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). After new testing, we still love the Coleman Cooler Quad Chair for most outdoors situations. But we also have picks offering better support, higher weight capacity, and greater portability.
Simply put, it can be notoriously difficult to find big and robust furniture to support you properly. That’s as true for camp chairs as it is for recliners and the like. Where camp chairs are concerned, most of them top out at around 300 pounds of supported weight. That works for the majority of the market, but if you happen to be heavier than that, you’ll find that pickings can be slim. 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. Senior staff writer Lauren Dragan said the Renetto is her most comfortable camping chair.
Other chairs we tested sacrificed too much comfort in order to shave mere ounces off of their weights, and we don’t think the trade-off was worth it. 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. Relax in comfort wherever you go with this chair.
That term rarely applies to camp chairs anyway, but it’s actually not bad-looking. If you want something ozark trail chair in camo, though, this isn’t your chair. Your only color options are red or blue, both with black trim.
But if you want to kick back and stay comfy, the right camping chair can make all the difference. “It’s beautiful and easy to access, making it perfect for people new to camping or excited to try it for the first time,” Sharafuddin said. In addition, Ko has a goal of getting club members together outdoors. The Ozark Trail XXL Director chair is a good, if somewhat basic, director’s style camp chair offered by a company with a solid reputation in the market.
The Helinox Chair One is the best chair for anyone who needs a lightweight, portable chair. The Dual Lock seat’s name comes from a locking mechanism that secures the chair when it’s folded or expanded—releasing the lock is a matter of pushing a button on one of the legs. As a result, the chair feels grounded and less wobbly than its competitors. This was especially reassuring for testers with knee or hip issues, who noted that they felt confident using the Dual Lock seat’s armrests to stand up and get out of it. A two-hour drive from St. Louis, in southern Illinois, Shawnee boasts almost 300,000 acres of forest trails, scenic cliffs and waterfalls. Hikers can traverse the park’s 300 miles of trails, like Garden of the Gods recreation area, and camp at designated campsites or in the backcountry.
Similar to the Coleman Cooler Quad Chair in size, the Ozark Trail Oversized Mesh Camp Chair with Cooler was far less comfortable, with rough-feeling polyester that was obviously of lower quality. After six months of frequent use, the stitching along one arm had come unraveled, and the small straps holding up the back of the armrests had both ripped in half. 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.
This chair comes with a sturdy carrying case, with an over-the-shoulder strap, and it’s simple to expand and fold up accordion-style. 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. Our testers consistently said the King Kong chair was the most heavy-duty-feeling model of all the chairs we tested. 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.
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). After eight years of consistent use by senior editor Kalee Thompson’s two young boys, the REI Co-op Camp Chair is, she reports, faded and worn but still holding up.