In an effort to help you find the best camping chairs to keep you comfy on your motorhome holidays, our expert test team tried a wide range of chairs, rating them all according to the same criteria to ensure a fair result.

Size was a consideration, as you’ve got to be able to fit the chairs into your ‘van – four folding chairs could gobble up a lot of your motorhome’s storage space. Portability was another factor, as on days out you might want to take your chairs with you. Some chairs even fit into rucksacks. Thus weight was something else we paid attention to – and of course lighter chairs aren’t just easier to carry, they’ll add less to the weight of your ‘van.

We also had to take into account the tricky matter of comfort. While it’s a subjective issue, we had to consider how supportive the chairs were, if they were suitable for lounging, dining or both, and how easy they were to get into and out of.

The Outwell Fountain Hills is like the first chairs-in-a-bag, whose seats were suspended between four supports in the corners. Fortunately, however, thanks to extensive padding and clever webbing tensioning, this camping chair doesn’t proffer the sense of sitting in a hole.

These extras make assembly fiddly, and the padding increases the storage size. If you’re calculating the amount of locker space your camping chairs will use up, bear in mind that each of Outwell’s Fountain Hills folding chairs packs down to 21cm x 28cm x 93cm for storage (8.26 inches x 11 inches x 36.6 inches). 

Still, this chair is roomy and great to lie back in. The open dimensions of these camping chairs are 67cm wide, 58cm deep and 99cm high (26.3 inches wide, 22.8 inches deep and 38.9 inches high). The tension across the front is noticeable against your legs when you sit upright. But the curved chair arms are pretty comfy. 

The Outwell’s Fountain Hills chair has a powder coated hybrid frame made of steel and an alloy. This means that it’s strong enough to take someone who weighs up to 125kg (approximately 19 and a half stone) – the benchmark for our group test was 100kg.

This is also a lightweight option at 4.4kg (9.7lb) and it is easy to carry, especially as the price includes a carry bag, which keeps it neat for stowing in a locker as well as making it easy to take to the beach or someone else’s barbecue.  

At Practical Motorhome we like the new-for-2014 pixel-inspired pattern of squares and stripes, and the fact that you can choose either a green version, a blue version or a black one (as pictured), meaning you can match this chair to the rest of your camping accessories – or mix it up and have a variety of colours. 

Our test team were impressed by this chair, which is reflected in its strong, four-star rating. However, its £40 price tag means it was beaten by its cheaper sibling, the Outwell Spring Hills camping chair, which costs £34.

Other camping chairs reviewed in our group test were the Helinox Chair One, the Promech Paddock Seat, Easy Camp’s Camp Chair Deluxe, the Kampa Easy In/Easy Out and the Gelert Caldera Deluxe Moon Chair review.