Best camping stoves

The luxury of a steaming hot drink and the satisfaction of a cooked meal at the start or end of a day spent in the great outdoors make a good-quality, portable stove essential for a successful camping or hiking trip.
The best camping stoves are lightweight, easy to use, and efficient so you’re not left waiting too long for that first cup of coffee in the morning. All these stoves will give you and your family a reliable way of preparing simple meals and hot drinks when out of the house. Our favorite is the popular Jetboil Flash. It never fails to impress with how quickly it can boil water and is so compact and easy to carry that it always earns a place in our backpack.

For any backpacker in urgent need of a coffee or tea, there’s only one place to turn. The Jetboil Flash is astonishingly fast to boil water, its FluxRing roaring away like a jet. This makes it ideal for rehydrating dried meals, as well as brewing a tea or coffee (an optional coffee press turns the pot into a cafetiere). 
Fold-out legs attach to the base of the gas canister, improving stability; push-button ignition starts the fire without faffing with matches, and a color-change heat indicator shows when water is boiling (if plumes of steam haven’t given you a clue). For portability, the stove and a small gas canister slide into the pot, while a small bowl protects the FluxRing. It makes for a compact package to slip into your camping kit.

The Optimus Vega is one of the few stoves designed to take winter temperatures in its stride. Flip the gas canister upside down (there are support legs to hold it in place) and the heat gets a turbo boost – ideal for cold temperatures or if you need to cook in a hurry. Boiling or cooking in sub-zero temperatures may sound extreme, but early mornings even in summer can see the mercury tumble. 

This winter mode does burn more fuel, so for summer, it’s wiser to save gas and have the canister the right way up. The stove itself sits low to the ground, which makes it more stable, and a foil windshield shelters the flame from a breeze.

Solo Stoves bring out the hunter-gatherer in campers, due to their fuel source – twigs. Children will love foraging around for dry tinder to burn, and there’s something deeply satisfying about being self-sufficient, rather than relying on gas. However, there’s always the risk that heavy rain will have soaked available twigs or that there’s no combustible material around.

The Solo Stove has a double combustion process – oxygen drawn in through the bottom vents feeds the main combustion, while heated air rising through the double wall is fed through the top vents for an extra oxygen boost, enhancing the stove’s efficiency. Cooking pots and kettles then perch on top. This stove is slightly heavier than others, but you save weight by not having to carry fuel.

Bottom line

A stove is essential for any successful camping trip if you want to enjoy hot drinks and food outside. It could be a cup of coffee on a long walk or breakfast for you and your family, nothing lifts the spirits like being able to cook a meal and heat water for drinks in your camp.

The best camping stoves need to be compact and lightweight enough to carry, simple to operate, and burn their fuel efficiently. All of these stoves perform well and deliver the heat you need. Our favorite is the Jetboil Flash Camping and Backpacking Stove Cooking System. As well as being simple to use and a compact size to carry, it’s astoundingly quick at boiling water so you’re not left waiting long for that first cup of coffee of the day.