It's nearly summer. Birds are migrating, flowers are blooming, and REI is kicking off its annual anniversary sale.
It’s the outdoor retailer’s biggest sale of the year. This year’s REI sale starts May 15 and runs through Memorial Day, May 25. Many items are up to 30 percent off, but REI Co-op members save up to 20 percent on any full-price item and an extra 20 percent off any REI Outlet item. To get the discount, add the promo code ANNIV26 at checkout.
We’ve highlighted the best deals on gear we’ve loved over our years of testing. There’s something for nearly all our favorite summer activities: tents, stoves, sleeping bags, and plenty of outdoor apparel. Be sure to look at our guides to outdoor gear, like the Best Tents, Best Sleeping Bags, Best Backpacking Sleeping Pads, Best Rain Jackets, Best Backpacking Water Filters, Best Merino Wool, and Best Binoculars.
WIRED Featured Deals
Deals on Camping Gadgets and Gear
Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
Goal Zero's new Yeti 1500 is one of the best camping and overlanding power stations we've tested. The new LiFePO4 chemistry battery is rated for 4,000 charge cycles (about 10 years of average use) and there's a new high amp output (30 A) for tying into van and overlanding setups. Goal Zero also engineered it to be able to handle the high vibration environment of off-roading. With 4 AC outlets and USB charging at up to 140 watts, the Yeti 1500 can keep your wired world running for well over a week, no grid required.
Yes your phone has some features of a dedicated satellite messenger, but we still think you're better off with a dedicated device. Garmin's new inReach Mini 3 now offers some of those phone features—like voice and photo messaging—along with the emergency features and excellent service world wide. It's also still tiny, well built and it has great battery life. The cheaper Garmin Inreach Mini 3 (which does not have the new photo sharing features) is also on sale for $400 ($50 off).
The Garmin Instinct Solar is our favorite rugged and affordable outdoor watch powered by the sun. It has long battery life and yes, recharges any time it's in the sun. GPS is enabled and there's tons of sports tracking and navigation features. It's cheaper than a Fenix and just as reliable.
Courtesy of Coleman
My favorite of Coleman's current lineup, the Cascade 3-in-1 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) features heavy-duty cast iron grates, comes with a cast-iron griddle and grill, and can fit a 12-inch pan and a 10-inch pan side by side. It's sturdier and all-around more robust than other Coleman stoves, well worth the extra money if you're serious about camp cooking. That said, the much cheaper stove below will get you by if you're only using it a few nights a year.
This is our favorite camp stove for most people. Technically this version is a little fancier than our top pick, with electronic ignition and a nice pale green paint job. Is it worth an extra $30? That's up to you. If it's not, snag the less fancy version for $59 at Walmart.
The thing to keep in mind when you shop REI brand gear is the company's basic proposition: you get 90 percent of the designer item for 70 percent of the price. It's a strategy that works quite well and has generated some really great, affordable gear. This chair is a good example of that. It's not as nice as the Nemo above, but it's still comfortable (it does wobble a little, side to side when you move) and nearly half the price.
Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
Whenever I can, I like to cook over open flame using my firebox stove, which often means cutting wood. The best portable saw I've found is this Silky folding saw. It's light enough to bring bike packing (5.3 ounces), and it folds down to about 9 inches long, which slips in a pannier no problem. This thing is razor sharp though, be careful when using it in the backcountry.
Petzl's Tikka headlamp is one of our favorite headlamps. It provides plenty of light to cook by in the backcountry, runs on three AAA batteries (we recommend Panasonic Eneloop rechargeable batteries) and lasts over 5.5 hours. It's also compatible with Petzl's USB-rechargable Core battery ($30).
The thing to keep in mind when you shop for gear bearing the REI brand is the company's basic proposition: You get 90 percent of the designer item for 70 percent of the price. It's a strategy that works quite well and has generated some really great, affordable gear. This REI chair is a good example of that. It's not as nice as the Nemo above, but it's still comfortable (it does wobble a little, side to side when you move) and nearly half the price.
Deals on Tents
REI tents are some of the best deals around, even more so during sales. If you'd like to learn more, see our guide to the best backpacking tents and best car camping tents.
Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
REI's Base Camp tent is WIRED's favorite car camping tent. It's extremely well designed and proved plenty weatherproof in our testing. The traditional dome tent design, with two crossed poles and two side poles, holds up well in wind, and the tent floor is high-quality 150-denier (150D) polyester. There's loads of storage pockets, double doors, great vents, and huge windows, making it comfortable even in summer heat.
The REI Half Dome 2 is the best budget two-person backpacking tent. I’ve toted it on many a backpacking trip and found it to be plenty sturdy, quick to set up, and capable of fitting two people and their gear. It even comes with a footprint (which I never bother with, but it's nice to have it if you have to deal with prickers or pointy rocks).
The Big Agnes Copper Spur series is our top pick for freestanding ultralight tents. This is a high-quality, well-designed tent that's lightweight, easy to set up, and roomy enough to be livable in the backcountry. The “awning” design (where the front fabric is held aloft with trekking poles or sticks) is a nice extra and the mix of 15D nylon, and 20D ripstop, while to feels fragile, as held up well over time. The 4-person version, which is one of the lightest 4P tents on the market is also on sale.
Nemo's Dragonfly tents are great. I really like the generous amount of mesh at the top, which provides some nice ventilation on warm summer nights and is perfect for falling asleep under the stars when the weather permits. The Osmo fabric continues to live up to the hype, with much less water absorption than nylon tents in rainy weather, and there's a good amount of room for storing all your stuff.
Sleeping Bag and Sleeping Pad Deals
Whether you need a cheap car camping bag or something more robust for fall and spring trips, we've got you covered. Be sure to read our guides to the best sleeping bags, best camping sleeping pads, and best backpacking sleeping pads for even more options.
Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
REI's Magma line of down gear are some of the best deals around. The Magma 15 sleeping bag has long been an affordable bag that's perfect for shoulder season trips when the temp potentially swing lower than you're expecting (the comfort rating is 21 degrees Fahrenheit). There are three lengths and three widths, making it easy to get something that's perfect for your body, and the 850-fill-power goose down (Bluesign-approved) packs down nice and small. If you don't need the shoulder season coverage the Magma 30 is also on sale for $262 ($87 off), and makes a great summer sleeping bag.
I just spent a week sleeping under this quilt at the Biggest Week in American Birding. The Magma quilt was surprisingly warm. I did have on an puffer jacket, but I managed to stay comfy down to 30 degrees. Like the sleeping bag version above, this is 95 percent of what you get from far more expensive quilts. It's light (20.3 ounces for the medium), packs down small, includes straps to keep it on your sleeping pad, can be completely unzipped and used like a comforter or snapped up in a proper foot box on colder nights.
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Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
This is one of my favorite ultralight sleeping bags. There are lighter quilts out there, but when you need the warmth of a mummy bag on those colder nights, this is what I use. It also has the smallest pack size of any bag I've tested in this temperature range. With the included compression sack, this thing is truly tiny. The down fill is PFC-free, 850+ hydrophobic down. The zippers are on the small side, but they slide well and rarely if ever snag on the bag. I've slept in this bag down to 20 degrees and never been the least bit cold.
Nemo's Forte 20 is a 20-degree synthetic-fill sleeping bag, but the comfort rating is 30 degrees. In my testing, this feels more like where you'd want to stay temperature-wise with this bag. The outer shell uses a 30-denier recycled polyester ripstop with an inside liner made from 20-denier recycled polyester taffeta. The fill is what Nemo calls Zerofiber insulation, which is made from 100 percent postconsumer recycled content fibers. The Zerofiber packs down remarkably small—this is the most compact synthetic-fill bag I've tested in this temp range.
Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
I had to surrender my ultralight cred to the Reddit mods for carrying this robust pad, but it is totally worth the improved sleep. The 6 or so extra ounces is more than made up for by how well I sleep—rest and recovery are a key part of long miles, kids—on this pad compared to, well, every other backpacking sleeping pad. It's that good. Alas, it is also kinda pricey … which is why you should grab one now on sale.
The Tensor All-Season hits all the sweet spots. It weighs an acceptably light 18.2 ounces, provides a good 3 inches of padding, and has an R value of 5.4. (The R value of a sleeping pad denotes its level of insulation; the higher the number, the warmer you stay and 5.4 is enough insulation for colder spring or autumn nights.) That works out to the best padding and R rating for the weight. It's also mercifully quiet—none of that annoying crunching noise every time you roll over.
If you're gearing up for a winter trip, this is a good deal on a great winter sleeping pad. The Tensor Extreme Conditions has the highest R value of any pad we've tested (8.5) yet somehow manages to pack down to about the size of a Nalgene water bottle and weighs just 21 ounces (587 g).
Courtesy of Exped
This is my new favorite winter sleeping pad. It doesn't have quite the R-value of the Tensor Extreme above, but I find it more comfortable and when paired the a Therm-a-Rest Z-lite, I stayed plenty warm even on a night spent at minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit this past winter. I like it so much a bought a second one for whomever is foolish enough to come with me on such trips.
The big fat camping pad that started the trend of big fat camping pads, the Megamat is a revelation. Trust me, you have no idea how comfortable tent camping can be until you sleep on a Megamat. The 4-inch-thick Exped MegaMat is soft and surprisingly firm thanks to the closed-cell foam inside it, which relieves pressure and feels about as close to the mattress in your bedroom as you're going to get in the woods.
When I sold my Jeep, I had to give up my overlanding dreams and return to being a mere camper. But this Megamat, which cuts in to fit around the wheel wells of an SUV, has brought some of those overlanding dreams back to life. I throw this in the back of my wife's Rav4, and while it's not a perfect fit (check Exped to see which vehicles are supported), it's close enough that I can get a good night's sleep in the car.
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