Vango Shangri-La 10 Double Self Inflating Mat

Product Information

The smart design and fabric mean the overall feel is less like camping equipment and more like something you'd find at home – and in fact, this would be a great choice for a spare guest mattress. Vango Shangri-La II review:verdict

Elastic Fabric - Produced using a soft, elastic yarn knitted into a comfortable fabric providing a home-from-home feeling with the best possible night's sleep.

The Shangri-La is for all intents and purposes a proper mattress when it’s fully inflated. It has vertical side walls to maximize the top-level surface area and this means that you don’t roll off in the night.

Inflation is simple and obviously doesn’t require a pump. Simply undo the valve and the air will gush in with full inflation after 5-10 minutes. At this point tighten up the valve and you are ready to climb on board. Inflated size for the Ultim is 200 x 136 x 8cm which is enough for most people under 6ft 6 inches in height. The Ultim In Use Weighing only 2kg in large size (196 x 64 x 11cm) and 2.5kg in XXL (203 x 76 x 11cm), this is a surprisingly lightweight product which has greatly impressed us. It is more less than half the weight of the Vango Shangri-La for example. Personally I would plump for the XL if you find you have a choice of sizes – it just gives that extra bit of surface area for a nice sprawl when sleeping, and for not much extra weight. If space is at a premium, you'll save by just going for a regular air mattress, which are easy to find in a double size. I've tried Coleman's air mattresses and they work well, but really it's much of a muchness in that arena. If you don't fancy that, you'll find plenty of different approaches in T3's best camping bed guide – the Robens Polarshield 120 is a similar idea to the Shangri-La.However a low R-Value (<2) could mean you end up getting cold in the night. Inflatable air mattresses which are essentially big air balloons which you sleep on have notoriously low R-values and are no good at all for sleeping on in winter or autumn. We recommend an R-Value of 3 or higher for 3-season use, and 5 or higher if you will be lying on the ground in winter too.