Hi,
My youngest is 18 months old now and has always slept in his travel cot when we go away but for next year I was thinking of getting him something a bit more grown up and can't decide between the Kampa Kids airbed or a ready bed.
We never used them for camping, but my girls loved their ready beds.....we had Dora the Explorer and Disney Princesses.............VERY useful for sleepovers when they are a bit bigger, but for camping when its chilly I would take extra bedcovers......My six year old would sleep in hers now if she wasn`t so damn tall..........
my grandaughter who is 2 used to sleep in the ready bed when she came camping with us and she slept great in hers, would recomend that you take extra covers though, she still sleeps in the ready bed when she sleeps at our house,
Another advantage of the readybed, is once they are zipped in they can`t roll out easily......a problem we encountered when our 6yr old progressed to an airbed and a sleeping bag, she was always waking us up as she was on the floor.........now she has a campbed.....and we all sleep well
Our 7 year old has a pink readybed, she loves it! Last time we were out we doubled up a large fleece blanket inside the sleeping bag so she had fleece above and below her and she was toasty. We got the readybed for her as she wriggles LOTS and this way she couldn't fall off it!
If you don't want to get a ready bed (remember they grow up so fast, maybe pink will not be the best colour in two years time) the way I get round things is to tuck a blanket round the kids and under the bed once they are snuggled up.
We have both and I'd definitely recommend the Kampa airbed (or dinghy as we call it) especially if you are considering camping in cooler weather. Its lovely and wide and has the flock surface so sheets and fleeces etc stay in place, doesn't deflate at all and if he's a bit of a wriggler like ours will stay in bed all night because of the tub sides.
Our daughter used to get in a tangle in her readybed so we changed to self-inflating mattresses covering the floor of the pod that way she couldn't roll off them. They have the other advantages of being more insulated from the ground and will last till adulthood though they are bigger packed away.
------------- From tents to trailer tents to a tin tent to an air tent to trailer tent and back to tin tent!
We used Ready Beds this summer for our 3 and 6 year old boys which worked out great as they do restrict the chances of them falling off the airbed. The ones we got however for them were the adult sized ones to 'future proof' them. We used a double Ready Bed ourselves.
We did however have spare blankets with us for if it got too cold for them. They were fine without (despite the November weather and storms in August) however it was just my wife who was cold (as usual) and needed the extra covers and layers.
I have not used a Kampa bed, but like the design. However, I personally would recommend a Ready Bed.
3 of my children have them. Two have the junior ones and then one the single. The junior ones have lasted years. My youngest is 8 and the biggest of my children. He still fits in it with no problems. My daughter had the single. This l;asted a couple of yers before they airbed part gave up but at least we only had to replace that as the sleeping bag part can be used again.
Thanks guys. Looks like the readybed is the most popular, and they do have some brilliant designs, so I think that's the one, especially as a quick trawl through the web has shown the Kampa as being sold out everywhere!
The one main problem with the ready bed is the not so good covering, they tend to be very basic and not that warm for camping.
The Kampa air bed (looks a bit like a rubber dingy) is great re you can use any sleeping bag so your kids should stay warm if you buy some good sleeping bags.
We have always had ready beds for all of us, I rang the people who make them to find out the differnt tog ratings and was told that the ones with characters on are just for indoor sleep overs and are quite thin, but the plan ones (in the camping section of the argos catalouge) are thicker and designed primarily for camping use. Hope this is of help. We all have polar flece liners in our that I ran up on the sewing machine. The material is dirt cheap comes in many great designs, is the perfect width and doesn't need edging so just cut to required length fold in half side way and sew length and bottom shut, job done!
------------- Theres only one way of life and thats your own!
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