listen carefully and you can hear the wild call, “Hey, remember me?” If you’ve been an indoor person for the past two years due to a particular pandemic, now is the perfect time to brag to your friends and family and head to the hills, forests, or deserts for a summer camping vacation. If you need to stock up first, you’re in luck – we’ve found some great deals on some of our favorite WIRED-tested camping gear.
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Camping offers
Despite what people say, discomfort doesn’t have to be part of camping. View our Best Tents† Best camping stovesand Hiking 101 guides for more recommendations to make it a summer to remember.
The Outward Padded Lawn Chair is my favorite lawn/camping chair on the market right now. The generous padding makes it more comfortable than anything I’ve been in lately. It’s also sturdy, has backpack straps so you can carry it hands-free, and weighs a not-too-bad 8 pounds and 4 ounces while holding up to 250 pounds. A cup holder is missing, but that’s my only complaint.
I’ve slept in a SingleNest several times this summer and you can’t get a better hammock for the money. The build quality is impressive and although it weighs only a pound, it can hold up to 400 pounds. It also makes a great backyard hammock if you have a few trees to hand.
Recommended in my guide to Emergency equipment for home, the Divide+ Push solves a major problem of rarely used electronics: Alkaline batteries (the most common type you probably have in your home) tend to corrode when not used. With this Coleman all you have to do is turn a section to disconnect the batteries and terminals before putting it away for the winter, and no more leaking batteries! It’s plenty bright at 50 lumens and can run for 330 hours on three D-cell batteries, although there’s a powerful 425 lumens mode that runs for 30 hours.
REI’s house brand is one I often recommend to campers and hikers† It combines impressive specifications and above-average quality with low prices. Unless you’re willing to spend more than twice as much for a premium marquee, the Half Dome will do everything you ask of it. It weighs a respectable but not super light 5 pounds, but it has two doors so no one has to climb over its tent mate to get in and out.
This is our favorite lightweight family tent† The largely mesh design is good for ventilation on hot summer days, and the double vestibules provide storage for boots and other gear. We recommend you seam sealing the tent, which is not difficult to do.
The availability of fire pits at campgrounds can be spotty, confusing, inconsistent, or downright impossible. And as primitive as can be, uses an ordinary stacked wood campfire a lot made of wood. Consider upgrading to a stainless steel fire pit, such as the Solo Stove Yukon (7/10, WIRED recommended† It vents air so the fire burns more efficiently, meaning less is needed to collect dead wood. This deal is also directly available from Solo Stoveand smaller versions are for sale here†
For camp tasks where your hands are full, like pitching a tent at night, it’s easier to don a headlamp than it is to try to juggle a lantern or flashlight. The Spot 350’s three AAA batteries last up to 200 hours on the lowest light setting and are IPX8 waterproof. You can shine up to 350 lumens if you also need a powerful beam of light.
The instinct of the sun (8/10, WIRED recommended) is a backcountry watch that can help you find your way back to your campsite (hurrah, GPS!). It has the usual Garmin features like an altimeter and barometer – and the best part? It can recharge itself from the power of the sun, extending its life between trips to the charger.
We love the LifeStraw filter, a tubular straw that lets you drink clean water from rivers and lakes without fear. We haven’t tried the company’s bottle version yet. It performs the same function, but lets you carry the water around (also with a built-in carabiner and straw).
You can find this jacket in our Hiking guide 101† Puffy coats like these are great midlayers and can run very hot. They’re a good option if you’re camping in cooler areas (or if you just want to hold it for the winter now).