Best camping chairs for 2025: Make your friends jealous with these comfortable picks

Loveseat by name, loveseat by nature? As you can see, the Kelty Low Loveseat is a double-seat affair, meaning you can cosy up with loved ones and share a camping blanket if you so wish (it’s wide enough that you can refrain from all bodily contact, if preferred).

Being the low version, the seat is only 34cm off the ground (same as the Nemo Moonlite), which makes getting out of it a little trickier, but it shouldn’t be an issue for most.

The seat feels stable, even on slopes, owing to the big footprint, while it’s also very comfortable. It’s spacious enough for you to sit cross-legged or sprawl out if you want the whole thing to yourself, though part of the frame runs down the middle of the seat, so you wouldn’t want to plonk your butt in the middle.

The steel frame feels durable and the construction throughout seems high quality, with no potential weak points identified throughout our test period. The inclusion of 600D polyester gives extra credence to that.

A weight capacity of 181.4kg is generous and it regularly coped with 150kg+ throughout testing.

Features are another strong point here, with height-adjustable armrests and a double drink holder on each armrest. Better yet, they’re insulated! And the good news is that they fitted a range of drinks really well, including our chunky Hydro Flask, a can of coke and a bottle of beer.

The ‘carry-wrap’ helps compress the chair when packed up (and doubles as a padded dog mat when the chair is in use).

Of course, there’s no denying that this is a bulky seat, so it takes up a lot of room in the car. It’s heavy, too, at 7.3kg. But then, it’s a luxury I’m certainly happy to have on camp when I get there.

Vango's chairs have been campsite staples for years, and we're with the mob on this - particularly regarding this model, the Samson 2 Oversized Chair.

Granted, it's not awash with features like a chilly bag or reclining back. But for us, it has what matters. On test it was plenty comfortable enough for us thanks to a slightly padded seat and back. It does have a drink holder, which is also a bit insulated to keep beverages hot or cold for a bit longer than they would otherwise.

But it's the quality of construction for such good value that really sold us on the Samson 2 Oversized Chair. For less than £50 (RRP is £60 but most retailers sell it for less), this is such a sturdy and durable design, made from a tough fabric and steel frame.

At 4kg it's not particularly heavy, although folded down it is about a metre long so isn't the most compact.

Bearing a super light but strong aluminium frame, this stool from Robens is your go-to when you want a chair that adds as little weight as possible but doesn't suffer from being flimsy. It's as simple as that.

Like the chairs above, this stool uses tough polyester for the fabric and aluminium for the frame. When packed down, it's very narrow but longer than the chairs above, so you may wish to simply attach it to the outside of your pack.

Certainly not one for gram shavers and lightweight fanatics, the Outwell Lomond is a fully padded beast of a camping chair that's as heavy as it is comfortable.

This is very much a luxury seating option for campers with plenty of space in the car who just want to pitch their tent, fold out the seat, then sit back and relax on a campsite.

It opens and folds in a matter of seconds, reclines into three sitting positions, is made of high-strength durable steel, is covered in padded polyester, and even comes with a cup holder that tucks away under the seat when it's not in use.

The Lomond is the kind of indestructible-feeling chair you'll be taking on camping trips with you for many, many years.

The weight (671g), pack size and height of this camping chair makes it a fine option for anyone travelling light or camping in a small two-person tent.

Its design sees you sit on top of the lightly padded base and simply lean back, with the 54cm tall back panel catching you as you recline. This is connected to the base unit via two adjustable straps, which allow you to decide how far back you want to lean.

Though lightly padded, the seat is comfortable for extended spells and, as long as you don’t set it to recline too far (or purposefully lie backward), you shouldn’t find yourself falling back.

The outer is made from 210D C-Zero ripstop nylon that’s also been given a durable water repellent (DWR) coating for added protection. That won’t be totally infallible, but it proved protection enough for us when sitting for a while on damp ground.

Meanwhile, there are two carbon reinforced fibreglass stays on each panel, helping with durability and stability.

When packing it up, you can either fold it and lay it flat or roll it up, with both methods taking up minimal space. A weight of 671g also makes it a lighter option, and one that you could take on a backpacking trip if you felt inclined to do so and aren’t a gram counter.

There’s also a shorter and slightly narrower version for anyone that doesn’t particularly need the extra support or width.

Here’s the sticking point, though. It’ll cost you almost £80. You can find alternatives from the likes of Kelty, Robens and Outwell for less than half the price.

That being said, they don’t appear to offer quite the same high level of quality or durability.

The Chair Zero from Helinox is the lightest chair made by the masters in lightweight camping chairs, which makes it incredibly impressive. But as anyone who's tried leaning back and sinking into it will testify, it doesn't offer a great deal in terms of back support. Enter its sister product, the Chair Zero High Back, which has been designed to counter that problem.

In short, we love it. As Helinox proudly states on their website, it has the same DNA as Chair Zero – in the sense that it weighs next to nothing, packs down into a bag around the size of a good down jacket, and can be carried pretty much anywhere.

And where it does marginally lose to the Chair Zero in terms of extra weight and bulk, it makes up for it by feeling more comfortable and offering a more stable sitting experience.

Definitely one you could use on a campsite camping, backpacking or canoe camping adventure. Top marks from us!

You’ll find this type of camping chair being sold by many different brands, though there are minor differences between them.

The cost is one of those differences. While the Robens Pathfinder retails at £77.99, the similar Helinox Chair One costs £12 more, whereas the Vango Micro Camping Chair is available for just £30. The Nemo Moonlite tested below, meanwhile, comes in at a stonking £159.95.

Of course, those small tweaks in design and material can have a big impact on a product.

The first thing to note about the Pathfinder is that it packs down small and is reasonably lightweight, too (944g). That makes it a great choice if space is short in the car. Of course, it’s still not something you’d be taking wild camping.

It’s easy to assemble and pack away, with the integrated Velcro strap proving a handy tool when trying to wrangle flailing poles and pack the chair back into its bag.

Comfort is decent. It’s never going to compare with higher backed, padded options and after extended use I did find myself needing to stretch out my back, but sinking down into the seat feels nice enough and there’s no particular pressure points or irritating seams.

Also worth noting is that the seat isn’t particular wide, so if can feel somewhat restrictive if you have a wider frame.

You do, however, get two mesh panels to help with ventilation, which are definitely handy on warmer days.

The chair has max load of 120kg and, at least throughout our testing period, it proved both durable and stable, even on sloping ground. This is in part thanks to the use of an aluminium frame and the use of 420D recycled polyester.

Optional extras include alternative feet for soft ground and a bottle holder, which can clip onto the side.

Helinox is the first brand that springs to mind when you think of packable camping chairs. Its clever, lightweight designs even allow you to lug a seat on a backpacking trip if you’ve got space in your pack for a large water bottle-sized package, which springs up into a comfy chair in seconds. 

We’ve always had a couple of gripes with past Helinox chairs (such as the Chair Zero and the Ground Chair) though. One is that the price can be off-puttingly high for a lot of people, and the other is that we’ve spent quite a bit of time toppling out of them.

The revamped, and ever-so-slightly larger, Chair One (re) isn’t the most comfortable camping chair you’ll ever sit in, but for such a stripped back design it’s mightily impressive.

There’s limited padding in the polyester/mesh fabric and the back rest only reaches around your shoulder blades.

That said, the stability is good thanks to a stronger frame, the addition of a cleverly positioned second tension line in the centre of the chair, plus chunky rubberised feet that increase traction on the ground.

This chair is simple to assemble, weighs just over 1kg and comes with a recycled 300D polyester ripstop carry case that makes it very easy to stuff into your backpack. You just need to be able to live with that £100+ price tag!

With an RRP of £159.95, the Nemo Moonlite Reclining Camp Chair is one of the most expensive options around. It’s considerably more than Helinox (itself considered pricey) and double the cost of the Robens Pathfinder.

Given that, it needs to have a lot going for it to convince potential consumers to part with their cash.
Nemo suggests the Moonlite is “barely noticeable in your pack”, though at 984g we’d be inclined to disagree. While it’s packable and reasonably lightweight by camping chair standards, it’s still not an option we’d want to go backpacking with.

One of the headline features here is the ‘reclinable’ nature of the chair. There’s a pulley system on each arm strap that allows you to simply and easily pull the backrest more upright or allow it to slouch back.

It works well and the adjustment feels like something that’d be genuinely helpful. However, one bug bear is that this chair has a tendency to tip forward and this becomes even more prevalent when the backrest is in a more upright position.

We didn’t find it the most comfortable, either. It comes with the same comfort limitations of any chair of a similar shape (with the low backrest), but we also found the seam along the edge of the seat under the legs to be a bit of a pressure point, leading to some minor discomfort.

Despite all this, and aside from its propensity to rock forward, the chair felt stable. It has a max user weight of 136kg and showed no signs of struggle when tested with 114kg piled into it. It felt durable, too.

The fabrics used here (which are very well ventilated) are made from a mix of 100% post-consumer recycled materials and bluesign approved materials.

OK, you've guessed it, we like Helinox chairs. The Chair Zero High Back above is a superb choice if you want a little more comfort from their ultra-lightweight range, but the Ground Chair is our pick if you want to get off-road and do some proper wild camping and backpacking.

At just 640g, the weight is impressive, and with a full length of just 30cm, it slides very easily into your pack. What we possibly love most, though, is the clever leg design.

This is the only Helinox chair that has a square base, which spreads the load more evenly than standalone legs. This means you're less likely to sink into the type of soft ground you so often encounter when you get off the beaten track.

There is one slight catch though, in that we've rocked out of it quite a few times and ended up flat on our backs. But we can live with that when the rest of the package is so good.

The Outwell Tryfan is a collapsible high-back chair that isn't quite lightweight and compact enough to be carrying off into the wilderness but is a good option if you want something more compact to squeeze into your car on camping trips.

The fabric is soft and padded with the nice touch of a neck pillow that allows you to recline in comfort.

The aluminium frame feels durable enough and is held together by one long shock cord, so when you disassemble it, all of the arms and legs stay together when folded back into the bag. The only catch we can see so far is the slightly upright feel.

There isn't a huge gap between the front and back legs, and with the high back, you end up sitting in a fairly straight-backed position (if you're lanky like our tester). We haven't toppled out of it yet though!

Like Decathlon, who’s brands also feature on this list, Regatta is a reliable option to turn to when you’re in need of outdoor kit without a high price tag.

That being said, at £75 the RRP of the Navas Camping Chair is higher than I anticipated, though it’s seemingly been on offer at half price throughout this test period.

This is a pretty comfortable chair, which is in part thanks to the thin layer of padding found between the two layers of seat fabric. Of course, this does make it a slightly warmer chair to sit on when it’s hot and sunny.

One thing that sees the Navas chair lose points in the comfort category is that the gap between the top part of the steel frame isn’t that wide, so if you have a broad upper body you may find the poles digging into your back.

Given the padding and design, this chair isn’t the lightest or most packable, weighing in at just under 3kg. The pack size isn’t too far off the Kelty Low Loveseat and is several times larger than the Robens, Helinox and Nemo options in this test.

A max user weight of 100kg is also a little lower than many competitors, though we haven’t experienced any issues with durability or the chair’s stability to date.

It would have been nice to have seen some recycled materials in play (or one or two additional features), but otherwise this is a largely comfortable chair that represents good value for money.

If you’re looking for a comfortable folding camping chair at a good price, you won’t find many better than the imaginatively named Camping Comfortable Reclining Folding Armchair from Decathlon.

The design mechanism is fairly basic, in the sense that this chair simply folds in half and packs down flat rather than collapsing inside a bag like many modern camping chairs. So it isn’t the kind of chair you’d like to carry far, but if you’ve got decent car boot space it’s perfect for campsite camping.

The headrest is nicely cushioned, the back is well ventilated, and it reclines well enough that you can lie back at night and gaze at the stars.

We’ve been using this chair for a couple of summers on camping trips and at music festivals and it still looks as good as new. A good investment that should last you for many years.

Therm-a-Rest's novel idea of creating an adaptor kit for your sleeping mat is one to be taken seriously. It works by sliding the top end of the sleeping mat into the chair sleeve, then folding the sleeping mat in half and inserting it into the chair sleeve. Fasten and tighten and buckle and you have yourself a chair.

Though not as supportive as the regular chairs above, the Trekker Chair does provide enough to be comfortable after a long day on your feet and padded comfort.

The sleeve edges are stretchy, so it should fit most self-inflating sleeping mats.

If you're not in a position to spend the amount the Helinox Chair Zero asks (and fair enough), there are still sound options. Shopping around in the sub-£50 bracket can be a tricky task, but the Quechua chair from Decathlon stands out as a reasonably dependable all-rounder.

Though twice the weight of the Helinox Chair Zero, the Quechua is still a featherweight for a camping chair. It's still rather compact too. The only thing to be wary of here is that the longevity and durability of the Quechua chair doesn't match that of the other chairs here.