A close-to-the-ground chair is often the ideal choice for outdoor concerts, movies, theater performances, and other events where you will be concerned about blocking other people’s view. Twisting chairs are also less comfortable, primarily because they tend to have a smaller sitting surface and no backrest, as is true of the REI Co-op Trail Stool. Tent-style chairs like the Big Agnes Skyline Ozark Trail Sleeping Bags UL, Big Agnes Big Six, and Nemo Moonlite excel in the comfort metric since their raised seats are easier to get in and out of. Because they keep their form, it is much easier to plop down and feel supported. The Helinox Ground Chair is a unique tent chair that sits even lower to the ground than its closest competitors, making it more of a recliner meant to extend legs forward.
We are also intrigued by the Therm-a-Rest Trekker Chair Kit. It’s not a chair but a conversion kit that turns an inflatable sleeping pad into a backpacking chair. The sitting experience is super comfortable, but it’s harder to get into and out of for fear of puncturing the sleeping pad. We’ve tested close to 40 different models over the past 10 years. In this review, we compare 17 of the best backpacking chairs available today. We evaluate each seat on its comfort, identifying crucial elements of each product’s performance.
The Moon Lence Backpacking Chair is a value pick that outperforms its price point. It has a well-defined bucket seat that makes it lounge-worthy but not so deep that it’s hard to get out of it. The square base is also stable enough that we weren’t fearful of tipping over, and we appreciate the side pockets for phone and sunglasses storage. In terms of out-of-case performance, it stacks up well for its price point. Overwhelmingly, the Coleman came out on top, with campers praising its comfort and stability. The Renetto’s big, heavy canopy provides ample sun protection at a campsite or cookout and doubles as a backpack-strap-equipped carrying case.
At a fireworks show and at the beach, we appreciated a chair that was ready to go without even 30 seconds of hassle. The Everywhere Chair closes like a book—simply lift the padded strap and go. The cupholders on the L.L.Bean Kids’ Base Camp Chair aren’t as roomy as those on our picks, and they are not as adept at holding stubby water bottles or mugs of hot chocolate. After six months Ozark Trail Camping Chairs of sitting mostly outside in the Southern California sun, our gray Coleman chair was noticeably less faded than our Walmart and Renetto chairs, the latter of which had bleached from bright red to pink. “This is the Platonic ideal of your camp chair,” one of our campers gushed. For ultimate relaxation, add a few portable chairs, a hammock or other outdoor-friendly lounge furniture.
The Helinox Chair One weighs about 2 pounds, compresses smaller than a 2-liter bottle of soda, and is the most comfortable and easy to stow of the three top backpacking chairs we tested. Like competing chairs, the Chair One has a nylon and mesh seat and aluminum legs, which are linked with shock cord (the chair legs are made out of the same material as high-end tent poles). Because people use outdoor chairs for an array of purposes and have different preferences when it comes to comfort, it was almost impossible to choose just one best chair. We did select our favorite upright chair for car camping and tailgating, and then additional low-to-the-ground, ultra-lightweight, and canopy picks, as well as a great chair for kids. Unlike our camping chair review, this review is designed specifically for portable chairs that can be carried into the backcountry or during hikes. We analyzed packability and weight for this metric, knowing that a chair would have to be pretty compact to make it into an already heavy pack on your next trip into the backcountry.
There’s no getting around the fact that this model is substantially heavier than the superlight models on the market. That said, we all know that person willing to haul an extra pound or two to improve their camp amenities. If you don’t mind a bit of extra Ozark Trail Canopies weight, this model offers unmatched comfort wrapped up in a reasonably small travel size. Our not-too-discriminating underage testers liked all the kids’ chairs, though over time we found several reasons to declare the REI Camp Chair the best of the bunch.
We considered both the relative weight of each chair compared to models of the same design (foam or tent style), as well as how it stacked up against every product we tested. We start each of our reviews with market research, which yielded an initial selection of nearly 50 contenders for our backpacking chairs. From there, we purchased the most promising models and tested them for several weeks, updating the review frequently to reflect new products. Over the years, we have taken out close to 30 chairs and sat on everything from rocky cliff bases to desert sand to city parks.