by emma_melbourne » Sat 20 Jan, 2018 12:45 pm
I'm so happy to see some replies and great thoughts so far...!
Although we're talking in general terms / ideas about luring a partner hiking and camping, I have some recommendations for comfortable equipment....
COMFY MAT - Go large (63-65 cm width) & thick
I think the problem with 50 cm wide mats for people who don't like discomfort is their arms are potentially falling off the mat and onto floor of tent which is uncomfortable and cold.
So I'd advocate the large size camping mats which are 63-65 cm wide.
Women with hip to waist ratio tend to do much better with thicker mats rather than those 2 cm thick mats.
I personally recommend the Sea to Summit Comfort Plus Self-Inflating mat. It's not the usual Sea to Summit mats that you're used to seeing, but actually a self-inflating type that's more like the Exped Megamats but it packs down relatively small - in the vicinity of actually being able to take on a short trip. It's 8 cm thick with foam and cut-outs which basically form long triangular tubes in cross-section view. The large size is 198 x 65 x 8 cm thick, and they're super-comfy. Like equivalent to Exped Megamat comfort. That large size packs down to 33 x 7 cm diameter, and it weighs a hefty 1.2 kg. So I know this is pushing it for hiking and for certainly not in the lightweight category, but as a measure to get a partner hiking and camping, it's perhaps worth lugging the bulk and weight, as I can't see them complaining on that mat about comfort. R value is 4.1, so it's also relatively warm. It has a soft stretchy top fabric - also nice.
There is also a lighter / thinner version which is the Sea to Summit Comfort Light Self Inflating, which is 5 cm thick (rather than 8 cm) and 900 grams for the Large size, and has that same foam with triangular tube cut-out in cross-section. Still pretty comfortable. Negative is lower R value of 2.7.
If car camping, I'd go the Exped Megamat Duo mat or similar comfortable double mat. (You can reportedly even comfortably have some loving time on it with relative ease.)
COMFY PILLOW
Totally agree a camp pillow can make a world of difference to a comfortable night's sleep. I have quite a collection of pillows as I can't personally sleep well without one - I wake up with a sore neck. So far the ones I've found good are:
1) Thermarest compressible pillow - main negative is that it's still quite bulky when packed up / compressed for hiking. Not TOO bad weight-wise at 200 grams for small, or 260 for medium.
2) Nemo Fillo backpacking pillow - has a layer of memory foam on top of an air blow-up pouch pillow. Packs up smaller than above Thermarest, but not as small as a straight air pillow. 260 grams.
3) Sea to Summit Aeros Premium pillow - packs up super-small, ergonomic shape particularly good for side-sleepers, and has a nice brushed fabric that doesn't feel like clammy polyesters of a lot of air pillows. About as good as it gets for an air pillow in terms of comfort. 79 g for regular, 105 g for large.
Which one of these I would pick would depend on how much pack room I have / hiking I'm doing. For car camping, I'd go option 1 or 2. For hiking I'd go option 2 or 3. Therefore if I was only getting one pillow for all options, I'd go option 2 - the Nemo Fillo backpacking pillow.