RV travel and staying in campgrounds does not have to mean exposure to harsh party lights. At least not at your campsite. You may miss soft natural lighting and a cozy ambiance as night falls. By harkening back to the natural light sources of old, you can create a warm, inviting atmosphere.
Cozy camp lighting
Solo Stoves
The Solo Mesa and Ranger 2.0 stainless-steel stoves provide a safe, clean, and smoke-free wood-burning fireplace for campfires. I have used all the Solo Stove fireplaces and appreciate the clean-burning, smoke-free fire and the ability to set it where I want it instead of being limited to a fixed campfire pit. While boondocking, the Solo fireplaces also provide the additional safety of a contained fire.
Solo Mesa
The Solo Mesa is a table-top fire container that creates the perfect ambiance, whether you’re enjoying a late-night meal, reading, or working.
Solo Ranger 2.0
The Solo Ranger 2.0, meanwhile, is a stainless-steel fire container with a uniquely engineered design that makes it clean-burning and smoke-free. Everyone loves campfires, and the Solo Ranger is a small, easily packable portable fire pit that provides firelight to illuminate your surroundings without the nuisance of smoke. Solo offers several different sizes of wood-burning camp fireplaces, including the small Ranger, the mid-sized Yukon, and the largest, Bonfire.
More traditional old-school camp lamps and lanterns are the best for lighting that creates a traditional camp atmosphere. There are many examples, but I use a combination of vintage lanterns, as well as LG lamps, and oil lamps.
Fire Maple Orange Gas Lantern
Fire Maple is a company that specializes in quality bushcraft and camping gear.
The Orange Gas Lantern is a gas light that can bathe your campsite in natural light. Its warm relaxing glow is much more pleasant than any harsh LED artificial light.
The Orange Gas Lantern travels in an included hard case that protects the lamp while traveling. The lamp connects to a Coleman-style propane canister using a Fire Maple LPG adapter.
Firefly Camping Gas Lantern
The Fire Maple Firefly Gas Lantern is another good option that provides a more rustic feel and a soft, yellowish light that can cast a warm glow around your campsite, making it perfect for those quiet, serene evenings under the stars.
Garrett Wade Navy Style Oil Lamps
Nothing beats a brass nautical-style oil table lamp for nostalgic retro styling and artistic elegance. Garrett Wade offers a perfect example of this lamp type.
In terms of inside RV lighting, you can also enhance the interior design of your space to optimize lighting. Painting your RV kitchen cabinets white, for instance, can brighten up your living area and amplify the effects of your camp lighting.
Creating a comforting evening ambiance with camp lighting isn’t just about illuminating your surroundings; it’s also about crafting a space that reflects your personal style and enhances your overall RV living experience. The right lighting—inside and out—can transform your RV into a place where you’re happy to relax and spend your evenings enjoying the peace and tranquility of nature.
You can create a cozy, inviting atmosphere by thoughtfully choosing and positioning your camp lighting. The right lighting can go a long way in enhancing your camping experience.
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Solar lights are wonderful – they are not horribly bright & for the most part give us enough light to move around until bedtime. Have also started bringing the solar ‘torches’ and put them on either side of the fire pit & near any other tripping hazard on our site each time – not too bright but again, keeps us safe (& no light ever seems to intrude on our neighbors’ campsites – the critical factor when we are putting up camplights….)
I have solar strings of LED lights in (plastic) bottles, which I use as needed to light our steps at night and any hazards. I suppose they add ambiance, but that is not their job.
Currently, I’m running a test at home, since I had to buy some new lights, because I want “just enough” light to do the job, without it being annoying. I have a couple of bottles that I spray-painted, but the current strings in them now are too dim, maybe.
I tuck one bottle under the edge of the trailer, next to the steps, because in a dark place, those dark steps may be a fall hazard. That may be the only one in use, just depends. I often mark the coupler nose, since that is a painful shin bruiser. In a couple of weeks, a friend will be going camping with me, after a recent knee replacement, along with her dog. Gentle lights to go out at night are much nicer than the sometimes-necessary, but annoying LED porch light.
I quite agree. Like you, I have done a lot of experimenting to find the right level and tone of lighting. My tastes run to the natural fire and lamp light. On the other hand, like many RVers, I have been increasingly appalled at the proliferation of loud, harsh, sometimes even pulsating lighting at sites occupied by inconsiderate campers.
Be respectful of others and turn off the light show at bedtime.
Totally agree, Ron.
Yes!
Thank you.
Love the Solo stove!
I have a large lantern from Garrett Wade. It’s nice. I put the citronella lamp oil in it. I have a warm light glow and keep the mosquitoes away at the same time.
I’m really glad to see this article. It’s nice to know that I’m not alone with my preference of soft light from a yellow flame. I carry an old style cold blast kerosene lantern; a Dietz 2500 Jupiter from Lanternnet.com. It’s silent when running and lasts weeks on a fuel fill.
I would love to see more of this type of lighting in the unlit, peaceful USFS and BLM campgrounds that I prefer. The light from a string of LEDs or a single Coleman lantern can disrupt a dark, tranquil evening from hundreds of feet away.
You are right about that.
How is the light from your Dietz 2500 Jupiter different from the light from a single Coleman lantern hundreds of feet away?
The Coleman lantern uses white gas under pressure and puts out the brightest, whitest, hurt your eyes, light I’ve ever seen and it is hot. The Dietz uses kerosene and is a low yellow light. It is a kerosene lamp like in the old cowboy movies. OR, to show my age, like my uncle still used on the farm when I was a kid. We still have them around the house for power outages.
Along these lines and trying to incorporate our modern ways of living, I have programed my cell phone to use its orange hues from 8 pm to 8 am. It eliminates the blue light effects (I hope) and is certainly less harsh and irritating. Wow! It dawns on me that maybe the current level of quickly expressed anger might be due to so much unnatural blue light. I am reprogramming my phone to be orange 24/7
No question that the blue light will make you nuts. I have turned my color TV to black and white and am calm and sleep better at night. I use blue light filtering glasses when on the computer. They seem to work. Ain’t got no smart fone.
How about some LED with a soft light diffuser. No open flame. Ask a parent with toddlers
about the worry of open flames.
Toddlers and even adults can be taught (if the parent does their job) to avoid open flames. Many many of us alive today grew up camping around open flames because we were taught to STAY AWAY.
Reminds me: As kids my brother and i were very well taught to stay away from the gas stove and other open flame. When burning leaves one fall brother and I decided it would be fun to dance around the burning leaves “camp fire” like Indians. We burnt our brand new sneakers. Taught? That is when we LEARNED to stay away from fire. Our feet were fine but our butts got burned.
Those with LEDs blasting all night only need to take a walk or drive after dark and they’ll realize how stupid they look and how glaring they are.
Include those who have the running lights blazing on their trailers. C’mon, you ain’t moving, turn those $#@# things off!
I totally agree.