Top 5 Best Camping Movies

Now that it’s winter and most of us are spending our time indoors instead of cruising in our motorhomes, it’s time to reconnect with the outdoors with some classic camping movies. Here are my top five camping movies that I watch to remind me how much I love adventuring in the great outdoors!

5. RV

Coming in at number five, there’s RV, starring Robin Williams. While this isn’t my favorite Robin Williams movie, he makes this camping movie memorable and hilarious. In the film, the workaholic Williams decides to take his family on a relaxing RV vacation. But in true comedic fashion, everything that could go wrong when RVing, does go wrong. Backing over mailboxes, an exploding dump hose, and ending up in the middle of no where thanks to a GPS are just some of the relatable nightmares in this film. If you’re an RVer and you’ve never seen this flick, I highly recommend checking it out!

4. Into The Wild

Into the Wild, based a true story, is one of my favorite camping stories. In the film, Christopher McCandless leaves his middle class life to hitchhike across the country to try surviving the wilderness of Alaska. A little less tame than RV camping, I love McCandless’ story because of his desire to escape from common culture and experience more with nature, which is one of my favorite parts of RVing. I highly recommend checking this film out, even if you prefer to stay cozy inside your RV over roughing it. (Or you can also read the bestselling book!)

3.Dirty Dancing

There’s something about s’mores and campfires that make people fall in love while camping. Well, that and a little dirty dancing. If you haven’t seen this more elite twist on summer camping, you’re missing one of the most classic movies of all time! Dance instructor Patrick Swayze teaches the uncoordinated Baby (Jennifer Grey) to dance and well, the two have the time of their life. Baby’s privileged family disapproves of the relationship, but they quickly learn nobody puts Baby in a corner.

2. Heavyweights

I grew up watching Heavyweights, a classic film about a summer at fat camp. The former fun-loving summer camp is bought out by a fitness czar, also known as Ben Stiller, who makes the kids go through ridiculous diet and exercise rituals to get skinny–before The Biggest Loser took on a similar plot. The campers spend the summer trying to overthrow Stiller and take back the camp they once loved. Spoiler: Once they take over the camp, they have an epic food party that makes me wish I could go to fat camp.

1. The Parent Trap

Whether you’re a fan of the Hayley Mills version or Lindsey Lohan, this is hands down my favorite camping movie. (My mom still makes fun of me for watching it so much as a kid!) I know this is more of a children’s film, but I still love this movie. A set of twins is separated at birth by their separating parents, but they meet years later when their parents send them to the same summer camp. The girls switch places and hilarity ensues. This movie taught us the best ways to prank our friends while camping–covering them with shaving cream? Classic–but it also has a love story between the re-uniting parents to keep adults interested.

Those are my top five camping movies! Can you tell I grew up in the 90s? I know there are plenty more, but these are my top five that I’ve seen and loved. What are your camping classics?