Just unpack it, unfold it, and sit down—that’s all there is to it. If you want something easier to access, you could always drill a small hole in one corner of the tray table and affix the D-Ring there, but many people will balk at the idea of defacing their chair. Either way, adding a bit of storage is easy if you want or need it. However, it is marginally above average in terms of comfort compared to other camp chairs. The Ozark Trail XXL Director Chair is a reasonably comfortable, versatile camp chair, offered by a reliable company.
There’s also a mesh pocket behind the backrest, to hold things you don’t need to access quickly. 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. Testers with knee and hip issues reported that when they were getting in and out of this chair, its armrests felt more stable than those of any other model. So they felt comfortable leaning onto the frame for extra support. No other chair in our testing pool—except perhaps the extremely pricey Yeti Trailhead—came close to matching the King Kong’s build quality.
Wirecutter ozark trail chair is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. 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). There are also chairs that are hybrids between categories, such as the Nemo Stargaze Reclining Camp Chair, which comes highly rated and recommended. 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. The Renetto Original Canopy Chair is the best chair with a built-in canopy.
Start your journey at the Rock Creek Bridge that was put in place in 1921, became part of Route 66 ozark trail canopy in 1926 and was bypassed in 1952. This Sapulpa bridge is one of the state’s best remaining examples of the steel-truss architecture that was popular in the pre-World War II era. With a patchwork of red bricks and concrete, you can truly feel the age of this narrow bridge, which is closed to vehicles but open to foot traffic. Helping build, maintain, or promote the Ozark Trail is a rewarding experience, and numerous opportunities are available to volunteers. Become a member of our organization or make a donation to help us keep our trail system beautiful.
Teton Pass is open now, and classic rides like Parallel Trail, a 1.5-mile downhill with lots of jumps, are once again easy to access. These Ozark Trail camping chairs are perfect to take with you to kids’ sports games, camping trips, or to simply have them around so you can lounge in your backyard or for guests when having cookouts. They are lightweight and fold up for easy and compact storage when not in use. This chair’s sturdy frame and higher seat height made that precarious dance just a little bit easier.
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. While it does have a few shortcomings, these are generally easy to fix and easy to overlook. Its best features are, in our view, the width of the seat, the generous amount of supported weight, and its surprisingly modest price. 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. You can stow this featherlight, compressible chair in a backpack or even a work bag.
Like others in its category, this chair comes with an over-the-shoulder carry bag, but some testers found it was light and compact enough to carry without the case. Normally, we’d caution against buying a chair with a seat that’s significantly wider than you need. In the case of a recliner or lounge chair, it matters because if the seat is too wide, you won’t be able to make effective use of more than one of the armrests. But where camp chairs are concerned, it’s not the end of the world. These are occasional seating options, and you won’t typically be spending such extended periods sitting in one that it starts to be an issue.
Most commonly utilized as a camping chair, these lightweight, foldable chairs are only a few pounds and can be easily carried over the shoulder, but not all folding chairs are created equal. While some have just the basics and serve their purpose as an outdoor chair, others have cup holders, footrests and lumbar support to keep you extra comfy. 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.
During a camping trip, I sat in a friend’s REI Flexlite Camp Boss, which is a larger version of REI’s Flexlite line of chairs that we mention in the competition. It was surprisingly comfortable and more stable than the Flexlite and Flexlite Air that we tested. We look forward to having a testing panel compare it to our top lightweight pick.