Walk around any campground or tailgate party, and you’ll notice the popularity of this variety of accordion-style seat. You can pick one up at just about any big-box store (sometimes for as little as $10), order one with your favorite sports team’s logo, or pay a premium for a similar model from Cabela’s or REI. The Coleman camping chair is big and durable, and of all the upright chairs that our panel of campers tested, it was the most comfortable.
The GCI Outdoor chair also has a pocket built into the back that can hold a phone or a book. After six months of sitting mostly outside in the Southern California sun, our gray Coleman chair was noticeably less faded than our Walmart and Renetto chairs, the latter of which had bleached from bright red to pink. “This is the Platonic ideal of your camp chair,” one of our campers gushed. Portable outdoor chairs are also helpful for anyone who doesn’t have the room or budget for permanent backyard furniture. And they can save your back, make it easier to juggle a picnic plate and a cold beverage, and generally help you to relax comfortably outdoors.
Although we always recommend using anchors such as weighted sand bag or stakes with guy lines attached to the top corners. Like the Mac Sports Heavy Duty Collapsible Folding All Terrain Utility Cart (our pick for use on sand), the Mac Sports Outdoor wagon has an easy-to-use, telescoping handle. Of all the folding wagons we tested, this Mac Sports wagon was the most adept at making sharp turns to navigate a small obstacle course on grass or concrete. It does not require any assembly, which is also true of our beach-wagon pick from the same company. Two small mesh pockets at the front can hold drinks or flip-flops, and we found that these pockets were better placed and more useful than similar pockets on other folding wagons.
The Oniva Collapsible Adventure Wagon’s major downside was its folding mechanism, similar to that of an umbrella, rather than an accordion, like on the others. It was extremely hard to squeeze inward and still jutted outward if not squeezed into its cover—an impossible ordeal when wrangling two kids in a parking lot. The sand-removal feature, which seemed promising, worked only partially, and many reviewers noted that the wagon’s handle was short.
Walmart is ready for springtime sporting events with several top-rated camping quad chairs and portable stadium seats up to 50% off. Before we tried the Renetto Original Canopy Chair, we had never considered buying a shade-equipped camp chair. But the Renetto’s utility was immediately apparent on our inaugural chair-testing excursion, a “winter” camping trip in California’s Joshua Tree National Park, where the beating sun made temperatures in the high 70s feel like the mid-90s. The ozark trail chair shaded Renetto chairs were consistently the first seats snagged at a beautiful but harshly exposed Indian Grove group campsite. It’s worth highlighting that despite the advertised dimensions of the 10×10 Ozark Trail, because this is a slant leg shelter the top only measures 8×8. The benefit of the slanted legs is that these tents are more stable laterally which can increase the stability of the frame and make it less prone to toppling, an important benefit if on a windy beach.
We also let two boys, ages 1 and 5, play with them and sit on them in the backyard for six months. After all that, we concluded that the REI Co-op Camp Chair – Kids’ is the best choice for anyone who wants to buy a practical, portable outdoor chair for a small child. With the largest capacity of any wagon we’ve tested, a quick and compact fold, and the best traction on sand we’ve found, the Mac Sports Heavy Duty Collapsible Folding All Terrain Utility Cart is our pick for toting gear to the beach.
But even though it had nice wheels and construction, this wagon was a headache to fold and unfold. It took two people—and several minutes—to put the L.L.Bean wagon away after use. We had to wrestle the cover onto the bulky rectangle and tug it down to get it on. One of the wheels came loose when one of our testers was carrying about 100 pounds of gear, which is well under the stated weight capacity.
The most popular product in their line is the 10×10 Instant Slant Leg Tent with a blue canopy top. It is made with a steel construction frame and polyester material for the canopy, which is in line with just about every shade tent on the market today. The frame is that of a pyramid structure, which are generally found in all value brand canopy tents as they require less material to manufacture vs. that of a full truss system and as a result can keep the price lower. It scored high marks for having an attractive price point, as well as having fabric that could be easily removed for washing (which the other wagons did not have). But it didn’t turn or pull as smoothly on sand as the Mac Sports beach wagon, and its smaller wheels seemed to sink.
The Chair One is rated to hold up to 320 pounds, versus 250 pounds for the Flexlite and for the third chair we tested, the Alite Monarch Chair (the latter chair is no longer available, as Alite went out of business in late 2019). Overwhelmingly, the Coleman came ozark trail backpack out on top, with campers praising its comfort and stability. This low-profile chair is easy to carry, and it adjusts for uneven ground. A frequent reader of our site put the lightweight Cool Cabana pop up beach canopy to the test during a West Coast vacation.
These push locks get very difficult to use over time, especially if the tent is used on the beach and exposed to sand and saltwater, causing rust build up. Many newer tent brands like EZ-Up use revolutionary thumb lock sliders or larger easy to release buttons, which are a much better user experience when setting the canopy up or taking it down. With the push buttons you need to worry about pinching fingers or not being able to release the button when it gets rusted, which is never a pleasant experience. The legs extend to give the top peak a height of about 8’10” which will be plenty of headroom for anyone underneath. One of the best deals was on the KingCamp Folding Director Chair, which comes with a fold out cup holder and an attached 12-Liter cooler bag, for $76 off.