Sea to Summit Boab Sleeping Bag (-1°C) Review

I love this sleeping bag, for two reasons: the materials feel so nice, and it packs away compact and easy. It’s much easier to roll up than many of the other sleeping bags we’ve tried over the years.

What You’re Getting

A synthetic sleeping bag in a 20-litre compression sack with four straps. The Regular size measures 216 × 76 cm and fits people up to 185 cm tall. It also comes with a small Sea to Summit carabiner, which holds the swing tags and is handy for clipping the sack to a hook or a bag afterwards.

Quick Specs

Warmth and temperature rating

The name says -1°C, but that’s the lower limit. The comfort rating, the figure to go by for a good night’s sleep, is 2°C. Both are rated to the ISO standard, so you can compare them with other bags that use it.

The fill is 850 g of Revive Loft, a synthetic insulation made from recycled polyester. A draft tube runs along the zip to keep cold air out, and the top opening has a drawcord so you can pull it in around your head and shoulders.

If you camp in colder places, there’s also a warmer Boab with a lower limit of -9°C. It was only about $20 more than ours when we looked, at BCF and Anaconda, so it’s worth a look for winter trips and the high country.

Shape and room

The Boab is a tapered rectangle: wide at the shoulders (152 cm around), a little narrower at the hips (145 cm) and 100 cm around the feet. That’s more room than a mummy bag gives you, which helps if you sleep on your side or move around at night.

The one downside for me is the fit. The Regular is made for people up to 185 cm, and at 186 cm I find it a bit snug to get into. If I bought it again, I’d probably go for the Regular Wide version, which is the one our Amazon button links to.

Zip and quilt mode

The zip runs down the side and continues through the footbox, with two sliders. That gives you a few ways to use it: zipped right up on cold nights, opened at the feet to let some air in, or unzipped completely so the bag lies flat as a quilt on warmer nights.

There’s a snap at the shoulder that holds the top closed while the zip is partly open, and a zip plough on the slider that keeps the fabric out of the teeth so it doesn’t snag.

Packed size and weight

Packing up is where the Boab is a pleasure to own. It rolls up far more easily than many sleeping bags we’ve had over the years, and goes into its sack without a fight.

The bag is listed at 1,391 g, and 1,487 g packed in its sack. The compression sack holds 20 litres and its four straps pull the bag down to about 10.2 litres.

That’s where it wins over a big cotton bag. Packed next to our Coleman Pilbara C-5, which weighs about 3.3 kg, the Boab is clearly the smaller of the two and less than half the weight. In a car that’s already full, or in a rooftop tent that has to close over the bedding, that makes a real difference.

Materials and build

The materials are what I like most about this bag: they feel really nice, inside and out. The shell and lining are 50 denier recycled polyester, and the shell has a water-repellent finish without PFAS to shed light moisture. Sea to Summit gives the bag a lifetime warranty.

Conclusion: Sea to Summit Boab Sleeping Bag (-1°C)

The Sea to Summit Boab -1°C is a roomy, well-made synthetic sleeping bag. It has a comfort rating of 2°C, space to move, a two-way zip that opens the whole bag into a quilt, and it compresses to about 10 litres at 1.4 kg. The materials feel really nice and it rolls up more easily than most bags we’ve owned. It’s pricey, too heavy to be a hiking bag, and the Regular is a bit snug to get into at 186 cm, so taller campers should look at the wide version. I paid $215 for it. For three-season camping where you want comfort but can’t spare much room, it’s a very good choice.