Choosing the best Camping Mattress
The camping mattress buyers guide to help you choose the best camp mattresses by considering the advantages and disadvantages of using a camping air mattress, foam camping mattress or self inflating camping mattress.
There’s nothing like a good sleep system to get a great nights sleep on a camp trip. However, there are some important camp mattress considerations to note before parting with your cash.
If your family camping or car camping you may be looking for a double or king size camping air mattress because weight and portability is not an issue.
Backpacking and hiking trips require a camping mattress or as most of us call them sleeping pads, made from a couple of foam variations and air camp mattresses.
Best Air Mattress for camping
Wow, the best air mattress for camping will be the most comfortable of all. These are made to be as close to a household bed as possible. However, close is quite far, as the companies that produce a camping mattress have a challenge to provide the comfort of your own bed.
I’m afraid you may need to lower your expectations for what an air camping mattress can do.
When buying an inflatable camp mattress you have the option of manual pumping, using a foot pump or electric pumps.
Electric pumps are the most convenient but will increase the cost overall if you have to buy separately. You will either need an electric hook up, or your car close to the tent if access into your tent is tight and the electric pump runs from the car battery power.
Rechargeable pumps are a good option and plenty of campgrounds have an electricity point to recharge when needed.
Manual pumps will either be a kind of foot pump or a hand pump fitted to the camping mattress that takes some pumping to fully inflate. The hand inflating camping air mattress is not fun to pump after pitching a tent on a hot day, although they are cheap and need no form of power, apart from arm power.
The down side of a camping air bed, includes slight deflating during a nights sleep, punctures and/or air leaks causing the air bed to completely deflate.
Reviews are all 50/50 for the performance. Some consumers say they had no deflating problems others say it went completely flat overnight. Using the instructions for inflating is advisable, and buying from a trusted retailer that has a good returns policy is smart.
Various sizes are available, from single to twin, double and king size. Also, if you have problems with getting up from close to the floor you have the option of buying a camp mattress that is the size of two camping mattresses to provide the height needed.
- Popular Air Camp Mattress Brands
- Coleman
- Wenzel
- Aero bed
- Intex air mattress
- Other top brands for buying camping gear will sell a camping air mattress, although with limited reviews for performance.
Cheaper options are available but be warned, you have a good chance of waking up deflated.
Self Inflating Camping Mattress And Foam Camping Mattresses
The self-inflating camping mattress or a foam camping mattress is what is better known as sleeping pads.
These are the option for backpacking or hiking trips. The foam camping mattress is the most versatile and will never leak or become punctured.
If car camping and no one has major comfort issues we would advise you to look more into using these types for reliability.
The self-inflating camping mattress is a great lightweight option that also provides comfort.
For more information about the self-inflating camping mattress and foam camping mattress visit the camping sleeping pad guide.