Hawaii, Nevada, Arizona, Yukon, Costa Rica, Mexico, Chile – yes, we have flown with our camping gear a few times. It’s relatively easy to do and offers endless freedom in where to stay when you reach your final destination. Extra bonus? It saves money so you can travel more! For tips and tricks and checklists on how to fly with your camping gear, read on.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy something from one of our affiliates, we receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. Thanks for helping to keep our blog up and running!
Table of Contents
Why Fly with Your Camping Gear?
One of our favourite trips in the past couple of years was flying down to Las Vegas, renting a car and spending a week camping and hiking and biking.
Aside: Be sure to check out the next post on how to fly with your bike!
If you don’t have the luxury of enough time to drive for a quick getaway, then flying is a great option. Being completely self-contained allows you to go where you want to go when you want to go. You don’t have to worry about booking a hotel or making sure there is a restaurant close by. It gives you the freedom to focus on being outdoors. Talk about recharging the soul!
Almost There!
While we’re not quite to the point of being able to safely fly anywhere we want to during the pandemic, we are getting closer. If you love the outdoors and are ready to start planning a weeklong active travel getaway, now’s the time! I’ll include ideas from our LV trip in a sample itinerary below. For now, let’s focus on the mechanics of how to fly with camping gear.
How to Fly with Your Camping Gear
When I say flying with your camping gear is relatively easy to do, that’s because I have a secret weapon. His name is Brad. He is a master of planning and packing and has fine-tuned this system so that we can fly anywhere with our gear without a glitch.
Looking for tips on storage for all of your camping gear? Check out our post “7 Tips for Storing Outdoor Gear.“
Okay, maybe that’s not quite true – and here’s our first tip. As with any flight, bags occasionally get lost. It happened our first trip to Hawaii. The duffle didn’t make it on the same flight as us. It meant a night in a hotel. Not a big deal but be aware it can happen and go with the flow. Some things are not in your control. The good news is that everything that is within your control for flying with your camping gear is now a finely tuned system!
What Do You Need?
Let’s start with luggage. All of the camping gear goes into a large duffle bag to be checked. We use a rolling duffle bag for ease of transport.
Personal items go into carryon bags and small daypacks. Pull out your backpacking/camping checklist – or use ours! Start pulling together all of the gear on the list.
Making A List and Checking it Twice!
Step One: How to Fly with Your Camping Gear Means Knowing What to Leave Behind!
Add items such as fuel and bear spray to a separate list to buy on arrival at destination (cannot fly with these items). Our stove is a simple, one-burner propane element. Small, disposable propane cylinders seem to be available almost everywhere.
We have had issues in the past getting approval from security to fly with an empty fuel bottle for our Dragonfly stove. Finding white gas was an epic adventure in Costa Rica.
Our PocketRocket is handy, but MSR IsoPro fuel cannisters are not available everywhere. They are also more expensive and don’t last as long as the disposable green propane cannisters. Besides, extra weight is not an issue when car camping.
Step Two: Pack It All Up
Sort remain gear from the list into two groups – one for carry-on bags and one for checked duffle bag. Fill duffle bag will all of your sleep and eating gear. Add first aid kit, water purification system, sunscreen, insect spray, siltarp and hiking poles. Weigh to keep within airline maximum weight so that you don’t have to pay extra. Remainder of the gear goes in your carry-on and backpack. If tight on space, we wear our hiking boots onto the plane.
Step Three: Stock Up
On arrival, pick up rental vehicle and drive to nearest grocery store to stock up on groceries. Pick up “no fly” items, a Styrofoam cooler (or pack a collapsible cooler like we do), ice and cardboard box for dry foods.
Let the Adventures Begin
Bike down a canyon, take an open-air art walk, hike behind the rocks, discover hot springs, explore hidden waterfalls, search for ancient rock art – southern Nevada and Utah has a lot to offer. Enjoy this picture-driven, 7-day itinerary highlighting options for inspirational outdoor adventures. We chose to fly into Las Vegas on this trip because of the large number of daily flights and cheaper price than many destinations in the American SW.
Day One: Leaving Las Vegas!
Drive from Las Vegas, Nevada to Boulder City for a biking adventure in Bootleg Canyon.
Cool down with an easy walking tour of the downtown core exploring the street art.
Wrap up the day with a beer at Boulder Dam Brewing Brew Pub before setting up camp at Echo Bay.
Day Two: Hike and Bike
Drive to the trailhead for Arizona Hot Springs for a stellar hike.
Pick up your bikes at camp and enjoy an easy evening ride along the Historic Rail Trail just before sunset.
Day Three: Rock It!
Explore behind the rocks, south of Valley of Fire State Park and hike Bowl of Fire.
Head back for final night of camping at Echo Bay.
Day Four: A Shout Out to Zion
Drive to Zion National Park and set up camp before hiking up Angel’s Landing, East Overlook or any one of Zion’s spectacular hiking trails.
Or, if you’d rather bike, head up to Gooseberry Mesa for a little slickrock practice.
Day Five: Falling Deeper in Love with American SW
Drive north on I-15 towards Kanarrville for a hike up Kanarra Creek to see a set of spectacular waterfalls.
Head back to camp in Zion – and sure you’re back early enough to stroll up Watchman’s in time for sunset.
Day Six: Bike, Hike and Stargaze
Move over to Snow Canyon State Park and set up camp before driving down to Santa Clara for a little mountain biking (be sure to read our companion post on “How to Fly with Your Mountain Bike“).
Take a detour to explore the rock art on the Anasazi Petroglyph trail.
Set out your chairs at camp – or sprawl out on the picnic table – and gaze up at the spectacular night sky!
Day Seven: One Last Blast!
Head back to the Blue Mountain Trails for one last bike ride before wrapping up your adventures for the week!
When You Go
We recommend Trailforks and MTB Project– both great apps for finding nearby biking trails.
You can find a map of Boulder City’s Downtown Mural and Sculpture Walking Guide in this PDF!
And a few more useful guides:
This is great! I always stare at those at the airport big huge duffle bags and you just know they’re heading on some epic outdoor adventure. That’s admirable. I struggle to pack my own suitcase hahaha. Hopefully one day I can head out on an awesome hiking/camping adventure!
I hope you get that awesome adventure, too! P.S. It’s worth the effort 😉
I frequently fly with camping gear so this is a good list and reminders of how to do it. It’s fun to see the places you explored in the SW when car camping.
Happy to meet another outdoor adventurer, Karen. I was hoping readers were going to enjoy the sample itinerary – glad to know you did!
Really awesome breakdown! You make it sound so easy I just may try it! Also, loved the checklist, because those are crucial for me to make me not feel like I forgot something!
I hope you do try it one day, Destiny!
Hmm this is a really cool idea I hadn’t thought of! I mostly travel solo and so don’t camp much, but I have many camping trips on my bucket list so this is good to keep in mind.
Always good to have ideas in your pocket for the right moment!
Omg those trips look amazing! And impressive feat packing all of that onto a plane. Brad really is a wizard!
😁
I have always wanted to do this but never have because I didn’t know where to begin. I love the ideas about knowing what to leave behind and what to buy at the destination. The packing list is AWESOME too. I will use it even without flying abroad. THANK YOU!
More than welcome, Rachel!
I had never actually considered flying with camping gear before, but it’s interesting to read about how you can go about it.
Thanks for your input Krista. Never know when the knowledge might come in handy – if not for you, perhaps family or friends!
This is super helpful! We have hardly ever flown with our camping gear (we tend to do road trips when we camp.) This is super useful for if/when we do! Adventure holidays are the best holidays!!
Agreed – adventure on!