Camping Hammocks

Camping hammocks are gathered-end nylon hammocks that pack down to nothing. They are a completely different family from the backyard hammocks in our style guide — different comfort model, different failure mode, different accessories.

The most useful thing we can tell you before you spend anything: a camping hammock on its own is not a shelter. It is one component of a five-part system, and the parts that are missing from the box are the ones that decide whether you enjoy the night.

The five pieces

1. The hammock. Gathered-end, double width if you can, so you can lie diagonally.
2. Straps. At least an inch wide, because thin suspension damages bark and many sites require a minimum width. Published capacities run from 300 lb to 500 lb, so match them to your load.
3. A bug net. Some hammocks include one; most do not. A hammock leaves you exposed on every side.
4. A tarp. This is what makes it a shelter. Width matters more than length, because wind-driven rain is the kind that gets you wet.
5. Insulation underneath. The piece beginners skip, and the reason so many first nights are cold.

Why you get cold, and what fixes it

In a hammock your sleeping bag's insulation is crushed flat beneath you and traps no air, while air moves freely under the fabric. People routinely get cold in a hammock at temperatures where a tent and a pad would have been fine. It is not the weather — it is the physics of lying on a single layer of nylon in moving air.

The fix is insulation on the outside of the hammock. Onewind publishes underquilt ratings from 45 to 70°F on its summer models down to 32 to 56°F on the down Solstice, which gives you a sense of matching a quilt to a season. A closed-cell foam pad inside the hammock is the budget version and works, less comfortably.

Learn the diagonal

Lying along the center line of a gathered-end hammock folds your body into the curve. Lying across it at an angle draws fabric from a wider section, which flattens under you considerably. This is the single most important hammock skill, it costs nothing, and almost nobody tells beginners about it.

What a hammock is genuinely better at

Bad ground. A slope, a root field, a rock shelf, a bog — a hammock does not care about any of it, and a tent cares about all of it. It is also off the wet ground entirely in rain, which is a different experience from a good groundsheet. Where a hammock loses is treeless sites and cold weather, and our hammock vs tent comparison works through both honestly.

What to buy after the hammock

In this order: straps, then a tarp, then insulation, then a bug net if your season needs one. Straps because they are the part that touches the tree and are often the lowest-rated link in the chain; a tarp because one overnight shower without one ends the trip; insulation because it is what makes the difference between sleeping and enduring.

All four are in our hammock gear hub, with published specifications compared side by side. The strap comparison in particular is worth reading before you buy, because the published spread runs from 300 lb to 500 lb in capacity and from 1.55 oz to 12 oz in weight.

And if your usual sites have no trees, or tree hanging is restricted, the answer is a camping hammock stand — with the honest caveat that the lightest one we track is 15 lb, which is car-camping weight rather than trail weight.