Top 10 “best buys”

The following “Top Ten”, in no particular order, is the best purchases we have made the last couple of years – a mixture of camping gear, photography & video equipment, garden “accessories” and outdoor activity gear.

Disclaimer: This page contains Amazon affiliate links.

We have re-discovered the joys of camping, luxuriated in our new garden hot tub and enjoyed new outdoor activities.

1. Intex inflatable hot tub for the garden – placed underneath one side of our carport to give shelter on rainy days, but still allowing us to stargaze when it goes dark…
   
2. Intex (again) inflatable double canoe – we have had tons of fun with this, canoeing along our local canal, out to various islands on Loch Lomond for a picnic, in stunning sheltered bays with white sand beaches and plenty more places we plan to take it after “lockdown”…
3. Intex (yes, Intex again!) inflatable dinghy with electric outboard motor – we use this to take ourselves and our camping gear over to the islands on Loch Lomond for short camping trips. Our favourite island is Inchcailloch. Again, we have plans to use it to discover more places once “lockdown” is over…
   
4. Vango Iris 500 tent – we use this one for “glamping” as it has so much space inside, like a mini holiday home. With this one we normally book a pitch with electric.
   
5. Aerobed – our “glamping” bed for the Vango tent, this bed is huge and is as good as any “normal” bed. Plug it in to inflate or deflate and it’s also easy to top the air up if it goes down a little overnight. More often than not, we take our electric blanket to use with it.
   
6. Camping “toilet bucket” – believe me, when your bladder wakes you up a few times a night, this is a must for camping to save a long trek to the bathrooms! (the photo is of it in the porch of one of our smaller tents)
   
7.  DJI Mavik Air Drone – if you have watched any of our recent videos, you will see some fantastic drone footage. This was not a cheap drone, but it has been very much worth the money.
8. Insta360 ONE R camera – for quirky 360 degree photos and videos this is a fun camera.
   
9. Inflatable camping chairs – we bought these from Go Outdoors and have found them really comfy to lounge around in when we are camping. However, it is worth noting that both eventually started to deflate overnight, but we did get them exchanged for free. Now so far, so good…
   
10. Rohan clothing – as a generalisation, the clothing we have bought from Rohan has been brilliant. It’s not cheap, so we wait until it is on sale. Their clothing is fantastic for travelling as it is hard wearing but lightweight and dries quickly. We went to Brasil for 10 days with only a daysack each thanks to us taking mostly Rohan clothing.
    If you decide to purchase anything from Rohan, get 20% off full priced items and 10% off discounted items with this link (I am not sure how long the offer lasts)

Since the above, we have upgraded both the inflatable canoe and the inflatable dinghy. For the price we paid (£90) for the Intex canoe, it is still an excellent option for beginners who may not be sure how much use they will get out of it. However, after upgrading to an Itiwit with dropstitch floor from Decathlon, we find this to be much more robust and far less likely to puncture (it hasn’t yet, fingers crossed!) Similarly with the dinghy, we upgraded to a sturdier one, the Intex Mariner. What would suit you best would really depend on how much money you want to spend and what you plan to use these for.