Yes, You Can Take a Grill on Your Next Camping Trip—Here Are Our Favorites

Best Overall

Masterbuilt Portable Charcoal Grill and Smoker with Cart

$330 at Amazon $330 at Wayfair $330 at Home Depot

This grill is a little too heavy to carry into the backcountry in a hiking pack, but if you’re parking near your campsite, it’s the best combination of quality performance and easy mobility we’ve found. It’s simple to get the fire going, even for a charcoal beginner, thanks to a fuel hopper on one side of the grill that you can access and refill easily mid-cook. But the biggest advantage the Masterbuilt offers is its SteadyTemp system: A temperature dial controls a battery-powered fan that’s able to hold the cooking surface at a remarkably accurate temperature. In testing, the dial was accurate to within 10 degrees on its entire range from 250 degrees Fahrenheit for slow-smoking to 500 degrees for quick-searing.

Despite its weight, this grill’s collapsible wheeled cart makes it quite mobile. It can roll around wheelbarrow-style during cooking, or fold down and turn into a setup more like a wheeled suitcase, complete with an extendable handle. Yet it still offers enough cooking area for nine burgers or 15 brats at a time, plus two prep shelf/drink holders on either side. The grill ships with some initial assembly required; it’s not difficult, but we were a little annoyed with how long it took before we could put match to charcoal.

Dimensions: 36 x 45 x 19 inches | Weight: 52 pounds | Cooking Area: 200 square inches | Fuel: Charcoal

Best Propane

Weber Q1200 Gas Grill

$259 at Amazon $259 at Wayfair $249 at Walmart

With a wide range of color options, this grill not only looks good, but it can churn out some seriously delicious food on the go. The cooking grates are made of porcelain-enameled cast iron, and we had no trouble at all with sticking in our fish or steak tests. The single burner puts out a comparatively weak 8,500 BTUs, but thanks to its oval shape it heats the grate quite evenly. We got a nice sear on our steak, and 10 minutes of cooking (plus 5 minutes of resting) brought it to a perfect medium-rare.

The Q1200 also boasts a handful of convenient design features, including sizable flip-out prep tables on both sides, a built-in lid thermometer, a glass-reinforced nylon frame, and a removable drip pan for easier cleanup. There are 189 square inches of available cooking space, which is pretty much in the middle of the road for portable grills. It’ll work on a tabletop or any level surface, and it’s a great choice for picnics, tailgating, or full-on wilderness camping. Keep in mind, though, that you won’t want to trek too far with it; it's not the lightest, at around 30 pounds. It also takes only 1-pound propane cylinders, which we found a little tough to install properly—but once you figure out the technique, it’s not really a deal-breaker.

Dimensions: 20.5 x 40.9 x 24.6 inches | Weight: 31 pounds | Cooking Area: 189 square inches | Fuel: Propane | Power: 8,500 BTU/hour

Best Budget

Weber Go-Anywhere Gas Grill

$89 at Amazon $89 at Home Depot View on Weber.com

Even among portable grills, the Weber Go-Anywhere stands out for its light weight and ease of transportation. The legs cleverly fold up to lock the lid in place, making for a secure package that’s compact enough to carry in a backpack. The single burner isn’t very powerful, but it was sufficient to heat up the decent-sized 160-square-inch cooking surface enough to sear a steak and a fish filet nicely in testing. We did note some drastic temperature fluctuations with the lid open, so try to keep it closed during cooking as much as possible.

This unit uses the standard 1-pound propane tank that’s familiar to any camper, but it screws in at an angle that hangs below the legs and forces you to set it on the edge of a table or other flat surface. The temperature-adjustment knob is also right next to the tank rather than on the front of the grill—these are both moderate annoyances but perhaps justified by the low price and compact design. This is available as a charcoal grill, which we also tested and liked.

Dimensions: 14.5 x 21 x 12.2 inches | Weight: 13.5 pounds | Cooking Area: 160 square inches | Fuel: Propane | Power: 6,500 BTU/hour

Best Splurge

PK Grills PKGo Grill Grilling System

$338 at Walmart $400 at Home Depot View on Pkgrills.com

The PKGO truly is a "grilling system" rather than just a single grill. Its four vents—two on the top and two on the bottom—can be configured for either high-heat direct grilling or indirect smoking, while the lid comes off entirely and can be set up with the included base and extra set of grates to create a completely separate hibachi-style grill. We were impressed with the cast-iron grates, which take a while to heat up fully but hold on to heat very well. Burgers and bratwursts cooked evenly and got nice browning in our tests. The unit is also easy to put together, arriving pretty much completely assembled and with simple procedures to light the charcoal and keep it burning consistently.

The downside to those dense cast-iron grates is that they’re very heavy. The PKGO set weighs almost 40 pounds, making it better suited to car camping or tailgating than carrying in a hiking pack. The metal body of the grill also gets quite hot while cooking, so you can’t really move it around or adjust any of the vent settings very easily after the charcoal is lit. And there’s the high cost: This is a large, effective, and full-featured grill, and it’s priced accordingly.

Dimensions: 15.3 x 20.9 x 13 inches | Weight: 39.5 pounds | Cooking Area: 204 square inches (plus 204 square inches for separate lid grill) | Fuel: Charcoal

Best Compact

Cuisinart Venture Gas Grill

$152 at Amazon $167 at Wayfair View on Walmart

The cleverly designed Cuisinart Venture packs everything you need for grilling on the trail into an easy-to-carry bundle that resembles a lunch box or small beer cooler. The propane tank clips into the bottom section, which fits around the legs of the grill itself, and the wooden top serves as a cutting board and/or serving tray. The whole shebang weighs just 20 pounds, and it includes a comfortable carrying handle that folds away beneath the grill when it’s lit.

The Venture has half the cooking space and less than half the power of some of the other grills on this list, but its 9,000-BTU burner was able to achieve appropriate temperatures for searing in our Lab tests. Its porcelain-coated cast-iron grate holds heat well and fish and steak didn't stick at all. The big issue is its lack of a lid. Most grills have a dome-shaped lid that helps to redistribute heat during cooking. Without a lid, we got a lot of temperature variance—a difference of nearly 200 degrees from one side to the other. If you’re cooking a big steak or other large item, it’s a good idea to turn and reposition it frequently to ensure even cooking.

Dimensions: 13 x 16.3 x 10.8 inches | Weight: 20.6 pounds | Cooking Area: 154 square inches | Fuel: Propane | Power: 9,000 BTU/hour

Best for a Group

Weber Traveler Portable Gas Grill

$399 at Amazon $399 at Home Depot $400 at Target

Looking to feed a big group on the trail? This portable grill has 320 square inches of cooking space, enough for 15 burgers at once—plus a prep table attached to the side. The ingenious design collapses into essentially a wheeled dolly, which allows for easy transport and will fit in a car trunk. And when you get to the campsite, you can set it up using only one hand!

The Traveler can use either a 1-pound camping-style propane tank or a full-size 20-pound one, and its single high-powered burner puts out a staggering 13,000 BTUs. It was able to get the cast-iron grate to well over 600 degrees Fahrenheit in our testing, but the nonstick coating released fish filets without any tearing or flaking. We did find that it loses heat quickly with the lid open, so try to keep it closed as much as possible.

Dimensions: 42.7 x 43.6 x 37.2 inches | Weight: 49 pounds | Cooking Area: 320 square inches | Fuel: Propane | Power: 13,000 BTU/hour

Best for Experts

Coleman Portable Propane Grill

View on Amazon $147 at Walmart $155 at Home Depot

This portable tabletop model offers one of the largest cooking areas you can get in a portable grill. The Coleman 225 boasts cast-iron grill grates that hold heat very well; in testing, we got nicely browned but still moist fish and well-seared steak, with neither one sticking to the cooking surface.

But for the more advanced camping cook, this grill offers lots of other capabilities. It has two separate heat zones for cooking two different dishes at once—instead of dividing the grill into left and right sections, there's an inner burner and an outer one you control separately. There's a simple removable grease pan for easy cleanup, but you can also fill it with water, stock, or other flavorful liquid with herbs and spices to steam flavor into food at the same time you sear it. To expand your options further, Coleman even sells a separate stove grate and griddle sized to fit the 225.

For someone experienced with cooking on the trail, the Coleman 225 lets you pull off some really impressive meals, but it's also ready to use right out of the box, with a simple propane-tank attachment and push-button ignition. The grill is on the pricy side, but it packs lots of power into a compact space.

Dimensions: 21.1 x 18.3 x 16.8 inches | Weight: 30 pounds | Cooking Area: 225 square inches | Fuel: Propane | Power: 11,000 BTU/hour

Best Over Fire

Rome 128 Pioneer Camp Grill

$26 at Amazon $30 at Walmart

The Rome 128 Pioneer Camp Grill is a compact chrome-plated steel grate that is placed over a campfire for easy grilling. Though most campsites have grates available for cooking, they are not always clean or the right height for quick grilling, so many campers prefer to bring their own.

The grate is made of food-safe alloy steel, which allows for grilling hotdogs and hamburgers directly on the grate, something that's not the case for all grates sold. The height of the grate can be adjusted depending on the placement of the legs. Spread the legs further apart to be closer to the fire or stand the legs up straighter to add height. The legs also fold up for easy storage. Compact and lightweight, this grate is easy to take along for backpacking, car camping, or in an RV. Just keep in mind that this grate doesn’t come with a carrying case.

Dimensions: 17 x 10.5 x 12 inches | Weight: 1.7 pounds