Rumpl’s Down Puffy Blanket Is Like Bringing Your Own Luxury Bedding on the Road

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It’s finally — almost … pretty much … not really — spring here in New England. And that means only one thing: spring beer! OK, two things: it also means we’re gearing up for our spring/summer road trips.

One thing we learned on our last two-week stint through Pennsylvania is that bedding is the single most important factor to enjoying car camping. We scored this sweet, versatile, folding mattress from Lucid, but opted to use an old, albeit quite comfortable, childhood blanket to keep warm at night.

Then we discovered Rumpl. In particular, their 2-person Down Puffy Blanket — the so-called “Cadillac of Outdoor Blankets”. The folks at Rumpl were kind enough to send us a sample to sleep with (sexy).

Here’s what we found …

The Skinny

In Rumpl’s own words, the Down Puffy Blanket is:

… the warmest, travel-ready blanket available. Perfect for long distance trips, backpacking, or whenever saving space is a priority. Utilizing sustainably sourced gray duck down for insulation, and a weather-resistant DWR-treated 20D nylon shell, the Down Puffy blanket compresses to an easily packable size and unfolds to cover even the tallest trekker, wherever they land after a long day.

The Traveler’s Take

On paper, there’s a lot to like about the Puffy Blanket. But, three points, in particular, stand out for me.

First, the size: this thing packs down incredibly small. It compresses to an 8″x9″ “ball” — about the size of an NFL football — and weighs two pounds (roughly one pound for the 1-person Puffy Blanket). Compare this to your typical comforter (like the one we’d previously been using) and it’s a huge space-saver in our rooftop cargo carrier.

Second, the 600-fill down insulation means it’s ridiculously comfortable and warm when you need it to be. It’s good down to 40°F (~4°C). For us, and we suspect for most road trippers, that should be perfect. If you’re planning on cold weather road tripping, the fellahs on Ice Road Truckers probably have better tips for you.

Lastly: the shell. It’s made of DWR-treated, 20D ripstop nylon to repel water, stains, pet hair, and odors (we shower with soap while on the road, but it can only do so much, right?). Again, it’s designed to take a beating. So we can be confident that, as much as we move around on our road trips from campground to campground, the Puffy will wear just fine.

Rumpl 2-person Down Puffy Blanket

If there’s one reason to do a double-take on the Puffy Blanket, it’s the price. Nearly $300 for the 2-person variety might seem a bit steep. But, we’re firm believers in the “you get what you pay for” philosophy. I like buying something (a coffeemaker, backpack, block of cheese, or a blanket) just once and never need to worry about replacing it. While we’ve only had Rumpl’s blanket for a month, I can already tell that the quality is going to withstand the beating it’s about to take during our upcoming road trips.