What gear do you need for camping?

Four areas are genuinely enough to go camping: a shelter, a sleep system insulated from the ground, a way to cook and a way to see. Everything else — furniture, storage, accessories — improves comfort without deciding whether the trip works. This article separates what you need from day one, what can wait until the second trip, and what is worth spending on.

If you want the exhaustive list to tick off before closing the boot, read our complete checklist instead.

1. The shelter

The tent is the first purchase, and it shapes all the others. Two guides are enough for a first trip.

Capacity. A tent sold as “4 person” means four adults lying shoulder to shoulder, each on the width of a sleeping mat, with no luggage. Allow one berth more than the number of sleepers: for two, a 3-person tent; for a family of four, a 5 or 6-person model, or one with two bedrooms.

Waterproofing. This is expressed as a hydrostatic head in millimetres. From 2 000 mm on the flysheet, the tent handles continuous rain. Below 1 500 mm it is limited to short showers — fine for a festival, not for a week in the hills.

The third criterion, pitching, cannot be judged from a spec sheet. Pop-up and air tents deploy very quickly but pack away less easily and take up serious space in the boot. The criteria are covered in how to choose a camping tent.

2. Sleeping

This is where beginners economise most, and what most reliably spoils a trip.

The mat matters more than the bag. Against the ground, the bag’s fill is crushed and stops insulating: heat leaves downwards. A thin foam pad is only enough in high summer on dry ground. A self-inflating mat or a thick air mat transforms late-season nights.

Choose a sleeping bag on its comfort temperature, the only one of the three printed figures that describes a real night. The “extreme” rating describes a few hours of survival and has no practical value. In temperate Europe in summer, a bag rated 10 °C comfort works in the lowlands; aim for 5 °C or lower as soon as you gain altitude.

Two guides go into the detail: how to choose a sleeping bag and air mattress or camp bed.

3. Cooking

The working minimum is short:

• a gas canister stove and two canisters, one of them new;
• a one-litre pot for two people;
• a plate, a bowl, a mug and cutlery each;
• a knife, a board, a tin opener;
• a folding bowl, washing-up liquid, a sponge, a tea towel;
• a water container and a cool box.

The canister stove is the default for leisure camping: instant lighting, fine control, no maintenance. Its limits — deep cold and resupply abroad — do not apply to a first summer trip. The alternatives are compared in how to choose a camping stove.

4. Light

A lantern for the table and a head torch each. This is one of the few areas where doubling the quantity costs little and changes a great deal: without an individual torch, every trip out at night takes away the camp’s only light.

Choose USB-rechargeable models, compatible with the power bank you already carry for your phone.

What can wait until the second trip

• Table and chairs. Many campsites lend or hire them, and plenty of pitches have them. Once you know you will camp again, this is the best comfort per pound you can add.
• Storage furniture. Useful from a week on the same pitch, pointless for three nights.
• An awning or tarp. Essential when it rains for days, useless in guaranteed sunshine.
• Specialist kit — electric cool box, solar shower, storage systems — which you buy better once you know exactly what was missing.

What not to economise on

Three items justify the spend from the start, because a cheap version does not merely work less well: it does not work.

1. The insulating mat. A poor mat cannot be rescued by a better sleeping bag.
2. The tent’s flysheet. A tent that leaks on the first night compromises the whole trip.
3. The waterproof jacket. A “water-resistant” garment is not waterproof, and the difference shows after twenty minutes of rain.

Rent, borrow or buy

For a first trip, borrowing or renting is the better decision. In three nights you will discover whether you are a settled camper who wants space and furniture, or a moving one who wants light kit. Those two profiles do not buy the same equipment, and the mistake is expensive.

One exception: the sleep system. A borrowed sleeping bag is rarely the right size or the right rating, and the hygiene of hired gear varies. It is the first thing to own outright.

Adapting to context

What you need depends on three variables: duration (past four nights, storage and laundry become subjects), season (an October night calls for a different sleep system than a July one) and mode of transport. In a car, weight barely matters and volume decides everything. On foot or by bike the trade-off inverts completely: see bike touring gear and the bivouac gear list.

With children the logic changes again: the areas that grow are not the ones you expect, and our guide to family camping gear covers them.