Skip to content
Trail & Terminal

02 — Trail / Explainer

Camping vs backpacking

Camping is sleeping outdoors near your car. Backpacking is carrying everything to sleep somewhere a car cannot reach. The gear diverges from there.

By Brijon M.Last updated How we pick
A loaded backpack on a trail with a distant campsite behind

The short answer

Camping means sleeping outdoors with your gear carried by a vehicle, so weight does not matter and comfort does. Backpacking means carrying everything on your back, so weight governs every decision. Start with camping: the skills transfer and most of the cheap gear does too.

01 — Definition

The difference in one sentence, and what follows from it

Camping: your gear is carried by a vehicle to a site, and you sleep there. Backpacking: you carry your gear on your back to a site a vehicle cannot reach, and you sleep there.

That is the whole distinction, and every gear difference follows from it mechanically. When a car carries your equipment, weight is free and volume is the constraint, so you buy for comfort and durability: a thick mattress, a heavy tent with a tough floor, a two-burner stove, a cooler. When you carry it, weight governs everything, so you buy for the opposite: thin fabrics, a narrow pad, a pocket stove, no cooler at all.

The experience diverges too. Camping is a destination -- you arrive, you set up, and the point is being there. Backpacking is a journey, where camp is where you stop. Neither is a more advanced version of the other; plenty of experienced outdoors people do one and never the other.

02 — Comparison

Head to head

CampingBackpacking
Gear carried byA vehicleYou
Binding constraintTrunk volumeWeight
Typical shelterHeavy roomy tent, tough floorLight small tent or tarp
SleepingThick mattress or cotNarrow insulated pad
CookingTwo-burner propane, cooler, real foodPocket stove, one pot, dehydrated food
WaterCarried or from a tapFiltered from sources
Up-front costLower -- cheap gear worksHigher -- light gear is expensive
Skills neededFewNavigation, water treatment, weather judgment
Where you can goEstablished campgroundsAlmost anywhere legal
CrowdsOften busyUsually not

03 — Gear overlap

What carries over, and what does not

If you camp and want to try backpacking, a useful amount of your kit already works, and knowing which part saves money.

Carries over completely

Headlamp, first aid kit, water bottles, rain shell, insulating layers, power bank, repair kit, knife, socks. None of these change between the two activities, and together they are a meaningful fraction of a backpacking list.

A compact sleeping pad also carries over if you bought an insulated packable one rather than a thick car-camping mattress -- which is one reason this site weights packed size heavily even for car camping. See compact camping gear.

Does not carry over

The tent, if it is a family dome -- too heavy and bulky by a wide margin. The cooler. The two-burner stove. The chairs. A thick mattress or cot. These are the heavy items, and they are exactly the ones that make camping comfortable.

The pack is the other one. A 20-liter daypack will not hold an overnight kit, and the pack is the item worth buying last, once you know what volume the rest of your gear actually needs.

The cheapest way to try backpacking

Borrow or rent the big items. Many outdoor retailers rent tents, packs and bags by the night for very little, and one overnight will tell you more than a month of reading. Use your existing headlamp, bottles, layers and first aid kit.

Then pick a short first trip: a few miles in, somewhere with water, somewhere you could walk back out of in an hour if it went badly. Nobody's first backpacking trip should be a test of endurance.

04 — Skills

The skills backpacking actually needs

The gear difference is the obvious one; the skills difference is the one that matters for safety. Camping at an established site is forgiving -- there are other people, a road, usually water, often a ranger. Backpacking removes all of those.

  • Navigation. Offline maps on a phone plus a paper map and the ability to read it. Phones run out of battery and lose signal; the paper map does not.
  • Water treatment. Knowing what a filter removes and does not, and planning around actual water availability. See water filters.
  • Weather judgment. Reading a forecast for a specific elevation, and being willing to change the plan. This is the single most common factor in backcountry incidents.
  • Leave No Trace practice. Waste disposal, campsite selection on durable surfaces, and food storage, all of which matter far more away from facilities.
  • Food storage against wildlife. Required by regulation in many areas, and the rules vary by unit -- bear canisters, hangs or lockers.
  • Knowing when to turn around. Not a gear question, and the most valuable skill on this list.

05 — Recommendation

Which should you start with?

Start with camping. Not because backpacking is harder in some abstract sense, but because camping lets you learn the same fundamentals -- pitching a shelter, sleeping outdoors, cooking outside, managing weather -- with a car fifty feet away as a safety net. If something goes wrong, you drive home.

Then, when the basics are automatic, borrow a pack and a light tent for one short overnight. You will know within a day whether carrying everything appeals to you, and if it does, you will buy gear knowing what you want rather than guessing. See camping gear for beginners and hiking gear for beginners.

What to buy

The gear we would buy for this

Trail & Terminal earns a commission when you buy through our Amazon links, at no extra cost to you. It does not change which products we pick -- see our affiliate disclosure and selection method.

1

Best for doing both without two tents

REI Co-op Half Dome SL 2+

Carryable for a short approach, roomy enough to car camp in. A compromise, deliberately.

If you do both a few times a year and do not want two tents in the garage, this is the honest answer -- and it is a compromise in both directions rather than a tent that is best at either. See <a href="/camp/camping-vs-backpacking-tent">camping versus backpacking tent</a>.

Specs

  • Hubbed aluminum pole frame
  • Two doors and two vestibules
  • Semi-freestanding
  • Near-vertical sidewalls

Good for

  • Genuinely works for both activities, which few tents do
  • Aluminum poles bend rather than splinter
  • Two doors removes the main two-person annoyance

Bad at

  • Heavier than a dedicated backpacking tent
  • Smaller and pricier than a dedicated camping tent
  • Proprietary hubbed pole set
2

Best for the item that works for both

Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite NXT

Buy a packable insulated pad rather than a thick mattress, and it serves both activities.

The clearest example of cross-trip buying. A thick self-inflating mattress is more comfortable at a campsite and useless in a pack; this is slightly less comfortable and works for both. See <a href="/camp/best-sleeping-pads">sleeping pads</a>.

Specs

  • Manufacturer-stated R-value in the four-season range
  • Reflective internal layers
  • Packs to roughly water-bottle size
  • Inflation sack included

Good for

  • Works at a campsite and in a pack, unlike a thick mattress
  • Properly insulated for cold ground
  • Thick enough for side sleepers

Bad at

  • Less comfortable than a thick car-camping mattress
  • Air pad, so punctures are the failure mode
  • Expensive
3

Best for the stove that goes either way

MSR PocketRocket 2

Small enough to backpack with, and perfectly usable at a campsite for one or two people.

A two-burner propane stove is better at a campsite and impossible to backpack with. This one does both adequately, which is the right trade if you are buying one stove for both activities. See <a href="/camp/best-camping-stoves">camping stoves</a>.

Specs

  • Screw-on canister top burner
  • Folds into a small hard case
  • Adjustable valve with usable low-end control
  • Works with any pot that fits the supports

Good for

  • Packs smaller than a deck of cards
  • Works with cookware you already own
  • Almost nothing that can fail

Bad at

  • Narrow burner head makes a hot spot in wide pans
  • Poor in wind without a screen
  • Canister fuel is harder to find than propane, and cannot fly

Questions

Frequently asked

What is the difference between camping and backpacking?
Who carries the gear. In camping a vehicle carries it to a site, so weight is free and you buy for comfort. In backpacking you carry it, so weight governs every choice. That one difference explains every gear difference between the two.
Should I start with camping or backpacking?
Camping. You learn the same fundamentals -- pitching a shelter, sleeping outdoors, cooking outside, managing weather -- with a car nearby as a safety net. Then borrow a pack and a light tent for one short overnight to find out whether carrying everything appeals to you.
Can I use camping gear for backpacking?
Some of it. Headlamps, bottles, first aid kits, layers and a packable insulated sleeping pad all carry over. The tent, cooler, two-burner stove, chairs and any thick mattress or cot do not -- those are the heavy items, and they are what makes camping comfortable.
Is backpacking more expensive than camping?
Up front, yes. Lightweight gear costs considerably more than heavy gear of the same function, because removing weight is the expensive part. The per-trip cost is lower, since backcountry permits are usually cheaper than campground fees and there is no firewood or ice to buy.
What skills does backpacking need that camping does not?
Navigation with a map rather than a trail sign, water treatment, weather judgment for a specific elevation, Leave No Trace waste practice, wildlife food storage per local rules, and the judgment to turn around. None are difficult; all matter more when there is no road nearby.

References

Back up a level

This page sits in Trail -- what you carry on your back: packs, poles, water, warmth.

Read next