Best cooking device for weekend camping trips????

[mrsjingles]

Hi, we're novices to camping but are getting a family tent (me, DH, DD5 and DS3) to go away for the odd weekend, I like the idea of spontaneity if it's a nice weekend to just pack up and go.

Anyway, we will want to make cups of tea so need to be able to boil a kettle, and maybe cook some a basic tin based meal, does anyone have recommendations for the best/safest camping stove for minimal usage?????? thanks

I would get a gas stove with two burners if you have room to store and transport as it is very versatile and combined with disposable bbq where allowed can cook almost anything. Some of the individual burners are rather under powered and take 20 minutes to boil a small pan.

Fold up camping stools are also really useful and table as keeps stuff more organised but I know you can end up with a lot to pack and unpack so lose spontaneity. Kids love it at this age because on family sites can join up with other kids.

And some 2-burner stoves have a grill underneath so you can make toast too! This one has a grill.

Alternatively I have recently seen some square single-burner stoves which work off a long narrow bottle of gas instead of a short round one. This is one of these.

Janh - your link is very similar to the one we had for family camping holidays and my mum used to cook nearly all our meals on it for a fortnight. I agree that a portable bar-b-que is a good idea but the above you can use inside if the weather turns wet.

Thanks for all your suggestions, they are really helpful. I shall look into the two you've suggested Janh, and decide whether it may be worth having the bigger one, toast would certainly be an added bonus in the morning!! and I'm sure the kids would agree, infact now I'm picturing crumpets drizzled with honey aswell - yum

Toast is lovely, we have one like that too (only ours is a blue one - Calor gas I think).

The only drawback to the big ones is that you have to have a big bottle of gas, and in fact ideally need to have 2 so that you don't run out in the middle of a meal (you buy the bottle and then pay just for the gas when you swap it for a full one) so they do add to the bulk. They do last for ages though.