How to Choose the Right Sleeping Bag & Tent

There are a variety of factors to consider when choosing a sleeping bag and tent. For sleeping bags, this includes: temperature rating, fill power, weight, water resistance and fill material. For tents, this includes: number of people, weather, durability, ventilation and weight/packed size. Below, we explain how each factor will affect your decision on which sleeping bag and tent you’ll need for your trip. For a list of gear we recommend, gear reviews, and the best places to shop, check out our gear page.

Sleeping Bags

Temperature rating: What is the coldest it's going to be where you're going (think nighttime, worst case weather scenario)?  Then lower that temperature by another 10 degrees and that's the temperature rating of the bag you'll want to have.  Generally, a 0 degree bag would be sufficient for winter and a 40 degree bag would be sufficient for summer.

Fill material: Down feathers or Synthetic material?  Really simple, buy synthetic if you'll only be car camping (where you setup your tent right next to your car); buy down for backpacking and in all situations where you'd like to save weight and space.  Synthetic material will never be as compact as down feathers (means less space for other gear) and will never be as light as down feathers (means more weight to carry).  

Fill power: This relates only to down bags (filled w/feathers).  The higher the number, the better.  The higher the number, the bigger the feathers are.  Bigger feathers means it takes less feathers to keep you warm and less feathers means lower weight and compact-ability.  If you're backpacking this can make a huge difference - you'll always want items to be lighter (less weight to carry) and smaller (so you have more space in your bag).  If you're just car camping, this is not an issue - but if you plan to backpack sometime in the future, you might as well invest in a bag with a higher fill power.  850+ is an excellent fill power.

Water resistance: Will you be sleeping outside?  Will it be wet where you're going?  Is there a chance of condensation in your tent (likely if your tent has no vents, camping in inclement weather or have your tent packed full of people)?  Staying warm can be a life or death situation and if you're in the middle of nowhere and you're not dry and warm, you're taking a huge risk.  With that in mind, it's always good to get a bag that has some water resistant material.  Pertex waterproof is an example of a quality material for a bag.  Another consideration is that some manufacturers use down feathers that are treated to be water resistant.  That is, even if the feathers get wet, they'll still keep you warm.   

Tents

Number of people: This is an obvious one, mostly.  Manufacturers will tell you how many people will fit into your tent.  However, you'll want to check the measurements of your tent to ensure that everyone's sleeping pads actually fit - more often than not, they won't all fit.  You'll also want to think about how close you want to be to the other guests in your tent and if you want to be able to keep your gear inside the tent (rather than in the vestibules) in case of bad weather.  Of course, the bigger the tent, the heavier it will be (more weight to carry, less space in your bag).

Weather: You have your 4 season tents that are built for winter and you have your 3 season tents that are meant for all other seasons.  

Durability: Its always better to have a tent that can stand up to the elements than not - better safe than sorry. The higher the denier rating, the more durable the tent.  One way to increase durability and the longevity of the tent is to have a footprint (manufacturers normally make custom footprints that fit each tent) - this is placed between the bottom of the tent and the ground and provides extra protection for the floor of the tent which will take the most beating.

Ventilation: If you don't have good ventilation in the tent, you'll have more of a chance of condensation that will accumulate in the roof of your tent and drop down on everything inside, making everything wet - not a great time.  When you're looking for a tent, look for one that has vents near the top side of the tent. A tent that has vents on at least two of four sides is the best.

Weight/Packed Size: For backpacking, the weight and packed size of your tent will depend on how much space you have in your backpack and how much weight you’re willing to carry. As tents can be one of the larger items you’ll need to carry, if you’re backpacking with more than one person, we recommend each person carry different parts of the tent. The larger the tent, the heavier it will be, so this is where a compromise will need to be made on your level of comfort. In most cases, the cost of carrying a heavy backpack is not worth the additional comfort of a more spacious tent. If you’re car camping (where you setup your tent right next to your car), the weight/packed size factor obviously doesn’t apply unless you have limited space at home to store the tent.