Ever sleep under the stars?
 

What was your experience like? Was it worth it?

Magical.
Yes.

Here in Mexico, claro que si.
M

Which stars are you taling about? I can think of several that it would be quite interesting to sleep under -- or on.

Of course...who hasn't?
Favorite memory as an adult:
My mother died during the same month that we had a sky full of shooting stars late at night, all night long. So, what did my darling husband do? He set up two lounges on an upstairs deck of our Pebble Beach house. He then placed "below zero" sleeping bags on the lounges. He woke me up and the two of us laid out under the shooting stars, thinking of mom and hearing the roar of the ocean. Now, that's a heavenly memory.

Pick a campsite in Yellowstone's Lamar Valley. Watch the Big Dipper glide across the the night sky among the shooting stars. Most people live in and around towns and cities with light pollution. You will be surprised at the number of stars that are blocked from view by this.

Well the question of "who hasn't" is a lot of people, expecially those that live in cities and are not able to travel to areas where the stars are bright and beautiful.

Corshi, when we had our boat berthed in the California Delta one of the great joys was sleeping under the stars when the weather was pleasant. We would put our sleeping bags in the stern of the boat and we would see the most beautiful diamonds in the sky.

Wonderful...backpacking Big Bend National Park...before children!

I love to sleep out under the stars and try to do so whenever I'm somewhere really dark and far from city lights.

Some of the best were on a ferry in the mediterranean, in a field in NE British Columbia, on a car top inland of Big Sur, on a beach in Baja California, in a rowboat on a lake in southern oregon.

One of my favorites was near Sandy Beach on Oahu during a Pleades (sp?) shower. My girlfriend and I took six high school girls- my two daughters, a friend's daughter, two exchange students from Tokyo and one from New Delhi.

The local girls loved making wishes on the hundreds of shooting stars...The foreign girls were amazed to see stars at all....In cities like Tokyo and New Delhi, pollution and city lights completely wipe out the stars.

We sang silly camp songs in three languages (four if you count frere jacques)and fell asleep with our hands on the stars and the sound of waves in our ears.

Unless there are mosquitoes or wild animals, I love sleeping under the stars.

Most wonderful experience was sleeping under the stars and TRYING to sleep with a bright full moon at the bottom of the Grand Canyon during a raft trip.

Vera

Camping as a teen in the Sierra's. :-)

Yes and NO! Dew will rain on the parade. But maybe some like getting wet in bed. I had to once in Northern California. I might also add bugs and snakes to the equation. There are 3 spiders in N.A. that can kill you. There are reasons that mankind has invented igloos, teepees and condominiums.

Yes, and yes - emphatically, so long as you are not sleeping under the stars in Minnesota or Wisconsin during mosquito or black fly season and there are no bears poking around your camp site! As for being surprised by the number of stars blocked by light pollution - if you're an urbanite you'll be gob smacked at the spectacle. Until last summer in Yosemite it had been 20 years since I'd had a clear view of the night sky. I felt like I was looking a some sci-fi special effects extravaganza - the Milky Way streching across the sky was breath taking.

All the time. The stars are quite bright in Starrsville - no light pollution.

Several times as a kid growing up/camping in the PNW.
As an adult..best was the Carrbbean watching the Southern Cross make it's way across the horizen from the deck of a 52 foot chartered sailboat..falling asleep in my husbands arms with the gentle sway of the boat at anchor and the seabreze..

TTess..
Love your story and what a cool husband you have!

I adore sleeping under the stars and really the only time I get to do that is when my friend takes his big ol'boat to Catalina and even though I could have my own stateroom, I always opt for the hard top on the bridge where we jump off during the day and I have my comfy sleeping bag and with Avalon harbor lights and sounds, the water taxis and those gorgeous stars, it is magical!

Ten-day camping trip to Texas during college. The most amazing night sky was in the Guadalupe Mountains in Texas. You could see everything with the naked eye. It was beautiful.

Lordy, so many times and always ( as happy says)..Magical!
As a kid in NC, we slept on sleeping porches, camping down by my grandfathers lake..in Arizona camping out , got to see falling stars then..as an adult in NY and at the beach in Montauk.. nothing like a big bed out on the deck and some mosquito netting~
I hope we will get to sleep under the stars in Argentina next ((*))

On the beach in Hatteras, NC; on the deck of a four-masted schooner in the Caribbean although what was goping on "under the stars" on the latter was even more interesting even if you couldn't quite see the "stars!"

Ecstatic!! Under the stars...a secluded cove in Treasure Cay, Bahamas. It was early March, last year. You lie flat on the sands, gzae at the stars!! Starstruck! but hey! the sound is mind-blowing.i can feel it entering from my right ear, then making circles in my brain and trapped there forever! I still remember the sound of the surf. I love these nights! if I'm not near the sea, I'm on the roof-top!

Not in ages although a couple of years ago I went out to a hill top when there was an esp great night for shooting stars. I'm envious of our son who has slept out in various places including Alaska where he was sometimes treated to the Northern Lights. I always look for Orion in the winter sky but my favorite time of day to be outdoors is early early morning.

Many times when we had our sailboat.

Some of the best views was when we anchored in Chicago and went to sleep looking at the city lights before us and having morning coffee on the deck watching the city wake up.

I promised George I wouldn't kiss and tell.

The state park in Ludington, MI right on Lake Michigan....our cabin that we were renting was directly behind us and getting kind of cramped, so me & hubby grabbed sleeping bags & slept on the beach. The western beaches along Lake Michigan are a hidden gem.....

Yes, many times! Camping as a kid, and now backpacking. The absolute best way to fall asleep and the best way to wake up.

When I lived up in the Santa Cruz Mountains. In the summer I would sleep out on my deck watching the stars. The best night sky experience I've had was along the Sonoma coast at Sea Ranch. I've seen bright stars, but nothing like that!

yes
very special
definitely

Never have slept outside EVER, not even in a tent! LOL. Closest thing I've come to sleeping under the stars is in my SUV on a beach on the east end of Long Island...but this June, my plan is to fall asleep under the stars in a hammock on Jost Van Dyke in the BVI....and hopefully won't get eaten alive by island mosquitos :)

The first time was as a child. My parents put out sleeping bags for all of us in the back yard and we watched a fantastic meteor shower. I was raised in a small West Texas town, outside the city limits, so there were no lights to take away from that huge Texas sky full of stars.
Now I love camping with my husband. We have a tent with a screen roof so we can lay there cuddled up on the air mattress and gaze up at the stars without any bugs to pester us.

Yes, many times as a child and as an adult. It's wonderful!

Yes yes yes, and yes it's worth it.

I fell asleep on the deck of a cruise ship last week. As I get older, roughing it seems less appealing. The only star I might sleep under is Pierce Brosnan. Don't tell my hubby.

Great stories... It's something I've always wanted to try but thought I might regret it the next morning. Any other stories? I enjoyed reading all of them so far.

There's nothing like it. You need to get away from the city-glow to be able to really see the stars clearly. We travel regularly to the remote northwest of Western Australia (the Kimberely and the Pilbara). A mozzie-net keeps the bugs away if you are in danger of getting eaten but that varies with location. Other than that, the less mod-cons, the better.

Oh and by the way, at least where we go, the birds in the morning make sure you are awake before dawn, and that's pretty special too.

I don't camp. Period.

I do love being outdoors. I love sitting on my deck late into a summers night watching the summer sky. I have wrapped myself in a quilt and watched the northern lights. I have snuggled up with loved ones on different continents, different countries, and many different states to watch the night sky. But when I'm ready for sleep, I want to walk inside and climb into my bed.

There's a funny line in a movie, the title of which is lost to my memory. A character is talking to his girlfriend: "As I lay there on my back watching the stars dance across the sky, one question kept running through my mind. I wonder what happened to my roof?"

jersey, don't know where you are staying in Stl Lucia, but one of the best stargazing experiences was in the plunge pool at Jalousie - and then wrapping up on the private patio chaises. VERY nice.

Enjoy St. Lucia. Take a water taxi to where you want to go (Anse Chasenet's black sand beach, the market, etc) rather than going by taxi via road.

Thanks Starsy. We are staying at Ti Kaye, supposedly quiet and romantic. I love the idea of water taxi's. My husband is an amature astronomer and as we stargaze he points out the different plants and the like. It sounds like a great opportunity to watch the night skies.

My family used to have a hunting cabin that was quite small - basically large enough for cooking and meals, but no bedrooms. Outside the cabin we had quite a few old victorian iron bedframes set up - leveled with rocks under the legs. When everyone was up there, we'd haul out the matresses and the quilts, make up the beds and everyone would sleep outside. Now THAT is sleeping under the stars ;)

I've slept outside many times while camping or on the deck of our small boat. But the most awe-inspiring occasion was on our rented houseboat on Lake Powell. The boat wasn't air-conditioned and it was more comfortable to sleep on the roof. I'm sure the stars would have been spectacular, but the moon was full and it was like trying to sleep while someone held a flashlight to your face. But I've never slept anywhere with such huge, wide-openness around me. It was breathtaking in its vastness.