For car campers looking to simplify their dining routine, it’s a nice addition to your gear collection. While paying premium prices for a camping chair when you only make it to the wilderness a couple times of year may not seem practical, good portable seating can be an invaluable addition to your home life too. If your chair has pole legs, just make sure that you bring along a ground sheet if you may be encountering soft surfaces like sand. Unlike our camping chair review, this review is designed specifically for portable chairs that can be carried into the backcountry or during hikes. We analyzed packability and weight for this metric, knowing that a chair would have to be pretty compact to make it into an already heavy pack on your next trip into the backcountry.
REI’s Co-op Camp X Chair brings the best of both worlds with a webbed nylon mesh that keeps you cozy and cool. The material is designed to evenly distribute your weight and maximize comfort, and we found the material was tense enough to feel supportive while letting them take advantage of the breeze. For an ultra lightweight chair that’s ready to make your hiking breaks a breeze, opt for the Helinox Chair Zero. It has two open panels in the seat back for breathability, and when packed up in its ripstop polyester stuff sack, it’s totally tiny.
The Renetto’s big, heavy canopy provides ample sun protection at a campsite or cookout and doubles as a backpack-strap-equipped carrying case. Make sure you also kit yourself out with an air bed pump so you can quickly inflate your air bed with little fuss. Choose from a foot pump, hand pump or an electric pump which will do all the hard work for you. You can also use your pump for your inflatable tent and camping furniture, making it a useful addition to your camping kit. Taco chairs like the Crazy Creek Hex Original 2.0 and Crazy Creek Original are harder to get in and out of since they sit on the ground and offer less support. Sit pads like the Therm-a-Rest Z Seat and Nemo Chipper are truly just a piece of foam that offers just a hint of padding and primarily keeps your butt from getting wet and dirty if you’re sitting on the ground.
If you don’t have a ton of money, buy fake ones and tie them onto the side or the back of your chairs. Ribbon and tulle can easily be wrapped around the back of your chairs. You can tie it in a bow or knot it right in the middle and let the pieces drape down.
The seat pocket isn’t as deep as some, so we did find our legs feeling less supported and our bums sliding forward. You’ll find yourself sitting pretty low to the ground, so this may not be the chair for folks who have trouble getting up from a low crouch. However, for those of you wondering who the heck would bring a chair backpacking ozark trail hammock chair in the first place, we think this is the product that might change your mind. Before we tried the Renetto Original Canopy Chair, we had never considered buying a shade-equipped camp chair. The shaded Renetto chairs were consistently the first seats snagged at a beautiful but harshly exposed Indian Grove group campsite.
Ensure you have all the camping cooking equipment you need so you’re not caught short when preparing a camping feast. Decathlon has everything you might need, whether camping with the kids or heading off on a solo expedition. You’ll find cooler bags, camping pots and pans, cutlery, kettles, mugs, cooking utensils, camping stoves, thermal flasks, and even foldable washing-up bowls.
We noticed during the first of our three camping trips—a weekend in California’s Joshua Tree National Park, with a total of seven families—that, given the choice, campers prefer to take the biggest seat. When we set up a dozen chairs around the campfire without comment, people consistently claimed them from largest to smallest. The Renetto Original Canopy Chair, a cleverly designed specialty seat, is ideal for anyone who wants sun protection and doesn’t mind a heavier, bulkier chair. Despite the Renetto’s weight, our testers found it easy to carry and simple to set up and adjust. We discovered that even though most testers had not previously considered a shade-equipped camp chair, once they used one they appreciated the comfort and convenience of built-in sun blocking. The Yeti Trailhead Camp Chair is a rock-solid piece of outdoor furniture that’ll stay sturdy and supportive even under the toughest conditions.
The firm-yet-cozy seat is supportive enough to sit in for hours, and we were particularly pleased by how supportive the armrests were compared to other chairs with a similar design. You don’t always find comfortable over-sized chairs, and this chair works for everyone in my family. And after regularly using the chair for six months (and leaving it out in the rain on occasion), it’s still in great condition. The huge base and larger diameter poles of the Big Agnes Big Six, while heavy, significantly increase its stability. The Big Agnes Skyline UL Chair and Big Agnes Skyline Stool are excellent; they both have a broad base that creates a secure sitting experience.
Testers considered whether the chairs would be too heavy, bulky, or awkward to carry for either a long distance or simply from a house to a car trunk. REI’s Co-op Flexlite Air Chair is perfect for the minimalist traveler. The 1-pound seat comes with a miniscule stuff sack that can easily be slipped into a backpack or suitcase. We also loved that setting up and breaking down the aluminum frame and seat cover is conveniently intuitive.
If you do need a fits-in-a-knapsack chair, we recommend the Helinox Chair One. We found this model to be slightly more comfortable and easier to pack than other, similar chairs. We were downright giddy over this spacious, cleverly designed outdoor loveseat. The two-seater ozark trail lounge chair slips in and out of a slot in the wrap-up, tote-style carrier, which can be expanded to fit other gear for storage and double as a dog mat when the chair is in use. When it comes to comfort, the Kelty Low Loveseat was one of the most outstanding during our test.