Editors’ Choice 2021: NEMO Moonlite Reclining Chair

Congrats: You made it to somewhere beautiful. Now it’s time to chill there. The Moonlite is sure to increase your enjoyment of a sundowner sesh by simply being the most comfortable—yet still backpacking-friendly—chair you’ve ever used. “I could sit in it for hours without pain or muscle fatigue in my back,” said one tester after trips to Wyoming’s Wind River Range and Colorado’s Big Dominguez Canyon. Setup is easy enough for a 5-year-old to manage (but watch fingers, those shock cords are tight). Then sit back and relax, using the straps to adjust the posture from an upright cooking position to reclined for stargazing, or to compensate for uneven ground.

The chair’s burly nylon mesh material snaps via four ball joints to the top of the hubbed frame, and if the wind catches it (which it did on a gusty mid-November trip to Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve) the chair falls over and loses its wind profile instead of skittering away into downwind oblivion. When you finally peel your bottom off it, the Moonlite packs down to about the size of a standard Nalgene for easy sliding into your pack. There’s always a weight calculation with a luxury item like a chair; we promise that when you’re hanging out campside, you’ll find it worth every ounce.