The Ultimate Car Camping Gift Guide: Top Picks for 2024
In the last couple of years, I’ve probably spent as much time car camping as I have sleeping indoors. With hundreds of nights of car camping experience, I’ve assembled a guide to some of the best car camping gifts.
This car camping gift guide offers excellent additions to make your car camping life more comfortable at a frontcountry campground or down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere (where you arrived in the middle of the night and you’re “pretty sure” is the right place).
Whether you’re looking to level up your own outfit or become someone’s new best friend (or just remind a friend how much you want them to take you car camping), these car camping gift ideas will be a great addition to anyone’s gear garage.
Gifts Under $25
Car Window Screen/Shades
These window shades are awesome, and I didn’t even know they existed until I went looking for them. They allow you to have your car’s windows open and prevent bugs from making their way in. Essentially, these create a window screen for your car windows. They can also provide added privacy (particularly if your windows aren’t tinted). These are a lifesaver if you’re sleeping in (or just hanging out in) your car—especially in the summer (because bugs).
Sea to Summit Wilderness Wipes
It may not be the sexiest gift, but it’s most certainly one that will get used; Sea to Summit Wilderness Wipes are something every car camper should have stashed away in their vehicle somewhere. It doesn’t matter if you’re giving yourself a wipe-down after a run, cleaning your hands before/after eating, or wiping up that glob of jelly you accidentally dripped onto your now-not-so-new down jacket, wet wipes are an essential part of any car camping adventure, and you can never have enough.
Gorilla Tape
A nice big roll of Gorilla Tape is a staple of any good car camping kit. Need to patch a hole? Check. Need to connect two things? Check. Need to make a wallet? Check. Need to fish your phone out of a privy? Check. Gorilla Tape is great for all kinds of quick fixes and repairs—or for just keeping your lantern upright on a table in the wind. Get creative. But most importantly, have some on hand.
Dr. Bronner’s Organic Hand Sanitizer
Every car camper needs hand sanitizer ready and available. Honestly, I have them stashed all over my car. What’s the best-smelling and easiest-to-use hand sanitizer? Dr. Bronner’s Organic Hand Sanitizer. It’s available in two scents: lavender and peppermint. That said, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to find the peppermint variety. That said, they’re both excellent and equally capable of keeping your hands clean. They’re the perfect gift for yourself (or a friend of yours who you don’t trust to wash their hands before cooking for the group).
UCO ECO 4-Piece Mess Kit
The UCO ECO 4-Piece Mess Kit is essentially two bowls that nest into one another, creating an airtight (or airtight enough) seal. The pros? You can store things in them when they’re clean; each is two bowls/plates. You can store leftovers in them or close them up and ignore your mess if you’re too lazy to clean them at camp (and you know you’ll have access to a more suitable cleaning location later). Each also comes with a fork/spoon combo (which works well enough). The real MVP here is the bowls (technically, the bowl and its lid that’s also essentially a bowl).
Gifts Under $50
SILKY F180 Folding Hand Saw
One of the perks of car camping is that you can carry tools with you to make camping more like what people imagine camping is and less like just surviving in the wilderness with your backpack. A SILKY F180 Folding Hand Saw is an excellent option for a car since it folds, so you won’t have to risk it ripping open your seats, sleeping kit, or upholstery, and it’s great for cutting wood at your campsite (or doing whatever other sawing/cutting/threatening activities you need to do).
Klean Kanteen 16 oz Pint Cup (4 Pack)
Glass? Not a good idea in a car or at camp. Cups? An excellent idea in a car or at camp. The Klean Kanteen 16 oz Pint Cups offer an unbreakable, nestable, and easy-to-clean drinkware solution for camp. If you want to get fancy, you can also upgrade these tumblers with lids and straws. Klean Kanteen Pint Cups are BPA-free, lead-free, and come with the company’s Strong as Steel Lifetime Limited Warranty.
Portable Car Air Compressor
A Portable Car Air Compressor can be a lifesaver for camping in remote areas (or even helping someone else at a campground). These portable air compressors plug into your car’s 12-volt car accessory outlet, so as long as your car’s battery is working, you’ll be ready to inflate your tires (or your giant pool inflatable that you’re taking into the lake with you for an afternoon of lounging).
Black Diamond Spot 400 Headlamp
A headlamp is essential when car camping, and the Black Diamond Spot 400 Headlamp fits the bill nicely. You don’t need something incredibly fancy with a billion lumens and adaptive lighting. For car camping, you need something durable with a decent runtime and replaceable batteries (because recharging a headlamp at night isn’t fun, and you can have extra batteries in the car). Just ensure you’ve got a red light (this one does) so you don’t blast your neighbors or blind your friends when you’re stumbling to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Gifts Under $100
Dometic GO Hydration Water Jug
The Dometic GO Hydration Water Jug is an 11-liter water jug that won’t puncture, won’t get accidentally squeezed, and will play nicely with the Tetris that is your car’s storage area (or the space behind your seat). I didn’t ever think I’d be this big a fan of a water jug, but I like this thing more than I should for what it is. If you want to get fancy with it, there’s also an optional faucet attachment to supplement it.
BioLite AlpenGlow 500 Lantern
Lanterns are an often overlooked car camping gear, but the BioLite AlpenGlow 500 Lantern is an excellent addition to any setup. Yes, everyone can wear headlamps and avoid looking directly at anyone else for fear of blinding them, or you can all sit around your table bathed in red light instead. But the BioLite AlpenGlow includes everything you could want from a lantern, including full and half cool light, half warm light, full candle flicker, color light, color party, fireworks, and more. It also runs 200 hours on low or five hours on high.
CGear Multimats Sandlite Sand-Free Mat
An excellent addition to a car camping setup? A CGear Multimats Sandlite Sand-Free Mat. You can use it as a doormat outside your tent or your car. It can be a nice transition zone where you can sit, take off your shoes, change out of wet clothes, or do whatever you don’t necessarily want to do inside your sleeping area. The sand-free aspect of this mat works okay at best (probably best for fine sand), but the mad is a nice midway between using a blanket and a plastic tarp.
America the Beautiful Pass
If you’re car camping (and you’re in the United States), you need an America the Beautiful Pass. It allows unlimited entry into all United States National Parks. It’s a must-have for anyone hoping to make more than three yearly trips to National Parks. You can buy it for someone else as it’s enforced via a signature on the back (i.e., it doesn’t require you to register it beforehand). An excellent gift for anyone living near (or traveling to) America’s National Parks.
Rumpl NanoLoft Puffy Travel Blanket
One of the nicest parts of car camping that often goes underappreciated is the ability to bring larger or more luxurious items that you wouldn’t typically (or even be able to) bring if all you were carrying was a backpack. The Rumpl NanoLoft Puffy Travel Blanket is a warm, lightweight, and comfortable blanket that comes in – perhaps most importantly – fun colors. Car camping is great because you don’t have to restrain yourself to a sleeping bag or quilt. If you’re able to carry whatever you want (because you have a car), you might as well be comfortable.
Gifts Over $100
Helinox Savanna Chair
Sure, you could sit on the ground, on a stump, on your tailgate, or a nicely placed rock, but you know what’s better than all those options? A nice char. What’s an especially nice chair? The Helinox Savanna Chair. It packs down small, has two beverage holders, a headrest, and can support up to 320 lb / 145 kg. Want to make it even more stable on grass or the sand? Add the Helinox Ground Sheet. Want to make it even warmer? Add the Seat Warmer.
High Camp Flasks Firelight Flask
Whiskey and wine are great for enjoying around a campfire, but—as noted above—glass is generally not the best idea at camp or in your car. The High Camp Flasks Firelight Flask offers an elegant solution for your adult beverage (or your non-adult beverage). The Firelight comes in two sizes—375 and 750 ml; the smaller version comes with one included tumbler, and the larger one comes with two. The stainless steel flasks are vacuum insulated, and leak-proof. It’s an elegant solution to having a glass bottle of your favorite beverage bumping around the inside of your car or cooler.
Vermont Glove The Vermonter
One thing I find that’s often missing from a good car camping setup is a nice pair of work gloves. The Vermonter from Vermont Glove is an excellent solution to this frequently neglected piece of the gear list. For collecting wood, sawing wood (with your fancy new saw), for grabbing hot things, for grabbing cold things, or for sticking your hand into that hard-to-reach place where you aren’t 100% sure your naked fingers will survive, the Vermonter – made with goatskin leather – will keep your hands happy outdoors.
Jetboil Genesis Basecamp System
A good stove is essential to any car camping setup, and the Jetboil Genesis Basecamp System is an elegant and compact solution. Unlike more traditional stove options with two burners that look more like a briefcase, the Jetboil Genesis folds into itself and nests inside the included pot and skillet. This makes your stove something you can store easily instead of something you’re building your storage solution around. And yes, you can use other pots and pans that aren’t the included Jetboil pot pan (and you can get the stove by itself as well).
Helinox High Cot One
Not all cars are created equally when it comes to sleep systems. Having a compact, easily deployable, comfortable sleep solution is an excellent idea for any car camping setup, whether you’re trying to sleep under the stars one night or you’re hosting a friend who you don’t want to (or don’t have room to) snuggle up with in the back of your car. The Helinox High Cot One is an amazing addition to any car camping setup. It keeps you off the ground, supports up to 320 lb / 145 kg, and is 75 in / 191 cm long when assembled.
Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 Portable Power Station
One of the best things you can get for a car camping enthusiast? An excellent power station. The Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 Portable Power Station will do an excellent job meeting any car camper’s power expectations. No longer will we worry whether the car’s battery is going to die. No longer will we have to leave the car running while powering things from the car’s 12V accessory outlet. The Explorer 1000 can power anything from laptops and lanterns to microwaves and powered coolers. And if you’re looking for something smaller (or larger), you can find that as well.
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