How to split group camping trip costs

A camping trip looks cheap until the costs land on different cards: one friend books the site, another buys the food, a third brings a tent, and two cars burn gas. Each of these costs follows its own logic. Sort them before splitting, and the weekend settles with a few short transfers.

Per site or per person: read how the campground charges

Campgrounds charge in two main ways. Most Yosemite campgrounds list a daily fee of $36 per site, while Camp 4, a walk-in campground, charges $10 per person, according to the National Park Service. The park also caps a campsite at six people, children included, and two motor vehicles.

The billing method suggests the split. A per-site fee is a fixed cost: it stays the same whether four or six people sleep there, so divide it among everyone who stays. A per-person fee already says who uses what: someone who arrives a night late pays one night less. When a group outgrows one site, book two and share both among everyone, rather than making the people on the second site pay for its fee alone.

Lent, rented or bought: three kinds of gear

Gear is where camping costs get blurry. Separate three cases.

• Lent gear: a friend brings their own tent or stove. Most groups charge nothing. If the friend asks for a small contribution, for cleaning or wear, agree on the amount before the trip and split it among the others.
• Rented gear: a cooler or stove rented for the trip is a shared expense, like the site. Split it among the people who use it.
• Bought gear: decide who keeps it before buying. If one person keeps a new lantern, that person pays for it alone. If the group shares the cost, the item belongs to the group, or the keeper buys out the others at an agreed value.

A two-night trip for five, worked out

This example is fictional. Five friends camp for two nights: Lea, Sam, Ines, Malik and Hugo. Lea books the site at $30 a night, so $60. Sam buys $150 of groceries for everyone. Ines rents a stove and cooler for $25. Two cars drive: Hugo spends $60 on gas and Lea $40, and the group agrees to share all fuel equally because everyone needed a ride. Hugo lends his tent for free. Malik buys a $20 lantern and keeps it.

• Site: $60 split five ways, $12 each.
• Groceries: $150 split five ways, $30 each.
• Stove and cooler rental: $25 split five ways, $5 each.
• Gas: $100 split five ways, $20 each.
• Lantern: Malik keeps it, so it stays out of the shared total.

Each person’s share is $12 + $30 + $5 + $20 = $67, and five shares make $335, the exact shared total. Then compare with what each person paid. Lea paid $100 and is owed $33. Sam paid $150 and is owed $83. Ines paid $25 and owes $42. Hugo paid $60 and owes $7. Malik paid nothing shared and owes $67.

Four transfers settle the trip: Malik sends Sam $67, Ines sends Sam $16 and Lea $26, and Hugo sends Lea $7. Sam receives $83 and Lea $33, matching what they are owed.

If your group prefers to split gas by car rather than across everyone, our fuel cost calculator handles distance, consumption and passengers. Planning the trip before booking? The group trip budget template estimates the shared costs in advance.

Food and cars: decide who is in

Groceries are usually shared by everyone who eats, but not always. Someone who brings their own meals, or leaves before the last dinner, can be left out of a given receipt. Record each shopping trip as its own expense with its own list of people instead of one big food total.

Cars raise a similar question. Sharing all gas across the group is simple and fair when everyone needed a ride. Splitting by car makes sense when one car took a detour that only its passengers wanted. Pick one rule before leaving and apply it to both cars.

Record costs at the campsite, settle at home

Spliz lets a group add each expense, choose who shares it and see everyone’s balance, for free. Friends install the app to join the group as guests without creating an account. Repayments happen outside the app, by bank transfer, in cash or with another app, and can then be recorded. Recording a repayment does not move money.

Spliz

Sources

• National Park Service, Yosemite campgrounds, daily fees per site and per person (checked November 10, 2026).
• National Park Service, Yosemite camping regulations, six people and two vehicles per campsite.