Camping is, above all, a comfortable holiday and communion with nature, devoid of the hardships of camping life. To fully relax and recover well can help only a healthy sleep, and a good night’s sleep away from home is possible only if a properly selected warm sleeping bag and a comfortable mat. It is unpleasant to wake up in the middle of the night feeling chilly or with lower back pain.
On the choice of sleeping bag for traveling to the caves we have already told in a separate article, and today dwell on the mats. They are unfairly overlooked, and in vain – for a comfortable sleep they are as important as a sleeping bag.
In camping there is no need to get out of the parking lot every day and carry all the equipment on their own – it is transported by car, boat, or motorcycle. That’s why campers have a much wider selection of sleeping mats/mattresses than campers do.
We will consider all possible options and assess their advantages and disadvantages so that you can more easily make the right choice.
Homemade mattresses.
Suitable for beginner travelers. Those who have decided to go camping for the first time and for a short time, rather try and therefore are not yet ready to spend on buying special equipment and want to save money by using homemade sleeping gear.
Advantages.
- Affordability. A thin foam mattress can already be used in the home. An inexpensive mattress can be purchased and used at home or the cottage after going out.
- Foam mattresses are soft and tall enough to hide small surface irregularities and provide needed insulation from the cold ground.
Disadvantages
- Take up a lot of space in the trunk, and therefore not every car is suitable for their transportation.
- It is difficult to roll and pack mattresses: they are heavy and do not compress well. If you have to change campsites every 1 to 3 days, morning bedding pickup can become a stressful chore.
- If they get damp, drying them out will be extremely difficult.
Inflatable mattresses.
An affordable option for beginner campers who prefer to vacation in the hot weather and go on vacation with tents occasionally. And that’s why they don’t want to spend money on a specialized outfit.
The advantages of
- Cheapness. An air mattress is even cheaper than a foam mattress, and then it can be used at home or the cottage as a guest mattress.
- An inflatable mattress is good at hiding surface irregularities.
- Inflatable mattresses are relatively easy to clean from sand and debris, so they are convenient to use in the boro or on the beach. Also on them, you can lie on the water, if you rest by the pond. But manufacturers for safety reasons strictly forbid it.
Disadvantages.
- To inflate the mattress requires a pump, which usually must be bought separately. And if the pump breaks, then you will be left without a “bed”.
- An air mattress does not provide any insulation from the cold ground. On hot beaches of southern Russia it is not critical, but in mountainous areas, where night temperatures drop to +15 ° C and below, to sleep on such a mattress is cold. Even if the mattress is half a meter high – it is still cold.
- When it cools down the air inside the mattress is compressed, so it loses its elasticity. Because of this, he has to be pumped up in the middle of the night or early in the morning.
- Air mattress is relatively easy to puncture, but it is difficult to find the place of puncture. Even if there is a body of water nearby, not everyone would want to get into the water to bathe the mattress looking for air leaks.
- Air mattresses are heavy and without a pump, they take a comparatively long time to pack.
Because of their cheapness and prevalence, air mattresses have become really “popular.” However, such mattresses have an impressive list of disadvantages, which seriously limits the scope of their comfortable application. This is not surprising, because even those mattresses that are positioned as camping mattresses, structurally are inflatable beds for home.
Tourist self-inflating and inflatable mats
For travelers who want to use one mat for hiking and camping, or when the allowable amount of gear is too limited. For example, when you need to fit everything in the small trunk of a small car or motorcycle case.
Modern self-inflating and inflatable mats have nothing to do with the thin bedding, on which only a seasoned ascetic hiker could sleep. They are soft and comfortable enough to comfortably sleep through the night and recover, yet lightweight and compact. This allows them to be used with equal success for camping and recreation.
Rectangular mats are best suited for such purposes, with a size slightly larger than you need. They weigh a little more than “standard” versions, but they are much more comfortable to sleep on due to their greater width and length. Since the universal mat is used often, you should not choose it among the ultralight models and sacrifice a little weight in favor of greater durability and longevity.
Camping mat accessories
A sleeping bag and mat are the backbone of your sleeping gear. And on camping trips, you don’t usually use anything but them to lighten your backpacks. But camping you can indulge yourself with additional frills. Chief among them – the pillow! You should not take your favorite down pillow – it can get damp. It is better to buy compact travel pillow.
It takes up almost no space in your luggage and car, but then they are useful not only on camping trips but also on long trips and flights. They can be taken in hand luggage to put under the head or lower back. And in some cases, as with Exped, the pillow also serves as a pump for the mat.
For more comfort, you can cover mats and mattresses with capes or plaids, which are often more tactile than the factory fabrics or covers. Or you can buy a cover. It will additionally protect the rug from dirt and damage, but the main purpose of the cover is to make your “bed” more tactilely pleasant, to sleep comfortably, like at home. Experts have done the research and created a list of the best air mattress topper options in the article – Mattress Topper For Air Mattress [5 Wise Picks] – May 2022. Those who know how to use a sewing machine can simply buy a piece of suitable fabric and spend an evening sewing.
Use a reliable and proper outfit and sleep outdoors like at home!