7 Best Sleeping Pads (2023): For Camping, Backpacking, and Travel
What are these sleeping pads you speak of? When I was young, all hiking was uphill both ways and everyone slept on the ground in sleeping bags 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 mainly raw meat and foraged ramps. Kids these days.
Still, I suppose there is something to be said for a comfy sleeping pad at the end of a long day on the trail, or even in the campsite next to your car. There is now an array of ways to make sure no peas (or pebbles) ever disturb your sleep in the outdoors. For years, we’ve testing sleeping pads of all varieties in all kinds of conditions, and we’re happy to report that in all this time we’ve never had one fail on us. That said, there are some standouts and a few to avoid.
Be sure to read through our other outdoor guides, including the Best Tents, Best Hiking Gear, Best Camp Stoves, and our Camp Cooking guide.
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The Best Super-Comfy 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 aping every major development in the field. The MondoKing is the most comfortable mattress in the line, the flagship for picky car campers and those who are stationary in the backcountry for weeks or months at a time. This burly mat is a full 4 inches thick and weighs 4 pounds. You won’t want to lug it far, but even a large-bodied side sleeper won’t bottom out.
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 has not independently verified good sleep at -20 degrees Fahrenheit.) It’s also very, very comfortable. Like the Megamat below, it’s 70-denier on the bottom with a stretchy 50-denier top that provides the natural sag of a real mattress. The MondoKing also has a nice firm edge, meaning you never feel like you’re about to roll off. The MondoKing is better than a lot of hotel mattresses and inflates and deflates fast enough that you might just roll it out the next time you find yourself on a lumpy hotel bed. —Martin Cizmar
Other Options
- Exped MegMat 10 for $180: This is the beefy, ultra-luxury pad that started the trend of huge car camping pads. And for that we thank Exped. The MegaMat remains a great choice and is pretty well equivalent to the MondoKing, though the MondoKing weighs less and packs down smaller. On the other hand, the MegaMat has slightly better insulation and might be a better choice if you sleep cold.
Best for Couples and Families
We’re big fans of REI’s in-house line, which is sturdy and works well without breaking the bank. On a recent camping trip, every family with kids under 10 had this mattress, including my own. It’s 56 inches wide and 6 inches tall, wide enough to fit Mom and two elementary schoolers and fit inside MSR’s 6-person Habitude tent. (Dad and the dog still had to sleep on the ground.)
It comes with a small stuff sack for easy transport that includes a manual air pump, but the universal nozzle means you can ditch the pump and use a battery-powered one for quick and easy inflating. The welded seams kept the mattress taut and bouncy through three days and nights of kids jumping up and down on it. The surface is soft enough to sleep with your face pressed against it if you slide out of your sleeping bag, and it’s insulated, but with an R-value of 2.6. I definitely needed a quilt under our sleeping bags for 40-degree nights. —Adrienne So
Other Options
- Kelty’s Kush Queen Airbed for $105: This PVC-free queen-sized airbed from Kelty includes a pump that makes inflating a snap (make sure you charge it before you go), and the 6-inch-thick pad is plenty comfortable. It is not an insulated air mattress like the REI above, so it’s best for warmer months, but it can double as a spare bed at home.
The Best Ultralight Sleeping Pad
When you venture into the backcountry, every ounce counts. In the case of sleeping pads, there’s always a trade-off. You want the fewest ounces with the most R-value. Nemo Equipment’s Tensor-insulated sleeping pad sports an R-Value of 4.2 and weighs JUST 15.2 ounces. That alone is impressive, but what I love about the Tensor is that it’s thick, comfortable, and most important, dang near silent. I hate that swish of nylon that’s pretty much synonymous with backcountry sleeping. There is hardly any of that with the Tensor, making it well worth the money in my opinion. The insulation is a reflective film, with a baffled air chamber design, which helps keep it quiet. The design also helps it roll up into a…
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