Camping and Camper mattresses

One of the most important, but most overlooked items in an outdoor gear inventory is the camper mattress, or camper bed as they are sometimes called. Good camper mattresses really make a huge difference in the comfort of any trip into the great wide open, and that is that. Not having a camper mattress that really feels right to you, or having no camper mattress at all can just make your night plain old miserable. You will sleep poorly, and so will wake up stiff, tired, and not able to face a day in the outdoors. This is something that will not do for the modern camper.

What I would suggest is that you take a good look at the different types of camper mattresses before deciding. Depending on what you are doing, one kind or another might be better for you. The simplest camper mattress is called a sleeping pad. It is basically just that – a flat, foam pad that can be easily packed, easily rolled, and easily unrolled to provide some padding under your sleeping pad. Although this is not the very most comfortable type of camper mattress, it does have some definite advantages. The sleeping pad is light, cheap, easy to pack, and pretty comfortable. It is also rugged, and can not pop like a self-inflating camper mattress can. In that it is nothing but a simple pad, there are no parts that can break and cause this style of camper mattress to fail, which is a major plus in my book. If you are going somewhere pretty remote, or going on an extended trip, this is the camper mattress to have, hands down.

The more common and deluxe kind of camper mattress is basically just an improved kind of air mattress. They can still pack pretty tight, and most of them are not too heavy to carry. A lot of them are quite comfortable, and they will provide a far superior rest to a foam camper mattress any day. But, of course, they do have their drawbacks. It takes seconds to pack up a foam pad, but putting away a camper bed can be time consuming, as you have to get all of the air out of it before you can really wrap it up. In addition, the camping mattress can pop, or develop an air leak, or you could lose the parts to fill it up, if it is one of the ones that uses pumps.