What is a good camping mattress? How to choose one that lasts

The five types of camping mattress

The answer to “what is a good camping mattress” depends first on which kind you're looking at, because the types fail in different ways. Every mattress and pad in our registry falls into one of five:

• Self-inflating foam mattresses (Therm-a-Rest MondoKing 3D, Exped MegaMat, Sea to Summit Comfort Deluxe, NEMO Roamer) put open-cell foam inside an airtight shell. They're 3.9 to 5.9 inches thick in our registry, with R-values from 7 to 10.6, and the foam still supports you if the shell is punctured.
• Air mattresses (SoundAsleep Camping Series, Luno, Napier Sportz) are PVC or coated-fabric bladders. They're 3.5 to 9 inches thick and none of the four we list publishes an R-value.
• Air pads like the Therm-a-Rest NeoLoft are thick and light: 4.6 inches at 1 lb 14 oz, with an R-value of 4.7, but nothing inside to fall back on if they're punctured.
• Closed-cell foam pads like the Z Lite SOL can't go flat. At 0.75 inches and R 2.0, Therm-a-Rest markets it as a layer under another pad rather than a bed on its own.
• Cot pads and thin self-inflating pads (TETON Canvas Camp Pad, Therm-a-Rest BaseCamp, ALPS Flexcore XL) are 2 inches thick and sized to go on a cot or a tent floor.

The big split is foam or air. If you're weighing the two directly, our self-inflating vs air mattress comparison goes through warmth, durability, packed size and setup.

Warmth: read the R-value first

On cold ground, the mattress is your insulation. Sea to Summit describes a pad's R-value as its resistance to heat loss into the ground, and says an R-value tested to a controlled standard “is the only way to know how well your pad will prevent your warmth from being absorbed by the surface you sleep on.” Higher is warmer. The mattresses and pads in our registry run from R 2.0 (Z Lite SOL) to R 10.6 (Exped MegaMat Max).

The number you can compare across brands is one tested to ASTM F3340. Sea to Summit, which helped create the standard, says any pad showing “ASTM F-3340-18” next to its R-value “has been tested to a standardized protocol.” Exped labels its figures “R-Value (ASTM)”, Sea to Summit calls the Comfort Deluxe's 7.7 “ASTM tested”, and Therm-a-Rest's product pages cite ASTM F3340-18. NEMO, ALPS and TETON publish R-values without stating the standard. None of the air mattresses we list publishes a number at all; Luno calls its AIR BASE “3-Season” and stops there.

You can also stack insulation. Therm-a-Rest says the Z Lite SOL will “add 2.0 R-Value and protection from punctures” when layered under another pad, a simple way to make a thin or uninsulated mattress warmer.

Durability: fabric, core, valve, warranty

This is where camping mattresses separate, and it's what our Built-to-Last score weighs before comfort (the full rubric is on our methodology page). Four things decide it:

• The bottom fabric. The ground side takes the rocks and thorns. Exped, Therm-a-Rest and Sea to Summit publish 75D polyester bases. Luno publishes 200D Oxford for its SUV mattress and 300D for its truck-bed mattress. NEMO publishes no denier for the Roamer, and SoundAsleep and Napier publish no PVC thickness.
• The core. Foam keeps supporting you after a puncture; air doesn't. An air pad like the NeoLoft, for all its 4.6 inches, leaves you on the ground until it's patched.
• The valve and the parts. Therm-a-Rest sells a do-it-yourself WingLock valve kit for pads like 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 no valve. Sea to Summit and NEMO list nothing online and handle spare parts by request. If you already own a leaking mattress, how to fix a camping mattress leak walks through the makers' repair steps.
• The warranty in writing. Therm-a-Rest, Sea to Summit, NEMO, ALPS and TETON give lifetime terms (limited, in most cases). Exped gives 5 years and repairs mats in its own workshops, Luno gives 3 years, SoundAsleep 1 year and Napier 30 days for accessories like the Sportz. The same maker can split by type: ALPS covers its pads for the life of the product but gives its PVC Air Bed 1 year.

Read the exclusions too. These warranties cover defects in materials and workmanship; SoundAsleep says outright that “punctures and holes from use are not covered.” A long term protects you against a failed valve or seam, not a thorn.

Comfort you can measure

We don't describe comfort as felt. We describe it from what makers publish, and three figures do most of the work.

Thickness runs from 0.75 inches (Z Lite SOL) to 15 cm, or 5.9 inches (MegaMat Max), among the foam pads and mattresses we list; the SoundAsleep air mattress is 9 inches. No maker we cover publishes a firmness rating, so thickness is the main support figure. Several let you tune firmness: Exped includes a Top-Up Pump, NEMO fits the Roamer with a micro-adjustable Laylow valve, and Sea to Summit says the Comfort Deluxe's valve allows quick firmness adjustment. If your back is the problem, start with our camping mattresses for back pain. Side sleepers put a hip and a shoulder on a small area, so thickness matters even more; our picks for side sleepers start from there.

Width is the second. Most singles come in about 25 inches and a wide version near 30: the MondoKing 3D is 25 inches in Large and 30 in XXLarge, and the MegaMat LXW is 30.3. The top fabric is the third. The MondoKing and Comfort Deluxe use a stretch knit and the Exped mats a tricot; the BaseCamp is plain 75D polyester, and Napier's PVC top is flocked.

Match it to where you sleep

In a tent

Measure the floor before you choose. One wide mattress for two means no gap between sleepers: the Exped MegaMat Duo Queen is 59.8 x 79.9 inches in one piece, and Sea to Summit's Comfort Deluxe Double is 78 x 52. Two singles can work too, if they link: NEMO's Roamer singles have toggles and loops for it, while Sea to Summit says its coupler loops don't fit the Comfort Deluxe. Therm-a-Rest makes no double MondoKing 3D. Our camping mattresses for couples rank the options.

On a cot

A cot keeps you off the ground but not warm, so the pad on it needs an R-value and a width that fits the cot. TETON sizes its Canvas Camp Pad to its own cots and straps it to the cot's end bars. Our best cot pads list the widths, and cot vs air mattress helps if you haven't chosen between the two yet.

In an SUV or truck bed

Vehicle mattresses are shaped for the space. Exped's MegaMat Auto is 76 inches long with cut-outs on the sides, Napier sizes the Sportz to fit between the wheel wells of most compact and full-size pickups, and Luno says its 5.5-foot truck-bed mattress fits sleepers up to 7 ft 3 in with the tailgate down. Measure the cargo floor with the seats folded. Our truck-bed and SUV mattress picks sort them by vehicle.

What to look for: the checklist

Run any camping mattress through these six checks, in this order:

1. A published R-value, ideally tested to ASTM F3340, high enough for the coldest ground you'll sleep on. No number means you're guessing.
2. A foam core if you want a puncture to be an inconvenience rather than a night on the ground.
3. A published bottom fabric of 75D or heavier. An unpublished figure is a missing fact, not a neutral one.
4. A written warranty of 5 years or more, and a maker that repairs mattresses or sells the valve and patch kit.
5. Thickness and width that fit the sleeper: about 4 inches or more for side sleepers and sore backs, and 30 inches wide if you sprawl.
6. Dimensions that fit the space, measured against your tent floor, cot or cargo floor, and a weight and packed size you'll actually carry.

Four mattresses that pass

If you're down to the MondoKing 3D and the regular Exped MegaMat, the trade is a lifetime warranty and a stretch-knit top on one side and a higher ASTM R-value on the other. Exped MegaMat vs Therm-a-Rest MondoKing settles it spec by spec. For the full ranked list, see our best camping mattresses, and for everything else in the category, the camping mattresses hub.