View of forest outside tent door
View of forest outside tent door

Top 51 Best Camping Essentials Checklist – What Every Camper Should Bring

What in the world do you take with you into the wild? Bring too much gear and you become a miserable, slow snail.

Every single step becomes exhausting not to mention, a pain with the weight of an elephant on your back. Bring too little gear, and you run the risk of not making it out of the woods alive.

When it comes to covering all the bases, there are a handful of general camping essentials that are critical to carry. These include: Navigation, shelter, insulation, illumination, repair kits/tools, hydration, nutrition, fire, fire-aid, and sun protection items.

In this camping checklist below you’ll find a complete list of items that cover all of these areas. Best of all, you’ll find everything you need and nothing you don’t, so that you can really cut the excessive weight away. While there are a lot of car camping themed checklists out there, this isn’t one of them. Sure it covers all the bases anyone would ever need to be a car camper, but it doesn’t include all the unnecessary luxuries that seriously weigh you down when backpacking in great outdoors.

Original checklist  written by Brian Cornwell on Next Luxury's website.

Media Mentions

It all starts with Sawyer Squeeze + Cnoc VectoX 2L, the best and most reliable filter-bladder combo and the core of my backpacking water storage and filtration system.

Jaeger Shaw
Owner & Managing Editor

Media Mentions

Our top water filter for thru hiking, the Sawyer Squeeze, is 15% off.

Naomi Hudetz
Chief Operating Officer & Online Editor

Media Mentions

People with alpha-gal syndrome show allergic symptoms such as rash, nausea and vomiting after eating such meat.

Stephanie Soucheray
Reporter