Kootek Camping Hammock

This $25 Camping Hammock Is a Superb Campsite Nap Spot. If the Kids Ever Get Out

This lightweight packable camping hammock is affordable, durable, and a breeze to step up and pack away. Also, it will keep the kids busy for hours.

I strongly recommend the Kootek Camping Hammock because it performs just as well as every other camp hammock I have tested (and I’ve tried more than half a dozen in recent years) despite costing less. It sets up quickly, it can support two adults at the same time, and the kids will swing and play in the thing all day if you let them.

On a recent very much needed trip into the woods, the pandemic still gripping the nation (and globe) as it was at the time, my wife and kids and I made “camp” at a Getaway cabin, a wonderful thing to do that merits its own coverage another time. While small and minimalist, these cabins are quite comfortable. But comfort aside, when you have two kids and two adults sharing a space that’s about 175 square feet in all, sometimes you need a bit more space.

During this trip, that space for me was to be my trusty Kootek Camping Hammock. Heretofore, I had set the hammock up in my basement, my backyard, and had enjoyed it a few campsites after my son was bedded down for the night. With a mom around to watch the kids while I took a break, now was the time for a midday lounge. 

Setting up this hammock requires nothing but a pair of stout trees (or wall hooks or deck beams or whatnot) set anywhere from 10 to 15 feet or so apart. It comes with the straps and carabiners you need to secure the hammock and to adjust the length to suit your anchor options. And thanks to the loops built into the webbing straps, you don’t need to know anything much about knots to secure it safely. (Do go ahead and learn some knot tying basics, though.) In this case, I had perfectly spaced trees and I got the hammock hung in about two minutes.

And within a minute more, both of my kids had clambered into the spacious hammock and were demanding me push them like it was a swing. When they are tired of that, I delivered books. Not after the books were read, it was apparently snack time in the hammock. Then for some reason, I found myself delivering them sticks, the kids refusing to exit my hammock, and also refusing to not be brought a random selection of sticks.

When at long last first my three-year-old daughter and shortly after my seven-year-old son tired of hammock time and emerged, soon my wife clambered in, magazine in hand, and veritably disappeared into the capacious nylon nest.

If you know camping hammocks, you know the drill here. It’s tough and durable yet lightweight, it packs down to about the size of a six-pack of cans. It weighs less than two pounds yet is rated to support 500. And as stated, it’s quite easy to set this thing up. Once you do that and you climb in, you’ll find enough fabric to fully wrap over yourself, blocking out sun or light drizzle and making yourself essentially a hanging bivouac spot any time you need it, whether you’re taking refuge from weather or children.

The hammock can also double as a handy lightweight blanket, a ground cover, a sack for carrying sundries, or it can indeed be used as an emergency shelter. But perhaps the best use of the best camping hammock you’ll find is to create a safe, fun space for the kids. Sure, you won’t get to relax in it, but you may just appreciate it all the more anyway.