10 Camping Gadgets Every Family Actually Needs (The Ones We Pack Every Time)
- Martin
- Jun 29
- 15 min read
After years of family camping in the van, we have learned the hard way which gear earns its place and which ends up gathering dust in the garage. This is the kit that stays. Ten camping gadgets we actually own, actually use, and would buy again without thinking twice.
By Martin · Nest Nomad & Beyond · Last Updated June 2026
Some of these are proper investments with the price tag to match. Most are not. We have kept both in the list because that is what is genuinely in the van. A simple head torch sits next to a power station that costs the best part of five hundred pounds, and they both earn their keep for different reasons. We will be straight with you about which is which, and who each one is really for.
Here is the 10 family camping gadgets we covered with rough prices, so you can skip to whatever you came looking for.
At a glance: our family camping gadget list
Gadget (click to jump to it) | Best for | Roughly |
Everyone. A campsite staple. | ||
Table and floor lighting | ||
Stanley Travel Mug | Spill-free morning coffee, gifting | |
Fixing things on the road or at home | ||
Family bike rides from the campsite | ||
Coffee lovers who camp off-grid | ||
Off-grid and wild camping power | ||
Awnings, paddleboards, airbeds | ||
Bite-free evenings outside | ||
Serious off-grid and van life power |
1. Petzl Tikkina Head Torch
A simple, sturdy head torch that just works. Around £20/25.
A head torch is one of those bits of kit you do not think about until you are halfway to the toilet block at dusk, or chasing the dog across a field in the dark, or trying to repack the awning at night because the kids have thrown up, the dog has done a poop in the awning and forecast tomorrow is rain - yes we have all been there!. Then it becomes the most useful thing you own apart from that bottle wine waiting for you at home!
The Petzl Tikkina keeps it simple, which is exactly why we like it. No faffing with USB cables or remembering to charge it before a trip. It takes three AAA batteries, has three brightness settings, and the strap is sturdy enough that it is not going to fray or give up on you. You can pick up a rechargeable lithium pack for it if you want, but honestly the batteries do the job.
At about twenty to twenty five pounds it is good value from a brand that knows what it is doing. If you only take one thing from this list, make it this. A head torch is a camping staple and this is a really good one.
Best for: Everyone who camps. Genuinely.
2. Coleman BatteryGuard LED lantern
An 800 lumen lantern that runs for hours. Around £30.
This is our trusty table lantern. It puts out 800 lumens on the brightest setting, which is plenty for lighting up a pitch or the inside of the awning and giving the whole campsite a sillohette show of you getting ready for bed! Coleman's BatteryGuard technology stretches the battery life a long way. On the highest setting you get around eight hours. Drop it down a level and you are looking at eighty hours, and on the lowest setting it will keep going for around two hundred. It takes four D batteries, the chunky ones, so it has got a bit of weight to it so can with stand strong breeze on a camping table.
That weight is the one thing worth flagging. It is a lovely, sleek bit of design, but it is not really one for hanging from the roof of a tent. Carina made that point when we filmed it and she is right. This is a lantern for a table or the floor, and for that it is excellent.
At around thirty pounds for a branded lantern that lasts this long, it is hard to argue with.
Best for: Table and floor lighting at the pitch.
3. STANLEY 1913 Classic Legendary Camp Travel Mug
A near indestructible insulated mug with a proper lid. Around £32.
Carina took some convincing, which is fair enough. It is a mug. But there is a genuine reason it is here, and it is the lid. The Press Fit Triton top means you can carry a full coffee from the van, down the steps and into the awning without wearing half of it. If you have ever done the camping coffee shuffle and lost a good mouthful on the way, you will understand.
It is double insulated, so it keeps your coffee hot for a long time, and it is built like a tank. Stanley have been making these since 1913, and the products feel like they are meant to outlast you. Is thirty two pounds a lot for a mug? It is. We would not pretend otherwise. But it is the kind of thing that makes a genuinely good gift, and if you are the one drinking out of it every morning, you stop noticing the price fairly quickly.
Best for: Spill-free morning coffee and keeping white tee shirts coffee free, and gifting.
4. Gerber Suspension-NXT multi-tool
A slim, pocket-sized multi-tool with spring-loaded pliers. Around £40.
Things need fixing., this is camping gear, and I'm sticking with that, plus I feel like action man when i using it!
The Gerber Suspension-NXT packs a long list of tools into something slim enough for a pocket. Pliers, scissors, two or three screwdrivers, a can opener, a file, the lot. It has a locking mechanism so you are not going to catch a finger, and the tools click into place so they do not rattle loose or stab you when you reach into your pocket.
The thing that sells it for me is the spring-loaded pliers. It sounds geeky, but unlike a Leatherman these work one-handed, which makes a real difference when you are actually trying to fix something. At around forty pounds it is not overly expensive for what you get. There is a little hook on it too, so you can clip it to a belt loop pretend to be Rip from Yellowstone.
Best for: Fixing things, whether you are on the road, on a bike ride, or at home.
5. OutdoorMaster MIPS cycling helmet
A safe, well-priced bike helmet with MIPS protection. £45.50 direct.
Now, you might be thinking this is not camping gear. But ask yourself what you actually do on a camping trip. Nine times out of ten we have got the bikes on the back of the van, and we spend a day riding while the van stays on the pitch. this is the helmet we use. OutdoorMaster is not a household name in the way Oakley is, but these are the people who make helmets for the American Winter Olympics teams, so they know what they are doing.
What matters here is the MIPS technology, which stands for Multi-directional Impact Protection System. In plain terms it is an extra layer designed to handle the kind of twisting impact you get in a real fall, not just a straight knock. The fit is properly adjustable with a dial at the back, and for the money it is a genuinely safe, well-made helmet.
It is £45.50 if you go direct to OutdoorMaster, which is where we would send you. We also have a discount code for their full range, and we will come back to that at the end.
Best for: Family bike rides from the campsite, safely.
6. OutIn Nano portable espresso machine
A self-heating espresso machine that works anywhere. Around £140.
This is the one that surprised us. Most portable coffee makers need you to bring hot water with you, which rather defeats the point. The OutIn Nano heats its own water from cold. You pour in cold water, press one button, and in about three minutes it has brought it up to brewing temperature. So you can be in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but a bottle of cold water and this machine, and still get a proper espresso with a decent crema.
It takes Nespresso original pods or ground coffee, so you can go either way. If you are camping and do not fancy the mess of coffee grounds, the pods keep things tidy. The build quality is genuinely nice. Food-grade stainless steel, and it all unscrews like a Russian doll for cleaning. It is about the size of a can of Guinness and weighs roughly the same as a small loaf of bread, so it slips into a backpack or a glovebox easily.
On battery, if you are heating cold water each time you get around five shots before it needs charging. If you already have hot water from a flask, you get a lot more. It charges over USB-C, the same cable as your phone, so you can top it up from a power bank, the car or the van.
It is not cheap at around a hundred and forty pounds, and we would be honest with you: if we were away for a couple of nights we would just take coffee bags and be done with it. But if you are away for a week or two, properly into your coffee, and you dread that instant sachet moment on a campsite, this earns its place. It also makes a lovely gift for the coffee drinker in your life.
Best for: Coffee lovers who camp off-grid or for longer stretches.
7. NestOut solar panel kit and battery pack
Waterproof folding solar panels for off-grid power. Around £130.
This is for the kind of camping where there is no electric hookup waiting for you. If you like to get properly off-grid, solar is the way to keep your phones and battery packs topped up.
The NestOut kit is a set of four solar panels that fold up like a concertina into a bag, with a built-in charging system. It is fully waterproof, which matters more than you would think, and puts out 28 watts, enough to charge a phone and something else alongside it. There are hooks on it, so you can clip it to the back of a backpack and charge as you walk, or hang it off the side of the van.
It pairs with the NestOut waterproof battery pack, which has two USB-A outputs and a USB-C, so you can charge the battery and your phone at the same time and pack it all away neatly. You do not have to use their battery, mind. It will work with whatever you have.
The solar kit is around a hundred and thirty pounds, with the battery pack on top, though you can get a single panel for roughly thirty to forty. It is an investment, and an honest word here: if you mostly roll onto a campsite and plug into the electric, you probably do not need this. But if you walk and explore every weekend, or you camp somewhere remote, the quality is built to last. This is premium, properly made kit that will survive a soaking on Ben Nevis - it won't be charging as it will be peeing it down, but it will be waterproof!
Best for: Wild camping, festivals and off-grid trips where there is no hookup.
8. OutdoorMaster Shark electric pump
An electric inflator that does the lot, and deflates too. Around £115 direct.
We have had this for two years now and it has not missed a beat. It is an electric pump, and yes, on paper that is all it is, but it has quietly become one of the most used things we own.
We upgraded to it after getting thoroughly sick of the manual pump that came with our Vango Galli III awning. The joy of the Shark is that it does everything else too. It inflates our paddleboards, the kayaks, the kids' inflatables for the pool or the beach, airbeds, all of it. It inflates and it deflates, which is brilliant for packing down, because you can get an airbed flat enough to actually fit back in its bag.
The bit we particularly love is the control panel on the front. You set the PSI for whatever you are inflating, press go, and it stops itself exactly where it needs to be. No under, no over. The awning used to drive us both mad to get right, and now it is genuinely a non-event. It charges over USB and the battery lasts an age. We have taken it away for two weeks without charging it first and never run out. It even has a USB output, so you can charge a phone from it in a pinch.
At around a hundred and fifteen pounds direct from OutdoorMaster it is very reasonable for what it does. It is a little more on Amazon, oddly, so go direct. Our discount code works on this too.
Best for: Anyone with an inflatable awning, paddleboards or airbeds.
9. Flextail Tiny Repeller S
A mosquito repeller and camping light in one. Around £43 to £55 depending on the mat bundle you choose.
You can have the best lights, the best coffee and all the power in the world, and a swarm of midges or mosquitoes will still drive you into the tent before nine o'clock. This is the bit of kit that changes that.
The Flextail Tiny Repeller S is not a spray and it is not a zapper. It heats a small repellent mat to around 165 degrees in about fifty seconds, releasing a scent-free, smoke-free repellent into the air around it. Three modes give you a choice of coverage zones: roughly three metres, six metres, or twelve metres depending on how bad the bugs are. No noise, no smell, nothing on your skin.
What we genuinely like about this one over some of the alternatives is that it earns its space twice over. There is a built-in light with three brightness settings running from 50 to 400 lumens, which is bright enough to actually read by, and a battery that will last up to forty hours on the lowest setting. So it is doing the job of a small camping lantern at the same time as keeping the midges at bay. At under 160 grams it weighs less than a phone, and there is a built-in magnet so you can stick it to any metal surface, hook it to a tent pole, or attach it to a tripod. It is IPX5 waterproof too, which matters when you are leaving it out on the table as the evening rolls in and the dew starts coming down.
The same honest caveat applies here as with any spatial repellent: it protects a zone, not a person. Sit within range and it works well. Wander off and you are back to being fair game. Wind can push the protection around, so it is best when you are settled. The refill mats last four to eight hours each, so they are a running cost to factor in, and Flextail do a free mat programme where you can claim ten mats a month if you register the device.
At 932 reviews and a 92.6 rating, the feedback is consistently strong. The size, the dual function, and the fact that it actually works are the things people keep coming back to.
Best for: Bite-free evenings sitting out at the pitch, without the spray and without the fuss.
Price: From around £43 with 10 mats included. Better value on the 60 or 120 mat bundles if you camp regularly.
10. Anker Solix C1000 power station
A serious portable power station for off-grid and van life. Around £699 to £899.
This is the big one, both in capability and in price, so we have put it last. If the NestOut solar kit is about topping up your phone, the Anker Solix C1000 is about running your actual life off-grid.
It is a 1,024Wh battery with a 2,000 watt output, which in plain terms means it will run far more than you might expect. Phone and device charging is the easy stuff. It will also run a portable fridge, your lights, a kettle or small appliance, and it pairs nicely with something like the EcoFlow Wave 3 air conditioner if you are running that at a pitch. To put the capacity in context, it is enough to keep a small fridge going for around thirteen hours, or charge a laptop more than twenty times.
The headline feature is how fast it recharges. From a wall socket with fast charging switched on in the app it hits 80 percent in under an hour. That matters in real life, because it means you can fill it up at home or on a hookup before you leave and be ready to go properly off-grid. It also takes up to 600 watts of solar input, so it pairs naturally with a solar setup for longer trips, and the battery is rated for around 3,000 charge cycles, which is roughly ten years of regular use.
Two honest caveats. First, it is heavy at around thirteen kilos, so think of this as a campsite or van power station rather than something you carry to a remote pitch on your back. Second, the price. At the better part of five hundred pounds this is the biggest spend on the list by a distance. It only makes sense if you camp often and either go off-grid or want to stop being tied to an electric pitch. For us, in the van, it has been the difference between trailing extension leads and just having power wherever we park.
Best for: Regular campers, van lifers and motorhomers who want real off-grid power.
Where to get the OutdoorMaster discount code
Two of the gadgets on this list, the MIPS helmet and the Shark pump, are from OutdoorMaster, and we have a 10 percent discount code for their full range, not just those two items.
We keep the code in our free Gadget Guide rather than printing it here, so the best way to get it is to pop your email in and we will send it straight over, along with the rest of the gear we rate.
Frequently asked questions
What camping gadgets are actually worth the money?
In our experience the ones that earn their place solve a real, recurring annoyance. A good head torch, a lantern, an electric pump that saves you twenty minutes of manual pumping, and something to keep the bugs off in the evening. The bigger ticket items like a power station or a self-heating coffee machine are worth it only if you camp often enough and in the right style to use them properly. If you mostly stay on hookup pitches for a couple of nights a year, you can skip the off-grid kit entirely.
Do you need a power station for family camping?
Not for the average weekend on an electric pitch. A power station like the Anker Solix C1000 comes into its own when you go off-grid, wild camp, or live in a van or motorhome and want to run a fridge, lights and chargers without being plugged in. If that is your kind of camping, it is one of the most useful things you can own. If it is not, your money is better spent elsewhere.
What is the best portable coffee maker for camping?
If you want real espresso without carrying hot water, a self-heating machine like the OutIn Nano is hard to beat, because it heats cold water itself in about three minutes. For shorter trips, honestly, coffee bags are cheaper and lighter and do the job. The machine is for people who are properly into their coffee and away for longer stretches.
Does the Flextail Tiny Repeller S actually work?
Yes, and it does two things at once, which is what we like about it. The repellent side heats up in about fifty seconds and creates a protection zone of up to twelve metres, depending on which of the three modes you run it on. No spray, no smoke, nothing on your skin. The light side gives you up to 400 lumens from the same device, so it is earning its place at the table twice over.
The honest caveat is the same as with any spatial repellent: it protects an area around the unit, not the person. Sit within range and it does the job well. Get up and wander off and you are on your own. A stiff breeze can also push the protection zone around, so it works best when you are settled in for the evening rather than moving about the pitch. The mats last four to eight hours each and are a running cost, so it is worth buying a bundle with extra mats rather than the unit alone.
How do you charge gadgets when camping off-grid?
A folding solar kit like the NestOut keeps phones and small battery packs topped up while you are out and about. For anything bigger, a power station gives you a large battery you can charge at home, from the car, or from solar, and then run your fridge, lights and devices from for days. Pairing a power station with solar input is the setup that keeps you going more or less indefinitely in good weather.
The honest verdict
If you are just starting out, you do not need all ten of these. Begin with the cheap, high-use stuff: a head torch, a lantern, and the electric pump if you have an inflatable awning. Add the bug repeller before summer. The bigger items, the solar kit and the power station, are worth it when your camping grows into longer, more off-grid trips, and not really before.
Everything here is something we pack and use ourselves. Nothing made the list for the sake of it. If you have a camping gadget you swear by that we have missed, we would genuinely like to hear about it, so leave us a comment and tell us what is in your van.
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