The Best Sleeping Pads for Camping, Backpacking, and Travel

What are these sleeping pads you speak of? When I was young, all hiking was uphill both ways and everyone slept on the ground in sleeping bags with only a half-inch of thin closed-cell foam between us and every pebble. We also filtered our water with our teeth and ate mainly raw meat and foraged ramps. Kids these days.

Still, I suppose there is something to be said for a comfy sleeping pad at the end of a long day on the trail, or even in the campsite next to your car. There are now many ways to make sure no peas (or pebbles) ever disturb your sleep in the outdoors. For years, we've been testing sleeping pads of all varieties in all kinds of conditions, and we’re happy to report that in all this time we've never had one fail on us. That said, there are some standouts and a few to avoid.

Be sure to read through our other outdoor guides, including the Best Tents, Best Hiking Gear, Best Camp Stoves, and our Camp Cooking guide.

Update April 2024: We've added three new Nemo pads, including our new favorite ultralight pad, the Nemo All-Season, as well as some more general buying advice.

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The Best Super-Comfy Car Camping Pad

Photograph: Thermarest

Therm-a-Rest MondoKing$240 at Therm-a-Rest$240 at Amazon

Therm-a-Rest invented the self-inflating camping mattress. The brand has kept pace in the 50 years since, either innovating or successfully aping every major development in the field. The MondoKing is the most comfortable, deluxe mattress in the line, the flagship for picky car campers and those who are stationary in the backcountry for weeks or months at a time. This burly mat is a full 4 inches thick and weighs 4 pounds. You won't want to lug it far, but even a large-bodied side sleeper won't bottom out.

The StrataCore foam inside gives it an R-value of 7, so the claimed comfort is below the temperature at which vodka freezes. (In our nights of testing, WIRED has not independently verified good sleep at -20 degrees Fahrenheit.) It's also very, very