Gadling Gear: Luxury Lite Cot

It was a crazy couple of days. We returned from trekking in Yakushima, Japan with just under 18 hours to find a condo for the next month in Taipei, pack, and get on the plane to go there.

And that’s how mistakes happen.

My friend and I booked a great little condo in downtown Taipei. I could have sworn that it said there was a bed AND a sleeper sofa in the condo.

After two nights on the 3 foot long sofa, I caved. I’d been eyeing the Luxury Lite cot for years now but just couldn’t justify buying it. I didn’t do much (any) camping, and I lived downtown.

Time to pull the trigger. My friend was so impressed with the pictures and stats of the cot that he decided to order one as well.

There’s a lot to be impressed with. The cot is full length, keeps your entire body off the ground, yet it packs up to a tiny 2 pound 2 ounce package that you can fit in your backpack.

When the packages came (remarkably quickly, especially considering we were on the other side of the globe), we tore into them. We’d been waiting around all day because we knew that if we didn’t answer the door for the delivery guy, we may never get the package (this already happened in Panama).

In my excitement I tried to build the cot without the instructions. No dice.

Thirty seconds after reading the one page instructions, my light-as-a-feather cot was fully assembled.

The inventor of the cot is a Texan named Bruce. What I love about Bruce’s inventions is that they are supremely versatile and functional. The cot, for example, has several configurations that you can easily put in, depending on whether you need to be higher off the ground, have more support in a particular area, or want to pack as light as possible.

Despite simultaneously testing plastic bags as pillows, which is a story for another time, the cot was very comfortable. It’s not soft like a bed, but instead cradles you like a very taut hammock.

If a good bed is a 10, broken glass and nails are a 1, and a bad bed is a 6, I’d give the luxury lite an 8 for comfort. Impressive considering how light it is and how tiny it packs up. In fact, if the Guinness Book had a record for most comfort per ounce, I think the Luxury Lite would win.

I’m looking forward to taking the luxury lite with me next time I go camping, but until then it will make a perfectly acceptable replacement for a bed. When two friends stayed too late at our hotel and didn’t want to walk home, we broke out the cots for them. When we have sleep in an airport next month because of an overnight stopover, the cots will be deployed

My friend sleeps on his instead of his bed, although he has to put it on top of the bed because the apartment is so small.