Welcome To Campsmartly!
Hi there, my name is Mark Webster and I am a Scottish guy who has been camping for over 20 years now! My first tent was bought by my parents when I was 11 just because I got really excited about the idea of sleeping in the backyard. And I was right, after my first night in it, I was hooked and my parents took me on many camping trips as a kid where I enjoyed activities such as hiking and river swimming. Here is an old photo of one of these trips my mom sent me the other day:
And up until a recent trip to Australia, I wasn’t really into camping gear and stuck to a few basic items, focusing more on the experience. But that night in that wilderness tour we were taking in Fraser island, I saw my neighbor unpack the most advanced tent I had ever seen in my life and basically live with all modern comfort I do appreciate in my home, just in the wild.
He had air conditioning, he was able to cook delicious meals, had a comfortable camping chair and his dome tent only took 2 minutes to deploy which made me feel a bit jealous and uncomfortable.
This is when I realized my 20’s were behind me and I wouldn’t mind having more comfort while enjoying the outdoors.
Since then, I started renting RV’s for long trips and getting a lot more into camping gear and tents. And on this site, I will share my learnings with you.
My mission on this site is to help you camp in greater comfort and more responsibly.
How I create content
All the content you will find on this site has been planned and edited by me to ensure we meet the highest quality standards. I do tend to use freelance writers to help me putting articles together but nothing is put online without a green light from me, the chief editor. This is to ensure all information we publish is accurate and you can trust it to make trips and purchase decisions.
As much as possible we try to get our hands on the items mentioned in this blog to get real-life experience with them but it is not always possible so we also rely on extensive online feedback from real customers of these items.
I also spend a lot of time in my local stores and talk to their staff to get to know all the items that come out and which ones may be of interest to you.
All in all, I want this site to be a place you can trust and that is not rigged by brand sponsorship so you can use our information to make the best decisions for yourself when it comes to planning your trips.
Is all this sustainable?
Another one of my concerns is to make sure I always leave a spot as clean as I found it. In order to reduce the carbon footprint of camping there are 2 things we focus on:
1 – Reduced renewal rate
Producing camping items does pollute. Tents, Furniture, and RV items all take energy to make and as a consequence, if you buy less often, you pollute less. So if I help you pick items that will last you longer, you will both save money and help preserve our beautiful landscapes. It’s a win-win situation.
2 – Renewable, non-polluting material usage
Once again, we don’t live in a perfect world but if within the items we recommend, some of them use recyclable materials, we will give them some brownie points so that when the time comes and you have to change them, the impact on the planet will be minimal.
By following these 2 principles, I hope to help reduce the carbon and pollution footprint of those of us who enjoy spending time in the wild at my level. If you want to help with this, just check the items we recommend out and use those :-).
What’s in it for you?
So why should you read Campsmartly? I would say the main reason you would want to check us out is because you want to dramatically improve your camping experience in a responsible way.
If you resonate with the following statements, you will enjoy the content you find on this site:
- You want a homey relaxing feeling when you come back to your tent or RV after a day of hiking.
- You want to feel comfortable enough to focus on moments and people you are sharing them with over the technicalities of camping
- You want gear advice based on customer experience and not commercial sales pages
- You are environmentally conscious and want to give your children a shot at having the same experiences you are having by protecting the nature.
If you are on board with this, I look forward to having you read our guides and tests. You can start planning your trip by clicking here.
Mark Webster
Founder and Editor at Campsmartly