Camping Air Beds & Sleeping Pads
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For Romantic Camping, you must have a comfortable mattress. Sleeping on hard ground is NOT Romantic. It’s uncomfortable! The goal of Romantic Getaway is to maximize the enjoyment of your camping experience. Using a soft bed is crucial to meeting this goal.
Look at the foam pad in this picture… I selected this picture because it symbolizes the classic sleeping pad. It’s actually NOT a sleeping pad. It’s an exercise mat that is ONLY good for yoga and sit-ups. My very first sleeping pad (back in the Boy Scout days) was a blue foam pad like this one. Let me tell you - It sucked! Cheap foam pads like this should only be considered as a last resort.
Camping air beds are the MOST comfortable camping mattress option. These beds work pretty good for car-camping. You do need an electric pump that can plug into your cigarette lighter. Foot or hand pumps also work good (less annoying than the noisy electric). The main problem will camping air beds is they will literally let you down. Sooner or later they become a worthless pile of plastic. I feel a little guilty throwing that much plastic into the local landfill. I also HATE waking up in the middle of the night to discover that I’m lying on the hard ground.
In recent years, I’ve been using a full-length Therm-A-Rest self-inflating sleeping pad. This type of pad is capable of self-inflation due to an open-cell foam that fills the internal cavity. You need only open the valve and wait for it to fill. This sleeping pad is lightweight and space efficient. Best of all, it’s comfortable!
For Romantic Camping using a two-person self-inflating sleeping pad is ideal. They are costly. However, like buying a quality mattress at home, you will spend many hours enjoying your investment.
Combining two one-person sleeping pads is another option. Purchase a sleeping pad coupler strap. This system uses two nylon webbing straps with a velcro closure to combine sleeping pads together. The coupler kit is the best option if you already own sleeping pads. They only cost about $10-15.
I have posted additional information and advice about camping air beds and sleeping pads at RomanticCamping.com. Check it out!
My Recommendations…
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6 Responses to “Camping Air Beds & Sleeping Pads”
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March 8th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Hello!
My husband and I are taking a romantic overnight backpacking vacation. =) We are looking for a self inflating sleeping pad that we will both fit on. It couldn’t be any wider than 40 inches because it wouldn’t fit in our tent. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Laura
March 9th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Hi Laura,
Thanks for the question…
The double-wide self-inflating pads are nice, but are usually in the 50″ wide range. What you should do is get 2 small (20″ wide) self-inflating Thermarest sleeping pads and link them together with a “coupler kit”.
Jump over to amazon.com and check out the prices on this option…
It should be more affordable than buying a single large pad. They will also be easier to carry while backpacking!
Hope you have a great trip.
+Bjorn
May 25th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
After reading this, I had to go get the wife and have her read. We both though it was great!
June 19th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
I actually knew about the majority of of this, but even so, I still think it is instructive. Great work!
July 15th, 2010 at 4:27 am
I would certainly agree that a blow up mattress provides a far superior sleeping experience than a foam mat which is often not much better than sleeping straight on the floor. Blow up matresses also provide a bit of extra insulation from the cold floor.
August 6th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
nice share, good article, very usefull for me…thank you