I have been searching the internet and have not found a good solution to this problem yet so I thought I'd direct it here. I am looking for a solution to the air mattress dilemma. My wife and I have been doing more camping lately, and we have a 5 night trip coming up next month. It is just car camping, but we have a prius, a dog, and rakes, shovels, and buckets for clamming, so not unlimited space to pack tons of other big stuff. Last year we did the same trip and used an air mattress and it was definitely not ideal. It gets real cold since the air in the mattress gets to air temp and comes at you from underneath (North Puget sound nights 40-45deg even in summer). Also, as you would have guessed, it went flat at 2am one night. Not fun at all.
So I'm looking for a solution, but not just any solution, a mustachian solution. I have a 3 person tent that fits two people and a bulldog on a queen mattress just fine. I'm looking for something semi-compact, extra comfy and warm, and inexpensive. If money were no object I'd go for two thermarest neoair dream XL pads linked together to make a great queen sized pad and relatively compact to transport. However, at $220 EACH that's just... No. What are some things you guys have done? I was thinking maybe a thick memory foam mattress topper would be comfortable, but once they're out of the box they get pretty dang big. I wouldn't even know where to store that in our apartment.
Thanks!