This is also the most expensive lightweight chair we tested, and we think the Chair One is a better value. Senior editor Kalee Thompson, who wrote a previous version of this guide, has been regularly using the Coleman chair she originally tested in 2016. Aside from the color fading and the cooler pouch deteriorating, her chair has held up to years of backyard hangs and camping trips.
It’s sturdier than any other chair we tested. No other chair in our testing pool—except perhaps the extremely pricey Yeti Trailhead—came close to matching the King Kong’s build quality. Its steel frame doesn’t wobble when you get in or out.
It was extremely hard to squeeze inward and still jutted outward if not squeezed into its cover—an impossible ordeal when wrangling two kids in a parking lot. If you’re unsure which camping chair to buy, you can’t go wrong with the classic Coleman Cooler Quad Chair. 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 ozark trail canopy bottles or mugs of hot chocolate around the campfire. You can stow this featherlight, compressible chair in a backpack or even a work bag. After years of intermittently using the Renetto chair, one staffer said it has held up great. Another said it’s been an essential chair in their life and that it is still going strong after countless soccer games, birthday parties, beach trips, and school events.
Keep in mind that lightweight chairs won’t be nearly as comfortable as traditional camping chairs, so take the word comfortable with a grain of salt. Most of our testers found the REI Co-op Skyward Chair to be one of the least comfortable chairs in our testing pool. People who did like it tended to have smaller body types, so if you find that other camping chairs are too big for you, the Skyward might be a good fit.
At a little over 7 pounds, it’s also the lightest traditional chair we tested—but it had the lowest weight capacity (250 pounds). It’s currently low in stock, but REI tells us this chair will be widely available again over the summer. We have a few issues with this wagon—the telescoping handle can feel flimsy, and it costs around $50 more than the standard Mac Sports wagon. Because ozark trail canopy 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.
Of the chairs we tested, the Coleman chair was the only one that came with a built-in cooler bag, which can hold four standard-size beer or soda cans. The chair also has the round mesh cupholder found on most chairs of this type. In fall 2023, we asked a panel of paid testers with a wide range of body types, dexterities, and mobilities to examine our picks and other camping chairs and to share their perspectives. We’ve incorporated their feedback into this review.
These portable chairs are great for camping, sporting events, and backyard BBQs. Plus, they fold up nicely and are compact with most styles including a convenient carrying case for easy transport and storage. 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 ozark trail canopy 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). The Renetto Original Canopy Chair, a cleverly designed specialty seat, is ideal for anyone who wants sun protection and doesn’t mind a heavier, bulkier chair. The canopy is big enough to block most, if not all, sunlight any time of day, and the chair’s seat has a strip of breathable mesh down the middle for airflow.