Camping mattresses and cot pads for actual sleep

What to buy first

If you camp out of a car and want one mattress for years, start with a self-inflating foam mattress about 4 inches thick, with a published R-value, a 75D-or-heavier bottom fabric and a warranty in writing. On our scoring, the Therm-a-Rest MondoKing 3D is the one to beat. It has 4.25 inches of foam, an R-value of 7 and a stretch-knit 50D top over a 75D polyester base. Therm-a-Rest backs it with a limited lifetime warranty and a repair-first policy, and may fix damage the warranty doesn't cover for a fee. The Large weighs 4 lb 6 oz and packs to 26 x 10.3 inches. There's no double version, so couples should read on. The full ranking, with warmer, thicker and two-person alternatives, is on our best camping mattresses page.

How the category divides

Self-inflating foam mattresses put open-cell foam inside an airtight shell. The ones we list run from 10 cm (3.9 inches) on the Exped MegaMat to 15 cm (5.9 inches) on the MegaMat Max, with R-values from 7 (MondoKing 3D, NEMO Roamer) to 10.6 (MegaMat Max). The foam is the durability feature: a puncture still leaves foam under you instead of the ground. If you're choosing between the two best-known models, Exped MegaMat vs Therm-a-Rest MondoKing puts them side by side, from R-value to warranty.

Air mattresses are the tall ones. The SoundAsleep Camping Series Queen is 9 inches thick and the Napier Sportz 5 inches, but none of the four air mattresses we list publishes an R-value. Air pads like the Therm-a-Rest NeoLoft sit between the two: 4.6 inches thick at 1 lb 14 oz, with an R-value of 4.7 and no foam backup. Self-inflating vs air mattress weighs the trade-off.

Closed-cell foam is the pad that can't go flat. Therm-a-Rest rates its Z Lite SOL at R 2.0 and markets it as an under-layer that adds warmth and puncture protection beneath another pad. Cot pads are thinner and sized to a cot: TETON's Canvas Camp Pad wraps 2 inches of foam in a removable 285D brushed canvas cover and measures 80 x 30 inches. Our best cot pads rank them.

Vehicle mattresses are shaped for a cargo floor or a truck bed. Exped's MegaMat Auto has cut-outs on the sides and narrows from 52 to 39 inches, and Luno and Napier size their air mattresses to pickup beds. Our truck-bed and SUV mattress picks sort them by vehicle. Two-person mattresses come as one wide surface (Exped's MegaMat Duo Queen is 59.8 x 79.9 inches) or as two singles that link, like NEMO's Roamer. Our camping mattresses for couples compare both approaches.

Sleeping pads are the thinner half of this category: 2 inches or less of foam, or an air pad, chosen when you want warmth and repairability without a 4-inch mattress in the car. They are also what belongs on a cot, where the deck already does the lifting. Our sleeping pads for car camping rank them from R 2.0 to R 6.2, and our cot pad picks cover the cot case in detail.

Two questions come up more than any other. The first is weight: almost no mat maker publishes a limit, so camping mattresses for heavy people names the two that do and explains what to read instead. The second is pumps, where the word “built-in” hides four different products: camping mattresses with a built-in pump sorts them by whether the pump works at a pitch with no power.

What actually decides durability

Four things, in this order. The shell fabric comes first, because the ground side is what meets rocks and thorns. Exped, Therm-a-Rest and Sea to Summit publish 75D polyester bottoms. Luno publishes 200D Oxford for the AIR BASE and 300D for its truck-bed mattress. NEMO publishes no denier for the Roamer, and the PVC air mattresses publish no material thickness. The core is second: foam keeps working after a puncture, air doesn't.

The valve and the patch kit are third, because a valve can fail on a mattress with perfect fabric. Therm-a-Rest sells a do-it-yourself WingLock valve kit that fits the BaseCamp, plus home and field patch kits. Napier sells a replacement valve, plug and cap for the Sportz. Exped sells a Field Repair Kit but lists no valve, and Sea to Summit and NEMO handle spare parts by request. The warranty in writing is fourth. Therm-a-Rest, Sea to Summit, NEMO, ALPS and TETON give lifetime terms (limited, in most cases), Exped 5 years, Luno 3 years, SoundAsleep 1 year and Napier 30 days. Read the exclusions: these warranties cover defects, and SoundAsleep says outright that punctures and holes from use are not covered.

The mistakes buyers make

The first is buying thickness and ignoring warmth. A 9-inch air mattress looks like the comfortable choice, but with no published R-value you have no way to know how it handles cold ground. The 3.9-inch Exped MegaMat has an R-value of 8.1. On a cold night, the thinner mattress is the one with a published warmth figure. Our camping mattress R-value guide explains what the number means and how to compare it across brands.

The second is measuring the sleeper and forgetting the tent or the car. The MegaMat Duo Queen is 59.8 inches wide on its own, and the MegaMat Auto is 76 inches long. Measure the floor first. The third is treating a warranty as puncture insurance. The makers that do fix punctures, like Therm-a-Rest and Exped, charge for it, so carry the patch kit and learn how to fix a camping mattress leak before a trip, not during one.

How to use this section

Start with how to choose a camping mattress if you're not sure which type you need. Then open the roundup that matches your problem: a sore back (our camping mattresses for back pain) or a hip and shoulder that press through a thin pad (our picks for side sleepers). Still deciding between a mattress and a cot? Cot vs air mattress compares them on durability, warmth and packed size. Read the “skip it if” line on every pick before you buy.

Every score in this section comes from published specs, written warranties and listed parts, scored with the bands on our Built-to-Last methodology page, and every figure links to the page it came from.

Two practical pages worth reading alongside the rankings: how to inflate a camping mattress without a pump (if it has foam in it, you already can), and Therm-a-Rest BaseCamp vs MondoKing, which is the two-inch-or-four decision most buyers in this category end up making.

Two more: the thickest and warmest mat we score goes against its own standard version in Exped MegaMat vs MegaMat Max - two inches of foam, 2.5 R-value and 1.7 pounds apart - and how to store a self-inflating mattress covers the one habit that decides whether a foam mat still self-inflates in ten years. The stuff sack is for travel, not storage.

The mattress that finishes first here is reviewed on its own page: the Therm-a-Rest MondoKing 3D review, which covers the 4.25 inches of foam, the ASTM-referenced R 7 and the one component Therm-a-Rest will not sell you. It also faces the lightest thick mat the same maker builds in NeoLoft vs MondoKing 3D, where the thicker pad turns out to be the colder one - 4.6 inches of air at R 4.7 and 1 lb 14 oz against 4.25 inches of foam at R 7.