Conversely, if you’re winter camping — or even in the desert on a chilly summer night — sleeping above ground helps keep you significantly warmer. Since you’re not making contact with the cold ground, you retain body heat much better and, as a bonus, the best camping cots even offer extra storage in your camping tent as gear can be stored beneath them.

When shopping for a sleeping cot, there are several things to keep in mind. First is weight: Do you plan on carrying your sleeping gear long distances? If so, you’ll want a lightweight option that’s not only easy to pack but compact enough that it doesn’t take up valuable space in your car. Additionally, purchasing a cot that’s easy to assemble and take down is important and improves anyone’s overall camping experience.

The next is comfort — even with a sleeping pad below you, stiff padding or rough fabric doesn’t always equal quality sleep. The more comfortable your sleep system, the better your night’s rest. Plain and simple. Finally, don’t forget to factor in how small or big you are. You want to make sure the cot fits your body type properly and that your legs aren’t hanging off the end. To help, we’ve gathered a list of the best camping cots designed to make roughing it a little less rough.

Whether you have kids, limited tent space, or just think bunk beds are cool, the Disc-O-Bed Large Camping Cot offers a fun, efficient way to sleep in the woods. The 60-pound, stackable double sleeping cot is exceptionally durable, withstanding 500 pounds of weight per single cot. Each unit is three feet wide and almost seven feet long, so you definitely won’t have to worry about being too big to fit.

Kids may love this cot but it wasn’t exactly built with them in mind. The bed is made of 600-denier, PVC-coated polyester fabric and a tough-as-hell, rust-free steel frame. It’s loaded with storage spaces to stuff personal items and the unit can also be converted into two side-by-side single beds for those trips where no one can decide on who gets the top bunk.

At a whisper-light 2.6 pounds, Big Agnes’s Lite Cot is an ultra-lightweight sleeping option. Forgoing steel frames in favor of premium Helinox alloy tubing, this folding cot uses a barely-there, minimalist design that hovers just 13 centimeters over the ground, reducing any extra bulk. Yet even with the simple, no-frills design, the poles are strong and sturdy, offering a weight capacity up to 265 pounds. It’s quick to set up and packs into a slick, tube-shaped storage bag that’s only 20 inches long with a compact 5-inch circumference.