The 4 Best Sleeping Pads for Backpacking and Car Camping of 2025
Top pick
This 3-inch-thick, notably warm pad is the most comfortable one we tested. And it’s easier to inflate, deflate, roll, and store than any other car-camping pad.
The self-inflating Therm-a-Rest LuxuryMap Sleeping Pad has long been a favorite with our testers, and it has stood the test of time—six years of car-camping trips, to be specific. This 3-inch-thick pad has extra foam, with an air pocket on top, placed exactly where the body exerts more pressure; this increases comfort and helps prevent the pad from bottoming out overnight. Side-sleepers, back-sleepers, and stomach-sleepers all found this pad to be comfortable and supportive.
With an R-value of 6 (R-value is a measure of how well a pad insulates), the LuxuryMap pad is more than twice as warm as our backpacking pick. In our tests, the LuxuryMap pad’s face fabric seemed to reject lint and dirt better than fabric on rival pads. And its carry bag was refreshingly easy to stuff and tote around (this is not often the case with larger sleeping pads). The only downside: This pad is heavy. But as long as we parked close to our campsites, that didn’t bother us.
Top pick
With enough thickness to support your back and hips, this durable sleeping pad is the most comfortable option we tried that was still light enough to carry for long distances. But it’s not warm enough for the winter.
If you’re looking for a sleeping pad that’s supportive yet still light enough to carry—for backpacking trips in the spring, summer, and fall—the 3½-inch-thick Nemo Quasar 3D Lightweight Insulated Sleeping Pad is a solid choice. It has an R-value of 3.3 (comparable to that of its competitors), and it comes with customized baffles that contour to your body. Compared with most of the other backpacking pads we tried, this one felt more like a supportive mattress.
It’s also very durable. During testing, we blew up the pads and let them sit. After three weeks (during which they were jumped on by little kids), the pad showed no wear and tear or deflation. The Quasar pad comes in regular, regular wide, long wide, and double sizes. At 1 pound 12 ounces for the regular size, this pad is heavier than some of the other backpacking pads we tried, but it packs down small.
Budget pick
Basic but reliable, this pad is lightweight, durable, and inexpensive. But it’s not our most comfortable or our warmest pad.
If your top concerns involve cost or durability, the Therm-a-Rest Z Lite Sol Sleeping Pad is a standout choice. This lightweight pad (14 ounces) is durable and inexpensive. Even so, it’s no surprise that this pad is not nearly as comfy as our other picks, since it’s made with basic foam and is the thinnest of our offerings (less than an inch). Still, the pad has an R-value of 2.6, which is impressive considering how thin it is (though all of our other picks are still warmer). If you ever decide to upgrade, the Z Lite Sol can become a go-to backup or a loaner pad you can expect to use for decades to come.
Also great
This sleeping pad isn’t small, and it isn’t light. But it’s the most comfortable pad in the game. If you’re driving up to your campsite, this one is a wilderness luxury.
Here’s the thing: The Exped MegaMat Duo 10 is not easy to pack. It’s not easy to inflate. And it’s not easy to carry around. But it is absolutely the most comfortable double sleeping pad you can buy—it’s so comfortable, in fact, that many of our testers found themselves using this pad for guests in their home, instead of a typical air mattress. The MegaMat Duo is 3.9 inches thick and weighs about 7½ pounds (the Duo LW+ model is almost 10 pounds), and it has an R-value of 8.1, making it the largest and the warmest option we tested.
Over the course of two years and dozens of camping trips with small children, our testers observed no damage to the MegaMat Duo. There’s enough padding to support side-sleepers’ hips and shoulders. And stomach- and back-sleepers appreciated the bed’s lower-back support. The MegaMat Duo also stays firmly inflated for several days, but we do recommend giving it a pre-sleep top-off of air. If you’re headed out on a car-camping trip where weight isn’t an issue, this is the couple’s pad to choose.
Also great
This air pump works much faster than using a pump bag or your own breath to blow up a sleeping pad.
Many sleeping pads have to be inflated with your breath (as you’d inflate a balloon) or with a sack (called a pump bag). But there’s another option: a lightweight air pump. The Exped Widget Pump isn’t directly compatible with non-Exped beds—its seal works best with Exped pads. Yet the airflow is so powerful that we found it still works on other picks, even without a direct seal, and it sped up the inflation process tenfold. We were able to inflate a single pad in about 30 seconds, and this pump added just 7 ounces to our pack weight. You do need to use a USB charger to charge the pump before a backpacking trip.
