As with any stroller, these wagons shouldn’t be used in extremely bumpy environments until a baby has full head and neck control. 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 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.
So you can easily misplace a carry sack on a dark night in a crowded field, especially if you’re in a large group or have a lot of stuff. At a fireworks show and at the beach, we appreciated a chair that was ready to go without even 30 seconds of hassle. The Everywhere Chair closes like a book—simply lift the padded strap and go. The Renetto chair usually comes in between 8 and 10 colors and is rated to hold up to 350 pounds. Overwhelmingly, the Coleman came out on top, with campers praising its comfort and stability. Evenflo says the Pivot Xplore is good for kids up to 5 years old, but we found it works best for younger kids, between the ages of about 6 months and 4 years.
The Ozark Trail Oversized Mesh Chair from Walmart, although similar to our pick in size, was far less comfortable, with rough-feeling material that was obviously of lower quality. We later found, after six months of frequent use, that the stitching along one arm had come unravelled and that the small straps holding up the back of the armrests had both ripped in half. Portable outdoor chairs are also helpful for anyone who doesn’t have the room or budget for permanent backyard furniture.
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 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. Before we tried the Renetto Original Canopy Chair, we had never considered buying a shade-equipped camp chair. The shaded Renetto chairs were consistently the first seats snagged at a beautiful but harshly exposed Indian Grove group campsite. Instead, the sides easily fold down, making it a flat rectangle that can stand upright.
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 ozark trail camping chair on a camping trip. It will fit a Capri Sun pouch or a narrow, rectangular juice box, but that’s about it. The Everywhere Chair keeps your bottom about 4 inches off the ground.
I also took the non-stroller wagons to the beach, rolling them down the beach path and testing them on the sand. Additionally, I tested each wagon (filled with soccer equipment) on grass and bumpy, broken concrete surfaces, paying attention to how the suspension and wheels performed under different conditions. I checked how each stroller’s straps ozark trail lounge chair and seats fit my boys (then a 40-pound, 4-foot-6-inch 6-year-old and a 25-pound, 2-foot-9-inch 3-year-old), and I noted how content they were to stay in the seats for long periods of time. In spring 2021, I tested four additional beach-friendly wagons during several trips from my home in Santa Monica to the beach (10 blocks away) and back.