Weekend camping: check what you should take

Summer and vacation time is the season of trips and short weekend trips. We are happy to go not only to the mountains or the sea, but also look for interesting places in the area where we could spend a few days. If the weather encourages us to spend time in nature, we plan to spend the night in a tent, or even "in the open sky", we absolutely must equip ourselves with a good sleeping bag. The trip is supposed to be a pleasure, not end up with a cold and bad mood. Anyway, who of us likes to freeze?

What do you need to know when choosing a sleeping bag?

What should a good sleeping bag be like? This is not a difficult question. First of all, it should provide maximum comfort to the user, it must be warm, comfortable, soft and pleasant to the touch. Designed in a way that guarantees a peaceful rest in the most unpredictable weather conditions. How did the designers deal with this problem? Several interesting solutions have been applied that make it possible for us to successfully plan an overnight stay in a tent without fear of a sudden drop in temperature. Here are a few selected examples:

• light, taking up little space in the luggage,
• possibility to choose a model with a hood with a drawstring - prevents heat loss through the head,
• the use of a two-way zipper allows you to regulate the temperature inside the sleeping bag,
• sleeping bags for children are adjustable in length, so they can be used for many years,
• the use of a material that perfectly transports moisture to the outside,
• ergonomic shapes, e.g. of a mummy, eliminate unnecessary space for heating,
• the locks are secured with an additional thermal strip, which prevents heat from escaping,
• possibility of fastening several sleeping bags,
• models with additional insulation in the foot area and with a thermal collar allow you to stay overnight at very low temperatures,
• models adapted to the shape of a woman's anatomy,
• synthetic and down sleeping bags.

A small and lightweight sleeping bag for a trip

When choosing a sleeping bag for ourselves, we follow certain guidelines, after all, we know exactly where and when we are going to travel. Therefore, we can easily determine what temperatures we need a sleeping bag for, be it extreme frosts or rather moderate cold summer nights. Often the basic criterion is the so-called comfort temperature. It is easy to choose a sleeping bag tailored to your needs, because manufacturers, using the appropriate scale, place such information on their products. Taking into account the determinant of comfort temperature, sleeping bags can be divided into three basic categories:

• summer - comfort temperature +5 degrees and above,
• 3-season - from -15 to +5 degrees,
• winter - below -15 degrees.

In addition to the comfort temperature index, we also take into account the weight and size of the sleeping bag. What determines our choice? First of all, whether we have to travel a long route, carrying a sleeping bag with us for days. Ideally, in such a situation, we should buy an ultra-light model that fits perfectly inside the backpack or one that can be strapped to it. The question remains, is it better to choose a synthetic or down sleeping bag? Also in this case, we have to be guided by our needs, because both types have different properties.

Down sleeping bags, synthetic sleeping bags

A down sleeping bag is a light sleeping bag - it is lighter and compresses better than synthetic ones, so if we have really little space, we can save it by choosing a down sleeping bag. When we want to have a sleeping bag in which we warm up very quickly, we should also choose down filling. However, if we take into account the resistance of sleeping bags to mechanical damage, a synthetic will last much longer. Also, synthetic sleeping bags dry faster, do not absorb moisture, so they are perfect wherever we deal with high air humidity.

Which sleeping bag we choose depends on what is most important to us. How often do we use the sleeping bag and under what conditions we will use it.