Each comes with a convenient carrying bag that you can sling over your shoulder. Made from an easy-to-clean polyester fabric and metal frame. Many testers found other chairs more comfortable and easier to put together than the Nemo Moonlite Reclining Camp Chair.
In summer 2023, she bought a newer Coleman Cooler Quad Chair to compare to her 2016 model, and she found them to be more or less the same. If you’re looking for highly specialized or ultra-lightweight chairs for backpacking, our recommendations are probably not for you. We also don’t have suggestions for couch-style or loveseat chairs (we’d like to look at those someday, though). Kalee Thompson is the senior editor heading up Wirecutter’s kid coverage. When she wrote the first version of this guide, Kalee lived in Southern California, where she tested chairs on three group camping trips.
We recommend these products based on an intensive research process that’s designed to cut through the noise and find the top products in this space. Guided by experts, we spend hours looking into the factors that matter, to bring you these selections. We like this durable, well-constructed chair that has a frame that makes you confident to sit. The ClassiQ Chair weighs 3.65lbs and holds up to 300 lbs. “Awesome chair! It’s compact, light, easy to setup.”
It’s durable and comfortable for a range of campers. The Coleman Cooler Quad has been our pick since 2016, through numerous camping trips and several testing sessions. That’s because it’s among the most durable and comfortable chairs we’ve tested. It’s large enough to accommodate a wide range of body types, and its steel frame supports up to 325 pounds.
If you’re unsure which camping chair to buy, you can’t go wrong with the classic Coleman Cooler Quad Chair. This time-tested classic is reasonably priced, roomy, and dependable enough to last for years. It’s not our lightest, most comfortable, or toughest pick, but it’s close enough, and it’s reasonably priced. Stumps, stools, boulders, and picnic tables are fine for sitting briefly outdoors.
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. It has the most comfortable and supportive seat shape of any chair we tested. The Dual Lock chair has a firmer backrest and seat bottom than the competition.
It also has a padded seat and armrests, and a maximum weight capacity of 600lbs (272 kg). Moon Lence released a new generation of its Portable Camping Chair; this new version has a redesigned base and more mesh ventilation than its predecessor. It comes with a five-year warranty for its frame and a two-year warranty for its fabric; this rivals the warranty for our top lightweight pick.
Its base design is the same as for other variations, the Flexlite Camp Dreamer and Flexlite Camp Boss. The Helinox Chair One is the best chair for anyone who needs a lightweight, portable chair. This chair costs slightly more than the Coleman Cooler Quad Chair, but it’s still a budget-friendly option. It delivers a solid baseline of build quality, comfort, and reliability that we didn’t find in other, similarly priced chairs. The Krazy Coupon Lady is an independent service supported by advertising. Most of the offers appearing on our site are from companies from which we receive compensation.
Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time). The REI Co-op ozark trail canopy Flexlite Camp Chair and the Flexlite Air (its featherweight sibling) are lighter than any other chairs in their category, but they felt less steady. We blame the crossbar design, which runs front to back rather than side to side; this creates a lot of wobble from right to left, especially if the chair is not on perfectly even ground.
But if you want to kick back and stay comfy, the right camping chair can make all the difference. Our ClassiQ Chair has been thoroughly tested. It has been rated to support weights up to 300 lbs. All CLIQ chairs are engineered to take a beating and keep on ticking with high-performance canopy materials that don’t stain and are guaranteed to last a lifetime.