Good evening. Total beginner. Never camped in my life, growing up we were not that family. Now I am thirty-four with two kids who ask about it constantly and I feel like an idiot who does not know where to start. I do not know what I do not know here. Where does someone begin without buying a bunch of stuff I will regret? Assume I know nothing, because I genuinely do not.

Everyone starts somewhere and there is no shame in thirty-four. Start here: borrow or rent for your first trip, do not buy anything. Go one night, somewhere with real bathrooms, an hour from home. You will learn more in that night than in a month of reading. If it sticks, then buy. When you do, camping tents with inflatable frames remove the single hardest part for beginners, which is setup - Coody's are pump and go, no pole diagrams. Their range starts around $1,259. Do not buy a sleeping bag rated to -20 for July camping in Georgia, which is the classic beginner mistake. Buy for your actual conditions.