Outbright Camping Pillow Review – Yellow Van Travels

A couple months ago the team at Outbright reached out to us to see if we would like to review their camping pillow. Now I don’t know if that sounds exciting to you, but it was to me.

You can purchase the Outbright Camping Pillow using our Amazon Affiliate link.

A Little History

Pillows are a big deal to me in getting a good nights sleep. Several years ago when I was having particular trouble sleeping we switched to shredded memory foam pillows with bamboo covers for our regular pillows, and they really made a huge difference. Shredded memory foam provides softness and support and bamboo covers are hypoallergenic. I suffer from terrible seasonal allergies, so this was a big deal to me.

So that was great, along with the new pillow I took some other steps to help me get a better night’s sleep, and while I haven’t totally solved the problem it did get a lot better. But then we started traveling a lot. And unfortunately pillow quality varies widely when you are traveling. Sometimes you get really nice pillows like when you are on a Princess Cruise, and sometimes you get the flattest little pillows that do you know good. I spent one of the worst sleeping nights of my life on a pillow that might as well have been a pice of paper in Venice.

Honestly sleep is important to getting the most out of travel, but it is hard to haul your full sized pillow around with you. I have seen people with their big pillows on airplanes, but I just don’t want to deal with it. Fortunately I did find a great airplane pillow from Eddie Bauer that I reviewed previously. But camping has continued to be an issue.

Enter the Outbright Pillow

So when I found out that the camping pillow Outbright wanted us to review was a shredded memory foam pillow with bamboo case I absolutely jumped at the chance. To be able to have the same quality pillow that I use on my bed in a smaller size made for camping sounded like it would be really great.

If you have been following along on the podcast you know that we have spent most of the weekends this summer camping in National and State Parks. So my pillow issues have definitely been front and center. Unfortunately, Outbright got it touch with us after our camping trips had concluded and I thought I might not get to actually test it out for its intended purpose.

Then we decided to take a spur of the moment trip to close out summer on Labor Day weekend to Great Basin National Park. So this was the perfect chance to test it out.

Carrying Case

The Outbright Camping Pillow is intended for camping and traveling, which means it needs some way to be carried. You see people with their regular pillows just being tossed around and that doesn’t seem like the best idea. So the Outbright pillow comes in a great little cylindrical carrying case. It says online that the carrying case is water proof, I didn’t test that out, so I guess we will just have to trust them.

Picture from Outbright

Size

In camping everything is a tradeoff. You are literally trading comfort for adventure, and the more uncomfortable you are probably the more adventure you are going to have. Often sacrificing comfort comes down to leaving things behind, or shrinking the size of the things you do bring. That is always the case with camping pillows, they are small.

The Outbright camping pillow seeks a compromise when it comes to size. It does not try to be the smallest pillow in the world, but also is not a full size pillow claiming to be a camping pillow. The pillow measures 16 in x 12 in. It folds in half to go into the carrying case, but it is not as small as other camping pillows I have tried. You are not likely to take the Outbright pillow backpacking with you (it also weighs 1.5 lbs), but it is not going take up noticeable space in your car.

Comfort

Sleeping on the Outbright pillow is great. It is soft and supportive like my regular pillow. It help you to not wake up because your neck or back are hurting. My initial reaction on laying on it was, “Oh this is so soft!” And because it is bigger than other camping pillows you are in less danger of rolling or sliding off of it in the night.

Cost

The Outbright camping pillow is 24.99 on Amazon. That is more than I would normally pay for a camping pillow. But then when I think about it making me feel better while I’m camping that doesn’t seem like such a bad price. I probably would not have purchased it myself because I am such a spendthrift. The nice thing is that it comes with a 60-day money back guarantee, so you can try it and see if it makes $25 of difference for you.

Sum Up

The Outbright camping pillow is a really good pillow for camping, and I will probably start taking on other travels as well. You just can’t be sure that your accommodations are going to have a good pillow, and it is small enough to take with us on most trips. I would recomend if you have trouble sleeping while camping that you try out the Outbright pillow to see if it is right for you.