Best camping pillows

The best balance of loft, comfort and packed size. The curved internal baffle is what stops your head sliding off.

This is the pick to buy if you want to stop thinking about camping pillows. The two things that make inflatable pillows unpleasant are too little loft and a surface that feels like a pool toy, and this fixes both: the chamber is tall enough that a side sleeper's head is actually supported, and the face fabric is brushed so your cheek is not against bare TPU.

The detail worth knowing is the valve. Cheap inflatable pillows have a one-way plug that is either in or out, so you get full-firm or flat. Being able to let out a short breath of air to soften it is the difference between a pillow you tolerate and one you sleep on. Anchor it: a loop of cord to the pad, or your sleeping bag's hood pulled over the bottom edge, stops the 3am slide.

Foam fill, not air. It feels like bedding and it cannot pop. It is also the bulkiest thing here by a wide margin.

If you are driving to the campsite and volume is not critical, this is the comfortable answer and the one people keep longest. It is not pretending to be a pillow; it is a pillow, stuffed with foam offcuts, with a brushed cover that feels like a pillowcase. Nobody wakes up annoyed with it.

The cost is pure volume. Even cinched down it occupies the space of a loaf of bread, which is a real decision in a packed trunk and a non-starter in a backpack. The size you choose matters more than most people expect: the small is genuinely small, and most adults want at least the medium. Our <a href="/camp/compact-camping-gear">compact camping gear</a> guide covers what to give up volume for and what not to.

An air bladder with a layer of foam bonded on top. Most of the comfort of foam at a fraction of the volume.

This is the pick for the person who finds inflatable pillows too bouncy and foam pillows too bulky. A thin layer of foam on top of an air chamber does most of the work of a foam pillow: it damps the bounce, spreads the load, and stops the surface deforming away from your head every time you move.

It sits between the two in every sense, including the drawbacks: it is larger than the Aeros and smaller than the Compressible, and it still has a bladder that can fail. For car camping and short-carry trips it is arguably the best object here. For anything where packed volume decides what comes, the Aeros wins.

Low-loft and X-shaped so your head sits in the middle rather than rolling off. Cheap, tiny, and firmly a back sleeper's pillow.

The pick that gets recommended wrongly more than any other. Its low profile is a feature if you sleep on your back, where a tall pillow pushes your chin to your chest. It is a defect if you sleep on your side, where your head needs to span the gap from shoulder to pad and this cannot fill it.

Taken as a back sleeper's pillow, it is excellent and almost free in both money and space. It also makes a good second pillow -- under the knees, or as a wedge against a sloping pitch. Check your own sleeping position honestly before buying: it is the most common mismatch in this category.

A dry sack stuffed with tomorrow's clothes is a free pillow you are already carrying. It is also lumpy.

This belongs in the roundup because for a lot of trips it is the right answer. If you are already carrying a dry sack and a fleece, you own a pillow. Roll the softest layer on the outside so your face is not against nylon, and keep a consistent fill so the loft does not change night to night.

It stops being the right answer on a two-night summer trip where you carry almost no spare clothing, or if you are particular about sleep. The honest comparison is this: a dedicated pillow costs you around four ounces and a fist of volume, and it is the cheapest comfort upgrade in camping. Our <a href="/trail/ultralight-backpacking-gear-list">ultralight backpacking gear list</a> makes the case for the stuff-sack approach where grams genuinely matter.