Campers Are Getting 12 Hours of Sleep With This Portable Cot That's Even 'Better' Than Their Beds at Home

Travel + Leisure

2 days ago

A good night's sleep should never be sacrificed, not even when you're on a camping trip. Seasoned outdoor sleepers know the secret to snoozing alfresco is putting space between your body and the cold, hard ground. You can do that with an inflatable sleeping mat or air mattress, but a portable cot can usually get you higher off the floor and offer more stability. Plus, it eliminates the high likelihood of waking up halfway through the night to your mattress mostly deflated.
Campers say they got the best sleep they've ever had in a tent with this Coleman folding cot. Some have even achieved 12-hour slumbers on this thing—proper wilderness bed rotting—and say they sleep better on the cot than in their bed at home. So, maybe it's time to turn your camping trips into glamping trips with this $66 outdoor essential.
The Coleman Trailhead II Cot, available at Amazon, is made with a sturdy polyester fabric and steel cross-bar frame. It measures 73 by 35 inches, a similar size to a twin mattress, and sits 17 inches off the ground. It's large enough to sleep one adult up to 6 feet, 2 inches tall and weighing up to 300 pounds. Some reviewers say the bed is so spacious that even their dogs fit comfortably on it with them. The camping bed itself weighs just over 21 pounds and comes with a carrying bag that makes it easy to transport in the trunk of your car, along with your cooler and tent.
Most importantly, customers say they 'sleep like a rock' on this cot, and that it's 'much more comfortable than an air mattress.' One shopper with a bad back who can't sleep on the ground said, 'I slept better on this than my own bed! This cot allows me to still go camping and not be in pain. Plus, we used the space underneath for extra storage (family of five here) and opened up the floor of our tent.' Another person added that, 'These worked out amazing, [we] got some of the best sleep we've had in a long time.'
People have also recommended making it extra comfy by putting a small air mattress, sleeping pad, or even a yoga mat on top of the polyester layer for cushion. Lifting your air mattress off the ground will no doubt make it last longer anyway, and, thanks to its steel frame, the cot outlasts just about any bed for outdoor use, especially on surfaces that would puncture inflatable alternatives. Reviewers report using the cot where air mattresses most likely wouldn't do the trick, such as wet ground, sand, and even a bed of lava rock in Hawaii.
Assembly is also a breeze, with some saying it took them less than two minutes to put it together. Simply pull the bed out of the bag, unfold the main frame, and slip two extra steel bars inside the fabric sleeves on either end of the cot. Those two end bars are designed to push into the main steel frame. Some reviewers, however, found it a little confusing the first couple of times, and that the tight fabric takes a bit of muscle to stretch over the metal pieces.
More than 16,000 people have rated the portable Coleman cot five stars at Amazon, and 3,000-plus more have purchased it in the past month alone. It's prime camping season now, so consider elevating your tent sleep with a cozy cot or camping bed, whether it's this Coleman portable cot or one of the other popular options below.
At the time of publishing, the price started at $66.
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