Social Distance Travel: No Contact Camping Packing List and Guidelines
Many of us are wondering how to travel safely by social distance camping during Covid-19. If you decide to travel right now, follow these important travel guidelines for no contact camping and use our camping packing list for a safe and responsible trip.
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How to camp responsibly with social distancing
Camping is rated one of the lowest risk travel activities for Coronavirus transmission. Being outdoors with plenty of space not only limits exposure to the virus, it’s great for the soul.
No contact camping can most easily be done in an RV, but with extra preparation, it’s also possible for tent campers. Click here for tips to rent an RV or travel trailer >
Top 10 tips for safe, socially distanced tent camping:
1. Responsible travel right now means being as self-contained as possible (bringing your own food and supplies) to avoid unnecessary interactions or depletion of supplies in the communities you enter.
2. With a little prep, you can bring supplies to cook your own meals. This way, you avoid unnecessary trips to grocery stores and restaurants.
3. You might be wondering about using public restrooms when tent camping. If you don’t have an RV with self-contained bathroom facilities, the essential business of “eliminating waste” and bathing becomes your greatest exposure to indoor, pubic facilities where you may need to touch doors, faucets, etc.
But you can pack your own bathroom supplies!
4. We’ve added the packing list for COVID camping below, as a supplement to our original camping road trip packing checklist.
5. In addition to packing, it’s important for all travelers to follow CDC travel guidelines.
You should already practice hand washing, physical distancing, and wearing face masks in public. Continue to be diligent about these when you’re camping.
6. Be sure to research and obey local restrictions, especially when visiting a destination outside of your home community.
Please respect if a city, State, or county is discouraging non-essential travel in their area. Infection rates, hospital capacity, and testing vary widely. Small, rural communities may not have adequate resources in case of an outbreak.
7. Be especially cautious to prevent wildfires. Fire and rescue may be under-resourced during this time.
8. Familiarize yourself with “leave no trace” practices. Aim leave your campsite cleaner than you found it by removing any trash before you leave. With limited resources, even staffed campgrounds may not be able to maintain garbage collection.
9. Avoid crowds in campgrounds by choosing to stay at campsites with plenty of space and privacy, visiting on week-days when there are fewer guests, or camping off grid in dispersed camping areas.
10. It’s recommended to interact only with your own household and avoid using public amenities when camping. In many cases, group campsites, picnic areas, and playgrounds at campgrounds have been closed anyway.
Off Grid Camping Packing List Items
In these days of the COVID-19 Coronavirus, we found we needed to add a few additional items to our camping essentials list.
These new essential camping items for social distancing are what allow us to achieve “no contact camping”. Specifically, these packing list additions help to avoid using public restrooms.
Portable Camp Toilet
Using public toilets was the biggest hurdle for us when looking to safely take a day trip or go camping post-quarantine.
After staying in a friend’s tiny house, we learned a simple and effective DIY compostable toilet could be made with a bucket, garbage bag, toilet seat, and wood chips (like you would use for a pet hamster). Then another friend reminded me there are collapsible travel toilets for toddlers that use disposable bags to absorb the waste.
So I did a little research and found that there are a number of solutions to the personal camping toilet problem.
REI sells two types of camp toilets:
*We recommend purchasing from REI for their generous return policy, quality products, and members rebates.
- Reliance Luggable Loo – $ – basic bucket with snap-on toilet seat
- Dometic Sani-Potty Toilet – $$$ – polyethylene cassette toilet with bellows-operated flush
We decided to go with the Luggable Loo as it’s the cheapest solution, and still better than rigging up our own DIY bucket toilet. For short trips, this does the trick.
We were impressed that the Luggable Loo toilet lid design is sturdy, secure, and easy to pop on and off. We double-bagged with trash bags we had on hand and lined it with cedar wood chips pet bedding, adding a handful of wood chips after each use. We disposed of the inner bag and contents once per day, though you could definitely wait several days if needed.
We never smelled anything other than the cedar. And it’s even compact enough to use it in the car for road trips!
If you’re camping long term or road tripping in a travel trailer or campervan without a toilet, I think it would be worth paying extra for the Dometic Sani-Potty. It more closely resembles an actual toilet.
Other travel toilet supplies on Amazon:
Portable Shower and Bathing Alternatives
On short camping trips, you might not need to bathe. For longer camping trips, add these things to your camping packing list to avoid public showers:
- NEMO Helio Pressure Shower – 2.9 gal. tank with a foot pump. You can keep it fully pressurized for 5–7 min. of continuous spray with occasional pumps.
- Wilderness wipes – Wipe away sweat and odors. Gentle and alcohol-free, no need to rinse.
- Campsuds biodegradable soap – Concentrated soap for the body, or even dishes. Environmentally-friendly but you should still use away from natural water sources.
- No-rinse shampoo – Biodegradable, just lather in hair and dry.
DIY Camp Bathroom: Portable Privacy Tent
Once you have your portable camp toilet and bathing supplies, how do you take care of your business privately?
If you’re camping off grid out in the woods, this may not be an issue. But it’s a challenge if you’re trying to socially distance in a campground.
You may be able to open a vehicle door and rig up blankets or towels, or hang them from a clothes line between trees. Then place your travel toilet or hang your portable shower inside.
An easier solution would be a pop up privacy tent. This one is 6’10” and rain resistant. You can keep the mosquito-mesh top open for circulation or cover when it rains. The light-weight tent secures with either tent pegs or sandbags. Get the pop-up utilitent here >
Other Safe Travel Essentials to Pack
To complete our no contact camping checklist, these are essential items for any trip in our current state of the world:
Face Masks – Covering your nose and mouth is crucial to reduce the spread of COVID-19. In many places, face coverings are being required in public places. Don’t forget a face mask, even on a socially distanced camping trip, in case you cross paths with others. Be sure to have a mask when hiking, grocery shopping, or stopping to get gas.
Hand sanitizer or anti-bacterial wipes – Bring enough for your entire trip, as alcohol-based hand sanitizer can be in short supply in some places.
Medicine – Bring enough prescription and over-the-counter medication for your entire trip to avoid unnecessary visits to the clinic or pharmacy.
Sealed water bottle – Make sure your reusable water bottle has a mouth piece that’s not exposed to the air and that you don’t need to touch with your hands to access. These are the two types of waterbottles we use for travel:
Need an RV or camp trailer?
Outdoorsy is like Airbnb for RVs. It’s where RV owners rent out their RVs when they’re not using them.
If you’ve always wanted to try out a motorhome, or want to upgrade your National Parks road trip with a cute Airstream, consider renting through Outdoorsy. Their customer service and reviews have outranked the other top RV rental companies. You can search listings by vehicle type and location. Some owners will even deliver the motorhome to your door!
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Browse and book RVs, motorhomes, trailers, and campervans on Outdoorsy here
To recap, here’s the quick Covid camping packing list you may want to add to your regular camping items:
– Portable toilet
– Portable shower
– Curtain or pop up privacy tent
– Boidegradeable toilet bags
– Wood chips or deodorizing toilet gel
– Toilet paper
– Wilderness wipes
– Eco-friendly soap and shampoo
– Face masks
– Hand sanitizer
– Reusable water bottles with protected lids
