I Tried Out LostHorizon’s Camp Bed. Now My Life Has Changed

Recently, LostHorizon–a company that specializes in camp beds and other tools related to getting a good night’s sleep–sent me one of their camp beds and their portable air compressors. What they didn’t know is that I’m critical, even if I get something for free.

You can find their product on Amazon, here.

Fortunately for them, the LostHorizon Camp Bed absolutely rocks.

Overall Impressions

I was really impressed with the LostHorizon’s Camp Bed. I’ll explain with a table to make this easy to read:

Category	Rating Out Of 5-star	Thoughts
Ease of Setting Up	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	In comparison to any regular air mattress I’ve ever used, I didn’t have to inflate this with my lungs, which is awesome. It actually will self-inflate! And after that you can inflate it more if you want to adjust the firmness of the bed (which I did).
Carrying Bag	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	The carrying bag is durable, can help with inflating, and my favorite part of it is that it’s not so small that you can never repack your mattress
Comfort	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	So, to be fair, this mattress isn’t as comfortable as my bed at home. But it is by far the most comfortable mattress I’ve ever used while camping.
Price	⭐⭐⭐⭐	LostHorizon gave me this mattress to review for free–to be honest it would have been out of my price range because it’s a little pricy at the time of this review. However, I didn’t know how easy it would be to set up and how comfortable it would be–I think the mattress is great quality for the price level, now. It’s definitely still on the higher end.
Ease of Packing Up	⭐⭐⭐⭐	I think actually it’s pretty easy to pack up, especially in comparison to packing up other camping sleep gear (like sleeping pads and sleeping bags), but it is definitely trickier than setting up.
Size and Weight	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	This is a car camping mattress–this is not a backpacking mattress. And because of that, I think the size and weight of this mattress is actually really good. It’s not overly heavy, and it takes about the same amount of space I would usually use to bring some cheap foam sleeping pads I’ve been using already.

Unpacking

The Air Mattress packs down very small if completely deflated. I’m sure that I’ll never get it down to the original size, but with the air compressor, I think I could get it close.

And here is the bag rolled out

The camp bed is very simple, it just comes with the carrying bag and the camp bed itself. There is a strap that can wrap around the the mattress to keep it rolled up.

The air compressor does not come with this mattress–you need to buy that separately. It’s not necessary, but you won’t be able to deflate your mattress completely without it. I show a picture of it deflated without the air compressor later.

Awesome Carrying Bag

This was a really cool little feature that I wasn’t expecting–the carrying bag has some really cool features!

It functions like a dry bag that you would use to go to the beach, but it actually can hold air! In fact, that’s what it’s for. There is a valve at the bottom of the carrying bag that is made for inflating the air mattress (if you want to make the mattress more firm).

One nice feature is that the instructions for how to use the mattress is on the tag of the carrying bag. It’s not complicated, but there are tips and tricks for optimal performance and it’s ALL there on the carrying bag so you don’t have to worry about packing a separate manual. I loved that.

Air Compressor

LostHorizon also provided me with the air compressor that they also distribute. I think it’s really nice! I was a little disappointed that the size of the nozzle is bespoke to the LostHorizon Camp Bed–it would be really nice to have this size of inflator with tubes and other water sport toys. I’m sure there’s an adapter that I could use.

Anyway, it’s a great rechargeable little air compressor. It also functions as a battery backup and you can plug your phone into its USB port.

Also, it can function as a light.

Setting Up In Tent

The tent setup was very easy. I just unfolded the mattress and laid it out in the tent.

Inflating

After laying the mattress out I opened the cap and rotated the valve to inflate.

And that’s it!

Now… after a couple of minutes, the mattress is inflated. But, the mattress is pretty soft at this point. Definitely sleepable, but I like a firmer mattress, personally:

Now at this point, Lost Horizon is awesome because they allow you to inflate or deflate the mattress without any extra tools besides the carrying bag.

I used the carrying bag to inflate the rest of the mattress (I followed the instructions), and was able to get it to a firmness that was definitely acceptable.

I used the air compressor to top it off, and as it turns out, I made it a bit too firm.

Sleeping

Okay, this is going to sound like gushing hyperbole. But it’s actually absolutely true. I’ve never slept on anything so comfortable while camping in my life.

I guess I should preface that by saying that I’ve previously only been sleeping on backpacking sleeping pads with occasional blankets. I’ve never tried to spoil myself by sleeping on an air mattress while camping before.

That being said, I’ve slept on many air mattresses over the years, and this LostHorizons camp bed has those beat by a long margin. It’s SUPER comfortable.

It’s a foam/air mattress, which is an amazing combination. It means it’s a lot heavier than a traditional backpacking sleeping pad, but if you’re car camping, it doesn’t matter.

I love a firm mattress, but I actually had over-inflated it the first night. It was very firm and it kept its air the entire night. (a feat in and of itself)

So the next night, I let out a little air to soften up the air mattress and it was just about perfect.

Anyway, I’ve not been a big glamper, but this makes camping more appealing for me. Going camping is better than staying home.

Deflating

Deflating was a bit of a trick. You fold the mattress in half and then sit on it with the valve set to deflate and wait for the air to escape. You then keep folding it until you get out as much air as you possibly can.

I really appreciate that LostHorizon made it possible to deflate reasonably well without their air compressor. You don’t have to buy it.

Although, without the air compressor, you can see how thing I was able to get the mattress–not all that thin:

And here is the mattress all packed up in comparison to what it looked like factory deflated:

Packing

I hate folding maps and sleeping bags. They never fold as well the 2nd time after you use them.

In this case, though–LostHorizon made it super easy by making the carrying bag accommodate imperfect folding. It’s big enough to fit the bag without making it hard to pack, and they also didn’t make it too big either.

I know this seems really silly to comment on, but it’s something that drives me nuts about packing other gear. Other air mattresses we’ve owned make the bag just too small so you can never fit it in ever again.

Summary

In short, I’ve loved this camp bed. I’m excited to use it more. I highly recommend it.

Here’s the link to it on Amazon. You can choose between Twin, Cot, Double, and Single bed sizes.