The right camp chair is an essential part of your river trip experience. Here’s a guide to choosing a river camp chair that’s sturdy, comfortable, and easy to transport.
RiverBent Pick: Best Overall Camp Chair
REI Camp Low Chair
REI’s Camp Low Chair is our top camp chair pick for river trips because it’s sturdy on sandy beaches, packs flat to fit easily in raft loads, budget-friendly, and has a padded seat for extra comfort.
Check current availability at REI
Quick look at best camp chairs
| Best for | Chair | Why it works |
| Best overall | REI Camp Low Chair | Low-profile, sturdy on sand, comfortable, and affordable |
| Minimalists | Crazy Creek Original Chair | Extremely lightweight and packable for trips with tight space or as a spare chair |
| Big and tall campers | Coleman Big-N-Tall Quad Chair | Most comfortable and sturdy for big and tall campers |
| Kids | REI Kids’ Camp Chair | Sturdy, accommodates kids up to 125 pounds, and includes a cup holder |
| Sentimental traditionalists | Blue Ridge Chair (currently sold out but check out a similar chair on Wayfair) | Classic wooden chair that lasts for decades, has a cult following but some find it uncomfortable |
Why chair choice matters on multi-day river trips
One of the best parts of a multi-day river trip is settling into your camp chair after a long day running rapids with a cold beverage, a hot plate of food, and the anticipation of some good story-telling or guitar playing with your friends. Although any camp chair could work for a river trip, here’s what to look for in river-worthy chair.
Packability
If you’re bringing a camp chair, you probably have a raft in the party, which means you don’t necessarily have to have a chair that packs up into a slim tube. But as long as other criteria are met, having a compact chair certainly helps if you’re trying to lighten the raft load for a low-water trip. And chairs that are light but ungainly (like those chairs you take to the soccer game) can be annoying to fit tidily in a raft load.
Here’s what makes camp chairs packable on river trips:
- Ability to collapse down flat or into a round cylinder
- Loops or straps on the outside of the collapsed chair that can be used as anchor points in the load
- Fast set-up and take-down
Durability
Camp chairs get slung around on a river trip. They’re packed and unpacked daily, they can get smashed in the load, and they’re exposed to water and sand and sun. If you’re looking for a chair that will survive many years of river trips, consider the construction of the chair. Light, strong chairs are typically expensive but might be worth the investment if they can survive the abuse of river tripping for many seasons.
Comfort
The chair needs to feel good, whatever that means to you. Wooden chairs feel great to some. Others want soft, sling-type chairs. Most camp chairs sit low to the ground, but getting out of those can be troublesome for people with limited flexibility. Chairs like the classic Crazy Creek require strong thighs to exit with grace. And as one river tripper said, “If you go on a river trip with a torn ACL, you’re going to want a higher chair when you try to get out of it.”
Getting the right size of chair for the camper is the first step in ensuring comfort: Camp chairs such as the Coleman Big-N-Tall Quad Camp Chair are made for big and tall folks, and plenty of options are camp chair options are available for kids and even toddlers. Our top pick for kids is the REI Kids’ Camp Chair. Our top pick for toddlers is the Bright Starts Pop N Sit Portable Booster.
Features
Are cup holders important to you? A pocket on the back where you can stick your river map? A padded headrest? Rocking motion? All these features—and more—are available, but of course add to the weight and complication of your chair.
Ease of setup
The ideal camp chair can be set up one-handed, or at least with a minimum of moves.
Top lightweight and foldable camp chairs for river trips
On a Ruby-Horsethief Canyon trip with nearly 20 people, I asked what type of chairs everyone had and why they like them. Here are four chairs that members of our party loved, and one they didn’t.
Top RiverBent pick: REI Camp Low Chair
For most campers and river runners, we recommend the REI Camp Low Chair because of its sturdy construction, comfortable padded seat, and low-profile design that works well on uneven, sandy beaches.
“You literally just pull it open and fold it closed,” said our reviewer, who has had this chair for about five years and said it’s proven extremely durable. Plus, this chair is relatively affordable.
A couple of drawbacks: With the compact simplicity of this chair comes the lack of a cupholder. Plus, the low profile makes the user (and their supper) easy pickings for any “nosy and impolite” river dogs. The original REI Camp Low Chair pictured below is no longer available, but the current version is similar and a little more streamlined, plus features added padding on the back and seat.
NEMO Stargaze
Several people on our trip had the NEMO Stargaze Evo-X Recliner. This chair got high marks for comfort and durability, although it seemed a little difficult to set up to me.
“It’s comfortable, it packs really small,” said one user. Referring to the swaying motion that’s possible with the NEMO recliner, this river tripper said, “I just really like having a hammock for my butt.”
Short people might not like this one: One user who is 5-foot-1-inch claimed that it was very uncomfortable for her. A new version of this on the scene is the NEMO Moonlight Reclining Camp Chair.
Coleman Big-N-Tall
Best for tall and big campers and river runners, the Coleman Big-N-Tall Quad Chair received rave reviews from the tallest member of our group for being easy to get into and out of, as well as its stash pocket and oversized cup holder.
“It was designed with extra support—it’s very stable,” he said. “Plus, it’s got a little see-through pouch on the right arm to put your phone in.” (This particular user loves his Big-N-Tall so much that he keeps it in his living room—we have not seen him in river camp with his phone.)
Blue Ridge Chair
The Blue Ridge Chair is my personal pick—the recline makes it extremely comfortable to sit in, it’s easy to play guitar in since it has no arm rests, it folds up and transports easily, and it’s easy to strap to a load. It’s also low enough to take to a music festival or sports event and not block the people behind you.
Modeled after the classic “Higgins” chair, which was designed a few decades ago by a Southeastern boater named Steve Higgins, the Blue Ridge Chair is not for everyone (see the note below about the classic “Higgins” chair). Warning: It is three times the price of many of these other chairs, but we have one similar that has lasted through more than three decades of river trips. Another downside: It’s currently unavailable from Blue Ridge Chair Works. However, you can get similar products from Wayfair.
Classic “Higgins” Chair
Designed and made decades ago by Southeastern boater Steve Higgins, these chairs are the prototype for the Blue Ridge chair and others under different names. We’ve had two of these since the mid-80s: They have survived several multi-day trips a year for nearly 35 years. Wooden chairs are heavy, but these come in two pieces that slide together in a neat, flat package that raft captains appreciate.
They don’t look as comfortable as they are: You can scrunch them down into the sand, lean forward in them, rock back. These chairs are polarizing: Some of us would not bring any other chair on the river. But others have tried them and hated them.
Big Agnes Mica Basin
One chair that has come to our attention and we tried in the store, but haven’t tested on the river yet, is the Big Agnes Mica Basin Camp Chair, which comes in various sizes. It is lightweight but surprisingly sturdy, and held up well when tipped back a bit. It’s a pricey chair, but packs down well and would be a solid option for river trippers.
Other chairs to check out
Besides the chairs our crew currently uses, other river camp chairs that meet our criteria include (I favor chairs that are low to the ground and compact):
- REI Campwell Camp Chair: The classic soccer-mommy chair, this affordable pick can work hard at sporting events, backyard barbecues, and river trips
- Helinox Chair One (re): Very compact, this chair was redesigned for great strength and comfort
- Coleman Kickback Breeze Chair: This one is extremely lightweight and compact
- Crazy Creek Original Chair: For minimalists or as a backup chair for anyone who forgets their chair, Crazy Creek chairs have stood the test of time
Kids’ river camp chairs
One of the best way to make kids comfortable and happy on river trips is making sure they have a seat in the circle around the campfire. Here are our favorite chairs for littles (and for more tips on kids’ river gear, check out Essential Guide to Rafting with Kids).
- REI Kids Camp Chair: Our top camp chair pick for kids, this sturdy chair works for kids and pre-teens up to 125 pounds, packs down light, and includes a cupholder.
- Coleman Quad Chair for kids: This chair is sturdy, affordable, and can accommodate bigger kids up to 160 pounds.
- Bright Starts Pop N Sit Portable Booster: This is the chair I use and recommend for toddlers on river trips as it’s extremely low to the ground and includes a pop-on tray so they can smear their food around just like they do at home.
River camp chairs for all
At the end of the day, everyone just needs a place to park after they get off the river. Everybody needs to have a chair so they don’t plant themselves on top of the cooler or dry box, which is annoying all evening through.
If you’re looking for the best all-around camp chair for river trips, go with the REI Camp Low Chair. If you need to stockpile some extra chairs for people who forgot theirs, or if you want a truly minimalist option for low-water trips or kayak trips without raft support, go with the Crazy Creek Original Chair.
So many camp chair choices out there—it’s just a matter of finding the right combination of durability, comfort, and usability that works best for you. And keeps you from sitting on a dry box or cooler.
