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10 Cool Camping Gear and Accessories You Need

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Whether you’re a first-time camper or a seasoned outdoor veteran, choosing the right camping gear for your trip can really make or break your experience. There are plenty of products that can enhance your next trip into the wilderness, check out our favorite innovative camping items.

Fragrance with Benefits

Fragrance with benefits mosquito repellent.
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We all hate mosquitos, but they seem to love humans. Fragrance with Benefits is taking a new approach to mosquito repellent. Fragrance with Benefits offers travel-sized aromatic perfumes, body creams, and shower gels with the added benefit of natural, insect repelling essential oils. The citrus-based fragrances are unisex and are a refreshing change compared to smelly repellents on the market.

Self-Cleaning Water Bottle

Self cleaning water bottle.
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Save time with this self-cleaning water bottle that cleans the inner surfaces of the bottle by neutralizing odor-causing bacteria and viruses. With just the touch of a button, the bottle self-cleans by activating every two hours to keep your bottle fresh and smelly-free. A double bonus is that it uses non-toxic mercury-free UV-C LED technology to sanitize the water in 60 seconds. The double-wall vacuum insulated, and stainless-steel bottle keeps your water cold for 24 hours and hot for 12.

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Wearable Sleeping Bag

Wearable sleeping bag.
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How convenient would it be to not have to deal with the mess of perfectly trying to pack your sleeping bag back into its bag? Or better yet not have to deal with getting out of your sleeping bag to face the cold? A wearable sleeping bag is the solution. With its unique bottom zipper, campers can just unzip the bottom to walk around or unzip the arm zippers to read or eat. The hoodie sleeping bag has a cotton stuffing that is lightweight and a polyester shell that keeps heat in and moisture out (it works in temperatures as low as 20 degrees). A bonus is that the sleeping bag is machine washable.

Pocket Shower

Portable camping pocket shower.
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This simple and easy-to-use shower has black fabric that soaks up the sun during the day, resulting in an 8-minute warm shower later. Just hang it off a branch and start cleansing. It has a contoured shower head and a twist mechanism for turning on and off the water flow. The shower zips into a pouch that measures 3 by 6 inches and weighs just 4.25 ounces.

Net Cocoon for Hammock

Net cocoon for hammock.
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This mosquito net cocoon is made for a bug-free sleeping experience because it completely encloses a hammock to protect sleepers from biting insects. The netting is so fine that it’s able to keep out the smallest of bugs including sand flies, fleas, gnats, mosquitos, midges, and no-see-ums. The cocoon comes with 100 inches of cord on each side to support the net and two sets of zippers for easy in and out access.

Smartphone Fish Finder

Fish finder for smartphones.
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The T-BOX (SP200) mounts onto a boat with access to a 12-volt power supply (not included). The SonarPhone turns your smartphone or tablet into a fully functional sonar system that uses Wi-Fi to transmit to your device. You don’t need cell phone coverage to use it, the SonarPhone works anywhere in the world. The SonarPhone creates its own Wi-Fi hotspot and you can share your signal with as many people as you wish. The software App is downloaded for free from the App Store and works with both Android and iOS systems. All SonarPhone T-BOXes come with a neoprene armband so you will always have easy access to your phone display.

Hand Crank Blender

A hand crank blender.
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Blend up tasty margaritas, healthy smoothies, protein shakes, sauces, pancake batter, and more without the need for an outlet. This compact hand crank blender weighs 4.7 pounds and can be taken anywhere.

Glow in the Dark Bocce Balls

Glow in the dark bocce ball set.
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Why not have some fun in the dark while on your camping adventure? This bocce ball set glows in the dark. No more having to go to sleep once the sun sets!

Multi-Tool Ax

Multi-tool axe.
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The handiest ax you’ll ever come across is right here! With 31 features, this multi-tool ax is ready for any situation, from chopping, clearing debris, demolition, and pounding in and removing tent stakes. Functions include a pry bar, seat belt cutter, hatchet blade, gas valve wrench, bottle opener, hardened steel glass breaker, and more. The survival ax is large enough to do damage yet compact to fit in the glove box or small bag.

Foldable Kayak

Foldable kayak.
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This is the lightest and most portable kayak you’ll ever experience. The Inlet folding kayak is quite frankly an origami kayak. It’s designed for flat water and is quick to assemble. The kayak is nine feet and weighs 20 pounds. It’s compact enough to store in your car trunk, and you can even check it on a plane!

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Latifah Al-Hazza
Latifah Al-Hazza
Former Digital Trends Contributor

Latifah is an Emmy Award-Winning travel journalist and documentary filmmaker, as well as the Cofounder of Femscape Sojourns, a boutique women's travel company. A journalism graduate from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and the University of Southern California (MS), her work can be found in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, CNN Travel, The New York Times, INSIDER, Fodor's, Roadtrippers, Frommer’s Travel Guides, Reader’s Digest, World Travel Magazine and The Manual, to name a few. Latifah has been named one of Travel Massive's 100 Inspiring Women Travel Founders. Growing up living a bicultural lifestyle, between Kuwait and the United States, has always fueled Latifah's passion for exploration and cultural immersion. Please reach out to The Manual editorial staff with any questions or comments about Latifah’s work.

The best golf GPS devices for tracking your game in 2024
The Izzo Swami 6000 golf GPS device attached to a man's belt.

We've all had the dream where we're running towards something, only for it to get further and further away as we run. The same thing can happen easily in golf. People just aren't that great at eyeballing distances. A good golf GPS device can help. Much like in Mario Golf or any other golf video game, you have the chance to see a true to life "mini map" of your position and surroundings, plus can get an accurate to-hole distance check.

And that's just the beginning. The best golf GPS devices will also give you the ability to know where every trap and bend on the course is. That includes that sneaky sand pit on the other side of that innocent hill over yonder. Some are even able to keep track of your score, tell you the slope of the land and more. Try one of the following best golf GPS devices to get a big leg up on your game in 2024.
The best golf GPS devices in 2024

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REI camp kitchen sale: Up to 55% off stoves, cookware, and more
Couple camping with the new 2023 Escapod TOPO2 Teardrop Trailer.

If you need to kit yourself out with better camping gear, you need to check out the REI camp kitchen sale that’s going on right now. There are some huge discounts on all kinds of gear from cookware, stoves, to picnicking equipment, and coolers. It’s a fantastic way to save big with up to 55% to be saved. If you’re keen to see what’s out there, hit the button below to see which of the 100+ items are tempting for you. Alternatively, if you have no idea where to begin, we can help. Take a look at what we suggest before the sale ends soon.

What to shop for in the REI Camp Kitchen sale
The best camping gear can be pretty varied from tents to sleeping bags and simply cookware and cooking equipment. This sale focuses on those practical features you may not have considered after buying your tent. One underrated item is the . It usually costs $60 but you can buy it today for $27 thereby saving a huge 55%. The bundle comes with four 12-fluid-ounce coffee mugs, four 6-inch bowls, and four 10.5-inch dinner plates. Each are made from enamel-coated steel so they’ll last a long time.

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Sleep like a baby on one of the best air mattresses for camping (or for wherever you need it)
When a sleeping pad just isn't enough, invest in the comfort of an air mattress
Sitting on an air mattress while camping

If you love the outdoors, there’s hardly a better way to spend your time than escaping into nature for a long weekend or week of camping. Most modern camping gear — from backpacks to the best camping tents and rugged hiking boots — will get the job done without forcing you to spend a fortune. But, figuring out the ideal camp sleep system in the front or backcountry can be a bit more challenging.

Some of us are blessed with a knack for sleeping almost anywhere. Unless you’re Survivorman Les Stroud, however, you probably appreciate some semblance of a pillow and something warm to throw over yourself (e.g., a warm sleeping bag or versatile camping quilt). Most of us also need something reasonably comfortable to sleep on. In most cases, especially if you’re camping in the backcountry where weight is an issue, a solid camping sleep pad will do. But if you’re car camping (where gear weight doesn’t matter) or you can’t sleep soundly on anything but a plush sleep surface, a portable air mattress is the next best thing to your bed at home.

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