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.
It delivers a solid baseline of build quality, comfort, and reliability that we didn’t find in other, similarly priced chairs. “The southwest corner has a small patch of forest that feels pretty remote,” Sharafuddin said. “It’s a nice spot that feels removed from the bustle of the city.” And for longer jaunts, Sharafuddin said that the year-end camping trip to Babler State Park is always a hit. His visit to Shawnee came early in his OC tenure, making it all the more eye-opening.
It also has a padded seat, armrests, and a maximum weight capacity of 600 lbs. Discover the ultimate portable chair for your outdoor adventures—whether you’re camping, at the beach, or on the sidelines of your kids’ game. The CLIQ ClassiQ folds to the size of a water bottle, sets up in seconds, and supports up to 300 lbs. Lightweight, durable, and designed for your comfort, easily stores in your car or “go-bag.” It’s your ideal travel companion for effortless relaxation anywhere. The 4-pound, steel-framed REI chair has an attached carry strap, rather than a carry bag (which the other chairs have).
“Awesome chair! It’s compact, light, easy to setup.” The box-shaped cupholder is a little roomier than the round cupholders on the Coleman and the L.L.Bean Base Camp chairs—better ozark trail chair for stubby water bottles or mugs of hot chocolate around the campfire. You can stow this featherlight, compressible chair in a backpack or even a work bag.
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 ozark trail camping chair 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.
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’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.
Renetto licenses its patent to a company called Kelsyus, which makes cheaper versions of the chair. However, they don’t have all of the same features. There are also chairs that are hybrids between categories, such as the Nemo Stargaze Reclining Camp Chair, which comes highly rated and recommended. For many owners we’ve talked to, it’s been an essential chair for watching sporting events or any other time you’ll be in the direct sun for hours, like cookouts, picnics, birthday parties, and field trips. It has the highest weight capacity and largest seat of any chair we tested. Out of all the chairs we tested, this chair’s capacity—800 pounds—is the highest (the next-highest weight limit is 500 pounds).
That term rarely applies to camp chairs anyway, but it’s actually not bad-looking. If you want something in camo, though, this isn’t your chair. Your only color options are red or blue, both with black trim.
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.
While it does have a few shortcomings, these are generally easy to fix and easy to overlook. As you can see from the numbers, this is a big chair. 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. The REI Co-op Flexlite Camp Chair and the Flexlite Air (its featherweight ozark trail canopy 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. Its base design is the same as for other variations, the Flexlite Camp Dreamer and Flexlite Camp Boss.