I'm really not a fan of airbeds/mats; I wriggle a lot in the night and I find them a bit bouncy. The wife wriggles even more than me, and after a recent trip where I spent most of the night being bounced up and down every time she re-enacted River Dance in her sleep, I decided we needed a better alternative. And as you may have gathered, I'm a fan of self-inflating mats.
It's surprising just how few self-inflating double sleeping mats are available, and of those that do exist, even fewer are readily available here in Spain. Fortunately, one of those that was easy to get hold of - and for a very reasonable price - was the Outwell Sleepin Double.
The Sleepin Double is available in three thicknesses - 3cm, 5cm and 7.5cm. I went for the 3cm due to the combination of size, weight and price. I'm used to sleeping on 3cm mats so it seemed perfectly adequate for my needs. I have several Outwell products and have always found the quality to be very good, and first impressions of the mat were very positive; it comes with a storage bag and compression straps to help squeeze the mat down and keep it there when packing away, and the cover is good quality and seems like it will be hard-wearing.
The mat is effectively two single mats joined in the middle, and the join functions as a hinge so that the mat can also be used as a 6cm single mat - a nice touch. Both sides of the mat have their own valve so they can be tailored individually (by way of the amount of additional air blown in) to suit each person, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much the mat actually does self-inflate (there's a reason for this which I'll come back to), and it actually needed very little in the way of topping up. So far so good.
Packing it away, however, isn't the easiest task; over four-or-five attempts, I haven't been able to get the mat to roll properly - it always seems to want to twist as I get to the last quarter or so, no matter how carefully I roll it and ensure the two long edges are parallel. Fortunately the included storage bag is fairly roomy, and given that this isn't the kind of mat you would be taking wild camping, thus trying to force into a rucksack, it isn't the end of the world if it doesn't pack down as neatly as it should.
Now, to come back to why the mat self-inflates so quickly; many (if not most) self-inflating mats - particularly the ultralight mats I am used to using - use die-cut foam as the filler. Basically, in order to keep the weight down, the foam is not a solid slab, but has sections cut out of it. This also allows them to pack down to a compact size. Consequently, however, they generally need a good "topping up" via the valve as more air is required to "fill the gaps". The Outwell Sleepin Double is essentially just a slab of foam, hence why it pretty much inflates itself. Now because of this it is both heavier and bulkier (when packed) than it needs to be, though as mentioned this isn't a hiking mat so that isn't necessarily an issue.
What is an issue - and one that I never considered beforehand - is that the additional air in the die-cut mats actually provides a lot of cushioning and therefore comfort. So not only is the Sleepin Double less comfortable by comparison, it is without a doubt the least comfortable mat both myself and my wife have ever used. And I can't understate that. We both suffered a terrible night's sleep and woke next morning (if you can call it waking, after never really being able to get to sleep) with aching hips and backs. While admittedly I haven't tried it doubled-up in "single mode" (and there is very little argument for doing so on my part, given the single mats I already have), I would never use this mat as a double mat ever again. I would go so far as to say it isn't fit for purpose, if its purpose is to provide a comfortable night's sleep.
Now I appreciate everyone has different perspectives of "comfort", hence why there are so many choices of regular bed mattresses, but generally-speaking I'm not that picky - I've had a good night's sleep in an empty bathtub before - so for me to say it's uncomfortable is not a good sign. And it's a shame, because it's an otherwise well-priced, quality product in an under-saturated market; Outwell could have cleaned up here. But instead they dropped the ball, didn't do enough R&D and seemed to think sticking a slab of foam in a cover was sufficient - and it isn't.
So while I can't speak for the 5cm and 7.5cm variants - which arguably should offer a higher degree of comfort - I cannot possibly recommend the 3cm model, and would go so far as to say avoid it completely. There are far better options (albeit in the form of two single mats as opposed to one double mat) assuming comfort and a good night's sleep - and not convenience - are your priority.
Outwell Sleepin Double 3cm Self-Inflating Mat
NOTE: Outwell also make single versions of the Sleepin mats, which presumably used the same solid slab of foam. So again, on this basis I would avoid the 3cm version - there are much better mats of this thickness and in a similar price range.
After a recent camping trip in 30 degree heat and 90% humidity that was so ghastly that we had to abandon it two days in, I decided what I needed was an inner-pitch-first tent. While a lot of people don't like this design due to the fact that it isn't ideal for pitching in the rain, certain implementations of this design allow for leaving the flysheet off, and that's exactly what I wanted.
It didn't take much investigation before I came across the Naturehike Mongar 2, a free-standing inner-pitch-first tent that also ticked a lot of other boxes.
As always, the first thing I did when my Mongar 2 arrived was get it on the weighing scales. Naturehike advertise its weight at 2.2kg all-in, including the supplied footprint (yes, the footprint comes included - other manufacturer's take note!). My scales said 2.157kg, so we were off to a good start.
While my current go-to hiking tent - the Wild Country Zephyros 2 - weighs in at 1.854kg, I'd surprisingly never weighed it together with the footprint, and here's where things start to get interesting; excluding pegs, the Zephyros 2 and footprint have a combined weight of 2.209kg. Remove the pegs from the Mongar 2, and the total weight is 2.031kg! Despite being much larger, the Mongar 2 is the lighter tent.
Pitching is ridiculously quick and easy - on my first time pitch, I single-handedly had it up in a fraction over 4 minutes - the fastest pitch I think I've ever achieved. Naturehike quote 5 minutes for a first-time pitch, though to be fair I didn't peg out the guylines so this is probably about right. Though instructions are included in the bag they are unnecessary. Simply peg out the four corners of the footprint, pop the ends of the double-Y-frame poles into the footprint eyelets, then clip the inner to the poles. The inner also has pole eyelets at the corners, which you can then pop the poles back through, and this also allows for pitching without the footprint. The fly then gets draped over the poles and clipped via a simple buckle system to tapes at the corners of the inner. If not using the guylines, pitching is completed by pegging out the front and back of the fly and the two doorways.
Though billed as an inner-pitch-first tent, attaching the poles to the groundsheet first means you can actually put the fly over the poles before suspending the inner (albeit with a bit of contortionism), but of course you do have to do the latter with at least one door of the fly open, so if pitching in inclement weather the inner could still get wet. It does however give you the option to pitch without the inner if you just need to get some quick shelter from the rain.
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| The free-standing, double-Y-frame design allows the tent to be pitched inner-only - great for some stargazing! |
The Mongar 2 has an internal footprint of 210 x 135cm - for reference, that's the same width as a standard UK-spec double bed, so it's a comfortable size for two people. 210cm seems to be a common internal length for tents, and as I stand at 6'3" (190cm) it should be ample, however the several tents I've been in and/or owned at this length have generally seemed cramped, and I've usually found I've had to put myself on a slight angle to lay out properly because of the way the inner fabric tapers in towards the apex. Not so in this case; the lower end panels of the inner extend upwards more-or-less vertically, so I can comfortably use the full length of the tent. The pole system incorporates a crossbar which serves to hold the side walls in a near-vertical position too, making this the most capacious two person tent I have been in to date - two people can comfortably sit upright at the same time.
The tent boasts two side doors, and the entrances of the fly can either be fully opened or half-opened with toggles provided for holding all door panels (inner and fly) open. Inevitably one half of each fly opening will need pegging down to maintain the tent's shape when closed, but the fact that both sides can be left fully open during the day is a bonus in terms of access and ventilation. Speaking of - there is a vent at each of the tent as well. Once closed, the outer doors form two vestibules for gear storage, though (and this isn't uncommon) the footprint doesn't extend into these areas, so in wet weather your gear will still be sat on the bare ground. If used as a one-person tent however - and given the weight of the tent that's more than viable - there is ample room to get your gear inside with you.
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| The Mongar 2 has a symmetrical design with two side doors, and on the flysheet these can be either half opened (as shown) or fully opened. |
Inside the tent there are storage pouches at each end, plus a suspended (and detachable, should you want to shed a bit more weight) ceiling storage "shelf", plus a lamp hook.
In order to keep the weight down, the bulk of the Mongar 2 (groundsheet & flysheet) is constructed of 20D silicone-coated ripstop nylon with a hydrostatic head of 4000mm. All seams are taped and double-stitched, the stitching is consistent and even, and the whole tent has the feel of a quality product. Now it's rare to get rain in our part of Spain at this time of year, but out of nowhere, several hours after pitching up, a storm came over. So for once I can actually testify that it is, as you would expect, waterproof!
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| The vents at each end should provide ample ventilation |
20D nylon is of course quite thin (a necessary trade-off if you want to keep weight down while maintaining size/capacity), and while fine for the flysheet it does feel a little on the thin side for the groundsheet, though I don't see this being a problem when used in combination with the footprint. The poles are 7001 aluminium which flex nicely when erecting and don't ever feel like they are being forced into place.
The Mongar 2 has single-handedly replaced two of my other tents; lighter and yet massively more capacious than my current solo hiking tent, the Mongar also packs down smaller and has a more stable design than the former's tunnel shape. Likewise, for my two-person campsite trips, the Mongar's two-door design, bigger internal space thanks to the vertical walls, better waterproofing and considerably less weight and bulk than my existing tent means that has also been relegated to the spares pile.
I literally have nothing negative to say about this tent. Everything about it feels quality. Even the pegs - something which I normally have to replace straight away - are good quality Y-shape alloy pegs with cord loops for easy removal. It includes the footprint, which is a rare thing - normally the footprint is an excuse to squeeze a bit more money out of the customer. All these benefits should come at a cost, but in comparison to other options they don't in fact. Yes, if you were shopping purely for a campsite tent then there are cheaper - but probably not better - options available, but as a one/two-person hiking tent I just don't see how this can be beaten - not for this price and not without spending a considerable amount more.
It isn't just lightweight, it's versatile; free-standing or fully guyed-out; it can be pitched inner only, flysheet only, inner first or, at push, fly first; it's lightweight enough to serve as a spacious one-person hiking tent, and spacious enough to use comfortably as a two-person tent. On top of all that, an additional vestibule is available to expand the tent further, giving additional shelter or gear storage.
While I can only make real-world comparisons to tents I've owned or used, I've done a lot of reading into and comparing other options, and in the sub-£200 price-bracket this should probably be your first choice. It gives many tents in the £200-£300 price-range a run for their money too.
