Camping Gear Rental Guide: Where to Get Outfitted for Your Next Trip

Whether you are a beginner adventurer still learning how to pack a backpack or a seasoned thru-hiker looking for new gear to tackle the epic Alta Via 1, renting camping gear is easy, straightforward, and economical. During my extensive research I found tons of regional marketplaces catering to specific cities and even neighborhoods across North America. For the sake of this article though, I focused my search on the best camping gear rental shops—including both established and upstart brick and mortars and online retailers—catering to a widely dispersed audience. With this guide, I hope to make your search for rental outdoor gear as simple as possible.

Below you will find five great places to rent camping gear, trusted by experts and enthusiasts. Plus some background on why you might want to (and should) rent outdoor gear. In the end, all you have to do is actually plan a trip!

Reasons to Rent Camping Gear

There are plenty of reasons to rent camping gear rather than buy a bunch of new stuff. Here are just a few of the most common:

• Limited storage space at home. It can be difficult to make room for outdoor gear, especially if you live in a teeny apartment and especially if your interests extend beyond basic camping. Renting gear saves you the hassle of trying to pack more stuff into a closet, or worse, having to invest in special gear storage systems or an external storage unit.
  
• You want to try before you buy. Camping gear, especially quality equipment, is expensive. If you’re unsure if an item will work for you, renting is a great way to try before you buy.
  
• Traveling far from home for your trip. If you’re heading to a remote destination and don’t want to lug your camping gear through the airport, on the train, or on your back, renting near your destination is a great way to save energy and a few bucks on checked luggage.

For those looking to simply keep costs down, I recommend checking out secondhand gear marketplaces for deals on gently used outdoor gear—if renting isn't in the cards for you.

Best Camping Gear Rental Options for North America

The Best Place to Rent Camping Gear: Lowergear Outdoors

Lowergear Outdoors is an online rental hub and a trail and water sports outfitter with two brick and mortar locations in Arizona. The company will ship anything you need for your average hiking, camping, or backpacking trip nationwide from a robust online catalog. For locals, Lowergear also rents kayaks and stand up paddle boards.

On the company website, you can peruse gear from 12 different categories, including backpacks, tents, sleeping equipment, cooking supplies, water filtration, headlamps and more. Lowergear offers individual gear rentals that range anywhere from $9 - $160 a day, or several all-inclusive packages. The 1-Person Backpacking Package, for example, ranges in price from $179 to $409, depending on the duration of your trip.

The process for renting is simple. Choose your items or preferred packages, ship them to your home or destination, use them, then re-box them and drop them back off at FedEx or any other authorized shipping center. Of course, if your adventures take you to Arizona (perhaps for the Arizona Trail), you can drop your rentals off at one of the Lowergear stores.

Best Camping & Backpacking Kit Rentals: Xscape Pod

Based in Portland, Oregon, Xscape Pod will ship your camping rentals in a handy pod, a cooler-sized box that fits easily into the trunk of a car. The company’s camping pod includes a tent, sleeping bag and liner, sleeping pad, camp chair, headlamp and fire starter. It also sells a backpacking pod filled with lightweight versions of the gear. Or, you can rent by the item, if you’re missing just a few things and want to fill gaps. (Xscape Pods also sells food, if your idea of a good camp meal is a bit more elevated than hastily assembled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.)

If you’d like to try out one of Xscape Pod’s packages, we suggest the Backpacking Pod. The price starts at $189 for one backpacker, and goes up to $669 for eight backpacker’s worth of gear. The duration of your trip will also affect the price, with longer trips upping the final cost.

Xscape Pod ships nationwide, and offers free shipping on any order above $349. If an unexpected event comes up, you can cancel for free 7 days from your trip start date. Tiered pricing provides savings on Xscape Pd’s most popular trip durations; 1-3 days, 4-7, 8-10, and 11-14. For groups larger than 8 or trips longer than two weeks, you can email the company at info@xscapepod.com for special pricing.

Best Camp Gear Rentals for Families: Kit Lender

As the name suggests, Kit Lender offers rentals for equipment and apparel for a wide variety of outdoor activities, including camping, hiking, snowboarding, skiing, triathlons, and swimming. You can browse through complete kits that feature sizes from toddler to adult, which makes this option especially ideal for families interested in general outdoor recreation and camping with kids, but don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on gear their kids will outgrow in a few years (or months, depending on their age).

Kit Lender’s process is simple: Plug in the delivery state, town and days you’ll need to rent the gear, and then browse through the various kits offered. The kits are shipped for free to the destination of your choice, and once you’re done adventuring, drop them off at your nearest FedEx to be returned.

Kits range in price from around twenty dollars to a couple hundred a day, depending on the kit you opt for; the 2-Person Deluxe Backpacking Kit, for instance, starts at $104 a day, with a three-day minimum.

Best Glamping Gear Rental: Outdoors Geek

Outdoors Geek is based in Denver, Colorado, one of the most outdoorsy places in the continental U.S., but will ship its outdoor rental equipment anywhere in the country. The company has been renting outdoor gear for over 15 years, providing supplies for hundreds of trips across with an inventory that includes plenty of basic camping, backpacking and hiking gear like tents, sleeping bags, camping pads, and cookware, but also options for the fancier campers among us.

If you’ve ever wanted to try glamping, you can use Outdoors Geek as a way to try a range of glamping tent styles including yurts, dome tents, bell tents, and safari tents for an elevated experience. Outdoors Geek has three tent options for DIY glamping, and options for what you would like for inside your tent. The package pricing also helpfully includes pre-paid shipping labels you’ll need to get everything back to Outdoors Geek when you’re done, cutting down on potential hassle or stress. The DIY Glamping Safari Tent Rental, the most premium rental option, ranges from $529-$799, and includes 1-7 days of renting, plus five different interior options.

Does REI Rent Camping Gear? It's Complicated.

Founded in 1938, REI has been outfitting outdoor lovers for nearly 90 years and renting camping gear for over 30. If you are willing to pick up your gear in-person, the rental process is extremely simple—from the rental portal, just enter the zip code closest to where you want to pick up your rentals, choose the closest store, and then scroll down to find the “Rentals menu” box. Hit the “Select Dates” box in the upper righthand corner, then browse the list of gear that’s available. Unfortunately, while this program was once available at most REI locations, it’s now only available at about a dozen stores. If you live in New York City, for example, the closest REI store that will do rentals is nearly 1,500 miles away in Boulder, Colorado.

Still, if the program is available near you, it’s an extremely good deal. Many locations offer curated camping kits at extremely affordable prices, with further discounts for REI Co-Op members. For example, the REI Basic Backpacking Kit, which contains supplies for two people to backpack comfortably (including one tent, two backpacks, two sleeping bags and pads, camp chairs, headlamps, and a stove), starts at $276 for the first night for non Co-op members ($185 for members), with an added $54 per night for each additional night ($36 for members). Given how easy the rental system is to use (and how cheap it can be for REI members) it's worth checking whether there is a location offering rentals near your destination before looking at other options.