Sleeping out under the stars is romantic and all—but far from a reliable lighting source for your next camping adventure. And when clouds cover your plans, it’s time to add a little glow to your tent.
That’s exactly what this list of the 10 best camping lanterns offers: A selection of clever, functional, and stylish lighting options perfect for your next trip to the great outdoors. Most of them are electric, some are large and some are small, and there’s guaranteed to be one that’s just right for your needs.
Barebones Forest Lantern
As useful at a campsite as it is beautiful sitting on a side table, the Barebones Forest Lantern is a vintage-styled light with modern features and functionality. Inspired by nautical designs, it’s comfortable sitting on any flat surface—or hanging from the nearest branch you can find.
200 lumens of lighting power gives off a soft glow, made even softer by a 3000 kelvin color temperature (which is yellow-white and cozy as heck). The whole lantern is rechargeable via USB, and has a run time from 4 to 80 hours depending on how high you want to crank the brightness.
Goal Zero Lighthouse 600 Lantern and Power Hub
Goal Zero is the first brand you should look at when it comes to sustainability in your outdoor gear, and their Lighthouse 600 Lantern and Power Hub is a versatile addition to any camping kit. The main draw here is the lantern’s multiple charging methods: Via USB for quick and easy recharging, or via solar or hand crank methods when you don’t have electricity nearby.
Better yet, the Lighthouse can then transform that solar or hand-cranked power into charging your devices via its integrated rechargeable lithium battery and USB ports. That’s all combined with a big 600 lumens of power, perfect to light up the night anywhere your adventures might take you.
Coleman Classic 800 Lumen LED Lantern
Heritage outdoor brand Coleman has had a long time to refine their camping equipment designs, and their Classic LED Lantern is proof of the brand’s finely-tuned capabilities. Though it is made to look just like an older gas-powered Coleman lantern, the Classic Lantern has many more modern capabilities—including a whopping 800 lumens of light output and the ability to act as a charging station for any of your electronic devices.
That’s all wrapped up in a shell that’s IPX4 water and impact resistant, making it a rough and ready light source that will be by your side for the long haul.
BioLite AlpenGlow 500 Lantern
Classic lantern styles are great, but they do surround themselves with more material than is strictly necessary for a rechargeable light. For something entirely different and futuristic, check out BioLite’s AlpenGlow 500 Lantern instead.
Its rounded corners and self-contained shell make it quite compact at just 3.8 by 5.4 inches, and it can also go through a whole range of color lighting options (including a candle flicker mode that’s quite romantic). Plus, it has an impressive 200 hour runtime on its lowest setting, or a solid 5 hours on its highest 500 lumen setting.
Black Diamond Moji Lantern
A compact and lightweight solution for camp lighting, the Black Diamond Moji Lantern is another example of a modern-style 360-degree light. It measures in at 4.4 by 3.3 by 3.3 inches, weighs under a pound, and is powered by a single Quad Power LED light for an all-around glow from 10 to 250 lumens.
Also unique to the Moji is a dimmer switch, allowing you to dial in exactly the amount of light you need. The rechargeable battery here doubles as a charging station for your devices as well, and a collapsible double-hook hanging loop gives you more versatile options for lighting up your campsite.
MPOWERD Inflatable Solar Lantern
Think you don’t have any room in your backpack for a lantern? Think again. MPOWERD’s Inflatable Solar Lantern packs down hilariously small, to a meager 4.25 by 1 inch, and doesn’t even require electricity for charging—its efficient solar panel can fully charge the lantern in seven hours of direct sunlight, giving you 24 hours of 75 lumen light as a reward.
It’s also perhaps the lightest lantern that you can hang inside of your tent, weighing just over a quarter of a pound, and has a fixed top strap for easy hanging. Is it the brightest lantern on this list? No, but it definitely is the most compact and convenient.
Snow Peak GigaPower Lantern
We couldn’t write a camping lantern list and not include at least one gas-powered option—and Snow Peak’s GigaPower Lantern is easily the best in its category. A simple design cuts down on weight and bulk, with nothing more than a stainless steel frame and a glass bulb.
But the whole apparatus is powered by the same canisters of propane/isobutane fuel that you’ll be using with just about any camp stove, so it’s an easy addition for anyone who already enjoys the finer points of backpack cooking. And just like Snow Peak’s stoves, it has a best-in-class automatic ignition that makes it super easy to light.
L.L. Bean Trailblazer 400 Lantern
The best bang for your buck lantern on this list has to be L.L. Bean’s Trailblazer 400 Lantern, a mixed-use modern and classic number with 400 lumens of power and a really awesome carabiner handle that we’ve not seen any other lantern use.
The downside? It’s the only battery-powered lantern you’ll find here too, so it may not be as convenient in the long run. Still, we vouch for this lantern for one specific type of person: The sometimes-camper who wants to bring along a fair set of amenities that they could also use at home in case of an emergency.
Goal Zero Lighthouse Micro Flash Lantern
A camping lantern doesn’t have to be a full-sized affair by any means—sometimes a simple flashlight shape and size will do the trick. If you’re looking to downsize your camp lighting, Goal Zero’s Lighthouse Micro Flash Lantern is a great choice.
Despite being small, compact, and affordable, it still puts out a solid 150 lumens of light, with up to 7 hours of runtime on high and a huge 170 hours on low. That’s all wrapped up in an IPX6 water resistance rating, which means it can withstand high-pressure water streams from any angle—making it effectively waterproof for anything short of being submerged for long periods of time.
Barebones Edison Light Stick
Honestly, this little lantern/flashlight combo looks so cool, we couldn’t help but include it. The Edison Light Stick from Barebones is made with a gorgeous brass and copper exterior, and has two distinct functions: A directed flashlight beam or an ambient light stick mode.
And it’s one of the only lanterns we’ve found that we’d really like to have with us all the time, as the Edison makes just as great a bedside table lamp for reading as it does a camping lantern or emergency light source. It’s a little pricey for its size, but if you’re looking for style and versatility, it’s a great choice.
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