11 Best Camping Movies To Watch Before an Outdoor Adventure

I haven’t gone camping much (sleeping outside in cold, drizzly British weather is unappealing for some reason) but I love the idea of it. Throwing a tent, tote bag of food, and some sleeping bags into a car boot and driving off to the serene countryside for the night sounds idyllic. Luckily, all the best camping movies seem to concur that while camping can be fun, it also can go very wrong!

Camping movies cover a spectrum of genres. There are family camping movies, comedy camping movies, scary camping movies, movies about camping for kids, and lots more.

While I’ll dip into summer camp movies a little in this post, I already have a huge list of summer camp movies here.

So, let’s uncover the best camping movies that will encourage you to sleep more in nature or make you laugh/cry while you’re on a camping trip! This list includes running times as well as where to stream these awesome movies about camping trips.

List of Best Camping Movies

1. Stand By Me (1986)

English | 89m | 92% Rotten Tomatoes | Watch on Amazon Prime

Based on a novella by Stephen King called The Body, this film follows four friends who learn there might be a dead body in the woods and decide to investigate. It’s quite the trek out to the woods from their small town of Castle Rock, Oregon! So, Gordie, Chris, Teddy, and Vern bring sleeping bags and supplies and hit the road.

Stand By Me is one of the best coming-of-age movies as well as one of the best camping movies. When the boys set up their camp for the night, they tell stories, make a campfire, and sleep under the stars.

While the overall tone of the movie is bittersweet, this summer camping trip was a defining moment for all four boys. It helped them grow up and gain more independence, for better or for worse.

2. Addams Family Values (1993)

English | 94m | 75% Rotten Tomatoes | Watch on Amazon Prime

I said there was going to be a handful of summer camp movies on this list, so let’s start with a cult classic summer camp film! Addams Family Values is the sequel to 1991’s The Addams Family. 

There’s a new addition to the Addams’ household but the existing kids, Wednesday and Pugsley, aren’t happy about it. They’re really not happy when the new nanny (Joan Cusack) ships them off to summer camp to stop them from foiling her gold-digging plans with Uncle Fester. 

They attend Camp Chippewa where they’re forced to swim in the lake, watch Disney movies, and take part in a Thanksgiving play. It’s one of the most fun, family camping movies suitable for kids aged nine and older.

3. Heavyweights (1995)

English | 100m | 38% Rotten Tomatoes | Watch on Disney+

This is definitely not the best summer camp movie out there and it’s definitely not aged well. However, people who watched it when they were kids rate it so highly (too highly), it had to make the list!

It stars Ben Stiller as Tony Perkis, a fitness fanatic. He wants to take over a day camp named Camp Hope and turn a friendly fat camp for kids (see, I said it hadn’t aged well) into a military-style BootCamp. It works as a family camping movie, and one saving grace is that it features a young Kenan Thompson!

4. The Parent Trap (1998)

English | 128m | 87% Rotten Tomatoes | Watch on Disney+

One of the greatest summer camp movies is, of course, The Parent Trap! This is the film where Lindsay Lohan stars as separated twins Hallie and Annie.

They meet for the first time at Camp Walden in the United States and hatch a plan to reunite their parents by swapping places: Hallie goes to London to meet her mum (Natasha Richardson) as Annie, and Annie goes to California to meet her dad (Dennis Quaid) pretending to be Hallie.

Considering the twins also join their dad on a camping trip in California towards the end of the film too, The Parent Trap is one of the best family camping movies you could watch!

5. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

English | 81m | 86% Rotten Tomatoes | Watch on Amazon Prime

If you want to watch camping horror movies, The Blair Witch Project is a great place to start. It’s a found-footage movie about three film students who want to make a documentary about an elusive small-town murderer in Maryland known as the Blair Witch. 

While their project starts with seemingly harmless interviews and research, things take a turn once they get into the woods.

Granted, The Blair Witch Project might not be one of the best movies to watch while camping if you want to actually get some sleep! But camping and the horror movie genre go hand-in-hand. There has to be at least one or two weirdos reading this post that would get a kick out of watching a scary camping movie while lying in a tent…

6. Brokeback Mountain (2005)

English | 134m | 88% Rotten Tomatoes | Watch on Amazon Prime

Although most viewers associate Brokeback Mountain with the phrase ‘that gay cowboy movie’, there are also some great camping scenes!

Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger star as two sheepherders working in isolation on a mountain in Wyoming over the summer of 1963. Their attraction develops while camping together on this hill and tortures them both for the next 20 years of their lives. 

There’s something so idyllic about chopping your own wood, making your own fire, and hunting your own food. While I know the reality is probably a lot bleaker (especially hunting), good camping movies like Brokeback Mountain can make you long for it anyway.

7. Camp Rock (2008)

English | 99m | 50% Rotten Tomatoes | Watch on Disney+

Camp Rock was a sensation when it was released on the Disney Channel as a TV movie. It’s managed to retain a low level of popularity thanks to the continued fame of its stars. Now, it’s available to watch 24/7 on Disney+ and it’s rated TV-G so it’s one of the best camping family movies!

Demi Lovato stars as Mitchie Torres, a wannabe singer desperate to attend a music summer camp named Camp Rock. When her mum is hired by the camp as a chef, Mitchie is able to attend and her talent is soon discovered by pop stars the Jonas Brothers.

If you watched Camp Rock as a kid or you have kids yourself, this might be one of the best movies with camping as a main theme! But for everyone else? Keep scrolling! 

8. Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

English | 94m | 93% Rotten Tomatoes | Watch on Amazon Prime

From iconic director Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom follows young Khaki Scout Sam and his neighbor Suzie. They live on a fictional island off the coast of Rhode Island called New Penzance and decide to run away together.

Sam abandons his fellow scouts at Camp Ivanhoe, Suzie leaves home, and everyone on the island starts a search party. Like every Wes Anderson film, the cast features an array of Hollywood stars including Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand, and Tilda Swinton.

Once it’s had time to age, Moonrise Kingdom will absolutely become one of those classic camping movies. It’s full of adventure, tents, treehouses, a showcasing of wilderness skills, and stunning coastal and countryside locales.

9. Sightseers (2012)

English | 85m | 86% Rotten Tomatoes | Watch on Amazon Prime

Finally, a British film on this list! Sightseers is one of the best camping comedy movies (okay, very dark comedy movies) you’ll ever find. It follows two lovebirds as they take their first holiday together, travelling in a caravan from the Peak District to the Lake District.

But the course of true love never did run smooth, especially when you’re a couple with murderous tendencies.

Although wild camping is legal in Scotland in places like the Cairngorms National Park, most campers stick to designated campsites in England. You’ll see plenty of them in Sightseers along with fun attractions like Blue John Cavern and the Derwent Pencil Museum.

Read next: Sightseers Film Locations in England

10. Nomadland (2020)

English | 108m | 93% Rotten Tomatoes | Watch on Disney+

Looking for movies about RVing or #vanlife? You couldn’t do much better than Nomadland. It won tons of Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director for Chloé Zhao.

Nomadland follows Fern (Frances McDormand) who is one of many older Americans who became nomadic after the recession in the mid-noughties. She’s a widow living in a van, moving from job to job and place to place in the American West. 

It flips the script on digital nomads as the growing demographic of people living in vans. It’s a moving portrayal of grief, transiency, and alternative lifestyles to the elusive American Dream.

11. Happiness for Beginners (2023)

English | 103m | 33% Rotten Tomatoes | Watch on Netflix

Happiness for Beginners is not a good movie, but it is a movie that gave me all the warm fuzzies when I watched it. Plus, it’s still one of the best Netflix camping movies so if you already have a subscription, you won’t have to pay a penny to watch it too.

Ellie Kemper stars as Helen Carpenter, a recently divorced woman who books a place on a survivalist course on the Appalachian Trail in an attempt to challenge herself. The Appalachian Trail runs through 14 states including Vermont, New York, and Tennessee from Maine to Georgia.

It takes around five to seven months to hike so she doesn’t complete the entire trail! Just enough to camp for a few nights and totally change her outlook on life, like any transformational travel movie.

As well as being one of the best/only camping movies on Netflix, it’s total hiking gear p*rn. Just another reason I love this movie when I shouldn’t! Now, where can I buy a thick Patagonia fleece?

Other Best Camping Movies: Carry On Camping (1969), Deliverance (1972), Without a Paddle (2004), Grizzly Man (2005), The Kings of Summer (2013), Captain Fantastic (2016), Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), Leave No Trace (2018)

Best Camping Movies: That’s a Wrap!

Those are just some of the best camping movies you can watch right now through various streaming channels. Whether you’re in the mood for kids’ camping movies, funny camping movies, horror camping movies, or family camping movies, you’ll find a movie on this list you’ll enjoy watching.

Do you love camping or are you planning a camping trip? Let me know in the comments below!

Read next:

18+ Best Summer Camp Movies + TV Shows