Never played Dark Souls, I take it? I find Valheim's stamina system is a good compromise between gritty stamina-intensive combat stamina, and long-distance-travel adventure/sandbox stamina. It's very hard to achieve one without breaking the other in the same system.

Anyways, it's very easy to manage. Stamina foods vs health foods depending on what you want more of (stamina if you can handle fighting with lower health), and then avoid doing much at night (cold) or in the rain (wet), and rest constantly for the rest bonus. All these things contribute.