Weekend Road Trip To Lanier Islands

Yes, you are seeing a tent in my images because our weekend road trip to Lanier Islands, Georgia consisted of camping…in a tent. I’ve been so excited to share this post with you all because I overcame the fear of camping in a tent and I had the best time. I hope this will inspire your next trip, and maybe you’ll even make it a camping trip!

Growing up I’ve always been very outdoorsy, and even now I find inner peace in being outside. I love to hike, adventure, boat, fish, play sports etc… Our family even camped often-in RV’s which only half way counts However, I had this crazy fear of sleeping outside in a tent. Last year, my husband bought us our first tent-if you don’t like tent camping, but you want to try camping out, you’ll like this tent ( I was even featured in their magazine this year). We stayed one night in it over New Years Eve in my brother’s back pasture-we loved it so much that we decided to plan a camping trip. Well, it didn’t work out to go until this past weekend when we made our road trip drive up to Lanier Island, Georgia. The temps were cool and the scene was beautiful, I already can’t wait to plan my next camping adventure!

Where We Stayed + What We Did:

Our quick weekend road trip started out with a short drive up to north Florida where we stayed our first night at the Ichetucknee Springs Campground. It was a relatively nice spot for our over night stay. It had a fire pit, and showers/bathrooms you could use. They are a little old school when it comes to booking-but just a quick call and you’ll be booked. You can find a picture of our spot for this first night here on Instagram. Just down the road is Ichetucknee Springs State Park where you can hike, tube, canoe, or just enjoy the swimming in the springs. We brought a picnic lunch and enjoyed a quick hike before getting back on the road.

We continued our road trip up to Buford, Georgia which is just outside of Atlanta. We stayed on Lanier Islands at the Shoal Creek Campgrounds. The reason I chose this area was because Lanier Islands had a lot to offer. We visited Margaritaville for the day-even though most of the attractions were closed in the fall/winter months, we had a nice walk around the islands. Plus, they had several different special events going on. We also hiked up the Sawnee Mountain-the views were gorgeous and they offer a variety of different hikes. Each night was filled with preparing campfires to keep warm and our grill to cook our dinner on. We enjoyed nightly smores after dinner, and hanging out around the campfire.

On our last day of the road trip we visited Stone Mountain. Growing up, I visited Stone Mountain several times, but Jacob had never been. It was a really unique experience to take him and share with him all of my memories. You can hike or go up on the skyride. There  a variety of attractions in the park, as well as the scenic train ride. All the info can be found on their website here.

The Tent:

This tent is a life savor. It’s a truck tent, but it’s custom to fit your truck, or vehicle (if you don’t have a truck). It’s spacious, durable, and easy to assemble. After our first setup Jacob had it down to a less than 10 minute setup. It’s fully lined on the “ground” part and fits easily back into the bag for traveling. It kept us dry from the rain and offered protection from the intense winds we had overnight. Highly recommend this tent if you are looking for one.

My Camping Tips:

–Bring baby wipes (of wet wipes)-I kept a pack at the foot of our tent so that every time we got in we could wipe our feet off. This kept our sleeping area clean! Plus, I can’t sleep with dirty feet. I also used baby wipes to clean our hands-we didn’t have any faucets near by to wash hands.

–Sleep on an air mattress– most tents will fit at least a small air mattress, ours fit a queen. We slept amazing-it was a super comfortable experience.

–Games are fun-we brought a couple of games to play while were at the campground. We played in the tent when it got late and the wind/rain kicked in.

-This may sound obvious, but a flashlight came in so handy. Both campsites we stayed at didn’t have any lighting to light the area or the path the the bathrooms. So, we were using our flashlight to see (especially since it got dark before 7).

–Prepare for the weather– we checked the local weather at least a dozen times before going on our trip. We knew to expect rain, and cold temps. This helped us pack tons of blankets and cozy clothes for sleeping. I highly recommend being as prepared as possible if you’re going to camp.

–Portable fan-This wasn’t needed on our Georgia part of the trip, but for the first night while we were still in Florida we used a portable fan at night to keep us cool at night (and to keep the air circulated).

–Portable battery– If you didn’t know, you can’t plug in your phone or anything in a tent. I forgot about this a couple of times. Luckily, I brought my handy portable battery to charge our phones!

Answering Your Questions:

Where did we stay: We stayed on Lanier Islands in a campground called Shoal Creek Campgrounds-all the info on this can be found above!

Trip budget: Jacob and I typically budget our trips out, we have an idea of where we would like to go and we save up for it-this particular trip was a gift from my husband to us and our relationship. In general, a trip can be as expensive or as budget friendly as you would want it to be. While I don’t want to talk about exact costs, I did want to share some ways we kept the trip very budget friendly.

Our tent was purchased last year in hopes of more “local” travel. The tent we had bought can be found above. We chose to bring all of our food. We brought all of our cold items in a cooler-our Yeti cooler stayed cold the entire trip. We brought easy breakfasts (granola bars, oatmeal, and things to cook on the grill), sandwich items for lunch and grilled out for dinner. We also opted to explore a lot of the “free” options that were local to where we were staying like various hikes, parks, and scenic drives. You can find our hiking spot above. We always look for parks or hiking spots around us-it’s one of the best ways to explore for a relatively low fee or free.

I don’t like to camp, but I want to try it out: Take baby steps! Camp out in your backyard where it’s comfortable for you and stay close to home at first! Test trips always allow you to see how things might go and how to be prepared for a longer distance trip.  I totally understand how this may not be for everyone!

What did you wear on the trip: I had a lot of questions about my “camping style”! I opted for very comfortable, and versatile pieces. I didn’t want to bring a huge suitcase so I opted for pieces I could layer or combined with other pieces-mainly a bunch of pullovers and jeans paired with different hats. Here are some of the pieces I packed:

I’ll keep adding to this post as questions roll in, If you have a specific questions please feel free to let me know! I hope to inspire your next adventure!