Bring your own beds?

Taking your bed wih you sounds like an odd idea, but I think in our case it's really going to help. Actually we're taking two different beds, to meet our kids different needs.


Emma's bed is actually a self inflating mattress from a camping shop. (TrangoWorld 120cm Skin Micro Lite by Casa Artiach )It's actually for climbers, to keep the main part of their body off the ground, but it just happens to be about the same length as our daughter, at least now at the age of 5.



By the way, "self inflating" is a little misleading, but it's easy to fully inflate it with about two strong breaths, so that's OK. It weighs 0.5kg and is easy to rolls up and put into a stuff sack.





Lara's bed is a pop up travel cot (model TR 1530) made by Samsonite. It has won lots of awards, and seems to have deserved them.

It is designed for babies from 6-18 months, and so it's quite roomy for our 10-month old. It's dimensions are: 96cmL x 60cmW x 82cmH. Folded up, the carry-case measures 33cm x 61cm x 10cm.

The deciding factor for us was that it weighs less than 3 kg, wheras other leading models were all around 8 kg. This one is enclosed in mosquito netting which i hope is also Sydney red-back spider-proof, though it doesn't offer the UV protection and thus the beach-action that it's rivals did. It's pop-up construction is a slight cause of worry, as we'll be setting it up and folding it together much more frequently than the average user. Also, it's very fast - it popped up into my nose on my first attempt (in the shop -not embarrassing at all) so now I open it as if I'm defusing a bomb.

We've tested both beds a fews times, and all in all, we're delighted with our purchases so far. We'll see if we made the right decision as time goes by.