The Best Gas Griddles for Camping & Road Trips
- Eric Beuning
- Mar 31
- 8 min read
Updated: Apr 12
As a born again travel writer, I like to bring a portable gas griddle with me when I'm on the road. Not only does it help me save a ton of money cooking my own lunches. It also gives me the chance to take my time making and eating a hot meal in beautiful places.
In my experience, a gas griddle doesn’t put the smell of food in the air the way an open flame of a gas grill does. When you’re using it as a camp stove, this greatly reduces the risk of attracting wild animals to your campsite.
Of course, some portable gas griddles are better than others. You also have to consider things like cleanup, cool-down time, and maintenance. From my days as an outdoor product tester and decades of cooking on the road, I thought I’d break down what I think are the best gas griddles for camping and road trips.
Disclaimer: With nearly two decades of experience as a product tester, reviewer, and promotional product specialist, I bring you my honest, unbiased opinions. If you make a purchase through my site, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Portable Gas Griddle Buying Guide
A good gas griddle for camping and road trip cooking needs to be small enough to fit in the back of your truck or SUV. This is precious real estate, where size matters just as much as weight. You also have to consider other factors like the cooktop size, the griddle top material, its basic functionality, and ease to clean.
Griddle Top
A cold rolled steel griddle top needs to have a properly maintained seasoning layer, which takes a little extra time and effort after every cooking session. This is fine if you’re primarily going to use the griddle as your camp stove. Yet it can be a little bit of a hassle when you’re on the road cooking up some quick burgers at a wayside rest area.
A porcelain-coated griddle top is naturally non-stick and super easy to clean. It doesn’t imbue any extra flavor. However, I think it’s the better option for a portable gas griddle you’ll use on the go.
Griddle Size
A griddle size around 300 square inches is usually sufficient to make burgers for a family of four. Any smaller than that, and you’ll probably have to work in batches of 2 or three at a time. This is pretty much a non-factor for things like hot dogs, brats and ring sausages.
Ease of Cleanup
A portable gas griddle with a built-in grease management system is absolutely critical when you’re cooking at the roadside. Ideally, it should also have a grease cup or grease tray that’s easy to remove and pour off or wipe clean.
A Lid
A lid or hard cover isn’t 100% necessary, but it’s certainly nice for letting you do things like melt a slice of cheese on a burger or cook bone-in cuts of chicken. However, I’ve never come across a gas griddle lid that was 100% weatherproof. So, even when you’re using it as a camp stove, make sure you’re protecting it from rain somehow when not in use.
Best Portable Gas Griddles for Camping & Road Trips
Of the various portable gas griddles I’ve used and tested over the years, the following are my top picks. The first two are the best all-arounders, and worth the money. However, I included some other options that might fit other needs such as if you wanted to also use it for tailgating in a parking lot or need one you can pack into a hike-in campsite.
The Royal Gourmet PD1301S is my personal portable gas griddle. I’ve cooked with this thing on mountain overlooks, beach campsites, and deep in a rainy forest. There’s also the Royal Gourmet PD3001 with a built-in collapsible cart base, which is great if you want to save picnic table space.
I admit that it’s not fancy. It’s not going to be a conversation starter at your next cookout. Yet it’s got everything that counts where you need it at an easy price point.
The porcelain-coated griddle top is great for easy cleanup. You don’t have to worry about seasoning the griddle top like you do with cold rolled steel. Which honestly matters when you’re cooking on the go.
319 square inches of griddle space is big enough to cook burgers for a family of four. It’s also big enough to do eggs and bacon for breakfast.
The propane regulator attaches firmly, which isn’t always the case with portable propane griddles. It even comes adapted to connect to a 25-pound tank, and you can get an adapter if you want it to run off a 1-pound cylinder.
The hard cover is its secret gem. It allows you to close the lid when you want to melt cheese on a burger patty or keep a rain shower from soaking your food. It even protects the griddle top when you’re transporting it.
NOTE: It isn’t weatherproof, and you can’t trust the cover to keep the griddle safe if you leave it out all night in the rain.
Bottomline
The Royal Gourmet PD1301S and the Royal Gourmet PD3001 are both good all-arounder portable gas griddles that won’t let you down. You can even use it on your deck at home. It’s not fancy, but it will get the job done at an affordable price.
If Walt Kowalski had owned the Blackstone 22 Portable Gas Griddle, he would have made steaks with it at the end of his driveway and left the Gran Torino parked in the garage. This is the Cadillac of portable griddles and the sort of thing that will proudly live on your deck when you aren’t camping. The Blackstone 22 is also available as a tabletop gas griddle without the cart base.
Yes, you do pay a little more for the Blackstone brand name, but it’s a well-earned name backed by quality. You do also pay a little more for the lid and the folding legs, but I honestly think they’re worth it.
The cold-rolled steel griddle top requires you to maintain a “Seasoning Layer,” which isn’t that hard to do. It also tends to impart more flavor as the seasoning layer matures.
The 361 square inches of griddle space is big enough to grill breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a family of four.
The flexfold legs and pull-out side shelf are very convenient for times when you want to cook but there isn’t a picnic table available. It also makes it easy for the griddle to live on your deck. The wheels on the cart also mean you can roll it with you if you can’t pull it up to your campsite.
The Blackstone lid lets you do things like melt cheese on burgers and cook bone-in cuts of chicken. This is much harder with lesser models that don’t have the lid. However, I’ve tested this lid in the past, and it isn’t 100% weatherproof. So, don’t leave it out in the rain without using a waterproof generic grill cover.
The extras it comes with are rare for portable gas griddles in this range and are the sorts of things you’ll need to buy anyway.
Bottomline
This Blackstone 22 22-inch griddle is an awesome portable gas griddle that won’t let you down when you’re on the road or cooking at your campsite. It also has the quality and name brand recognition to live on your deck and start conversations at your next cookout. If you’re going to splurge on a portable gas griddle without suffering buyer’s remorse, this is the one!
This Royal Gourmet Tailgater gives you a two-in-one punch that makes it useful as a camp stove and a tailgate grill. You could even keep it on a picnic table on your desk at home for cookouts without complaining about the price.
Of course, having a grill on one side and a griddle on the other means it’s big for a portable gas grill. Yet at 32-inches long and weighing under 40 pounds, it’s not ungainly. When you’re on the road, and you need to cook lunch, it can slide out onto the tailgate of a truck, like it was designed for.
The griddle cooking space of 189 square inches is big enough to cook breakfast for the family while the coffee percolates on the grill. The griddle is protected with non-stick porcelain for easy cleanup.
The grill cooking space of 241 square inches is big enough to grill burger patties for a family of four. Meanwhile you can fry the bacon and onions to top each burger on the griddle. It too is protected with non-stick porcelain for easy cleanup.
The lack of a lid is an issue if you’re going to be grilling in the rain. As a camp stove, you’ll have to put it away, cover it, or keep it in a screen tent when not in use.
Bottomline
If you’re looking for a portable gas grill for tailgating that you can also use as a camp stove, the Royal Gourmet Tailgater offers a lot of versatility. It’s better suited to a foodie camp chef than it is someone who wants to quickly grill up some hot dogs at a wayside rest area. Just be sure to cover it after it’s cooled down. If there’s a risk of bears in the area, it should be stored inside a tote inside a vehicle.
This Blackstone 17-inch tabletop gas griddle is sort of the baby of Blackstone’s lineup. There are a few different iterations of it sold on the internet, but this one has the best bang for your buck. It has the lid you want for melting cheese and keeping the rain off it, and it comes with some handy extras. All at a price that isn’t marked up like some of the other versions.
The H-shaped burner element pumps out 12,000 BTUs and does a good job of evenly heating the cold-rolled steel griddle top. This is important with a small griddle like this, as it prevents hot and cold spots while also reducing the risk of the griddle crowning or deforming when you’re breaking it in!
The 267-square-inch griddle is JUST big enough to cook breakfast or burgers for a family of four. Just note that it’s cold-rolled steel and will need to be properly seasoned. The title description makes it sound like it’s naturally non-stick on its own.
This bundle comes with a container of the conditioner you need to properly season the griddle. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of it, which is nice if you’ve never maintained a cold-rolled steel griddle before.
The propane connection on it can be a little fiddly. It’s not a safety risk, but there is a little concern that the gas from your propane bottle can slowly leak. When I tested this one on a camping trip, I made sure to disconnect the canister after every use, just to be sure.
Bottomline
If you need something small and compact to cook for a family of three or smaller, this Blackstone 17-inch portable gas griddle It has everything you want to make small meals on the go, at camp, and could even live on a condominium patio. Just be sure to cover it when not in use, as the lid isn’t waterproof, and disconnect the propane canister when you’re done cooking.
This is the best carry bag for the Blackstone 17-inch griddle, which could come in handy if you need to transport the Blackstone griddle to a hike-in campsite. It’s the only one I found that’s truly designed to fit this lid assembly.
Camping Griddle Tools
While you can get by with a simple spatula when you’re cooking on a picnic table at a wayside rest area, it still helps to have a decent arsenal of griddle tools. Buying them one by one can get crazy spendy in a hurry. So, I hunted down these best-value tool bundles.
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