10 High-Tech Stocking Stuffers Perfect For Campers

Camping is a wonderful outdoor activity. It gets you closer to nature, and away from people and the noise and distraction of everyday life. People like to camp in a wide variety of ways. Some folks like to bring the latest and greatest tech with them and spend a few days mixing nature and technology in the best way possible. Others like to hoof it old-school, with the bare-bones essentials and as little technology as possible. We're not here to judge people on how they conduct their hobbies, so do whatever makes you happy.

So, that is the first thing you should probably keep in mind if you're buying gifts for a camper. Knowing what kind of camping they like to do gives you plenty of clues as to what kind of gifts they might like. Also, high-tech is a bit of a misnomer here; one would immediately imagine something with electricity running through it. However, some of the innovations in the camping space have some pretty impressive tech without a single electron running through the thing, so there are gifts out there for all sorts of campers.

With all of that said, here are some great high-tech camping gifts to give you some ideas. As always, though, make sure to keep the receipt. People take their hobbies very seriously and they may have had a different product in mind than the one listed here. You can always return the gift and get the one they wanted instead.

The first thing we did was roam around the internet in search of ideas. Once a list of ideas was established, each one was individually researched to find a good product that fit the theme of the list. Each product was chosen based on its reviews by both consumers and professionals online, and double-checked with FakeSpot to ensure the consumer reviews were at least mostly accurate. Also, every product on the list below was recommended by real people in camping-oriented subreddits and forums.

Since the topic today is high-tech camping gifts, we also ensured that a sizable amount of technology went into the products listed below. You can buy any old sleeping bag or water filter. However, sleeping bag technology gets a lot more complex than a bare-bones sleeping bag, and modern water filtration designed for camping has come a very long way since the old days. We wanted to highlight those technological advancements. Rest assured, the products below are among the highest tech in their category, even if they don't have a microchip in them.

Finally, the selections and article have been looked over by SlashGear's excellent editorial staff at least twice, once before writing and once after to ensure editorial consistency.

A good lamp or headlamp makes for an easy, but thoughtful gift for the camping enthusiast in your life. An excellent, albeit expensive, example is the Black Diamond Distance 1500 Headlamp. It's one of the company's best overall products, and it's usable in a lot of different ways. Its primary function is as a headlamp so you can make your way around the campsite or surrounding wilderness without getting lost. It's also usable as a hanging lantern inside of a tent since it's dimmable down to indoor levels.

In addition, the batteries are rechargeable and you get two of them. Each one lasts about eight hours if you keep the light at 300 lumens for a total of 16 hours of charge. That time drops to eight hours of battery life if you use the lamp at 600 lumens. As per its namesake, you can also get this thing cranked up to 1,500 lumens in short bursts, which is enough to illuminate an entire campsite. As a cherry on top, it also comes with an IP67 water and dust resistance rating, so it can take being dropped into some water.

The Distance 1500 Headlamp costs $199.99 from Black Diamond's website. It's a bit expensive, but this is one powerful headlamp.

A sleeping bag isn't typically what comes to mind when one thinks high-tech, but advancements in sleeping bags are actually pretty impressive. One such sleeping bag is the Big Agnes Lost Ranger 3N1. It's a three-in-one sleeping bag that you can adjust to the temperature outside. Thus, if you need extra warming, simply add a layer, and remove a layer in warmer weather. There is also a pad cinch system that adjusts to fit whatever sized pad the camper is using, although it might be tight on full-size mattresses, which some people like to use for camping.

It's rated for 0 degrees Fahrenheit, which makes it useful for camping almost anywhere in the world except Antarctica. There are also two sizes, long and regular, depending on how big you need it. There are so many different ways to use this thing, and it definitely works as a one-size-fits-all kind of product since you can use it in a variety of situations.

All of that versatility comes at a price. This sleeping bag costs $449.95 directly from Moosejaw. Fortunately, Moosejaw has a fairly liberal return policy so if you buy it as a gift, they can try it out and see if they like it.

The Otterbox Cooler is a nice idea for a camping gift because it comes in a few variations. They include the tote, lunch box-style, cube, and backpack cooler, with the cube cooler having the largest overall capacity. Everybody knows how a cooler works. You put stuff in there and it stays either warm or cold thanks to the cooler's insulation. Otterbox does this pretty well, and it says the technology in its coolers can keep things warm or cold for up to two days. That's about all you need for a weekend camping trip.

All four variants use the same materials, which include a water-repellant outer shell that Otterbox says is easy to clean. The inner lining is FDA food-grade and BPA-free. For the two largest variants, it stashes up to 24 12-ounce cans, so you can get an idea of how big it is. It won't replace a chest-style cooler where you can put a lot more food and drinks, but it'll certainly do as a companion cooler to keep some extra goodies.

The cooler is available on Otterbox's website. It costs $49.99 for the lunch cooler, $79.99 for the backpack, $89.99 for the tote, and $99.99 for the cube cooler. The cube cooler represents the best value as you get double the storage space of the tote for just $10 extra dollars. 

There are a lot of ways to make coffee when out in the wild, and the Aeropress Go travel kit is one of them. It's slightly smaller than its stay-at-home variant but works more or less the same. You put the filter and cup on and add some coffee at the top. Add hot water and press the plunger a bit to strain the coffee down into the cup. It's easy enough that even beginners can get it right and it cleans up and deconstructs for easy carrying in your pack or tent.

There are two ways to use it. You can make up to eight ounces of regular coffee or up to three expresso shots with the device. It even comes with its own cup and there are replacement filters and screens available online in case you need more. Since it is easy to use, multiple people can use it to make cups of coffee in the morning. You just have to go one at a time.

The Aeropress Go is available on Amazon for $39.95. That means it's not as expensive as some other camping gifts, and the gift of a cup of coffee is never bad.

Campers enjoy dried food. It keeps for a long time, is easy to carry, and it usually tastes pretty good, at least when it's jerky. However, dehydrated food is also usually pretty expensive to buy on its own, so a good food dehydrator can help. This one from Cosori is an excellent option. You can dry anything from food to fruit in one of these. There are six 12-inch by 13-inch racks to make plenty of whatever you want to make. Plus, it stays at home, so you don't have to worry about how this gift will fit into a backpack.

The nice part of this is how customizable it is. You can set it as low as 95 degrees Fahrenheit, which is ideal for things like herbs, or as high as 165 degrees for things like jerky. From there, it's designed to work for hours or even days on end, so you don't have to worry about it. It also utilizes horizontal airflow, so you don't have to move the trays around or worry about flipping the food for optimal cooking.

The Cosori Food Dehydrator can be had on Amazon for $159.99, which is actually surprisingly reasonable for a kitchen appliance.

Water filtration has gotten a lot better over the last couple of decades, as the Sawyer Products Micro Squeeze demonstrates. It uses a reusable 0.1-micron filter that, as part of the filtration system, can drag a lot of unpleasant things out of the water in the wilderness. Sawyer Products claims that their system should remove north of 99% of bacteria and protozoa out of the water while also removing 100% of microplastics. The filter is also rated at 100,000 gallons so you won't have to replace it very often.

These things are pretty neat to use. You pull some water out of a fresh water source, run it through the system, and out comes water that you can actually drink. Of course, there are limitations to this technology. You can't, for example, pull water out of a scum puddle and get perfectly clean drinking water. You'll want some water purification tablets and also a filter for that level of dirt. In any case, this is a reasonably good product that'll produce reasonably clean drinking water on a camping trip where there is a fresh water source.

You can pick up a Sawyer Micro Squeeze on Amazon for $32.95. There are also several other Sawyer water filtration items if the Micro Squeeze isn't what you're looking for.

Personal locators and satellite communicators are some of the highest-tech gifts you can get for camping. They are best used on excursions that take you way out into the wilderness where a smartphone won't have service. These use satellites to keep track of your GPS location and many of them allow you to call out for help in case of emergencies. The Garmin InReach Mini is one of the best for this. It is feature-rich and connects to the Garmin Pilot service.

It supports a few different ways to get yourself out of trouble. You can download and access maps, text with rescuers, and track your GPS coordinates with it. You can't make phone calls with it, even if the text messages come from what looks like a phone number. You also get free access to Garmin Explore for things like updating the device's firmware. The only bad part of giving this as a gift is that the recipient will have to pay a subscription fee to get some of the features, and the subscription can be a little expensive.

You can get the Garmin InReach Mini in either red or black on Amazon for $349.99.

The EF Ecoflow River 2 Pro is a portable power station. It's designed for camping, although it's for the type of camping you do with your car or RV nearby because this thing is a bit too heavy to carry on a hiking trip to a remote campsite. What it does provide is tons and tons of power for appliances, smart devices, and other electronics. At 1600Wh of total output, it should be able to power most things between its various plugs and ports. This can turn a camping trip into a home away from home, as you can do things like charge your phones or even run small appliances.

It's a nice gift idea because it's not just useful for camping. This even works inside the home during emergencies like power outages and can even power a refrigerator for about 12 hours if need be. It's still more useful for camping, especially with its 220W solar input that lets you charge the thing outside in as little as 3.5 hours. You can also charge it with your car's 12V or 24V car outlet or with USB-C power delivery at home. In short, it's pretty versatile.

It's available on Amazon for $599.99, although it frequently goes on sale for less than that.

This idea is a twofer. On the one side, almost every Reddit thread and forum post I came across while researching this list mentioned at least a handful of respondents wishing for either a second or their first Leatherman. It's a Swiss Army Knife-style device that includes 19 tools in its hilt. It's widely considered among the highest quality items in its product category and each tool is specifically designed for outdoorsy tasks like hiking, fishing, camping, and more. Plus, it comes with a nifty carrying case that can clip onto a backpack or a belt. This is a universally good gift idea, even if they already have one.

To pair with that, we think the Tile Mate would make an excellent secondary gift idea. It's designed to attach to keychains and some Leatherman products have a spot on the hilt for a keychain connection. That means you can use the Tile Mate to find your Leatherman if you drop it while you're out and around the campsite. The two gifts together, or even just the Tile Mate, would make for an excellent camping gift since so many things get lost in the woods. 

You can get both the Leatherman Signal and the Tile Mate on Amazon for $139.95 and $24.99, respectively.

Gift cards are often thought of as being impersonal gifts. In some cases, that's true, but not in all cases. When it comes to shopping for someone's hobby, a gift card may be even more personal than getting them a random piece of gear or tech. The reason is because each person conducts their hobby differently, and that includes camping. They likely have favorite brands, favorite products, and unique ideas for a perfect experience. In these scenarios, getting them a gift card to go toward what they want is a better gift than guessing at something that they won't like.

You can get gift cards from any number of camping-oriented outlets. REI, Dick's Sporting Goods, Amazon, and even individual brands like Black Diamond, all have gift cards that you can purchase for your camping friend or loved one. Then, they can take that money and put it toward the item they will definitely use. A lot of gifts are appreciated, but ultimately end up in the garage because it's not something the person needs or can use. Gift cards ensure such things don't happen.

You can find gift cards on essentially any retailer on the internet and in stores around the world.