What We Learned from Watching Campers Set Up: Insights into How Guests Use Their Sites

If you ever need honest feedback about your campground, just pull up a chair and quietly watch a few arrivals. The setup ritual is part ballet, part comedy, and part stress test. In those first twenty minutes, every small design flaw in a site reveals itself. Here are some less-obvious lessons we’ve learned just by paying attention.

1. Guests Create Their Own “Front Porch”

Most campers instinctively face their chairs and rugs toward a view — even if that view is just a patch of trees between sites. When the picnic table is bolted in the wrong spot, guests drag it (sometimes noisily) until it fits their idea of a front porch.

What parks can do: Place tables and fire rings where they naturally frame the best view, not just where they’re easiest to mow around.

2. Everyone Builds a Kitchen Triangle

As soon as the grill or Blackstone comes out, you’ll see campers set up a triangle between their outdoor cooking, table, and door. When the table is too far or the grill pad is nonexistent, people improvise with awkward angles and long extension cords.

What parks can do: Consider designated grill pads or small paved areas close to tables, so the outdoor kitchen feels intentional.

3. Lighting Is an Afterthought Until It’s Dark

You don’t notice it during setup, but watch campers again at dusk: strings of lights go up, lanterns come out, and people trip over cords. This tells you that arrival is only half the story — nighttime flow matters too.

What parks can do: Offer low-key site lighting options or suggest solar stake lights in your camp store. Guests love leaving with a solution to a problem they didn’t know they’d have.

4. Parking Tows Becomes a Side Show

After backing in the RV, the tow vehicle or extra car is the forgotten child. People often end up shuffling vehicles like puzzle pieces, blocking fire pits or picnic areas.

What parks can do: Make tow-vehicle space obvious. A little gravel pad, a painted line, or even a “tow car here” sign saves guests the guesswork.

5. Kids and Pets Claim Territory Fast

Long before parents finish leveling, kids are off scouting, and dogs are sniffing. If there’s a safe path to the playground or a patch of grass that feels like “the dog yard,” families relax. If not, setup feels chaotic.

What parks can do: Think about the first ten minutes through the eyes of a child or a pet. Is there a safe beeline to where they want to be? That matters more than you think.

6. Guests Tell Stories with Their Stuff

Some roll out full patio setups with banners and flamingos. Others keep it minimal. Either way, they’re creating a stage that communicates, “This is who we are.” The easier you make it to stage that story, the happier they’ll be.

What parks can do: Provide small extras — hooks for lights, tie-off posts for shade tarps, even rentable outdoor mats. They’re inexpensive touches that help guests build their temporary “home.”

Takeaway for Park Owners

Setup is more than plugging in and leveling — it’s the moment guests start to claim their site. Watching carefully reveals dozens of little frictions you can smooth out.

The magic isn’t in the big infrastructure upgrades; it’s in noticing the details: where chairs point, where the tow car ends up, where the kids run first. When you design with those quirks in mind, your park becomes more than a stopover. It becomes a place people look forward to returning to.