About Gonecampin
Real camping. No fuss.
We’re here to help everyday people have great camping trips — without the gear obsession, the Instagram pressure, or the feeling that you have to be an “outdoorsy person” to enjoy it.
Hey, we’re glad you’re here.
We started with a simple frustration: most camping advice online is written for people who are already obsessed with camping. It assumes you know what a sleep system is, that you have opinions about tent pole materials, and that you’ve definitely already read every REI gear guide twice.
That’s not most people. Most people just want to go camping on a Friday, cook something good, sleep reasonably well, and come home on Sunday with good memories. We wrote this site for them.
“Gonecampin exists to help everyday people have great camping experiences — without the gear obsession, the Instagram pressure, or the pretense of being an ‘outdoorsy person.’ We make camping feel easy, fun, and genuinely worth doing.”
— The GoneCampin TeamMeet Weekend Wren
We Consider ourselves the Weekend Wren — and if you’ve read more than one post on this site, you’ve already met us.
Wren is a casual car camper. We get to a campsite on a Friday evening, makes real food over a camp stove, and sleeps well under the trees. We’re not a thru-hiker. We doesn’t own $400 trekking poles. We have opinions about which $50 stove is actually worth buying and which one will drive you crazy in a crosswind.
We are honest about trade-offs. We’ll never going to recommend something just because it pays well. And we genuinely believe camping is for everyone — not just people who already look like they belong on the trail.
What We Write About
Everything on this site falls into one of four areas:
Gear Roundups
Honest best-of lists and buying guides at real-world budgets
Camp Cooking
Recipes and meal ideas that actually work on a camp stove
Campsite Guides
Honest reviews of state park and forest campgrounds
Packing Lists
Simple, practical checklists so you never forget the can opener
A few things we deliberately don’t cover: national parks content, RV travel, and hardcore backpacking. Staying out of those lanes keeps our advice sharp and specific. Plenty of other sites do those well. We do car camping.
How We Do Things Around Here
Clarity first
Every recommendation has a clear reason behind it. We lead with the answer, then explain why.
Honest always
We say when something is meh, not just what sells. If a product has a real downside, you’ll read about it.
No gatekeeping
Camping is for everyone. You don’t need to earn it, prove anything, or already know what you’re doing.
A Note on Affiliate Links
Some links on this site are affiliate links, mostly through Amazon. If you click one and buy something, we earn a small commission — at no extra cost to you. It’s how we keep the lights on and the content free.
That said: we only link to gear we’d actually recommend to a friend. We never let commissions drive what goes on a list. If something isn’t worth buying, we’ll say so — and we won’t link to it.
You can read our full affiliate disclosure here.
Say Hello
Got a campground we should review? A stove you swear by that we haven’t covered? A camp recipe that’s become a weekend tradition? We genuinely want to hear it.
Drop a comment on any post, or reach us through the contact page. We read everything.
🏕️ New here? A good place to start: The Ultimate First-Time Camper’s Guide — everything you need to know before your first trip, no experience required.