Worth Its Weight in Pancakes: Weber Traveler 22 Portable Griddle Review

The campground kitchen is experiencing a renaissance right now. From Dometic to Gerber Gear to upstart companies like Brio Outdoors — there’s a lot of cool new gear aimed at camp kitchens and outdoor culinary connoisseurs.

Last year, Weber introduced a line of griddles for your back deck, front porch, or that cool bar you built out of pallets by the pool. Aimed at taking market share from the reigning griddle champ, Blackstone, while providing an excellent cooking and eating experience, Weber’s griddles were a hit. They featured the top-tier build quality Weber is known for in its grills and a full line of accessories to enhance the experience.

But very few people are likely to stuff their home grill into the back of their SUV and haul it down to the local campground. And fewer still are likely to do that with a griddle. So, for 2024, Weber has introduced its Traveler 17 and Traveler 22 portable griddles.

I’ve spent the last 3 weeks cooking on the Traveler 22 for the kids and myself, and I am blown away. But despite all the great things that this griddle can do for you at home and abroad, it does have one weighty downside.

In short: Weber’s Traveler 22 Griddle is a game changer — both at home and away — when it comes to preparing full-flavored food for multiple people. It may be a little heavier than what you’re used to in a “camp stove.” But you’ll be holding off your campsite neighbors once they see the amazing meals you can prepare in one place, at one time. It provides ample cooking area, even heat, and is notably efficient with propane.

Weber Traveler 22 Portable Griddle Review

The first time I tried campground camping, I instantly fell in love with it. I loved having a big, roomy tent, an air mattress, and the means to cook culinary masterpieces right at the site. Looking back, though, I struggled through a series of camp stoves that were a chore to clean up. Plus, I was never able to cook everything I wanted to at once.

It’s even harder now that I have two kids. Cooking in waves is not an option. Big breakfasts are in high demand: bacon, popping eggs (what my daughters call sunny-side-up eggs), and home fries — at a minimum!

After the last camping season, I swore to upgrade the camp kitchen. After all, if there’s a new stove, there needs to be a new table. A new table has to have ways to keep all of my utensils, sauces, and spices close by. I need a prep area. You get where this is going, right? This isn’t easy.

Well, actually, it is.

Overview

At nearly 54 pounds, the Weber Traveler 22 is heavier than most portable grills on the market today. But with all the advantages that a griddle has over a grill, I think it’s worth it. After all, why should we have to minimize the way we prepare food and what we prepare?

Besides, if the Traveler 22 is your RV or Overlanding cook station, weight is less of an issue.

The Traveler 22 is a two-burner griddle with 8,000-BTU burners. It has adjustable feet that allow it to be placed on any surface outdoors, but I highly recommend investing in the Expandable Stand for the griddle.

Though most campgrounds have picnic tables, using one as a stand for your grill or griddle takes away from the space you have to eat. The stand provides a specific cooking area with two prep tables built in.

The griddle comes mostly assembled. You’re left to add on the hood handle, burner knobs, and the cage to hold the 16-ounce propane tank. All in all, it takes less than 5 minutes to put the Traveler 22 together. Just don’t hurt yourself lifting and inserting the griddle plate into the housing.

As someone who had the same Weber Genesis for over 20 years, I am happy to see that Weber is still building its products to withstand a nuclear war.

Breakfast Perfected

Growing up, my dad made a big deal about Sunday morning breakfast. From omelets to hash to seconds and thirds, it was quite the affair. In all of my years of car camping before kids and with kids, I can say that breakfast has always been the meal we focused on.

But it’s rarely an easy task.

A grill can’t provide the ways and means to make a big breakfast without a ton of muss and fuss. You’re already corralled into the smaller cook space, and now you have to add in a few frying pans. Without those frying pans, you’ll never pull off a stack of pancakes. And you can forget about eggs altogether.

With a griddle, the whole thing is a frying pan. You don’t have to sacrifice space by adding another piece of gear. With the Traveler 22, that equates to 352 square inches of cooking space — enough to accommodate a dozen eggs, a pound of bacon, numerous links of chicken apple maple breakfast sausage, and a corner dedicated to homefries.

A nice feature of the Traveler 22 is the dual temperature zones created by the two adjustable burners. I like to cook my pancakes over a lower heat setting so they don’t burn. But low heat doesn’t work for bacon and eggs. Having the ability to lower the heat in one area and high in another is a key feature of this griddle.

Gordon Ramsay Would Approve!

I’d been grilling my steaks for years before Gordan Ramsay told me I was doing it wrong. And he was right — if you want a perfect steak, you need to sear it. So, I have been making steaks for my daughters and me in a pan ever since.

Bringing that process over to the Traveler 22 was both exciting and spooky. I’ve never prepared a steak on a griddle before. Griddles are efficient and hot, and I didn’t want my first experience to be my last.

It wasn’t. That first steak was fantastic. Wow. So were the second and third ones. The butter and oil on the griddle make a nice crust along the face and edges of the steak while preserving the medium-rare level of excellence inside. Also, the amount of flavor that was retained in the process was even better than when I did it on the stove in a pan.

Pro tip: You’ll never need to use this griddle on anything higher than medium. That setting is the sweet spot for almost everything.

Weber Works

Weber designed a collection of accessories that work with its grills. It includes the Expandable Stand for the Traveler griddles. Named “Weber Works,” the series includes things like an organizer kit ($50) for your utensils, paper towels, and a garbage bag, a condiment holder ($25), bottle holder ($13), and a few other essentials.

All of these items clip onto the side rails of the Traveler’s Expandable Stand. It allows you to keep everything you need at the ready.

Transporting the Weber Traveler 22 Griddle

As I have said, at nearly 54 pounds, the Traveler is much heavier than most of the camp stoves or grills. However, most of that weight is in the griddle insert itself. Additionally, there aren’t any handles on this griddle. It also doesn’t fold down and roll like Weber’s Traveler Grill series. I consider this a trade-off.

To transport the Traveler 22, I removed the griddle plate from the traveler housing and carried it on separate trips. That cut the griddle’s weight down by at least half. I also removed the drip pan and the gas bottle cage so they wouldn’t fall off when I moved the griddle from Point A to Point B.

I recommend starting fresh at camp with a new drip pan insert. When it’s time to go home, leave that one behind in the garbage. There’s no need to transport grease and gristle to and fro.

Weber Traveler 22 Griddle: In Conclusion

At this point, I have used Weber’s Traveler 22 Griddle numerous times, both at home and out and about. In both settings, this griddle has become a staple of preparing food.

In fact, I haven’t cooked on my home stove since the Weber Traveler 22 Griddle arrived. For a single dad with two kids, it provides more than enough surface for cooking.

I’ve considered buying Weber’s adapter hose to use a 20-pound propane tank at home, but I’ve only used one Coleman 1-pound canister of propane in a month. It’s very fuel-efficient for its size.

Overall, after using and hauling many different camp stoves over the years, this griddle is my favorite. It’s the most effective and efficient I’ve used. I like the fact that, unlike standard camp stoves that get stored in my shed when we’re not camping, I can use the Traveler 22 at home year-round. To me, that totally justifies the $500 investment.

Yes, it’s very heavy, but I got used to that. I would rather make two trips up to the truck to carry it than not be able to make pancakes on a crisp fall morning. The look on my little girls’ faces as they crawl out of the tent is well worth the effort I put into lugging it around.