This sleeping bag is no longer available, you can find other double sleeping bags at Go Outdoors
What is it?
Outwell Cardinal Double Sleeping Bag RRP £139.99
The Outwell Cardinal sleeping bag is a double mummy style sleeping bag featuring Isofill Premium for warmth. The sleeping bag features a zipperless entry design, and incorporates an integrated Isofill duvet which can be folded back to provide maximum freedom of movement.
Technical details
Mummy style double sleeping bag
Dimensions 220 x 160 x 140 cm (LxWxW)
Body length 195 cm
230T microfibre shell 100% polyester
Polycotton lining (20% cotton / 80% polyester)
Zip across bottom section for ventilation in warmer weather
Isofill premium filling in single layer construction
What did we think?
I never use mummy bags as I can’t stand the feeling of being restricted in bed and don’t like the slightly sticky synthetic feel of most mummy bags. I prefer to sacrifice their warmth for something roomier but with an extra blanket on top. As a side sleeper too, I like plenty of room to move around and find mummy bags claustrophobic, so I wasn’t sure how I’d feel using a double sleeping bag for the first time.
The zipperless design of the bag is unusual; you get in towards the top end of the sleeping bag through the large V shaped opening instead of getting in through a side zip. Initially it looked like it might be quite tricky to get in and out of, but in use it was a cinch. The fold-over built in duvet easily un-clips from each side, providing a larger opening to get in and out of, and we were both pleasantly surprised to find the Cardinal just as easy as any other sleeping bag to get in and out of.
The label on the sleeping bag states that it’s suitable right down to -12, so on a recent Easter camping trip with the night time temperature down at around 5 degrees, and as someone who is perpetually cold, it was chilly enough overnight to find out just how warm the Outwell Cardinal could keep me.
A combination of shared body heat and the high performance Isofill Premium stuffing of the sleeping bag ensured that we stayed cosy on both nights of our camping trip. The description of the sleeping bag has it down as mummy style, and whilst the foot end does taper, I was relieved to find that actually, it’s only very slight.
The sleeping bag is pretty generous size wise, and that does make for quite a large size when packed down. Just like any other sleeping bag though, it’s easy to put away, and comes with a big stuff sack with extra compression straps on the outside.
Final thoughts
Whilst the built-in pillows are a nice extra touch, in practice they didn’t really provide pillow-like support, so we still used our regular pillows with the Cardinal. I was honestly expecting to struggle with this sleeping bag on grounds of it being both a double and mummy style, but I really liked it, and Mr CWS thinks it’s brilliant, so it’s a definite big thumbs up from us in terms of both looks and performance.
Shell Robshaw-Bryan is an outdoor and travel writer, journalist and the founder of Camping with Style, one of the UK's longest-running camping and glamping blogs, now in its twelfth year.
A nature-loving, comfy-camping kinda girl at heart, Shell launched the blog following a serious snowboarding accident that left her with a broken back. Rather than retreat indoors and accept the gloomy prognosis she was given, she turned to the healing power of nature and the outdoors to aid her recovery. She's been writing about it ever since.
From open water swimming, riding, kayaking, snowboarding and hill walking to glamping, meditation, luxury travel and microadventures, Shell writes from genuine first-hand experience and has been featured in publications including The Telegraph, Guardian and HuffPost.
She believes wholeheartedly that the outside world is the best therapy there is and she continues making the case for it, one adventure at a time.
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