family travel

Camping this summer? It’s getting easier to stay connected.

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You can stay in touch while camping. Or not.

(This is a slightly different version of a story we wrote for NBC News)

What makes a happy camper this summer? S’mores, sing-alongs and — lately — streaming.

The pandemic nudged millions of people toward outdoorsy trips and experiences, and many are now hooked. But they’re increasingly demanding a decent Wi-Fi connection wherever they pitch their tents or park their RVs, and campsites are providing it.

Wi-Fi at campgrounds has become “the fourth utility behind water, sewer and electric,” said Tim Rout, founder and chief solutions officer at AccessParks, a San Diego-based broadband provider for RV parks and campgrounds.

“Six or seven years ago it was a ‘nice to have’ service so people could load their email or check their bank account,” said Rout. “Now people expect the same quality of service in RV parks that they get at home.”

Who wants to be connected when camping?

About 40% of campers say Wi-Fi availability influences where they decide to camp, said David Basler, chief strategy officer for the Outdoor Hospitality Industry trade group. “Generationally, this increases to 65% in Gen Z and millennials and 45% in Gen X campers,” he said.

Searches for Wi-Fi-equipped U.S. properties on the campsite booking platform Hipcamp are up 110% year over year, according to founder and CEO Alyssa Ravasio, who said the number of such sites grew by 30% over the past year. Most Hipcamp hosts that provide Wi-Fi don’t charge guests extra for it, Ravasio added.

Wi-Fi is now offered at 82% of U.S. campsites, OHI estimates, slightly ahead of laundry and even shower facilities. It was the most commonly provided amenity last year among privately operated camping properties surveyed recently by The Dyrt. The camping information app found Wi-Fi being added at a faster rate (nearly 16% of campsites added it from 2022 to 2023) than pickleball courts (12%), dog parks or kayaks and canoes (each at 10%).

Working while camping

The Dyrt found 29% of campers worked while camping last year, up from less than 24% in 2022 and 2021, even as more employers mandated a return to in-person work. Some campers may have been “quiet vacationing” — working from a remote destination rather than taking off to fully unplug.

Rout said AccessParks’ business was already growing before the pandemic. “But since more people flocked to the outdoors and RV sales accelerated, there is a younger, more professional demographic in campgrounds — more families, more Zoom calls with work, distance learning, etc.,” he said. “Since then, our growth has dramatically increased due to the demand for fast broadband Wi-Fi.”

At least one Montana campground relies on Wi-Fi for a camera system that monitors the area for grizzly bears, Rout added.

Wiring up

Marley Behnke said Wi-Fi was already installed at the campground in Grayling, Michigan, that she bought in late 2022. In addition to letting guests stay connected and share details from their adventures with loved ones, “there are apps that provide real-time updates for activities, facilitate food delivery, organize scavenger hunts and enable interactive games,” she said.

Wiring a campsite for high-speed broadband comes with challenges like ensuring the signal can make its way through uneven terrain, trees and metal RV bodies and withstand extreme weather. Depending on property size and the type of service offered, installation might run anywhere from $50,000 to $500,000, Rout said, though campgrounds can typically recoup the expense by raising prices by little more than $1 a night.

While middle- and lower-income travelers are especially keen to camp this summer, Deloitte researchers say, camping demand is up 7% in a year when high-income travelers comprise a greater share of this season’s leisure travelers overall. The “glamping” (glamorous camping) sector is forecast to grow by more than 15% each year through 2029, according to Arizton market research.

“I’ve got kids who have not grown up camping consistently, so I definitely need a posher camping experience,” said Sommer Nyte, 46, a Bellingham, Washington, realtor who recently bought a new pop-up tent trailer. Wi-Fi is on her wish list alongside pools, boat rentals and programming for families with children.

Internet connectivity isn’t sweeping every campsite, though.

While the RV Industry Association found about 60% of private sites offered Wi-Fi as of 2022, only 3% of public ones did.

(Photos courtesy Flickr Commons)

A great airport amenity for kids (and short people)

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We’re heading into another few weeks of record-breaking holiday travel and on our last few flights it seemed everyone was sick.

As the Centers for Disease Control – and your mother – will tell you, keeping your hands clean and washing them often with soap and clean, running water is one of the most important steps to take to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others.

But in some public restrooms, the height of the sinks presents a hand-washing challenge to kids and short people.

That’s why the Stuck at the Airport hygiene team is delighted every time we encounter one of the Step ‘n Wash self-retracting step stools in an airport restroom.

At last count, close to 100 airports around the country have installed these handy stools in some or all of their restrooms. So keep an eye out for them when you’re traveling this season.

Free bike rentals at Singapore’s Changi Airport

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It’s only Monday, but we already have a nomination for Airport Amenity of the Week.

Singapore’s Changi Airport, which already wows travelers with free amenities that include butterfly and cactus gardens, movie theaters, and the world’s tallest indoor waterfall, now offers free bicycle rentals to passengers with layovers in Singapore.

The year-long program offers layover passengers free two-hour use of a bicycle to explore outdoor attractions in the airport’s vicinity, including the Jurassic Mile, a free outdoor display of more than 20 life-sized dinosaurs and pre-historic creatures that stretch out over half a mile.

Layover passengers can cycle along the Changi Airport Connector cycling path that links to Singapore’s wider park connector network and visit beaches, Bedok Jetty – a popular fishing spot, the East Coast Lagoon Hawker Centre and nearby residential neighborhoods

To make it easy to explore Singapore on a layover, the airport has mapped out four different routes lasting two to six hours and provides pay-per-use shower facilities by the bike return point.

Want to go for a bike ride on your Changi Airport layover?

To take advantage of Changi Airport’s free bike rentals, you’ll need to have a layover of at least 5 1/2 hours but less than 24 hours between flights.

Advance reservations for free bike rentals at Singapore’s Changi Airport are available here.

(Photos courtesy Changi Airport Group)

Stuck at the Airport? Get a coloring book.

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Today is National Coloring Book Day.

Coloring is a great travel activity for kids and adults and can reduce the stress of waiting at the airport or spending hours on a plane.

Many airports offer free aviation-themed coloring books (and sometimes colored pencils) at information booths in the terminals or on their websites, where individual pages can easily be downloaded.

Many have pages of airplanes that can be colored and an assortment of games.

Here are some examples. Check the website of your favorite airport to see if they’ve got a coloring book too. And let us know if we missed your airport’s coloring book so we can add it.

Chicago Airports Coloring Book

Click here to download a coloring book for Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway Airports.

Here’s a link to a coloring book put together by the Texas Commercial Airports Association.

Below is one of the pages from Denver International Airport’s Camp Den page, where we also found these cute-but-corny-flying jokes.

  • Why is Peter Pan always flying? Because he can never, never land.
  • I put my phone in airplane mode but it wouldn’t fly!
  • Why did the students study in the airplane? They wanted higher grades.
  • What kind of chocolate do they sell at the airport? Plane chocolate.
  • What travels around the world but stays in one corner? A stamp.
  • What do you call a space pilot who lives dangerously? Han YOLO.
  • What do you get when you cross an airplane with a magician? A flying sorcerer.

NASA has free coloring pages too

Head here to find a galaxy of free coloring pages from NASA.

Travel Tidbits From An Airport Near You

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Courtesy Portland International Airport

Cool New Kids’ Play Area at Portland International Airport

The family travel team at Stuck at the Airport knows that traveling with kids can be trying.

That’s why we’re delighted to see airports adding or refreshing play areas with creative and engaging features.

The latest on the scene is at Portland International Airport (PDX). There, the Tillamook County Creamery Association has created a cool new kids’ play area on Concourse E.

The 600-square-foot space has steps, slides, and a flying van designed with children ages 3 to 8 – and people of all abilities – in mind. The bouncy flooring is made from post-consumer recycled materials and the mural on the wall is by illustrator Josephine Rais.

The Tillamook Market, also on Concourse E, serves up meals made with Tillamook’s famous cheese and other locally-sourced ingredients, scoops of Tillamook ice cream, exclusive branded merch, and grab-and-go favorites including famous Tillamook Cheese Curds.

Freshful Fridge at Santa Barbara Airport

Stuck at the Airport is 100% in favor of healthy food options at all airports.

And we’re big fans of the Farmer’s Fridge salad vending machines offering fresh meals at more than 20 airports.

The trend is growing.

Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) has a new Freshful Fridge vending machine filled with locally-sourced snacks, salads, and beverages. Look for it in the SBA baggage claim area on the first floor.

More Limits at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport

For a while now, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS) has been placing caps on the number of departing passengers and flights. The action is an effort to deal with staff shortages that are causing long lines, canceled flights, and giant baggage backups.

KLM, Schiphol’s biggest customer, and a handful of other airlines aren’t happy about those flight caps and have filed a suit against Schiphol.

Now comes word that Schiphol will further restrict flights in an effort to reduce noise pollution.

Beginning “no later than 2025 – 26,” Schiphol will ban aircraft takeoffs between midnight and 6 am and all aircraft landings between midnight and 5 am.

Private jets and the noisiest airplanes will no longer be welcome at Schiphol. And plans for an additional runway are being scrapped.

“ We need to be sustainable for our employees, the local environment, and the world,” said Ruud Sondag, Royal Schiphol Group CEO. “I realize that our choices may have significant implications for the aviation industry, but they are necessary. This shows we mean business.”

KLM said in a statement that while it believes “operations should be in balance with our surroundings and the climate,” the airline is “astonished” that Schiphol is “unilaterally putting forward proposals that will have far-reaching consequences for airlines, without involving the industry parties in this process.”

Instead, KLM said, it would prefer “to work with the rest of the aviation industry on developing further measures to reduce CO2 emissions and noise pollution.”