Want to buy a self inflating mat.......

Lara

There seem to be many with various price tags obviously!
Thermarest and Thermolite appear to be the most advertised ones.
Does any one know the difference between these please - apart from price?
It will be used for an overland tour of South Africa.

Lara

bump! Anyone help?

holstar

hey
worked at Millets for 3 years, so will try to help!
Thermarest are recognised as being the best brand for lightweight and compact inflatable mats...I have one and its fabby. In all the time I have worked within the Millets/Blacks company, I haven't had (or heard of) any complaints from customers.
Depending on which particular type you go for, you are looking at around £40-£70. To my mind, that is money well spent...they are comfortable, reliable, very quick to inflate/deflate and v small.

You then get cheaper imitations of these..such as the Stormshield ones, which are around £25-£30. Although cheaper, they don't pack down as small and take much longer to inflate. Also, we had several of these returned...(although that might just have been a dodgy batch as they were all the same problem within a few months)

Ultimately, it depends on what you class as being important.
-How much comfort do you want? (and extra comfort= extra thickness = extra insulation from ground)
-If you are short, then you can get away with a 3/4 length mat (cheaper than a full-length one).
-If you are tall...do your feet need a mat under them? will a 3/4 length one be enough? (depends on how long you are away for, for comfort-value, and also how much space you have in your bag)

You've probably been looking for them...but heres an example of the huge range of thermarests:
clicky

does that make sense? I'm not sure....I'll come back and re-read it once I've had some sleep

HTH, any more questions then chuck us a PM and I'll have a go at answering them.
Hol x

Lara

Thanks very much for your input and also that site! I was going to order the ProLite 3 at £58.99 elsewhere but it is nearly £10 cheaper at venturesport! I decided to get the better one as it will last especially as he still has the travelling bug after his gap year despite now at Uni!

holstar

np, glad I could help.
Hope he has a good time

Hol x