The Best Sleeping Pads for Every Kind of Camping (2024)

4 months ago 49

What are these sleeping pads you talk of? When I was young, each hiking was uphill some ways and everyone slept connected the crushed successful sleeping bags with lone a half-inch of bladed closed-cell foam betwixt america and each pebble. We besides filtered our h2o with our teeth and ate chiefly earthy nutrient and foraged ramps. Kids these days.

Still, I accidental determination is thing to beryllium said for a comfy sleeping pad astatine the extremity of a agelong time connected the trail, oregon adjacent successful the campsite adjacent to your car. There are present galore ways to marque definite nary peas (or pebbles) ever disturb your slumber successful the outdoors. For years, we've been investigating sleeping pads of each varieties successful each kinds of conditions, and we’re blessed to study that successful each this clip we’ve ne'er had 1 neglect connected us. That said, determination are immoderate standouts and a fewer to avoid.

Be definite to work done our different outdoor guides, including the Best Tents, Best Hiking Gear, Best Camp Stoves, and our Camp Cooking guide.

Update July 2024: We've added 2 caller Sea to Summit pads, including our caller favourite all-around camping and backpacking pad, the Sea to Summit Comfort Plus. We've besides updated prices and links throughout.

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The Best Sleeping Pad for Most People

If you're looking to bargain lone 1 sleeping pad and readying to usage it successful a assortment of campy settings, marque it the Sea To Summit Comfort Plus SI. There are plusher pads for car camping oregon basal campy (see the MondoKing below) and lighter pads for weeklong backpacking trips (see the Tensor and Ether Light below) but this light, self-inflating pad sets itself isolated by being capable to gracefully gaffe betwixt worlds.

At 3 pounds for the rectangular mentation I tested, it is treble the value of astir ultralight backpacking pads but inactive airy successful the expansive strategy of things (you tin prevention much value going for the mummy-shaped version, which is 2 pounds and 2 ounces). If you're trying to get to a sub-10-pound basal weight, you could shave 2 pounds and immoderate bulk with a modern pump-to-inflate pad, but you won't beryllium arsenic lukewarm oregon comfortable. I tested this pad against the warmest Tensor and Ether Light offerings implicit 3 nights astatine altitude successful Colorado, wherever it got down to 24 degrees, and recovered the Comfort Plus was importantly toastier. The open-cell interior (let it fluff up for an hr oregon so, past apical it disconnected with a fewer breaths) was besides a overmuch cushier experience. I'm a large-bodied broadside sleeper and my hips didn't bottommost out. In fact, I recovered it was astir 80 percent arsenic comfy arsenic the MondoKing 3D below. I would happily slumber connected this pad for a week of car camping oregon astatine a euphony festival, and it's the archetypal pad I would drawback if I could instrumentality lone one. —Martin Cizmar

The Best Super-Comfy Car Camping Pad

Therm-a-Rest invented the self-inflating camping mattress. The marque has kept gait successful the 50 years since, either innovating oregon successfully aping each large improvement successful the field. The MondoKing is the astir comfortable, deluxe mattress successful the line, the flagship for picky car campers and those who are stationary successful the backcountry for weeks oregon months astatine a time. This burly mat is simply a afloat 4 inches heavy and weighs 4 pounds. You won't privation to lug it far, but adjacent a large-bodied broadside sleeper won't bottommost out.

The StrataCore foam wrong gives it an R-value of 7, truthful the claimed comfortableness is beneath the somesthesia astatine which vodka freezes. (In our nights of testing, WIRED has not independently verified bully slumber astatine –20 degrees Fahrenheit.) It's besides very, precise comfortable. Like the Megamat below, it's 70-denier connected the bottommost with a stretchy 50-denier apical that provides the earthy sag of a existent mattress. The MondoKing besides has a bully steadfast edge, meaning you ne'er consciousness similar you're astir to rotation off. The MondoKing is amended than a batch of edifice mattresses and inflates and deflates accelerated capable that you mightiness conscionable rotation it retired the adjacent clip you find yourself connected a lumpy edifice bed. —Martin Cizmar

Other Options

Exped MegMat 10 for $180: This is the beefy, ultra-luxury pad that started the inclination of immense car camping pads. And for that we convey Exped. The MegaMat remains a large prime and is beauteous good equivalent to the MondoKing, though the MondoKing weighs little and packs down smaller. On the different hand, the MegaMat has somewhat amended insulation and mightiness beryllium a amended prime if you slumber acold oregon are headed retired successful the enarthrosis seasons wherever colder temps are possible.

Best for Couples and Families

We’re large fans of REI’s in-house line, which is sturdy and works good without breaking the bank. On a caller camping trip, each household with kids nether 10 had this mattress, including my own. It’s 56 inches wide and 6 inches tall, wide capable to acceptable Mom and 2 simple schoolers and acceptable wrong MSR's 6-person Habitude tent. (Dad and the canine inactive had to slumber connected the ground.)

It comes with a tiny worldly sack for casual transport that includes a manual aerial pump, but the cosmopolitan nozzle means you tin ditch the pump and usage a battery-powered 1 for speedy and casual inflating. The welded seams kept the mattress taut and bouncy done 3 days and nights of kids jumping up and down connected it. The aboveground is brushed capable to slumber with your look pressed against it if you descent retired of your sleeping bag, and it’s insulated, but with an R-value of 2.6. I decidedly needed a quilt nether our sleeping bags for 40-degree nights. —Adrienne So

Other Options

Kelty's Kush Queen Airbed for $100: This PVC-free queen-sized airbed from Kelty includes a pump that makes inflating a drawback (make definite you complaint it earlier you go), and the 6-inch-thick pad is plentifulness comfortable. It is not an insulated aerial mattress similar the REI above, truthful it's champion for warmer months, but it tin treble arsenic a spare furniture astatine home.

The Best Ultralight Sleeping Pad

When you task into the backcountry, particularly if you're an ultralight backpacking nerd, each ounce counts. In the lawsuit of sleeping pads, there's ever a trade-off. You privation the fewest ounces with the astir R-value. Nemo Equipment's caller 2024 Tensor-insulated sleeping pads (8/10, WIRED Recommends) person the champion R-Value to value ratio of thing we've tested. The Tensor All-Season featured present sports an R-Value of 5.4 and weighs conscionable 18.2 ounces. That unsocial is impressive, but what I emotion astir the Tensor is that it's thick, comfortable, and astir importantly, dang adjacent silent. I hatred that swish of nylon that's beauteous overmuch synonymous with backcountry sleeping. There is hardly immoderate of that with the Tensor, making it good worthy the money. The insulation is simply a treble furniture of reflective film, with a baffled aerial enclosure design, which helps support it quiet. The plan besides helps it rotation up into a tiny worldly sack. It's astir the size of a 16-ounce Nalgene bottle. If you privation to prevention a small value and money, there's besides the Tensor Trail for $190. It weighs conscionable 16 ounces for the regular wide, but the R-Value is rather a spot little astatine 2.8.

Other Options

NeoAir XLite Sleeping Pad for $210: The evident rival to the Tensor is Therm-a-Rest's NeoAir XLite, according to WIRED reviewer Matt Jancer. The Xlite NeoAir mightiness beryllium airy successful value but not connected warmth. He has utilized it connected icy glaciers without a chill sneaking up connected his backside. You person to stroke it up manually, but the easy-twist valve makes it simple, and helium has been impressed with the durability implicit 5 years. No holes oregon scratches. It has a inclination to gaffe around, but it's quiet.
Sea to Summit Ultralight for $129: If you are the benignant who cuts disconnected your toothbrush grip to prevention weight, this mat is worthy considering. It has an R-value of 1.1, making it a summer-only pad. But it weighs a specified 11 ounces, packs up precise small, and is $70 cheaper than the Tensor. If astir of your camping is successful summer, it'll bash the job. It is simply a spot louder than the Nemo.

The Best for Backcountry Comfort

If you’re consenting to transportation a fewer other ounces successful speech for immoderate added comfortableness and a (theoretically) amended night's sleep, the NeoAir Topo is our favourite pad. At 21 ounces, it's decidedly connected the dense side, but it's besides 3 inches thick, and we committedness you don't consciousness the pebbles, oregon adjacent tiny rocks, nether this thing. The 2.3 R-value makes it a bully prime for three-season camping oregon backpacking, and I recovered adjacent the regular to beryllium plentifulness wide enough. Therm-a-Rest includes a breath-saving pump sack, compact worldly sack, and tract repair kit.

Best 4-Season Backcountry Pad

If I were heading retired to campy successful the snow, this is the pad I would bring. Exped's Ultra 7R offers (as the sanction suggests) an R-value of 7 successful a pad that weighs nether 2 pounds for the wide version. And I bash suggest going for the wide version. I recovered the regular to beryllium a spot connected the constrictive side, and the value quality (5 ounces) doesn't warrant the mislaid sleeping space. I utilized this pad down to 30 degrees Fahrenheit and was precise comfy (in a 20-degree bag). Exped rates it to –20 degrees Fahrenheit.
Exped's Schnozzel pump container ($45) is besides fantabulous and is indispensable if you're camping successful the cold, arsenic you don't privation the moisture from your enactment wrong your mat.

Other Options

Nemo Tensor Extreme Conditions ($260): With an R-Value of 8.5 and value of lone 22 ounces for the regular wide version, Nemo's caller Tensor Extreme Conditions pad has the highest warmth-to-weight ratio connected the marketplace close now. It uses 4 layers of foil and offset baffles to execute that lightest, warmest pad status. It volition apt beryllium our apical prime for this class successful a aboriginal update, but astatine the infinitesimal I person not had a accidental to decorativeness afloat investigating it successful much utmost debased temps. As with the Exped pad above, I suggest going for the wide pad, arsenic the regular is beauteous narrow.
Ether Light XT Extreme Insulated Air Sleeping Mat for $229: If you're backpacking successful the wintertime oregon astatine precocious altitude, you'll invited the other warmth of Sea To Summit's Thermolite-insulated pad. At 1 lb 9 ounces, it's somewhat heavier than the Tensor Extreme, with a somewhat little R-rating of 6.2, but I've had it good beneath freezing portion utilizing a 15-degree rated down mummy container and recovered it comfortably lukewarm if not bully and toasty. Inflation is simply a cinch, with the included pump container astatine 4 inches thick. I didn't bottommost retired portion sleeping connected my side, dissimilar with the precise akin Tensor Extreme, which I recovered to beryllium little comfy and a small cooler.—Martin Cizmar

Best Old-School, Closed-Cell Foam Pad

I was benignant of kidding successful the intro here, but I besides was not. This pad was my intro to backcountry sleeping, and I stay a instrumentality (though, technically, excavation was a no-name brand). The Z-Lite and its ilk measurement adjacent to thing (10 ounces for the small), fold up tiny capable to lash to the extracurricular of immoderate pack, and treble arsenic a chair, other padding connected acold nights, table, you sanction it. I americium excessively aged to usage conscionable a Z-Lite anymore, but I inactive person 1 astir connected astir each travel I take. Pairing it with the Nemo inflatable supra gives maine a wide scope of sleeping and sitting possibilities for a full value of nether 2 pounds. That means I tin transportation much steak, and bully backcountry nutrient is truly the cardinal to everything.

Best Kids Sleeping Pad

Let’s beryllium honest—if your kid is aged capable to spell backpacking, they’re astir apt aged capable to beryllium good with an adult-sized sleeping pad that volition property with them arsenic they get older. However, successful a infinitesimal of parental weakness, I bought my children child-sized sleeping pads to lucifer their Kindercone sleeping bags, which person been utile for a amazingly agelong time. My girl is successful the 3rd people and has had hers since kindergarten.

After all, 60 inches is beauteous long—that’s astir gangly capable for maine to use. This 1 has an R-value of 4.5, and my kids person slept beauteous lukewarm connected these for a fig of years successful temperatures arsenic debased arsenic 30 degrees Fahrenheit. The abstracted valves for ostentation and deflation marque it overmuch easier for small kids to not get confused and assistance acceptable up. Weirdly, these sleeping pads are besides overmuch easier to rotation up and worldly backmost into their sack than my ain sleeping pad; REI whitethorn person secretly done maine a coagulated there. —Adrienne So

Honorable Mentions

The pursuing sleeping pads didn't impressment america similar the ones above, but we've tested them and inactive similar them capable if nary of the others onslaught your fancy.

Sea to Summit Women's UltraLight Insulated Air Sleeping Mat for $160: We debated for immoderate clip whether women request antithetic sleeping pads. After immoderate agelong conversations with our pistillate testers, we decided determination conscionable isn't overmuch difference. That said, this is simply a good sleeping pad for anyone. It's precise adjacent to the Sea to Summit Ultralight above.

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