is often warmer than at the end of June, the sites are half empty, and you pay considerably less.

The one drawback: organised activity programmes usually run only during the school holidays. If that is exactly what your child is there for, you have to take the peak season.

Packing lists for camping with children are generally too long. Instead of a list, one rule helps: everything you need on the first evening in the dark goes on top. Torch, pyjamas, one soft toy, something to eat.

The rest can be bought on the way. What is hard to replace: a working rain jacket per child, sturdy shoes and enough spare clothes for two days. On the coast everything gets wet once, usually on day one.