Camping question about airbeds and keeping warm.

[tookoolforskool]

So - air beds arent the warmest things to sleep on are they. and its cold at night.

First time camping ( for lots of years) in may. DD has a single air bed and a sleeping bag and i have a double airbed ( so dog can fit on) and a single sleeping bag.

We will be wearing very attractive fleece pjs! and taking hot waterbottles.
Space in the car is an issue.. but what can i take to warm it up a bit? im sure i read a tip somewhere about a fleece blanket under the airbed? or between the airbed and the sleeping bag?

Or do i just stuff our duvets into the footwells of the car?

I don't find airbeds very warm on a cold night. Although air is insulating, there is rather a lot of it in an airbed, and it's impossible to warm it with body heat, so it just continuously sucks the heat away from you.

I have put a blanket under the sleeping bag before, and it's made a huge difference.

Of course, duvets would be great too.

We take the foam camping mats to go underneath airbeds which works well, and the kids now sleep just on the mats as they kept rolling off the airbeds. We take enough to cover the sleeping area completely, then it doesn't matter which direction the kids end up rolling about in as they are still warm.

I second putting picnic blanket on top of airbed.

You can get condensation between you and the airbed, I tend to use a quilted matress cover instead of a picnic blanket and put the picnic blanket on the floor like carpet!!

Sheer luxury.

Take your duvets but lay them out on the back seat of the car - more room that way.

I've bought "easycamp" picnic blankets to be used as carpets in all our pods. They have aluminium backing as well which should help.

I also read somewhere that cardboard boxes works too for insulation. Makes sense I guess and they could lie flat on the bottom of the boot?

have just brought 5 picnic blankets :)

thanks very much :)

We used to do foil backed picnic blanket underneath airbed, fleecey blanket on top... or duvet which is even better, then another duvet on top of us. We didn't use sleeping bags.

Now we have a child and less space so we've got posh self inflating mats. Loads warmer, comfier and take much less space.

You need to insulate yourself from the airbed (full of cold air) with blankets, foam mattress, etc. Don't bother putting anything between the airbed and the ground, they will both be as cold as each other.