They also appreciated its cupholder (rare in chairs of this sort) and its quick close-up-and-carry design. The Everywhere Chair keeps your bottom about 4 inches off the ground. The strap that supports the back (and doubles as a carry strap) allows adjustments to control your angle of recline, from upright to a stargazing-appropriate angle. Unlike other portable chairs, the Everywhere ozark trail hammock chair Chair is designed to sit on uneven slopes; this can be handy when space is limited at a fireworks show or an outdoor theater performance. Our panel of testers at the Wheeler Gorge Campground deemed the Everywhere Chair to be the most comfortable of the three low-to-the-ground chairs we tested. Today’s specialty backpacking chairs are impressively small and light.
We discovered that even though most testers had not previously considered a shade-equipped camp chair, once they used one they appreciated the comfort and convenience of built-in sun blocking. 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. The REI chair’s polyester seat material feels both more forgiving and more durable than the thinner material ozark trail hammock chair on the Ozark Trail Kids’ Folding Camp Chair from Walmart. The box-shaped cupholder is a little roomier than the round cupholders on the Coleman and the L.L.Bean Base Camp chairs—better for stubby water bottles or mugs of hot chocolate around the campfire. We found that the cheaply constructed Walmart chair had a cupholder that was too small for a soda can, or any of the hard-plastic or metal water bottles that the kids we know brought on a camping trip.
After a couple of camping trips, we concluded that a strap is more convenient than a bag—quicker and easier for a kid to grab the chair and go, without parental help. The REI chair is rated to hold up to 150 pounds, the same as the L.L.Bean and Walmart chairs. We think the REI chair is most appropriate for toddlers and kids up to about 7 or 8 years old, though reviews reveal that some small adults have found this to be their favorite seat.
If you are looking for an ultracheap choice, the Walmart chair is one. After six months 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. You can stow this featherlight, compressible chair in a backpack or even a work bag. Select a chair with a built-in canopy, which will give you a little patch of cool at any campsite or cookout. Are you a car camper or do you plan on socializing in friends’ backyards? Get the tips and deals to save you and your family money with our newsletter.
The canopy quickly and easily transforms into a carrying case—just wrap it around the chair and snap it closed with two plastic buckles, and you can carry the whole thing on your back like an oblong backpack. We brought this chair to a dense Los Angeles neighborhood to watch Fourth of July fireworks. We got some admiring nods en route to the celebration—and we had one of the more comfy seats at the show. Before we tried the Renetto Original Canopy Chair, we had never considered buying a shade-equipped camp chair. But the Renetto’s utility was immediately apparent on our inaugural chair-testing excursion, a “winter” camping trip in California’s Joshua Tree National Park, where the beating sun made temperatures in the high 70s feel like the mid-90s. The shaded Renetto chairs were consistently the first seats snagged at a beautiful but harshly exposed Indian Grove group campsite.
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