Most people sleep with some sort of foam pillow at home, and are quite comfortable resting their head against foam at night. But foam pillows are large, and not very well suited to something like backpacking, where the size of your gear matters. For backpacking, something like an inflatable backpacking pillow will do a much better job of keeping you comfortable at night, and then compressing down small in the morning so that you can stuff it in to your backpack and not take up a lot of room.
Inflatable Backpacking Pillow
What to consider when buying an inflatable backpacking pillow.- Padded – Sleeping with your head against a straight inflatable surface might be a little difficult. It will often pay to have some sort of padded surface on the pillow. You can always just lay a sweater over top of the pillow, but many inflatable backpacking pillows come with some sort of more comfortable sleeping surface built in.
- Shape – You can get just a basic rectangular pillow, but one of the great things about foam is that it conforms to the shape of your head. An inflatable backpacking will not do that, however. Fortunately, some inflatable pillows come shaped, so that your head can find a nice groove on the inflatable pillow.
Best Inflatable Backpacking Pillow
Some of the very best inflatable backpacking pillows for your next adventure.- REI Self-Inflating Travel Pillow - This pillow from REI is a great, small shaped pillow ideal for those who want something small. The exterior is a softer polyester, so that your head is comfortable. And as the name suggests, the pillow self inflates, while you can quickly deflate it and put it in the included stuff sack for easy storage. Best of all, the whole thing weighs just 4 ounces, or 113 grams, which is more than light enough for most people.
- NEMO Equipment Fillo Pillow - The Fillo pillow is pure comfort. It's a relatively large, rectangular pillow, but comes with a full inch of memory foam built in to the surface, so that you get that soft, cushioned feel that your pillow at home gives you. Little feautres like a micro-brushed outer surface, for softness, and an integrated stuff sack help round out this very comfortable inflatable backpacking pillow. It's not light, however, at 10.8 ounces, or 310 grams.
- Mont Bell U.L. Comfort System Pillow - The last, and lightest inflatable pillow is from Mont Bell. It's a basic rectangular pillow without much in the way of a soft, brushed surface, though that's easily fixed with a sweater or shirt, though there's nothing that says you have to have a luxuriously soft brushed surface to sleep well. But what's best about this inflatable pillow is the weight. At just 2.3 ounces, or 65 grams none of the other pillows above are even close. So if you want a lightweight pillow to take backpacking, this is it.
