Exped MegaMat 10 Review: The Closest Thing to a Real Bed

Most car camping mattresses ask you to compromise: comfort or packability, warmth or weight. The Exped MegaMat 10 mostly refuses to. After more than 60 nights across truck beds, tents and a folded-flat SUV, it's the mat we reach for when sleep quality matters more than saving space.

Comfort

This is the headline. At 10 cm thick and filled with foam rather than just air, the MegaMat sleeps like a real mattress. Side sleepers — usually the people most let down by camping pads — get enough depth that hips and shoulders never bottom out. There's none of the wobbly, drum-tight feel of an air-only pad; you can adjust firmness by burping a little air out of the flat valves.

Warmth

With an R-value of 8.1, warmth is a non-issue. We slept comfortably on a metal truck bed near freezing with just a three-season bag. That insulation is a big part of why it's so good for car camping specifically, where you're often lying on cold steel rather than insulating ground.

The downsides

It's heavy at 3.1 kg and bulky once rolled — this is not a pad for anyone counting grams or short on storage. It's also expensive. And for the first few uses, rolling it tight enough to fit the (generous) stuff sack takes some wrestling while the foam breaks in.

Who it's for

Buy it if comfort is your top priority and you have room to store it — the typical car camper, in other words. Skip it if space is tight or you camp rarely; a thinner self-inflating pad will serve you for less money and bulk.