I would definitely go campsite first, save wild camping for when you know what you're doing. If you've never camped before, you won't know what bits of kit you really need, and what you can leave at home, so you'll probably end up taking more than you need but still find yourself missing essentials. Going to a well-appointed site means you're less likely to need much in the way of special kit - and there will probably be a shop on site where you can buy bits and pieces you do need. Camping kit is best acquired piecemeal over a number of years, as you learn what you need. Also helps to peruse the site and see what kit other people have for inspiration.
Agreed, and you can always borrow things from neighbours, I've often borrowed a mallet when on a campsite. Or a squirt of washing up liquid when at the sinks. Etc...
Fully agree with QG on pop-up tents. They go up easily enough but take forever to fold away!
Also, whatever tent you do take, practise setting it up and putting it away in your garden (or even a local park if you don't have a garden) before you go away. Not least because you don't know what conditions will be like when you have to do it for real (I once memorably had to pitch a family-size tent in the dark, in a howling gale and driving rain in Fort William while my wife and son sat in the car watching me and laughing).
Agreed.
Some notes on choosing tents:
98% of all tent designs suck. Big time.
They look lovely and everything, until you have to put them up, in the rain, and in the wind. Any tent that requires you to feed a narrow pole through a sleeve was designed by someone who hasn't heard of wind. Any tent that is pitched inner first, and then an outer over the top, has never heard of rain. An inner first pitching tent is a place of misery when you put it up only to find your shelter is soaking wet before you've even climbed into it...
The problem is this basically rules out nearly every tent any of us can afford. The Vaude Hogan (original), and the Vaude Mark models (various sizes, various prices, hard to google for), are excellent in this regard. But you pay the price in it being a bit heavier. They are also not cheap.
I have a Luxe Sil Hexpeak, it's light weight, has room for two people (you need to buy a different inner for 2 people, but worth having). Stands up to storms very well, and it's outer first pitching. If you want to save a bit, then they do a non silnylon version for a bit less (at a higher weight). If you want to have more people, they also do other sizes. backpackinglight.co.uk are the uk stockist I believe. The nice thing about a Luxe Hex peak, is it will serve you just fine on a campsite in Kent, as it will on the way to Cape Wrath in Scotland. It is not cheap, but assuming you don't destroy it, it will last, and have good resale value.
I am a tent snob. It's worth noting that if you go to the sort of middle class folk music festivals where people have on idea how to use a tent, you can drink for free for a weekend by offering to put peoples tents up for them, in exchange for a beer. A friend and I did that at a festival in the west country... An hour of tentage, and a weekend of free drinks...
The circle of doom isn't a problem when it's going in a van with a load of RFID aerials and cables and flags and stuff.
As I say, there are niche applications. Cycle-camping/backpacking isn't one, unless you're planning to abandon it at your destination.
Until you need to also fit a human in the back of that car too... We picked up a Slovakian friend on the way to an event, we could fit him, or his luggage, or his tent, choose upto 2.
If you need shelter for your babbage engine, there's much better options, and it's best you put them up advance.
I *REALLY* hate pop up tents.
J