By Wes Siler, Outside

Camping: the best third date in the world. But bring the wrong sleeping bag or mattress and you might get the cold shoulder—quite literally. Fortunately, couple’s camping gear is suddenly becoming a hot segment. We’ve tested the latest equipment and are here to tell you what works.

The go-to options, at least when a car is involved, have always been one of those cheap, inflatable air beds, paired with a cheap, synthetic double sleeping bag. Both likely purchased at Walmart. There’s a number of problems with this stuff, starting with size and weight and ending with poor insulation.

Here’s the kind of double sleeping bag both you, I, and our ex-girlfriends likely have experience with. It packs down to roughly the size of a beer keg and weighs a positively unbelievable 16.5 pounds. Worth sacrificing half your trunk space, given its zero-degree Fahrenheit advertised temperature rating? Not even close. I’ve spent many nights in this thing and can report with considerable disappointment that it sleeps cold if temperatures even approach freezing.

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