All guides

Each guide answers one buying question and shows the figures behind the answer.

4 guides

A dome tent glowing from an inside light on a dark hillside, town lights spread out below

How to choose

Choosing a tent and sleeping system for Australian conditions

Four decisions settle a tent and sleeping bag for Australian trips: the coldest night you will sleep out, floor area per person, the bag rating and the mat.

Updated 3/11/2026 · 10 min

Photo: nikhil more · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Insulated camping pot on a canister stove outdoors, its finned heat exchanger and gas cylinder visible

Budget and prices

What a camping kit really costs you per trip

Spread the kit over the trips you really take and add the gas. The number of trips a year decides the cost far more than the price on the tent does.

Updated 3/11/2026 · 8 min

Photo: Original photo: Michael Pereckas on Flickr Modified by Gazebo on February 3, 2015 with the addition of comment and XMP-cc:License metadata and the removal of JPEG IFD1 (thumbnail) metadata. · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Adult with a large loaded backpack and a small child in a day pack walking a trail across open tundra

Packing and load

Pack weight: what to carry, and what each item costs you

Water is a quarter of the pack before any gear goes in it. Here is where the rest of the weight sits, and which items earn their mass on an Australian walk.

Updated 3/11/2026 · 8 min

Photo: Olympic National Park · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Quilted beige mummy-shaped sleeping bag with mission badges, mounted behind glass in a museum case

Conditions

The EN rating on a sleeping bag: what comfort, limit and extreme actually describe

What the EN rating on a sleeping bag measures, why it prints three temperatures instead of one, and which of them applies to you.

Updated 6/11/2026 · 7 min

Photo: Claus Ableiter · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons