Guys, if there’s one thing that I’ve learned from several years of camping with my wife, it’s that anything I can do to make the experience more enjoyable for her, the better the trip is going to go (and the more likely I am to get her to go with me again sometime). Don’t get me wrong – my wife is a trooper and enjoys camping a lot, but something like getting her to go along with me on my camping trips is too important to leave to chance.

Over the years, the things that I’ve done to make her time in the wilderness more comfortable have ranged from bringing along a small water pot and some mugs so she could have a cup of coffee in the mornings, to always making sure to bring along our camping chairs (plus hers has a canopy for the sun) so she has somewhere comfortable to sit, to finally breaking down and buying some camping beds so that she doesn’t have to sleep on the hard, rocky ground.

Part of me disagrees with the whole idea – it seems like it’s not really a camping trip unless you spent at least part of the night trying to find a comfortable way to lie amongst the tree roots and rocks underneath your tent – but I have to admit that sleeping on a soft, comfortable camp bed is not a bad way to spend the night.

Photo by Cool Librarian

The simplest and cheapest type of camping bed is a simple foam mat that we all learned to sleep on way back when in Boy Scouts. These mats are serviceable and are better than sleeping directly on a rock, but don’t really provide a huge amount of comfort when you hop into your sleeping bag. The next step up from the foam mats are camping air beds, which have an actual mattress that you inflate to give you a good bit of cushion between your back and the ground. These camp beds are very nice and comfortable, but some of them can get a bit bulky so make sure to watch out for camp beds that are too big or too heavy for your camping trips when you buy them.

Lastly, the top of the line in terms of comfort are camp beds that have an actual frame that lifts you off of the ground altogether. You set up the frame in your tent, put the mattress on top of the frame, and you’re good to go. You (and your wife) won’t feel a thing when you go to sleep except for the cool spring breeze.

Comments are closed.