The Best Portable Baby Monitors for Camping Without Electricity (2025)
Camping trips are for getting away and relaxing but even the most rugged of parents get anxious leaving their baby in the tent or camper alone. A battery operated baby monitor gives you the ability to take a break from parenting and enjoy downtime by the campfire.
The Best Battery Operated Baby Monitor for Camping
We usually go tent camping without electricity, so having a battery operated baby monitor is the BEST piece of gear to have.
Be aware that most baby monitors will say that they’re battery operated, but they are only talking about the parent unit, not the child unit.
If you’re looking for a truly battery operated baby monitor these two are the ONLY options:
Roar Outdoors Camping Baby Monitor
The Roar Baby monitor is the BEST baby monitor for camping. I wish I had something this awesome when my son was little. It has every feature I want in a camping baby monitor.
The first CAMPING SPECIFIC battery operated baby monitor!
- Both units are battery operated and USB rechargeable.
- Operates WITHOUT Wifi!
- 1000ft range.
- Headphone jack.
- Push to talk from parent unit.
- Optional belt clip.
This monitor was designed to survive any camping trip your family goes on. I’ve held it in my hand and can tell it was purpose built to be drop proof and water resistant. With 1000′ of range and 20 hours of battery, this baby monitor will go further than you’ll need it to.
I own this baby monitor now and cannot recommend it enough. The design team at Roar Outdoors literally researched all the features a battery operated baby monitor should have to withstand camping, and built them into one light-weight unit.
Roar Outdoors is a small business based in the USA, and as you all know, I love supporting small businesses over large conglomerates who are looking to own the whole alphabet.
TimeFlys Audio Baby Monitor
- 2 Sets of Rechargeable NiMH batteries which can last about 10-12 hours on a full charge.
- Parents can talk to and comfort the baby by pressing the talking button.
- Parents can remotely control the night light for the baby anytime needed.
- Low battery and out of range alarms with simple and easy operation.
- Long Range up to 1000 ft, Temperature Monitoring and Warning, Lullabies, Vibration.
This monitor has a 2 way talk feature, 8 lullabies for a little white noise for your baby. There is a night-light on the baby unit that can be controlled from the parent side.
It also has a temperature monitoring feature if you’re camping in colder weather and are worried about the tent getting too cold. Plus, it looks like a super cute penguin.
A fellow camper has used this baby monitor and she thinks it was amazing:
We went on a large camping trip with a group of 30 adults and 2 young babies. The other baby’s family and I both used this battery-powered baby monitor in our cabins. This product allowed us to spend time with family outside of our cabins during the day while our babies napped or after they went down early in the evening.
It gave us great peace of mind having a way to monitor our babies without cell reception, where a phone app wouldn’t be possible to use on a week-long trip like this. We also loved the added night light feature for middle of the night feedings and diaper changes. -K. Walsh
Best Portable Parent Unit
These monitors DO NOT have a wireless baby unit and you WILL NEED a power bank of some kind.
Vtech Audio Baby Monitor
This is the baby monitor we used at home and it is a baby monitor that you can take camping. It has a battery operated parent unit, but the baby unit still needs to be plugged in.
The parent side is portable and has a hands-free belt clip. The baby side has a night light and a 2 way talk feature if you want to use your voice to soothe your baby.
- Up to 1,000 feet of range.
- The built-in intercom on the parent unit lets you talk to your baby.
- A soothing night light on the baby unit gently illuminates a dark room.
- You can use the parent unit to adjust the microphone sensitivity of your baby unit
- To continuously monitor your baby, make sure you use both battery and AC power at the same time.
If you have a power bank the Vtech audio baby monitor is a great option. It’s also a great baby monitor option if you are camping in a trailer at an electric site.
We used this one when Tiny Critter was little and it was a great portable option.
I loved that I could turn the sound down and have it vibrate instead of being loud. It’s an amazing unit and we got a lot of use out of ours.
Walkie Talkies
We have amazing walkie talkies and they have a baby monitor function. It becomes an audio-only monitor once you turn off the push-to-talk button and set it to voice activated.
I figured out that you also can use a rubber band to hold down the talk button on the baby side. The battery life is great on the ones we have and will easily last all weekend.
Be sure to get a set that have channel options so you have a private and secure connection.
Phone on Call
If you’re camping with someone else who has a phone, you can call them and leave the call open in the tent. This way you can check in on the baby from a distance without any battery power. Make sure to mute the phone on the parent side.
If this is your plan, remember to stay within range of your phone service provider so that all of your devices work reliably.
Happy Camping!
I’m Molly Foss, aka Momma Critter. I’ve been camping since I was 9 years old and I always wanted to be Robin Hood and live in the forest when I grew up. I’m excited to share my love of camping with my son as he grows up. My favorite thing to do while camping is roast marshmallows over the fire.
what type and size of power bank did you use?
is there one that will keep the “baby” unit powered all night?
Any of the Jackery power stations will keep the baby unit powered for a long time. In most situations you’ll turn off the monitor when you get into the tent, so you won’t need to power it all night.