Camping is about roughing it. Living off the land. Testing yourself against the elements. Reconnecting with nature. That’s all well and good, but it is also about cooking up a bunch of meat and putting your feet up on a cooler overflowing with stouts, lagers, and ales. While we’ll leave the choice of summer beer up to you, we are going to make a few suggestions when it comes to choosing a way to grill up your meat. A slotted slab of metal over an open flame is fine, but for a great camping grill, more is required.
These grills offer a wide variety of options from gas to charcoal with many great features. If you are in the market for a grill you can pack away until you need it, these are the units you should be looking at.
When traveling by foot to your camping site, you’ll be more concerned about the weight of the grill.
No one wants to carry more stuff! The best camping grills makes outdoor cooking easier, so you can enjoy nature.
Luckily, these camping grills (listed below) are compact and made of lightweight materials (we also list a few of the best camping grill stove combos).
Best for Specific Applications
The Cuisinart Petit Gourmet is super light and extremely easy to transport and does a great job of grilling a smaller amount of food. It got to go on extra adventures because its ultralight and non-bulky design makes it extremely portable. When folded up, it doesn’t have any pointy legs that stick out, and it gets kudos for having such an easily stowable design.
We recommend the Editors’ Choice award winning Coleman RoadTrip LXX for tailgating or for using on a small apartment patio. It is very reliable, grills evenly and has a high BTU output.
The Smoke Hollow Vector Series Smoking Tabletop 3-Burner is the model to go for if you want to smoke your food. However, it doesn’t have any carrying handles and is challenging to transport.
The STOK Gridiron 1-Burner is for the culinary expert who wants to cook everything from burgers to pizza on their grill. There is a section of the cooking grate that can come out and be swapped with interchangeable inserts such as a griddle, wok, pizza stone, chicken roaster and more. The inserts are available for purchase separately from the STOK website.
Conclusion
We think the best portable grill for the ultralight adventures is the Cuisinart Petit Gourmet, the most portable grill in this review. It’s easy to carry, transport and clean. The Coleman RoadTrip LXX is perfect for tailgating, while the Weber Q 1200 is great for car-side camping or picnicking as it is sturdy, stable and grills very evenly.
Each individual review will provide a more in-depth analysis of that model’s performance in all the metrics tested, any pros or cons that we discovered, and what you can expect while using each product. If you still want to know more, head over to our Buying Advice article, where we share more tips and tricks.
