From lighting up those late-night, roadside pull-ups, to long-lasting illumination on those midnight loo runs – a camping lantern is your light at the end of the tunnel for any after-dark outdoor endeavour.
At the very least, a lantern offers light to function after sundown. Over time, LED technology has developed, launching the humble camping lantern further into the tech-savvy sphere (amid many other gadgets and gizmos in line for an upgrade)! Now, we embrace the benefits of high-impact lighting flooding from more compact packages. Be it campsite party planning or outback battery powering – some lanterns are now equipped with features such as dappling disco light modes, and the ability to charge smartphones.
So, fellow trailblazers – what’s the glow?
To shed some light, we’ve collated our favourites for every campsite – from your late-night toilet run chums and high-beam henchmen, to the ultimate lights of the party!
Jump straight to
Before you buy: what to look for
Lumens. Lumens measure how much light a lantern puts out. Around 100-200 lumens is plenty inside a tent, while 500 or more will light up a camp kitchen or a whole campsite. Brighter may be better when you have a task to do, but a dimmer light is much more relaxing when you’re sitting around chatting.
Light colour. Warm white is easier on the eyes and feels cosier at night. Orange and warm tones also attract fewer bugs than cool white or blue light, which makes a real difference on a summer evening. A bright cool colour is probably better if you find yourself under your vehicle bonnet at night. Many lanterns come with multiple colour settings now.
Power. Most modern camping lights have built-in lithium-ion batteries that charge by USB-C, so you can top them up from a power station, a car socket, or a power bank. Solar options take the pressure off longer stays away from power but you do have a reliance on sunny weather and they take a little longer to charge.
Run time. Manufacturers usually quote run time on the lowest setting. Check the high-mode figure too, since that’s how long you’ll get at full brightness. Generally you only need the brightest setting for short bursts for tasks, and you can drop down to the lower setting when you simply need to find your way around.
Water resistance. IP ratings tell you how well a light handles water. IPX4 covers splashes and light rain, and higher ratings like IP66 can cope with heavier weather.
Mounting. Hooks, clips, magnets, straps, and table bases all change where a light can go. Think about whether you’ll hang it from a tent roof, stick it to a car, or stand it on a table. Having a mix of mounting options is handy.
Power bank function. Many lights can also charge your phone, which is handy when you’re short on outlets. It will usually only provide a bit of emergency power though, don’t rely on them to continually charge your phone.
Layering your light. The best campsites use a few lights at once: one bright light for tasks, a softer one for atmosphere, and a headtorch for getting around. LED lights nowadays provide a lot of light from small packages, so you can afford to carry a few lights and spread them across the campsite.
Best all-round: Hard Korr U-Lite LED Lanterns
If we could hand every camper one lighting setup, it would be this four-pack.
Key specs:
- 155 lumens max (white)
- up to 30 hrs runtime on low
- USB-C rechargeable
- IP66
- 77 g each
Aptly nicknamed ‘Hot Cross Bun Lights” by Ben and Lauren on the Snowys Camping Show, these are the most versatile and popular light in our range. With four lights, you can put one on the tailgate, one in the tent, one over the camp kitchen, and one in the toilet bag. Each lantern has a magnetic back and an elastic strap, and there are five modes: three levels of white, a bright orange that helps keep bugs down, and an orange strobe for emergencies or breakdowns. All four store in one carry case with a four-way USB-C charging cable, so nothing goes missing between trips.
Best for: Campers who want flexible lighting they can spread across the whole setup.
Compact and powerful: NEBO Galileo Air 1000
It puts out a thousand lumens and folds almost flat.
Key specs:
- 1,000 lumens max
- 6 modes including red
- USB-C rechargeable
- IPX4
- 331 g
The Galileo Air 1000 is bright enough to light an entire campsite. It features a silicone upper that collapses flat for packing and a tough ABD plastic base making it very durable while folding hook in the base combined with three external attachment points gives you plenty of ways to hang it. The warm white light is easy on the eyes, the red mode helps preserve your night vision, and it doubles as a power bank for your USB devices.
Best for: Tourers and campers who are short on space but still want serious brightness.
Most lighting settings: BioLite AlpenGlow 500
This lantern has a mode for every moment at camp.
Key specs:
- 500 lumens max
- up to 200 hrs runtime on low, 5 hrs on high
- 6,400 mAh battery
- IPX4
- 380 g
The AlpenGlow 500 goes well beyond on and off. You get dimmable cool and warm white, single and multicolour modes, and a single-panel light. The settings are accessed via the large top button, or by shaking the lantern to activate the internal accelerometer, unlocking extras like candle flicker and cycling colour, there’s even a Fireworks mode, and a single-panel mode which is great when you don’t want to blind your tentmate. sit it upright on the table or hang it in your tent with the integrated hook Its high-CRI LEDs show colours accurately at night, and the USB-out port can charge your devices.
Best for: Families, and anyone who likes their campsite with a bit of personality.
Best for hanging in tents: Zempire Megadome series
These soft, even-glowing dome lanterns come in a size for every tent, from a small hiking tent to the camp table.
All four Megadomes share the same core design. Each gives 360° warm light, which draws fewer mozzies, through a soft-touch diffuser that glows in the dark. They charge by USB-C, double as a power bank, and are rated IPX4. The glow-in-the-dark diffuser makes the lantern easy to find in the middle of the night.
Megadome 150: 150 lumens max | up to 27 hrs on low | 105 g | 20 cm hanging cable. Perfect for small tents and kids’ tents.
Megadome 300: 300 lumens max | up to 39 hrs on low | 40 cm adjustable hanging cable. A good fit for mid-size tents.
Megadome 500: 500 lumens max | up to 38 hrs on low | 45 cm adjustable hanging cable. Bright enough to be the main light in a family tent.
Megadome 1000: 1,000 lumens max | up to 15 hrs on low | bamboo base. Built to sit on the camp table rather than hang.
See the full Megadome range here >>
Best for: Tent campers who want soft, glare-free light overhead.
Best for the camp table: Tiegear Vael 2 Pack
Dinner’s on, and this is the light for it.
Key specs:
- Tri-colour (warm, neutral, cool white)
- 6-24 hrs runtime
- 2,000 mAh
- USB-C rechargeable
- 330 g each
The Vael shines its light downwards, onto the table and not into your eyes. That makes it ideal for long dinners, card games, and board game nights under the awning. It has an aluminium body with a weighted base, and it comes as a matched pair in its own case. Put one at each end of the table and you’ve got even, relaxed light for the whole group.
Best for: Campers who love a long dinner or a games night at camp.
Best for kids: Coleman Swagger Rechargeable Lantern
It’s small enough for little hands and tough enough for little hands too.
Key specs:
- 250 lumens max
- up to 40 hrs runtime on low
- IPX4
- 126 g
The Swagger is palm-sized and light, so kids can carry their own light on the toilet run or keep it by their pillow. It has three brightness settings and a battery indicator, a D-clip hook for hanging, and a magnetic back that sticks to steel surfaces. It’s also impact resistant up to 10 m on dirt, so the occasional drop isn’t a worry. Its lowest setting makes a great night light.
Best for: Giving kids their own light for the tent, the campsite, and after-dark adventures.
Most stylish: Tiegear Pod Lantern 4 Pack
These are the lights people ask about when they walk past your camp.
Key specs:
- 4 lanterns
- 4 light modes
- 3-6 hrs runtime
- USB-C rechargeable
- 150 g each
The Pods give off a soft, all-around glow that looks great hanging under an awning, a gazebo, or a tent. Each one has four modes: neutral dim, neutral bright, orange dim, and orange bright. Double-click and you get a bonus red mode, static or flashing, to help keep bugs away. Each lantern has a hanging clip, and all four pack into a dedicated case with a USB-C charging cable.
Best for: Campers who care how their setup looks after dark.
Best for ambience: BioLite Solar String Lights 44 White
Set it up once and let the sun do the rest.
Key specs:
- 13.4 m string
- 20 shatterproof bulbs
- up to 40 hrs runtime on low
- solar or USB-C charging
- IPX4
- 780 g
This is the string light for a proper campsite atmosphere. The power hub detaches, so you can recharge it during the day while the string stays setup for the next evening, and the string stores inside the hub for travel. The bulbs are shatterproof and the cord is nylon-braided, so it’s built to live outdoors. It also has USB-A and USB-C outputs for charging other devices.
Best for: Longer stays and base camps where you want camp to feel like home.
Discreet and compact: OZtrail Loomie Line String Lights
You get nine metres of string lights that wind back into a palm-sized reel.
Key specs:
- 9 m string
- 36 LEDs warm white or RGB
- Up to 7.5 hrs runtime
- 210 g
- USB-C rechargeable
The Loomie Line solves the classic string light problem: the tangle at pack-up. A reel-style wind-up keeps the cord neat, and a hanging loop and magnets make it easy to set up. It also works as a lantern without unwinding the string, and it has an emergency light with high, low, and strobe settings. The battery doubles as a power bank for your other gadgets.
Best for: Caravan awnings, swag setups, and anyone who wants ambience without the bulk.
Best budget: Dogbox Edison Vintage Rechargeable Festoon Light
Bring ye olde charm to your campsite clobber.
Key specs:
- 200 lumens max
- up to 5 hrs runtime on low
- USC C Rechargeable
- 56 g
From sunset picnics to midnight meat feasts, this vintage-style apparatus blends nostalgic aesthetics with modern innovation – housing a warm yellow incandescent LED filament that blazes up to 200 lumens of atmospheric glow. Illuminate those backroad banquets and rustic retreats with ease, thanks to a convenient hanging hook for creative campsite positioning and USB-C charging capability for fuss-free power maintenance on your outdoor exploits.
Best for: Campers who want festoon-style ambience without a big spend.
100-200 lumens is fine inside a tent, 500 lumens is good for for your camp kitchen and living space. If you are lighting up a large area you may need multiple 500+ lumen options.
The light won’t stop bugs, but warm white, orange and red attract fewer insects.
Yes, better quality lanterns offer good solar charging capability, especially for topping the battery up each day. It’s good to have another way to charge your lantern in case you are dealt cloudy days.
You don’t need one, but it will be very handy. Lanterns automatically don’t move with you as you work or move around, and if you take the lantern to the loo you’ll leave the rest of your camping buddies without light. You can pick up a very functional headtorch for a small investment, it will be worth it.
Shop headtorches at Snowys >>
There is no best answer here, it depends on your campsite setup. Lanterns like the Hard Korr U-Lite have magnets, a loop and a way to attach around a pole making them super versatile. Most tents have a hook or loop centrally located in the ceiling to hang a lantern, you can either use integrated hooks or clips like the Nite Ize S-Biner. A handy way to attach small lanterns with magnets to fabric is to carry some smooth metal washers with you, you can put the lantern on one side of the fabric and the washer on the other to hold it in place.
Store your lantern partly to fully charged in a cool dry place, best practice it to give them a charge every few months to keep the battery healthy.
Complete your kit
Many of these devices are more than just lanterns nowadays, brands have combined technologies so your lantern is also a speaker or a pump, some models also double as bug zappers. String lights and light bars increase the area you can illuminate, whilst headlamps and hand-held flashlights add portability to your night time camp setup.
See the full range of campsite lighting solutions at Snowys >>
If you want to take things one step closer to being fully self-sufficient you can invest in power stations and solar panels so you can confidently run your lights and charge your devices day after day no matter where you setup camp.
The right lighting turns a campsite into somewhere you want to spend the evening. Start with a good all-rounder, add something soft for atmosphere, and build from there. Explore our full range of camping lights, or drop into a Snowys store for a chat with the team.
Trekker, swimmer, surfer, climber, mountain biker, runner, camper.
Participator in most things… master of none.
Also a co-host on the Snowys Camping Show podcast and Snowys team member for a very long time.
The Hardkorr LED “pillow” lights are a ripper. We bought the four pack and they’ve been 100% reliable over the past three years. It’s very handy they show a small red light when close to discharged, and are very easily recharged (either individually or as a group) with the included 4-plug USB charging cable. Great to attach to the top of wine bottles over dinner to improve spread of light over the table.
Great advice thanks, Jim.
We’ve been very pleased with a 4-lamp Hardkorr LED light kit for several years now, both tent camping and more recently in a T-Van. They’re perfect for illuminating a dinner table (when attached to the top of a wine bottle) as well as for quick trips to the loo at night. The magnetic base is perfect for attaching to the iron of the typical drop dunny.
We also like the fact that each light shows a red “pilot” light when running low on power, and being able to charge 1,2 or all 4 lamps with the included charger cable from any USB outlet.
10 out of 10 for function, utility, ease of use and longevity. (About the best $100 we’ve ever spent on a camping accessory).
Thanks for your feedback, Jim.
We’ve found a few Luci lanterns and a headtorcheach is all the lighting needed, whether car camping or hiking. Did I tell you how great Luci lanterns are? They are very great indeed.
You definitely can’t go wrong with a couple of Luci lanterns, Peter! 🙂
Goal Zero Lighthouse 400 – game over.
We were surprised the Goal Zero Lighthouse 400 didn’t make it onto the bestseller list actually, the three recharging options really sets it apart from all the other lanterns in our range JF – cheers.
I have the Goal Zero lighthouse mini and have found it to be lightweight and reliable. The light options are great too as I find it useful to be able to dim the light right down.
That model is definitely a Snowys favourite Feathers, and just missed out on the top 10 this year, but is nonetheless a fantastic product – cheers.
So what is the best 10 or 1
Number one is the best, Paul, we started from the bottom up.
Love to see some of the Fenix light lanterns at snowys.
I’ll mention this to our purchasing team, Josh, I’m not sure if they have looked at Fenix before. There are so many lighting brands on the market! ~ Ben
thank share so many useful camping lantern information.
I have been travelling and camping in Africa, Europe and Australia for some sixty years and always find your information useful and informative. Keep up the good work! Brendan McGuire, Adelaide.
I would like to thank Snowys for the valuable and useful info you supply on your website. I have been travelling and camping in the great outdoors in Australia, Africa and Europe, for some sixty years and always find something interesting in your blogs. Keep up the good work! Brendan McGuire.