Camping food checklist
What to eat, and what actually keeps
Camping food is a planning problem, not a shopping one: no fridge, one pot and a stove that does one thing at a time. This is the kitchen half of the checklist, with what to think about before you shop.
How to plan it
- Plan by meal, not by ingredient. Write down six meals and buy exactly those — a box of “camping food” becomes a box you carry home again.
- Cook and freeze the first night's meal at home. It travels as an ice pack and it removes the worst hour of the trip.
- Anything that needs a fridge lasts about a day in a cool box in summer. Build the last days around tins, pasta and things that were never cold.
- One pot means one thing at a time. If a meal needs two pans and a colander, it is a kitchen meal, not a camp meal.
- Take the food out of its packaging at home. It halves the volume and it halves the rubbish you carry out.
Kitchen and water
Kitchen and water
- Check the fuel type is sold where you are going before you rely on it.
- Never goes on a plane — not in the cabin, not in the hold. Buy it after you land.
- Both, in separate places. A lighter fails in the wet and matches fail in the wind.
- One pot per two people is plenty. Nesting sets pack smaller than the sum of their parts.The planner packs this
- One spork each. Bring a long-handled one if you are eating out of freeze-dried pouches.The planner packs this
- An insulated mug earns its weight: it is also your bowl, and it keeps coffee hot in wind.
- Sponge, a small bottle of soap and a drying cloth. Wash away from the water, not in it.
- A litre each, minimum. Wide-mouth bottles are the ones you can actually clean.The planner packs this
- Ten litres saves a dozen walks to the tap. Fill it on arrival, before dark.
- Not optional where there is no tap. Tablets are lighter; a filter tastes better.
- Frozen water bottles work as ice packs and become drinking water as they thaw.
- Sealed and off the ground. Anything that smells is an invitation, from ants upwards.
- Two more than you think. They double as dry bags, wet-kit bags and an emergency groundsheet.
- The reason to get out of the bag on a cold morning. Not essential, entirely worth it.
- Dries dishes, lifts hot pots and wipes the table. One cloth doing three jobs.
Store everything sealed and off the ground, and take all of it away with you — food waste attracts everything from ants to bears depending on where you are.
Pack for the trip
Build the rest of the list
Tell the planner where you are going and for how long, and it will size the clothes, toiletries and tech around the gear on this page.