Best Air Mattresses for Camping of 2025

Whether you’re coaxing a first-time camper into the outdoors or upgrading your truck build, a high-quality air mattress for camping is an important investment. After all, a good night’s sleep is the foundation for the next day’s adventures, whether that’s a day hike with the family, an early morning deer hunt, or all-day trail running. To help you choose, we evaluated top options from Alps, Exped, Nemo, Big Agnes, Luno, Sea to Summit, and Klymit for comfort, warmth, packability, and more. 

How Your Air Mattress for Camping Keeps You Warm

Many people struggle with sleeping cold while camping, and the culprit is often their air mattress. We’re used to thinking about how sleeping bags protect us from the cold while camping. But we forget that sleeping bags can’t protect us from the cold ground pulling heat from our bodies. If you are using a quality sleeping bag and struggle with staying warm in the outdoors, it’s time to upgrade your air mattress for camping. 

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While sleeping bags are rated for the actual temperature they can insulate against, air mattresses are rated for their level of thermal resistance, or R value. This number on a scale of one to 10+ ranks the pad’s ability to block the cold of the ground. Air mattresses that are filled with nothing but air (such as you would use in your home) do nothing to block the cold of the ground. If the ground is cold (and it usually is), the air inside the mattress will be cold. If the air inside the mattress is cold, you will be cold. Even high-quality sleeping bags can’t protect you from this issue, as the insulation that is underneath your body is unable to fully loft, preventing it from reaching its insulation potential.  

Fortunately, there are many high-quality air mattresses for camping that can block, or resist, the cold of the ground. This is measured by third parties and expressed as an R (for resistance) value. Higher R values do more to resist the cold of the ground, while lower R values will be more susceptible to it creeping through. For the dog days of summer, you can typically get away with R values as low as 2. If it will be colder, with the evenings seeing you wrapped in one of the best camping blankets next to a campfire, then you’ll want an R value between 4 and 6. If you’ll be camping in colder climes where there might be frost on the ground come morning, aim for 8 or higher.

Do not pack an air mattress for camping with an R rating lower than 2 (or, worse, that doesn’t have an R rating at all) unless it will be so warm that you expect to not even need a sleeping bag or blanket. 

Read Next: What Is R Value? It’s Why Your Sleeping Bag Doesn’t Keep You Warm

How I Tested the Best Air Mattresses for Camping

As staff writer and associate editor for the gear team at Outdoor Life, we’ve slept countless nights in the woods, both while backpacking and car camping. We’ve slept on all of the below mattresses while camping (many of them multiple nights) and had other individuals sleep on them as well. Based on that field experience, we’ve evaluated camping mattresses on the most important metrics for campers and overlanders: price, warmth (R rating), warranty, comfort, and ease of use. I’ve additionally provided an at-a-glance look at the different sizes available for each mattress as well as their weight limits. 

Weight limits for the sleeping pads were verified with each manufacturer. Typically, the welds on the seams of the air mattresses are the limiting factors for weight. Additional notes are provided on how to maximize the weight limit of the different sleeping pads in the full reviews, including when a lower PSI is recommended for heavier users. 

For most people, R rating is by far the most important consideration for your air mattress for camping, even more so than its size, amount of foam, or warranty. Look for R ratings that are done according to the ASTM F3340 (“Standard Test Method for Thermal Resistance of Camping Mattresses Using a Guarded Hot Plate Apparatus”) as this is considered the gold standard for third-party, apples-to-apples testing. 

Read Next: The Best Sleeping Bags

If you are looking for something with a smaller packed volume or lower weight than what appears on this list, check out our story on the best backpacking sleeping pads.

Best Air Mattresses for Camping: Reviews & Recommendations

Best Overall: Big Agnes Captain Comfort

In a field of some strong competitors, the Big Agnes Captain Comfort just squeaked ahead to nab the top slot. During testing, I was impressed by how comfortable this pad was (I slept like a baby), and its limited motion transfer. I shared the medium-size version of this pad with my partner, who reported that he tossed and turned all night. I didn’t feel a thing. The 8+ R rating was also greatly appreciated, as I tested this one during a mid-November rainstorm in the lower foothills of the Cascade Range. 

I also liked that they offered the medium, 41-inch wide option. For families, the 52-inch versions of these sleeping pads can sometimes take up too much room in the best family tents, making the rest of your living space unnecessarily crowded. But what really won me over was how little I struggled to put this pad away again at the end of the trip. After deflating and rolling, I was able to use the provided velcro straps to scrunch it down. The provided sack for the pad was generously sized, with side-entry. With other air mattresses for camping, I’ve had to roll and reroll the pads to get it down small enough to fit back in the bag. Not so here. 

The only dings here are the price, which was on the higher side, and the lack of a pump. In my experience, self-inflatable pads hardly inflate at all the first time you use them. While there is always the option of purchasing a pump (which I recommend), it would have been nice if the Captain Comfort was compatible with the same air pump sacks used by its line of backpacking sleeping pads, which cut the difficulty of inflating these pads down by a factor of 10. 

While Big Agnes, unlike other best-in-class air mattress manufacturers, was not able to provide weight limit information for the Captain Comfort series, they did say that they don’t have any indication that a user’s weight would impact the pad’s durability. You can then trust that if you did run into an issue caused by excess weight, it would be covered by the warranty. Their manufacturer welds the pads using the same technology it employs on highly-regulated aircraft, medical, and military inflatables. 

Most Deluxe: Exped MegaMat

Camping doesn’t have to mean a restless night on the ground. The Exped MegaMat is the most comfortable air mattress for camping I’ve slept on. This 4-inch thick foam and air mattress might not be quite as comfortable as your bed at home, but it’s more comfortable than a double-thick air mattress or a number of Air BnB beds I’ve crashed on.

The MegaMat Duo is self inflating so you can prop open the “in” valve and it will slowly fill with air. If it’s cold out, this features doesn’t work. No matter what temperature it is, I always bring the Kokopelli feather pump to finish the job. Exped’s widget pump doesn’t have the oomph to fully inflate the MegaMat and stops increasing the PSI before I’d like.

This mattress makes me excited to get in the tent at night and I always sleep like a baby. The 8.1 R value ensures you’re toasty warm off the cold ground. You can pump the MegaMat up to your desired firmness, though if you under fill it for a softer feel, you’ll notice the weight transference when your partner gets up a bit more. When it’s fully firm, I barely notice.

What is R Value? It’s Why Your Sleeping Bag Doesn’t Keep You Warm

The 75D bottom is durable enough for me to drag out into the grass to relax on during the day. And when it got sprinkled on before I could put it back in the tent, it dried quickly. Rolling up the mat is easy, if a little time consuming. The roll-top bag is plenty large enough so you’re never squishing or re-rolling the mat to make it fit. The end result is pretty bulky, around the same packed size as my favorite canvas tent. But if space were truly crunched on a camping trip, I’d leave the cooler at home before I left this sleeping pad.

Exped recommends that you store this mat flat with both valves open. While it feels ridiculous to get home from a trip and unroll your camping mat, it will preserve the life and comfort of your investment. Plus, it’ll be easier to inflate the next time you roll it back up to throw in the car. The LW+ model I have is 52 by 78 inches. I store it up against a wall in my gear closet, but under a bed would work, too. — Ashley Thess

Best for Cars: Luno AIR Pro Vehicle Mattress

Climbers and van lifers have made sleeping in cars seem pretty glamorous, but in reality your head is falling into the backseat leg room and there’s a divot where the trunk meets the reclined seats. But Luno makes camping mattresses customized to fit the year, make, and model of your car. This maximizes the sleeping space available in your trunk by conforming exactly to the curves of your vehicle, upping the glamour and comfort factor of sleeping in your car immensely. 

Luno also solves the problem of having to stuff enough gear in the backseat leg room to sufficiently support your head. This camping mattress includes flaps that connect the end of the mattress to the headrests. The hammock-style support means you can even incline your head to watch a movie or read a book. 

The AIR Pro camping mattress for couples is actually two pads zipped together so if you’re on a solo mission, you can leave the other half of your trunk open for gear. You can also pump each to that person’s desired firmness. Plus, if one person gets up at night, it won’t affect the air pressure on the other side. 

While comfortable and super easy to inflate, there is one reason I wouldn’t recommend buying this particular mattress. It has an R value of 1.5, making it a summer-only setup. R value is how well your sleeping pad resists the cold, and it’s absolutely crucial to have at least a 4 R value to get the full temperature rating out of your sleeping bag. If your pad isn’t insulated or beefed up with foam, cold air sits underneath your body all night allowing you to lose heat.

Luckily, Luno makes the AIR+FOAM Pro camping mattress for couples. While I haven’t yet tested this model, it has an R-value of 11 and only costs $120 more. On a spring night with a low of 41 degrees with sleeping bags rated to be comfortable at 15 degrees, we were still cold on the Luno AIR. If you know you’ll love the thoughtful design elements, quick inflation, and maximized space of Luno’s custom car camping mattresses, spend minimally more and get four-season use out of the AIR+FOAM model. — Ashley Thess

Best Value: Exped DeepSleep

If you’ve been eyeing the MegaMat but just can’t commit to that price point, then the Exped DeepSleep may be just what you’re looking for. While noticeably less comfortable than air mattresses for camping with plushier foam, it was still plenty comfy for a weekend of casual camping. Part of that is because its higher R rating means it excels at keeping you warm. On my testing trip to the eastern Cascades, temps dropped down to the 40s. But the DeepSleep’s insulation from the cold of the ground was so excellent that I ended up kicking off a blanket in the middle of the night because I was overheating. 

While the valves of the Exped DeepSleep were more straight-forward to use than other air mattresses for camping that I tested, I struggled with the vertical-entry stuff sack, even after cinching down the pad as tightly as I could with the provided Velcro straps. 

Smallest Packed Size: Klymit Klymaloft

The Klymit Klymaloft is an unusual pad. It includes foam in the construction, but it’s not self-inflating. It’s either the heaviest of the best backpacking sleeping pads or the smallest of the best air mattresses for camping. If you’re a fair-weather camper with a smaller car, it might be exactly what you’re looking for.

This pad is extremely comfortable, with a plush foam top that is more noticeably cushy than others that I’ve tested. It’s so comfortable that my husband has claimed it as his go-to sleeping pad for all future summer family car camping trips. However, it has a very low R rating compared to others on this list. Don’t take this one car camping if you expect the overnight temperature to drop below the 50s. Where I think it excels is in packing up your car. Space is often limited when I pack for a long weekend of car camping. This means leaving behind goodies like the best inflatable paddle boards if I also have one of the best air mattresses for camping. The Klymit Klymaloft takes up about as much space as a football, and is easy to cram into small nooks and crannies. 

This pad is not, however, self-inflating. It also doesn’t come with a pump sack, which means that you’ll be blowing it up by blowing into it. Which can take a while. But if you don’t mind spending a little extra, then there is always the option to purchase a pump. 

For a 6-inch-high air mattress, the ALPS Mountaineering Vertex delivers a surprising amount of durability and comfort. I was able to charge the provided air pump at home before heading out for a long weekend of camping, which made blowing up the mattress a cinch. The air pump was so useful that I ended up using it to inflate the Exped DeepSleep and Sea to Summit Comfort Deluxe as well.

While there is some motion transference when two people are using this air mattress, it was less than other air mattresses I’ve used in the past, including those in my test. If you are an exceptionally light sleeper, it might be better to opt for the HEST Dually Long, but for most people this shouldn’t be an issue.

The 150D fabric of the ALPS Mountaineering Vertex was the thickest of any in my test, and the durability showed. After three days of testing, the air mattress was still fully inflated. The thickness of the fabric also didn’t compromise the small packed size of this mattress, which, at about the size of a basketball, was the smallest in my test.

Best Air Pump: Kokopelli Feather Pump

The feather pump from Kokopelli is meant for packrafts, but I’ve found it’s the best pump for air mattresses, too. The gray flexible attachment fits nicely onto most mattress valves. It reaches a higher PSI than other pumps I’ve used and it’s super lightweight. I also love that it’s bright orange so you can always find it inside a bag or buried in a bin. — Ashley Thess

Sea to Summit Comfort Deluxe

The Sea to Summit Comfort Deluxe is a comfortable air mattress for camping that came in at a slightly lower price point than some of the top-rated options. While I slept soundly on this mattress on my testing trip for the best 8-person tents, the carrying sack made it unusually difficult to pack away again. I had to roll it multiple times to get it to fit. It does not come with an air pump or pump sack, so expect to put in a little extra effort to inflate it if it’s been in storage for a while.

When queried, Sea to Summit had done the most weight testing of their pads of any of the manufacturers I talked to: up to 350 pounds for a single-person pad. Sea to Summit additionally shared that users that are closer to the upper weight limit for the mattress should plan to inflate the pad to between 2 and 2.5 PSI. Three PSI is the maximum pressure the mattress can support, so don’t go beyond that. — Laura Lancaster

Nemo Roamer

While the Nemo Roamer didn’t quite shine enough to win an award, it’s still an excellent pad that I would recommend. It’s exceptionally comfortable with a high enough R rating to see you through the summer season and into the shoulder season. Though pricey, it does include a compatible pump sack (similar to those used for backpacking sleeping pads) which makes the process of fine-tuning the inflation level fairly painless, without the need to spring for a pricey air pump.

Unusually, the Roamer comes with two sacks, the one that it’s tightly packed into when you purchase the pad (good luck ever getting it into that again), and a larger sack that works well for travel, especially after it’s been cinched down using the supplied Velcro straps. Given that the Roamer is partially made from recycled materials, and Nemo’s well-earned reputation for eco-consciousness, the inclusion of a basically unusable stuff sack is a little surprising. It’s also a fairly minor ding. 

The Roamer lived up to its claim of virtually instant self-inflation, but this proved problematic when packing away the air mattress. The self-inflation would kick in as soon as I let the pressure off the roll, making it difficult to get it squeezed down tight enough to add on the Velcro straps. Nemo did provide some directions on the side of the pad indicating the best combination of valves to use during deflation. But this still proved more of a challenge that I would have liked. 

Keep in mind that the self-inflation mechanism won’t work terribly quickly the first time you use the pad or after it’s been packed away for extended periods of time. — Laura Lancaster

Things to Consider Before Buying an Air Mattress for Camping

R Rating

It’s worth repeating: The most important factor for comfort is warmth, and your sleeping bag will be minimally effective at insulating you against the cold of the ground unless it’s rated 4 or higher on the R scale. Look for ASTM certification before making a final purchase. 

Self-Inflation Mechanism

In my experience, the self-inflating mechanism on air mattresses only gets you so far, because after being stored all winter it takes a bit for the foam to spring back into shape. Be prepared to inflate some, if not all, of the air manually. Snagging a battery-operated pump can help alleviate frustration.

Packing Up Your Mattress

Inflating an air mattress for camping is one thing; deflating is another thing entirely. Before heading out on your camping trip, check that you can get it back into the provided stuff sack (this was easier said than done with several options I tested). If it’s more arduous than you expect, consider straps to help cinch it down more efficiently. When deflating your air mattress for camping, be sure to open the valves per the manufacturer instructions to maximize air flow out of your mattress and minimize air flow inward. 

Storage

Several of the brands I spoke with indicated that the best way to store their air mattresses for camping was to unroll them and allow them to partially self-inflate. If you have space under your bed, or in another part of your home to do this, it’s a recommended way to increase the lifespan of your foam. 

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FAQs

Final Thoughts on the Best Air Mattresses for Camping

Getting a quality air mattress for camping can elevate your outdoor sleeping experience. Fortunately, there are many quality brands offering comfortable, compact options that will insulate you from the cold and hard of the ground. Choose the one that best fits your body, budget, and sleep needs.