Therm-a-Rest - MondoKing™ 3D

Have you considered a camping cot? There are a lot of ultralight options now which are about the same price as a good sleeping pad for side sleepers. The only difference being is the weight, you’re looking at around 1.5kg for a cot bed which would be double the weight of a sleeping pad. For me, the extra weight is worth it for the comfort. For context I’ve tried Therm-a-Rest, Big Agnes and Nemo mats. If I’m going for comfort, the cot bed wins every time.

Until my oldest aunts and uncles got too old for it our family usually had thanksgiving lunch/dinner at a provincial park, there was only one year we had to eat in the snow, but that was trailer camping. Good sleeping bags and self inflating insulated sleeping mats (like thermarest brand) you should be OK.

Throw a thermarest on top of a Walmart foam pad lol save yourself some money on the process. Otherwise I would just stick to Thermarest.

Glad you had success with it! I was super hyped about it from all the accounts of its comfort. Right now my “light” ground sleeping loadout is a klymit insulated paired with Nemo switchback (most comfortable combo I’ve found outside of self inflating) with tarp and bivvy. If I’m going less than 8 miles for an overnight and either the weather is extreme winter or I have a camping partner I haul my stupidly heavy mondo king pad and split the weight of the 3 man tent between us. Been leaning towards just going fully back to my hammmock but I think I’ve determined that I need an open cell/self inflating style pad to prevent hip pain on the ground.

Our family recently went camping with cub scouts last month, it was my wife's first time camping. She had a horrible night's sleep on the thermarest inflatable pad I had, so bad it was more comfortable to sleep on the ground without it. I've been eying a megamat for a while now, and this was enough for me get ready to finally pull the trigger. Now I'm trying to figure out which one to get. We have another camping trips planned with cub scouts in May, but the REI deals seems like the best time to buy. Do I get the long x-wide for my wife for \~$155? or the duo since we'll always be camping with the kids for \~$251? then will the kids fight for the good pad, and I'll need to get a second duo (also I kinda want one for myself) but now that's over $500 in sleeping pads, which seems egregious. If anyone with a family who's navigated this could chime in it would be appreciated. Thanks!

For one year trip I would use something cheaper, more sturdy than ultralight. Thermarest often listed is great but £50 decathlon air mat is more sustainable, you'll have less stress. To increase R factor, you can add some CCF pad.

It's very simple if it blows up with air and inflates - at SOME point it's gonna get a hole in it. That's life! The whole air mattress thing started with Therm-a-rest's and they were pretty tough back then, now with everybody sporting hard-on's for "ultralight" gear its gonna get worse. Same goes for actual air mattress, you can sleep on them but if you're not in Texas or Arizona yer still gonna freeze your butt off. Here's why ....... People these days buy inflatable pads for the comfort, but you really need them for the insulative qualities they actually provide. Don't believe me go sleep on the actual ground one night. When you crawl in to your sleeping bag you actually crush the down or syntho fill in the bag so there is no insulation there under you and the cold even in summer can seep right in. You need a pad under you to keep you off the ground ..... the best ones for that are still the cheap blue ensolite foamy's you buy at the cheaper stores but yes, for comfort they suck. There is a yellow thicker brand called Zotefoams Evazote and they got up to an inch thick but I haven't seem them for years but they were good quality and tough and CAN'T deflate ! So ultimately if you want comfort you need to go buy a big chunk of open cell white foam four inches thick and 7 feet long like you see in hobby stores - mega comfy and the size of a house! But now you can't pack it anyway so you're back to the blow up pads - and that's it. You can go to stores and look at stuff like Futons and crap but they don't pack well ! Heck even Ikea makes a folding mattress but again good luck carrying it around, right? Pick one but they WILL get a hole in them at some point however you can try to limit that with a cot. I've used them for years and its nice. I'm gonna suggest a Cabella's Lounger Cot but they are $350 bloody bucks and the same goes a real camping pad, something like a Exped Megamat itself is $400 bucks by itself. The two cots I wanna get are gonna cost me $405 bucks so add in two decent pads like Expeds and they're $500 .... great huh? It's nuts at a thousand bucks! I actually might just go get some memory foam cut at an RV store and use that. They can't deflate and its about the same bloody price as these inflatable ones, granted it won't be near as packable and portable but both my Thermarest leak, both my Big Agnes pad leak, even the TWO Coleman air beds leak, you can't win. My tent is 210 sq feet and 10 feet tall so I don't need backpack-ability either ........

Game changer for us was setting up two Thermarest Mondoking XLs side by side in our tent. Sharing an inflatable mattress is not as fun as you think. Every time someone moves in the slightest the whole mattress moves. On top of that we do have a Kelty double wide sleeping bag.

Two separate Thermarest Mondoking XLs side by side - different air pressures - no waterbed affect when one of us moves/rolls over. Kelty doublewide sleep system (bag).

This comes up a lot. Search the sub for ‘mat’ for loads of replies. For me, thermarest, but I’ll break your budget unless you can get one second hand.