It’s the outdoor retailer’s biggest sale of the year. This year’s REI sale begins May 15 and runs through Memorial Day, May 25. Many items are up to 30 percent off, but REI Co-op members are saving up to 20 percent on any full-price item. Excessive 20 percent off any REI Outlet item. Add promo code to get discount ANNIV26 At checkout.
We’ve highlighted the best deals on gear we’ve loved over years of testing. There’s something for almost all of our favorite summer activities: tents, stoves, sleeping bags and lots of outdoor apparel. Be sure to check out our guides to outdoor gear like the best tents, best sleeping bags, best backpacking sleeping pads, best rain jackets, best backpacking water filters, best merino wool, and best binoculars.
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Deals on Camping Gadgets and Gear
Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
Goal Zero’s new Yeti 1500 is one of the best camping and overlanding power stations we’ve tested. The new LiFePO4 chemistry battery is rated for 4,000 charge cycles (about 10 years of average use) and has a new higher amp output (30 A) to tie into vans and overlanding setups. Goal Zero also engineered it to be able to handle the high vibration environments of off-roading. With 4 AC outlets and up to 140W of USB charging, the Yeti 1500 can keep your wired world going for over a week, no grid required.
Yes, your phone has some of the features of a dedicated satellite messenger, but we still think you’re better off with a dedicated device. Garmin’s new inReach Mini 3 now offers some of those phone features – like voice and photo messaging – plus emergency features and excellent worldwide service. It’s still small, well built and has great battery life. The cheaper Garmin InReach Mini 3 (which doesn’t have the new photo sharing features) is also on sale for $400 ($50 off).
The Garmin Instinct Solar is our favorite sturdy and affordable outdoor watch powered by the sun. It has a long battery life and yes, it recharges any time it is in sunlight. It is GPS enabled and has plenty of sports tracking and navigation features. It is cheaper than Fenix and equally reliable.
Courtesy Coleman
My favorite in Coleman’s current lineup, the Cascade 3-in-1 (8/10, Wired recommended) has heavy-duty cast iron grates, comes with a cast-iron grill and griddle, and can fit 12-inch pans and 10-inch pans simultaneously. It’s sturdier and more robust in every way than other Coleman stoves, making it worth the extra money if you’re serious about cooking at camp. That said, the stove below will get you by much cheaper if you’re only using it a few nights a year.
For most people this is our favorite camp stove. Technically this version is a little more attractive than our top pick, with electronic ignition and a nice light green paint job. Is it worth the extra $30? that’s up to you. If it’s not, get a less fancy version at Walmart for $59.
The thing to keep in mind when you shop for REI brand gear is the company’s core proposition: you get 90 percent of the designer items at 70 percent of the price. It’s a strategy that works quite well and has produced some really great, affordable gear. This chair is a good example of this. It’s not as nice as the Nemo above, but still comfortable (it wobbles a bit when you move) and is about half the price.
Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
Whenever possible, I like to cook over an open flame using my firebox stove, which often means chopping wood. The best portable saw I found is this Silky Folding Saw. It’s light enough to bring bike packing (5.3 ounces), and it grows to about 9 inches long, slipping into panniers no problem. Although this thing is pretty fast, be careful when using it in the backcountry.
Petzl’s Tikka Headlamp is one of our favorite headlamps. It provides plenty of light for backcountry cooking, runs on three AAA batteries (we recommend Panasonic Eneloop rechargeable batteries) and lasts for over 5.5 hours. It’s also compatible with Petzl’s USB-rechargeable Core Battery ($30).
The thing to keep in mind when you shop for REI-branded gear is the company’s core proposition: You get 90 percent of the designer items at 70 percent of the price. It’s a strategy that works quite well and has produced some really great, affordable gear. This REI chair is a good example. It’s not as nice as the Nemo above, but still comfortable (it wobbles a bit when you move) and is about half the price.
deals on tents
REI tents are some of the best deals, even more so during sales. If you want to learn more, check out our guides to the best backpacking tents and the best car camping tents.
Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
REI’s Base Camp Tent is WIRED’s favorite car camping tent. It’s extremely well designed and proved to be weather resistant in our testing. The traditional dome tent design, with two cross poles and two side poles, holds up well in wind, and the tent floor is high-quality 150-denier (150D) polyester. It has lots of storage pockets, double doors, great vents and large windows, making it comfortable even in summer.
The REI Half Dome 2 is the best budget two-person backpacking tent. I’ve taken it on backpacking trips several times and found it to be sturdy enough, sets up quickly, and is able to fit two people and their gear. It even comes with a footprint (which I never bother with, but it’s nice to have if you have to deal with pricks or sharp rocks).
The Big Agnes Copper Spur series is our top choice for freestanding ultralight tents. This is a high-quality, well-designed tent that is lightweight, easy to set up, and roomy enough for backcountry living. The “awning” design (where the front fabric is held elevated along trekking poles or stakes) is a nice addition and the blend of 15D nylon and 20D ripstop, while it feels delicate, holds up well over time. The 4-person version, one of the lightest 4P tents on the market, is also on sale.
Nemo’s dragonfly tents are great. I really like the abundant mesh on the top, which provides some good ventilation on hot summer nights and is perfect for sleeping under the stars when the weather is agreeable. With much less water absorption than nylon tents in the rainy season, the Osmo Fabric lives up to the hype, and it has a good amount of space to store all your belongings.
Sleeping Bag and Sleeping Pad Deals
Whether you need a cheap car camping bag or something more sturdy for fall and spring trips, we’ve got you covered. Be sure to read our guides for even more options on the best sleeping bags, best camping sleeping pads, and best backpacking sleeping pads.
Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
REI’s Magma line of down gear has some great deals. The Magma 15 Sleeping Bag has long been an affordable bag that’s perfect for shoulder season trips when temperatures potentially dip lower than you’d expect (the comfort rating is 21 degrees Fahrenheit). There are three lengths and three widths, making it easy to get just the right thing for your body, and the 850-fill-power goose down (BlueSign-approved) packs up nice and small. If you don’t need shoulder season coverage, the Magma 30 is also on sale for $262 ($87 off), and makes a great summer sleeping bag.
I spent a week sleeping under this quilt at American Birding’s biggest event. The Magma quilt was surprisingly warm. I was wearing a puffer jacket, but I managed to stay comfortable in the 30 degrees. Like the sleeping bag version above, it’s 95 percent of what you get from far more expensive quilts. It’s lightweight (20.3 ounces for medium), packs small, includes straps to keep it over your sleeping pad, and can be fully unfolded and used as a cozy or tucked into a proper foot box on cool nights.
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Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
This is one of my favorite ultralight sleeping bags. There are lighter quilts available, but when you need the warmth of a mummy bag on those cool nights, I use this one. It has the smallest pack size of any bag I’ve tested in this temperature range. With the included compression sack, this thing is really small. The down fill is PFC-free, 850+ hydrophobic down. The zippers are on the small side, but they slide well and rarely get stuck on the bag. I’ve slept in this bag in temperatures up to 20 degrees and never felt the slightest bit cold.
Nemo’s Fort 20 is a 20-degree synthetic-fill sleeping bag, but the comfort rating is 30 degrees. In my testing, it seems to be about where you’d want to be temperature-wise with this bag. The outer shell uses 30-denier recycled polyester ripstop and the inside has a liner made of 20-denier recycled polyester taffeta. The fill is what Nemo calls ZeroFiber insulation, made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled content fibers. The ZeroFiber pack is remarkably small – it’s the most compact synthetic-fill bag I’ve tested in this temp range.
Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
I have to surrender my ultralight credit to Reddit mods for carrying a pad this sturdy, but it’s totally worth it for better sleep. The 6 or so extra ounces are offset by how well I sleep — rest and recovery are an important part of long miles, kids — on this pad, compared to every other backpacking sleeping pad. This is very good. Sadly, it’s also a little pricey… which is why you should grab it on sale now.
Tensor All-Season hits all the favorite spots. It weighs an acceptably light 18.2 ounces, offers a good 3 inches of padding, and has an R value of 5.4. (The R value of a sleeping pad refers to its level of insulation; the higher the number, the warmer you’ll stay, and 5.4 is enough insulation for cool spring or autumn nights.) This works out to be the best padding for the weight and R rating. It’s also mercifully quiet – there’s no annoying screeching noise every time you turn.
If you’re preparing for a winter trip, this is a great deal on a great winter sleeping pad. The Tensor Extreme Conditions has the highest R value (8.5) of any pad we tested, yet it somehow packs down to the size of a Nalgene water bottle and weighs only 21 ounces (587 grams).
Courtesy of Exped
This is my new favorite winter sleeping pad. It doesn’t have the R-value of the Tensor Extreme above, but I find it more comfortable and when paired with the Therm-a-Rest Z-Lite, it stayed warm enough even on a night I spent in minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures last winter. I like it so much that I’ve bought another for whoever is foolish enough to come with me on such trips.
The big fat camping pad that started the trend of big fat camping pads, the Megamat is a revelation. Trust me, you won’t know how comfortable tent camping can be until you sleep on a MegaMat. The 4-inch-thick Exped MegaMat is soft and surprisingly strong thanks to the closed-cell foam inside it, which relieves pressure and feels as close to a mattress in your bedroom as you do going into the woods.
When I sold my jeep, I had to give up my dream of getting on land and went back to being a mere camper. But this Megamat, which fits around the wheel of an SUV, has brought some of those dreams back to life. I throw it in the back of my wife’s Rav4, and although it doesn’t fit exactly (check Exped to see which vehicles are supported), it’s close enough that I can get a good night’s sleep in the car.
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