What is that Which sleeping pads are you talking about? When I was young, hiking was always uphill and in both directions, and everyone slept in sleeping bags on the ground with only a half-inch of thin, closed-cell foam between us and every pebble. We also filtered our water with our teeth and ate mostly raw meat and foraged ramps. Children these days.
Still, I think a comfortable sleeping pad next to the car at the end of a long day on the trail or even at the campsite is a good idea. There are now many ways to ensure that peas (or pebbles) never disturb your sleep outdoors. We have been testing all types of sleeping mats under a wide variety of conditions for years and are pleased to report that we have never had a single mattress fail during this time. However, there are some peculiarities and some that should be avoided.
Be sure to check out our other outdoor guides, including the best tents, best hiking gear, best camping stoves and our camp cooking guide.
Update April 2024: We’ve added three new Nemo pads, including our new favorite ultralight pad, the Nemo All-Season, as well as some more general buying tips.
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The best super comfortable car camping pad
Therm-a-Rest invented the self-inflating camping mattress. The brand has kept pace in the 50 years since, either innovating or successfully imitating every major development in the field. The MondoKing is the most comfortable luxury mattress in the line, the flagship for picky car campers and those who spend weeks or months traveling in the backcountry. This sturdy mat is a full 4 inches thick and weighs 4 pounds. You won’t want to lug it far, but even a big side sleeper won’t be able to get through it.
The StrataCore foam inside gives it an R-value of 7, so the claimed comfort is below the temperature at which vodka freezes. (In our nights of testing, WIRED did not independently confirm that you sleep well in -20 degrees Fahrenheit.) It’s also very, very comfortable. Like the Megamat below, it has a 70-denier base and a stretchy 50-denier top that provides the natural flex of a real mattress. The MondoKing also has a nice firm edge, so you never feel like you’re about to roll off. Better than many hotel mattresses, the MondoKing inflates and deflates quickly enough that you might just roll it out the next time you’re lying on a lumpy hotel bed. —Martin Cizmar
Other options
- Exped MegMat 10 for $180: This is the durable, ultra-luxurious pad that started the giant car camping pad trend. And we thank Exped for that. The MegaMat remains a good choice and is fairly equivalent to the MondoKing, although the MondoKing weighs less and packs down smaller. On the other hand, the MegaMat has slightly better insulation and may be a better choice if you sleep cold or travel in the off-season where colder temperatures are possible.
Best for couples and families
We’re big fans of REI’s in-house product line, which is sturdy and works well without breaking the bank. On a recent camping trip, every family with children under 10 had this mattress, including my own. It is 56 inches wide and 6 inches high, wide enough to accommodate mom and two elementary school students and fit into MSR’s 6-person Habitude Tent. (Dad and the dog still had to sleep on the floor.)
A small stuff sack is included for easy transport, which also contains a manual air pump. However, thanks to the universal nozzle, you can skip the pump and use a battery-operated one for quick and easy inflation. The welded seams ensured that the mattress remained firm and springy through three days and nights of children jumping up and down on it. The surface is soft enough to sleep with your face on when you slip out of the sleeping bag and it is insulated but with an R-value of 2.6. I definitely needed a blanket under our sleeping bags for 40 degree nights. —Adrienne So
Other options
- Kelty’s Kush Queen Air Mattress for $100: This PVC-free queen-size air bed from Kelty features a pump that makes inflating it a breeze (make sure to charge it before you head out), and the 6-inch thick padding is extremely comfortable. It’s not an insulated air mattress like the REI above, so it’s best suited for the warmer months, but it can also double as an extra bed at home.
The best ultralight sleeping pad
When venturing into the backcountry, especially if you’re an ultralight backpacking nerd, every gram counts. When it comes to sleeping pads, there’s always a trade-off. You want the fewest ounces with the highest R-value. Nemo Equipment’s new 2024 Tensor Insulated Sleeping Pads (8/10, WIRED Recommends) have the best R-value to weight ratio of any we tested. The Tensor All-Season featured here has an R-value of 5.4 and weighs just 18.2 ounces. That alone is impressive, but what I love about the Tensor is that it’s thick, comfortable, and most importantly, nearly silent. I hate the noise of nylon, which is almost synonymous with sleeping in the backcountry. There is hardly any of that with the Tensor, which is why it is definitely worth the money. The insulation consists of a double layer of reflective film with an air chamber design that ensures silence. The design also makes it easy to roll up into a tiny stuff sack. It’s about the size of a 16-ounce Nalgene bottle. If you want to save some weight and money, there’s also the Tensor Trail for $190. It only weighs 16 ounces at the regular width, but the R-value is significantly lower at 2.8.
Other options
- NeoAir XLite sleeping pad for $210: The Tensor’s obvious competitor, according to WIRED reviewer Matt Jancer, is Therm-a-Rest’s NeoAir XLite. The Xlite NeoAir is light, but not particularly warm. He used it on icy glaciers without feeling cold. You have to inflate it manually, but the easy-twist valve makes it easy, and he was impressed with its durability over five years. No holes or scratches. It tends to slide around but is quiet.
- Sea to Summit Ultralight for $129: If you’re one of those people who cut off the handle of your toothbrush to save weight, this mat is worth considering. It has an R-value of 1.1 and is therefore only suitable for summer. But it only weighs 11 ounces, packs down very small, and is $70 cheaper than the Tensor. If you spend most of your camping in the summer, this will be enough. It’s a little louder than the Nemo.
The best for backcountry comfort
If you’re willing to wear a few extra grams in exchange for a little more comfort and (theoretically) better sleep, the NeoAir Topo is our favorite pad. At 21 ounces, it’s definitely a bit heavy, but it’s also 3 inches thick, and we promise you won’t feel the pebbles or even small stones underneath this thing. The R-value of 2.3 makes it a good choice for three-season camping or backpacking, and I found that even the regular backpack is wide enough. Therm-a-Rest includes a respiratory protection pump bag, a compact dry bag and a field repair kit.
Best old school closed cell foam pad
I was kidding a bit here in the intro, but that wasn’t the case either. This pad was my introduction to backcountry sleeping and I’m still a fan (even though my pad was technically a no-name brand). The Z-Lite and its kin weigh next to nothing (10 ounces for little ones), fold small enough to clip to the outside of any backpack, and double as a chair, extra padding on cold nights, a table, and much more. I’m too old to use just a Z-Lite anymore, but I still take one with me on almost every trip I take. Combining it with the Nemo inflatable boat above gives me a wide range of sleeping and seating options with a total weight of less than 2 pounds. This means I can bring more steak with me, and good backcountry food is really the key to everything.
Best 4-season backcountry pad
If I were camping in the snow, I would take this pad with me. Exped’s Ultra 7R offers (as the name suggests) an R-value of 7 in a pad that weighs less than 2 pounds in the wide version. And I recommend going for the wide version. I found the regular model to be a bit narrow and the weight difference (5 ounces) doesn’t justify the lost sleeping space. I have used this pad up to 30 degrees Fahrenheit and felt very comfortable (in a 20 degree bag). Exped estimates the temperature at -20 degrees Fahrenheit.
Exped’s Schnozzel Pump Bag ($45) is also great and is necessary if you’re camping in the cold because you don’t want the moisture from your breath getting into your mat.
Other options
- Nemo Tensor Extreme Conditions ($260): With an R-value of 8.5 and weighing just 22 ounces for the regular wide version, Nemo’s new Tensor Extreme Conditions pad offers the highest warmth-to-weight ratio on the market today. It uses four layers of foil and staggered chambers to achieve the lightest and warmest padding status. It will likely be our top choice for this category in a future update, but for now I haven’t had a chance to fully test it in more extreme low temperatures. As with the Exped pad above, I recommend choosing the wide pad as the regular pad is quite narrow.
Best sleeping pad for children
Let’s face it: If your child is old enough to backpack, they’re probably old enough to handle an adult-sized sleeping pad, which will age with them as they get older. But in a moment of parental weakness, I bought my children child-sized sleeping pads to match their children’s cone sleeping bags, which were surprisingly useful for a long time. My daughter is in third grade and has had hers since kindergarten.
After all, 60 inches is quite long – that’s almost big enough for me to use. This has an R-value of 4.5 and my kids have slept quite warmly in it for several years in temperatures as low as 30 degrees Fahrenheit. The separate inflation and deflation valves make it much easier for small children to avoid confusion and help with assembly. Oddly enough, these sleeping pads are also much easier to roll up and put back in the sleeping bag than my own sleeping pad; REI may have secretly done me a favor there. —Adrienne So
Recognitions
The following sleeping pads didn’t impress us as much as the ones above, but we tested them and are still happy with them if you don’t like any of the others.
Sea to Summit Women’s UltraLight Insulated Air Sleeping Pad for $160: We spent some time discussing whether women need different sleeping pads. After a few long conversations with our testers, we came to the conclusion that there wasn’t much of a difference. Still, this is a good sleeping pad for everyone. It is very close to the Sea to Summit Ultralight above.