The best outdoor deals from REI’s 2026 Anniversary Sale

It’s almost summer. The birds are migrating, the flowers are blooming, and REI is starting its anniversary sale.

It’s the outdoor retailer’s biggest sale of the year. This year’s REI sale begins May 15 and runs through Memorial Day, May 25. There’s up to 30 percent off many items, but REI Co-op members save up to 20 percent on any full-priced item and additional 20% off any REI Outlet product. To get the discount, add the promo code Anniversary26 When you go out.

We’ve highlighted the best deals on gear we’ve loved over our years of testing. There’s something for almost all of our favorite summer activities: tents, stoves, sleeping bags, and plenty of outdoor clothing. Be sure to check out our guides to outdoor gear, like the best tents , best sleeping bags , best backpacking sleeping pads , best rain jackets , best backpacking water filters , best merino wool , and best binoculars .

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Offers on camping tools and equipment

Photo: Scott Gilbertson

Goal Zero’s new Yeti 1500 is one of the best camping and overlanding power stations we’ve tested. The new LiFePO4 chemical battery is rated for 4,000 charge cycles (about 10 years of average use) and there is a new high-amp output (30 amps) for hooking into trucks and landing gear. Goal Zero also designed it to be able to handle the high vibration environment of off-road terrain. With 4 AC outlets and up to 140W USB charging, the Yeti 1500 can keep your wired world running for over a week, no network required.

Yes, your phone has some dedicated satellite messenger features, but we still think it’s better to use a dedicated device. Garmin’s new inReach Mini 3 now offers some of those phone features, like voice and photo messaging, plus emergency features and excellent worldwide service. It’s also still small, well built, and has great battery life. The cheaper Garmin Inreach Mini 3 (which doesn’t have the new photo sharing features) is also on sale for $400 ($50 off).

The Garmin Instinct Solar is our favorite rugged and affordable solar-powered outdoor watch. It has a long battery life, and can be recharged anytime you’re out in the sun. It’s GPS enabled and there are plenty of sports tracking and navigation features. It’s cheaper than the Fenix ​​and quite reliable.

Courtesy of Coleman

My favorite of Coleman’s current lineup, the Cascade 3-in-1 (8/10, WIRED recommends) features heavy-duty cast iron grates, comes with a cast iron griddle and griddle, and can fit a 12-inch skillet and a 10-inch skillet side by side. It’s sturdier and more powerful than other Coleman stoves, and worth the extra money if you’re serious about camp cooking. However, the much cheaper stove below will help if you only use it a few nights a year.

This is our favorite camp stove for most people. Technically, this version is a bit more upscale than our top pick, with electronic ignition and a lovely light green paint job. Is it worth the extra $30? This is up to you. If not, get the less fancy version for $59 at Walmart.

The thing to keep in mind when shopping for REI-brand gear is the company’s basic offering: You get 90 percent of a designer item for 70 percent of the price. It’s a strategy that works well and has produced some great, affordable equipment. This chair is a good example of that. It’s not as cute as the Nemo above, but it’s still comfortable (it sways a little, side to side when moving) and nearly half the price.

Photo: Scott Gilbertson

Whenever I can, I like to cook over an open flame with my stove, which often means cutting wood. The best portable saw I’ve found is this folding miter saw. It’s light enough to hold a bike bag (5.3 ounces), and folds down to about 9 inches long, which slides into the pannier without any problem. This thing is very sharp, be careful when using it in remote areas.

Petzl’s Tikka headlamp is one of our favorite headlights. It provides plenty of light for cooking in remote areas, runs on three AAA batteries (we recommend Panasonic Eneloop rechargeable batteries) and lasts over 5.5 hours. It’s also compatible with the Petzl USB-rechargeable Primary Battery ($30).

The thing to keep in mind when shopping for REI-branded gear is the company’s basic offering: You get 90 percent of a designer item for 70 percent of the price. It’s a strategy that works well and has produced some great, affordable equipment. The REI chair is a good example of this. It’s not as cute as the Nemo above, but it’s still comfortable (it sways a little, side to side when moving) and nearly half the price.

Offers on tents

REI tents are some of the best deals available, even more so during sales. If you want to learn more, check out our guides to the best backpacking tents and the best car camping tents.

Photo: Scott Gilbertson

REI’s Base Camp Tent is WIRED’s favorite car camping tent. It is very well designed and proved to be weather resistant in our tests. The traditional dome tent design, with two cross poles and two side poles, holds up well in the wind, and the tent floor is made of high-quality 150 denier (150D) polyester. There are plenty of storage pockets, double doors, great vents, and huge windows, making it comfortable even in the summer heat.

The REI Half Dome 2 is the best 2-person backpacking tent. I’ve carried it on many backpacking trips and found it to be very sturdy, quick to set up, and able to hold two people and their gear. It even comes with a footprint (which I never bother with, but it’s nice to have if you have to deal with pricks or pointy rocks).

The Big Agnes Copper Spur Series is our top choice for ultralight freestanding tents. This is a high-quality, well-designed tent that is lightweight, easy to set up, and spacious enough to be backcountry livable. The ‘umbrella’ design (where the front fabric is held high using poles or trekking poles) is a great addition and the combination of 15D nylon and 20D ripstop, while looking crisp, has also held up well over time. The four-person version, which is one of the lightest 4P tents on the market, is also on sale.

Nemo’s Dragonfly tents are great. I really like the generous amount of mesh on top, which provides some good ventilation on warm summer nights and is perfect for sleeping under the stars when the weather allows. The Osmo fabric continues to live up to the hype, with much less water absorption than nylon tents in wet weather, and there’s good space to store all your stuff.

Deals on sleeping bags and sleeping pads

Whether you need an inexpensive camping bag or something more sturdy for your fall and spring trips, we have what you need. Be sure to read our guides to the best sleeping bags, best sleeping pads for camping, and best sleeping pads for backpacking for more options.

Photo: Scott Gilbertson

REI’s Magma line is one of the best out there. The Magma 15 Sleeping Bag has always been an affordable bag perfect for shoulder season trips when the temperature swings lower than you’d expect (comfort rating is 21°F). There are three lengths and three widths, making it easy to get something perfect for your body, and the 850-fill power goose down (Bluesign certified) is nice and compact. If you don’t need shoulder season coverage, the Magma 30 is also on sale for $262 ($87 off), and makes a great summer sleeping bag.

I spent a week sleeping under this comforter during America’s Biggest Birding Week. The magma quilt was surprisingly warm. I wore a puffy jacket, but was able to stay comfortable in the 30 degree weather. Like the sleeping bag version above, this is 95 percent of what you get from much more expensive duvets. It’s light (20.3 ounces for medium), packs down small, includes straps to keep it on your sleeping pad, and can be completely disassembled and used as a comforter or clipped into a convenient footbox on cooler nights.

Photo: Scott Gilbertson

This is one of my favorite lightweight sleeping bags. There are lighter comforters on the market, but when you need mummy bag warmth on those cold nights, this is what I use. It also has the smallest pack size of any bag I’ve tested in this temperature range. With the included compression bag, this thing is really small. The down filling is PFC free, and 850+ waterproof. The zippers are on the small side, but they slide well and rarely get stuck on the bag. I have slept in this bag at temperatures up to 20 degrees and have not felt cold at all.

Nemo’s Forte 20 is a synthetic-filled sleeping bag with a 20-degree angle, but its comfort rating is 30 degrees. In my testing, this seems more like where you’d want the temperature to stay with this bag. The outer shell uses a 30-denier recycled polyester rip-stop material with an inner lining made of 20-denier recycled polyester taffeta. The filling is what Nemo calls Zerofiber insulation, which is made with 100 percent post-consumer recycled content fiber. The Zerofiber bag is remarkably compact, and is the most synthetic packing bag I’ve tested in this thermal range.

Photo: Scott Gilbertson

I had to give up my light credit to Reddit mods to carry this powerful pad, but it’s totally worth the improved sleep. The extra 6 ounces are almost more than offset by how well I sleep — rest and recovery are a key part of long baby miles — on this pillow compared to every other backpacking sleeping pillow. This is good. Unfortunately, they’re also kind of expensive…which is why you should get one on sale now.

Tensor All-Season hits all the sweet spots. It weighs an acceptably light 18.2 ounces, offers a good 3 inches of padding, and has an R-value of 5.4. (A sleeping pad’s R-value refers to its insulation level; the higher the number, the warmer you’ll stay and 5.4 is enough insulation for cold spring or fall nights.) This works out to the best filling and R-rating for weight. It is also very quiet, there is no annoying noise every time you roll.

If you’re gearing up for a winter trip, this is a good deal on a great winter sleeping pad. The Tensor Extreme Conditions has the highest R-value of any pad we tested (8.5) and yet somehow managed to pack to roughly the size of a Nalgene water bottle and weigh just 21 ounces (587 g).

Courtesy of Exped

This is my new favorite winter sleeping pad. It doesn’t have quite the R-value of the Tensor Extreme above, but I find it more comfortable and when paired with the Therm-a-Rest Z-lite, I stayed plenty warm even on a night spent at -25 degrees Fahrenheit last winter. I like it so much, I bought a second one for whoever is foolish enough to come with me on such trips.

Big Fat Camping Pillow Starting the trend of big fat camping pillows, Megamat is a revelation. Trust me, you have no idea how comfortable tent camping is until you sleep on a Megamat. The 4-inch-thick Exped MegaMat is surprisingly soft and firm thanks to the closed-cell foam inside, which relieves pressure and feels as close to a mattress in your bedroom as it will in the woods.

When I sold my Jeep, I had to give up my dreams of traveling the land and going back to just a camper. But this Megamat, which fits over the wheels of an SUV, has brought some of those off-road driving dreams back to life. I throw this in the back of my wife’s Rav4, and while it’s not a perfect fit (see Exped for supported vehicles), it’s close enough that I can get a good night’s sleep in the car.