Hi, we’re Grainne and Ivan. We’re the original ‘Happy Campers’ who set up this site in the summer of 2019.
We met in San Francisco, where we discovered a shared passion for the outdoors and camping. After travelling around the U.S. and South America together, we settled in Spain, had 3 children and set up the successful camping blog ‘Big Lovely Day’ which quickly gained a reputation as the go-to site for unique camping and outdoor experiences in Spain. We moved back to Ireland and noticed there were no blogs about camping, so we set up Happy Campers.
Happy Campers is a knowledge hub and meeting point for lovers of the outdoors visiting Ireland. We review the best, most beautiful camping and caravanning sites in Ireland as well as beaches, hikes, food trucks, beauty spots and all the unmissable outdoor experiences that Ireland has to offer. Our wonderful loyal followers, both on the Happy Campers forum and on our Facebook page, also suggest loads of cool things to see and do.
We have recently introduced a ‘camping kit rental service‘. The idea for this was born when we lived in Spain and came back to Ireland each summer. We really wanted to camp, but how to transport all the gear? We could rent it, right? We found some companies that rented individual tents, but we needed a whole kit – tent, sleeping bags, table, chairs, stove etc. No one was doing this. Then when we set up Happy Campers we started to get requests from people looking for this exact service. Mostly foreign visitors who didn’t want the hassle and expense of transporting all their gear by plane, and also first-time campers, who weren’t sure about equipment or whether they were committed to camping.
Our Happy Campers complete camping kit includes everything you will need for a camping holiday, from the tent to the bedding, seating, cooking equipment and all the accessories. Renting a complete camping kit makes it possible to try out camping and see if it’s for you, before making a big investment. It also makes a camping trip in Ireland possible for foreign visitors where the cost of transporting the entire kit is prohibitive.
We have invested in quality, weather-resistant equipment which can take whatever the unpredictable Irish weather throws at it and provide a number of pre-designed packages depending on your group number and needs, or you can custom specify your own kit. We have a number of pick-up points close to the main airports or can deliver the kit directly to your first camp site.
Our staff are all seasoned campers themselves and can advise you when choosing your kit. We want you to have the easiest, hassle-free rental experience possible, so you can get on with relaxing and enjoying your holiday.
We are already doing our dream job, experiencing and reviewing the best camp sites in what we consider to be the most beautiful country in the world. We want to make it easy for other people to get outdoors in Ireland, to discover its incredible landscapes and experience its most remote corners, with quality gear that won’t let you down.