The Best Portable Camp Stove & Grill for Family Camping

The propane question (read this first)

Here's the thing nobody tells you: every one of these runs on propane, and how you feed it decides whether it's actually portable. The small one-pound green canisters screw right on, weigh almost nothing, and are the camping default — one or two will get you through a weekend. You can also run any of these off a big twenty-pound tank with a hose adapter, and the fuel works out cheaper that way. But be honest about what you're doing: if you're loading a full-size propane tank into the car to drag to a campsite, you've given up the portability that made the thing worth buying in the first place. Save the big tank for the patio. For camping, bring the little canisters — and a spare.

Stove or grill — which do you need?

Start with the stove. Every trip, without fail, you'll need to boil water — for coffee, for cleaning, for a pot of something — and a two-burner handles that plus most real cooking (pair it with a pot and a skillet and you're set). A grill is the upgrade if you love burgers and dogs over a flame. Plenty of families run a stove and the campfire and never buy a grill at all. And if it's a flat-top for breakfast you're after, that's a camping griddle, which we cover on its own page. There's no wrong answer; it's about how you like to cook.

You don't strictly need any of them

Worth saying plainly: the fire does a lot. Foil packets, a Dutch oven, a cast-iron skillet on the coals — that's real cooking with zero propane (the whole recipes section leans on it). A stove or grill isn't what makes camping possible; it's what makes it easier and faster, especially breakfast and coffee when everyone's cold and impatient. Buy for convenience, not necessity.

BTUs, burners, and wind

More burners means more flexibility — boil pasta on one, warm sauce on the other. More BTUs means a faster boil and better performance in cold or wind. But the quiet hero is the wind guard: a breeze will steal half a cheap stove's heat and leave you wondering why the water won't boil. The Coleman stove and grill both light with a push button, which beats fumbling with a lighter in the dark.

Don't forget the fuel and a backup light

Bring more propane than you think you'll need — running dry mid-coffee is a rough start to a morning. And pack a lighter or matches anyway; push-button igniters are wonderful right up until the one time they aren't.