Torontonians can get camping gear without buying it four ways: rental shops in and around the city, member gear libraries, outfitters at the park gates, and neighbours renting out their own tents. A tent for a weekend runs about $30 to $80, and a full kit for four people runs $90 to $240. Here is every option, with real prices.
All prices below are in Canadian dollars and were checked in July 2026; rates change, so treat them as the shape of the cost rather than a quote.
Exclusive Sport Rentals: the per item rental counter
Exclusive Sport Rentals in Vaughan rents individual items and full packages, and publishes its prices. A four person tent is $65 for the first night and $15 for the second, so about $80 for a weekend. A complete camping package for four people is $240 for two nights.
The pricing structure is worth understanding before you compare: their camping rates are front loaded, with a higher first night and much cheaper nights after that. A two person tent is $45 for the first night, then $15, then $5 a night. That makes them relatively expensive for a single overnight and much better value on a week long trip, where the tent averages out to under $15 a night.
The packages bundle a tent, sleeping bags and pads, a cooler, two lanterns, and a two burner propane stove. Propane is not included, and cans are $15 each. Winter rated sleeping bags are available between October and April, and the counter is at 8575 Keele Street in Vaughan, so plan for a drive to pick up.
Camp Rentique: packages delivered to your door
Camp Rentique rents assembled camping packages rather than individual items, from $90 for one person up to $195 for four people for a summer car camping trip. Delivery across the GTA and Peterborough is free on orders over $250 and $35 otherwise, with self pickup available near the DVP and 401.
Instead of building a kit item by item, Camp Rentique hands you a complete setup sized to your group, stocked with gear from brands like MSR, The North Face, Marmot, and Coleman. Backpacking and portaging packages run $120 to $210 for one to three people, which matters if your trip involves carrying everything between lakes rather than parking beside the site.
For anyone without a car, this and Cloud of Goods below are the two shop options that come to you.
Rent A Vibe: the budget pickup counter in Mississauga
Rent A Vibe runs a pickup counter in Mississauga, open seven days a week from 7 am to 11 pm. Pricing is per night, and one night covers up to two full days, so a weekend trip is often billed as a single night. You pay 10 percent at booking and the rest at pickup, plus a $100 refundable damage deposit.
They stock two person, four person, and family tents, along with sleeping bags, chairs, tables, lanterns, and cooking gear, and their Toronto page pitches most GTA cities as a 20 to 40 minute drive from the counter at 3610 Nashua Drive. Item prices are quoted through their booking system rather than published on a rate card, so check the total before you commit.
Pickup can be as early as 6 am and return runs to midnight on the drop off date, so one billed night genuinely covers a Saturday and Sunday of camping. There is no delivery, so this option assumes a car.
Cloud of Goods: same day delivery, item by item
Cloud of Goods is a rental marketplace that delivers in Toronto, with camping listings running roughly $43 to $71 per rental. Stock covers four and six person tents, three season sleeping bags, air mattresses, coolers, lanterns, and even hiking baby carriers, and gear can arrive the same day you order.
The model is different from a rental counter: Cloud of Goods is a platform listing gear from local suppliers, delivered to your address. That makes it the most convenient option for visitors and for anyone assembling a kit without leaving home, and usually the priciest per item once delivery is in the total. Gear has to come back clean and dry, or cleaning charges apply.
What about MEC?
MEC does not rent camping gear in Toronto anymore. The retailer paused its rental program in 2020, and the Toronto store page today lists ski and bike shop services, a climbing wall, and community space, but no gear rentals.
A lot of Torontonians still remember MEC as the default place to rent a tent, and plenty of older blog posts still recommend it, so this one earns its own section. If your plan was built around an MEC rental, pick another option from this list. Their gear swap events are still worth watching if your question is really about buying used.
Can you borrow camping gear from a gear library?
Yes, through the University of Toronto Outing Club. Membership is open to anyone in the GTA at $40 a year, or $25 for current students, and members can borrow from the gear library at 21 Sussex Avenue. Gear goes out first come, first served in the week before your trip, by appointment.
Despite the name, UTOC is a not for profit club open to non students, founded in 1957. If you camp more than once a summer, a $40 membership that unlocks cheap rentals all season is hard to beat, and you also get organized trips and a cabin near Georgian Bay. The trade is convenience: no advance reservations, office hour appointments, and a first come, first served queue that runs thin before a long weekend.
Toronto's other lending institution does not cover camping: the Toronto Tool Library lends tools for $85 a year, drills and saws rather than tents, and its sister project the Sharing Depot, which did lend camping gear, is long closed.
Going to Algonquin? Rent at the park instead
For a backcountry canoe trip, outfitters at the park usually beat hauling gear from Toronto. Algonquin Outfitters rents complete packages, canoe, camping gear, and food included, from about $230 per person for a two day trip plus HST, with equipment only outfitting from about $100 per person.
The logic is simple: a canoe on a car roof is the hardest thing on this list to rent in the city, and Algonquin Outfitters is already at the access points with the boats, the barrels, and the route knowledge. Complete outfitting bundles everything down to the menu, and first timers can add a three hour skills session covering camp setup, food storage, and portaging for $25 per person. A full guide is $285 a day shared by the group.
If your trip is car camping closer to the city, the Toronto options above are cheaper. If the plan involves a paddle, price the trip from the park gate first.
Renting from people nearby
The cheapest tents in the city are the ones already in your neighbours' closets. On peer to peer rental marketplaces, a four person tent typically goes for $15 to $25 a day, below shop rates, because the owner has no counter, no warehouse, and no staff. The trade is that inventory depends on who happens to live near you.
A warning before you go looking for one of these apps. Several platforms that Canadian search results still recommend by name shut down years ago, and one of the biggest simply changed its name. We checked which ones are actually alive so you do not plan a long weekend around a dead website.
This is the option circld exists for. It is a new peer to peer rental app for Toronto and the GTA, on iOS and Android, where people list their own gear and you browse what is available near you, including a growing outdoor and camping section. Listing is free and circld takes no commission: you agree on dates and price in chat and pay the owner directly.
Being new cuts both ways, and it is fair to say so. Inventory is growing but still limited compared to a rental counter with a warehouse, so the four person tent you want may not be listed in your postal code yet. There is no payment processing, insurance, or held deposit: every listing is reviewed before it goes live, owners can ask for a refundable deposit in chat, and the usual common sense of any private handoff applies. The pickup and safety notes cover how to handle the meetup well.
And if you are reading this as someone whose own tent sits in a closet 51 weekends a year, you are the supply side of this equation. The math on that is in what your idle gear could actually earn.
How the options compare
Weekend cost means a typical two night trip; figures come from the sections above.
| Option | What they stock | Weekend cost | Pickup or delivery | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exclusive Sport Rentals | Tents, bags, stoves, coolers, full packages | $80 for a four person tent, $240 for a four person package | Counter in Vaughan | Per item control, longer trips |
| Camp Rentique | Complete packages, car camping to portaging | $90 to $195 per package | GTA delivery, or pickup at DVP and 401 | Full kits without a car |
| Rent A Vibe | Tents, bags, chairs, cooking gear | Quoted at booking, plus $100 refundable deposit | Counter in Mississauga | Budget weekends, west GTA |
| Cloud of Goods | Tents, bags, air mattresses, coolers | Roughly $43 to $71 per item | Same day delivery | Visitors, no car, short notice |
| UTOC gear library | Club gear library | $25 to $40 a year membership plus low fees | Appointment at 21 Sussex Ave | Frequent campers on a budget |
| Algonquin Outfitters | Canoes, complete backcountry outfitting | From about $230 per person including food | At the park | Canoe trips in Algonquin |
| A neighbour on circld | Whatever people nearby have listed | $30 to $50 for a four person tent | Meet in your neighbourhood | Lowest price, no overhead |
If this is your first camping trip, rent
Renting your first kit is not a compromise, it is the correct order of operations. A decent four person tent costs about $230 to $460 to buy, call it $400 for a good one, and until you have slept in a tent you do not know whether you want the four person dome, the six person cabin, or to never do this again.
The general version of this logic is the five uses a year rule: if you will use gear fewer than five times a year, renting usually wins outright. Most first timers over pack, and renting lets you discover that the camp kitchen mattered and the hatchet did not before you have paid retail for both.
Buy the personal items first, boots, a headlamp, a sleeping bag if borrowed ones bother you. Rent the big shared items, tent, stove, cooler, until frequency earns them a place in your closet.
Book ahead for July and August weekends
Gear and campsites run out on the same weekends. Ontario Parks reservations open five months ahead of arrival at 7 am, and the busiest parks see their summer Saturdays claimed within minutes of the window opening. The rental counters feel the same squeeze a little later.
If your trip is a July or August weekend, sort the campsite the moment your five month window opens, then book gear as soon as the dates are firm. For peer to peer rentals, message owners a couple of weeks ahead rather than the Thursday before, both to hold the dates and to sort out pickup timing without rushing.
Long weekends deserve extra paranoia. Canada Day, the August civic holiday, and Labour Day empty every rental shelf in the city, and the neighbour with the nice tent is probably camping too.
Where to start
If you want a complete kit with zero decisions, price Camp Rentique's packages. If you want per item control and do not mind the drive, Exclusive Sport Rentals publishes the clearest rate card. If you camp often, a UTOC membership pays for itself in one trip. If the trip is a canoe route, start from the Algonquin Outfitters rate page.
And before booking any of them, it costs nothing to check what people near you are renting out. A tent three streets away at $20 a day, with a pickup that takes ten minutes on foot, is the version of this that the other options are approximating. Some weekends it will not be there yet. When it is, it is usually the best deal on this list.