Camping can be a fun, adventurous way to spend time with family and friends and to discover new places – on the cheap! Instead of paying excessively for expensive hotels, discover the great outdoors here in the UK and abroad in comfort. Next to your tent, your choice of sleeping bag is one of the most important decisions you will make with your camping equipment.

Mountain Warehouse has a sleeping bag for all seasons, and our season ratings help you to choose what the most appropriate sleeping bag is for time of the year and weather outside. Please note that these ratings are just a guide, as people feel warmth and cold very differently.

The four season ratings are:

1 Season – Suitable for summer

2 Season – Spring and Summer

3 Season – Spring, Summer and Autumn

4 Season – All year round including Winter

Since seasons vary greatly from the generic assumptions made for season temperature and weather, the European testing standard temperature ratings are standardised measures for all sleeping bags. Mountain Warehouse’s tests on sleeping bags are all based on the average woman since women are more susceptible to cold than men.

Comfort – This is the temperature range that a woman can sleep comfortably at.

Extreme – This is the maximum lowest temperature that it possible to survive at, without risk of hypothermia. This does not necessarily mean you will be comfortable at this temperature.

We recommend that you do not take these ratings as an authoritative measure, but rather as a guide, as outdoor conditions can have varied effects on individual temperatures.

The Mountain Warehouse sleeping bags are either synthetic or down filled. Synthetic sleeping bags are ideal in damper, warmer conditions, and are easy to clean and quick to dry as well as being cheaper. However they are bulkier than down bags which are factors to consider when transporting your sleeping bag.

For more extreme temperatures, a down filled sleeping bag is recommended, especially for cold, drier conditions as they will add significant warmth. Down is very lightweight and easily compressed. Avoid damp spots with a down sleeping bag as it does absorb moisture easily, and does take a longer time to dry than a synthetic sleeping bag. Down bags are more expensive but are most ideal if you’re planning to sleep outdoors for an extended period of time as well as in colder weather. On an adventure such as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, we would only recommend a sleeping bag filled with down.

Mountain Warehouse also stocks a range of sleeping bag liners to use inside your sleeping bag. A sleeping bag liner adds extra warmth, comfort as well as keeping the bag clean. All our sleeping bag liners are easy to clean and can be used to sleep in instead of a sleeping bag in warm weather.

When considering which sleeping bag is ideal for your needs, there are several criteria to consider. Our sleeping bags have several features to consider when deciding which sleeping bag is right for you.

Our sleeping bags come in two shapes, mummy and rectangular. Rectangular shapes are ideal for warm temperatures and work well for short trips. The rectangle shape has plenty of room to move about in from head to toe, but does not work well for cooler temperatures as there is more space for cold air to circulate. Mummy sleeping bags are named for the shape, as they taper down towards your feet. The mummy shape is ideal for colder temperatures as the shape traps more warm air inside the bag, and has a hood for comfort and warmth for your head.

Mountain Warehouse sleeping bags all come with an adjustable draw string to allow you to tighten and close the bag around your neck and shoulders for warmth.

Several of our bags also have left and right hand zip options. This allows you to zip two sleeping bags together to form a twin, but also for convenience. If you are right handed, you would purchase a left zipped sleeping bag and if you are left handed you would purchase a right zipped sleeping bag. Additionally the zips allow ventilation on warmer nights.

All of our sleeping bags come in a packaway bag to store and transport your bag. However we recommend that when not in use, you store your sleeping bag flat out of the bag to keep your bag in optimum shape and to avoid the fill bunching up, and creating cold spots, which is especially important with down sleeping bags.

To add an extra layer of insulation when you’re sleeping, we recommend using a sleeping mat. We have a variety of mats to fit all your needs, including self-inflating mats and airbeds. The sleeping mat forms a barrier between yourself and the cold ground to help you get the best night’s sleep as well as adding more comfort.