Camping

Hammock Camping for Beginners: Safe Setup, Easy Teardown, and Deciding If It Fits You

By Caleb Wolf · 2026-10-15

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I use an ENO hammock on all my overnight trips. It's my personal number one choice over a tent, though tents have their use cases, and the right pick for you depends on your own experience, trips and priorities. This guide covers why I like to hang, how to do it safely and with Leave No Trace in mind, how to set up and tear down, and some things to consider as you decide what fits you. Prices were checked on Oct 15, 2026 and change often.

Why I personally prefer a hammock

Setup and teardown are the big reasons for me. Tent stakes can be hard to drive into the ground. With a hammock, I just sling it between two trees. Hammocks need no ground leveling, trenching or staking, and rocks, roots and slopes under you stop mattering. Your hammock also doubles as a camp chair.

Teardown in wet weather is the other reason. A tarp over a hammock is much easier to dry out and fold up than a tent's rain fly.

Things to consider before you choose

Tents have their use cases too, and what works best depends on where and how you camp. Here are some points worth thinking through:

No trees: deserts, above treeline, and most beaches.
Cold: LetsGoHammock notes that below freezing, a tent plus a sleeping pad can be simpler.
Space: a tent gives you room to change and store gear, while hammocks have little interior storage.
Sharing: if you camp as a couple, keep in mind one hammock site's take: "Two people, one hammock, not really."
Rules: some parks restrict hanging gear from trees.

REI also lists some hammock trade-offs to consider: you need sturdy trees, they can be colder, and they're less rainproof than a traditional tent. Weigh these against your own trips and decide what fits you.

Weight: compare whole sleep systems, not just the shelter

If pack weight matters to you, compare complete sleep systems, not just a hammock against a tent. A tent setup needs a sleeping pad and a sleeping bag. A hammock setup uses a top quilt instead of a bag, adds an underquilt for cold nights, and doesn't need a pad.

In my own experience, which way the weight tips depends on the gear you choose, and the pad and bag a tent needs add up. That's my view, though, not a rule. In the sourced example below, the hammock setup is about 22 oz (1.4 lb) heavier than an ultralight tent setup, and ultralight tent setups like this one can come in lighter than a hammock. Run the numbers on the gear you actually own or plan to buy.

Example only: one like-for-like 20°F setup, using listed weights. Actual weights vary with size and options.

Part of the system	Hammock example	Tent example
Shelter	ENO SingleNest 16 oz + Atlas straps 9 oz + ProFly tarp 22 oz + Guardian bug net 15 oz = 62 oz	Big Agnes Copper Spur UL1: 32 oz (trail weight)
Insulation underneath	Hammock Gear Incubator 20 underquilt: 21.08 oz	Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite NXT Regular pad: 13 oz (R 4.5)
Insulation on top	Hammock Gear Burrow 20 top quilt: 22.85 oz	Kelty Cosmic Down 20 bag, Regular: 39 oz
Sleeping pad	Not needed	Counted above
Example total	About 106 oz (6 lb 10 oz)	84 oz (5 lb 4 oz)

A few things to keep in mind with this example:

Tent weight: the current Copper Spur UL1 ($499.95) is 32 oz trail weight and 38 oz packed. Using the packed weight brings the tent total to 90 oz.
Temperature ratings aren't standardized. ENO gives comfort ranges, while Kelty and Hammock Gear give single ratings. None of these say whether they're ISO 23537 tested, so treat matching numbers as approximate.
Hammock Gear quilts are made to order, so weights vary. The Burrow figure is one in-stock Short/Slim unit, so a Standard/Regular Burrow 20 will likely weigh more, and the hammock total may be a few ounces light.
A budget pad isn't warm enough for 20°F. Swapping in the budget Klymit Static V Base pad (18.7 oz, R 1.3) brings the tent total to 89.7 oz, but that pad suits summer only.
ENO's own quilts make a different system. Pairing the ENO Ember underquilt (27 oz, 40–60°F) with the Vesta top quilt (28 oz, 30–50°F) brings the hammock total to 117 oz (7 lb 5 oz). That's roughly a 40°F setup at best, not a 20°F one.
Not counted: stakes for the Guardian net and any extra guylines.

Safety first: trees, anchors, and height

Pick living trees at least 6 in. in diameter, ideally with hard bark and no lichen (Leave No Trace). Never use dead trees. Avoid trees that bend or stand in wet soil, and hang on the thickest part of the trunk.
Look up for widowmakers. In LNT's words: "Even if your chosen tree looks alive, check above you for dead branches that could fall." REI says to pick trees with no dead branches.
One hammock per tree. REI says never to attach more than one hammock to a tree, and ENO says not to stack hammocks.
Hang low. ENO says "under no circumstances" hang higher than 18 in., and REI also says no more than 18 in. Stick to 18 in. (LNT's current guidelines give a looser "less than 5 feet," so 18 in. is the cautious choice.)
Know the weight limits. ENO rates the SingleNest, the DoubleNest and the Atlas straps at 400 lb each. REI notes each Atlas strap holds 200 lb, which adds up to the 400 lb rating.

Straps, not rope (and a note on strap width)

Leave No Trace says to use webbing straps 1 in. or wider. Never use anything thinner, never hammer or screw anything into a tree, and wrap the strap once with a loose hang and no knots. REI adds that rope or cord can damage the tree, and REI sets its minimum strap width at 0.75 in.

Disclosure on the straps I mention here: ENO now calls them Atlas Hammock Straps (REI and Amazon still list them as the Atlas Hammock Suspension System). They taper from 1.5 in. down to 0.75 in. That meets REI's 0.75 in. standard but is narrower than LNT's 1 in. minimum. If you want to follow LNT's guideline, look at the Atlas EXT. REI lists it as 2 in. wide at $19.95 (ENO's own figures for it aren't in my research).

Also note that ENO hammocks don't include straps, and toggle-end hammocks need carabiners to use Atlas straps.

Buy Atlas Hammock Straps (Suspension System) at ENO Atlas EXT straps (2 in. wide) at ENO

Setup best practices, step by step

Choose your trees using the safety checks above, and look up before you hang anything.
Wrap the straps once around each trunk, flat and with no knots.
Aim for about a 30° strap angle to the ground, and don't pull the hammock taut.
Leave plenty of sag. One hammock maker warns that a hammock that's too tight squeezes your shoulders and stresses the hardware. When in doubt, more sag is safer.
Keep it low, no higher than 18 in.
Lie on a diagonal. REI suggests 10–15° off the centerline, and a hammock vendor suggests 30–45°. Both work, so find what's comfortable. Raising the foot end about 6 in. also helps.
Ridgeline, if you use one: keep a structural ridgeline "clothesline, not guitar string" tight.
Pitch the tarp. Run the tarp ridgeline above the hammock suspension, and let the tarp extend 8–12 in. past each end of the hammock. Pitch it perpendicular to the wind with the windward edge lower, and pitch it low for storms.
Add drip lines. Tie about 6 in. of cord at the ridgeline attachment points so rain drips off before it can run down to the hammock.
Hang the bug net if you need one. ENO's Guardian gives 360° coverage with a tensioned ridgeline and a vertical zipper. It doesn't fit Sky-series, DayLoft or SuperNest hammocks.

Teardown

Packing up is where a hammock really earns its place for me. The tarp over the hammock is much easier to dry out and fold up than a tent's rain fly.

Staying warm: insulation underneath

In a hammock, your sleeping bag compresses underneath you and you lose heat to moving air. An underquilt hangs below the hammock and solves this. Underquilts have no R-values or standard temperature ratings, so a rough guide (from REI) is to match the loft of your sleeping bag. One hammock vendor's rule of thumb is that you'll want an underquilt below about 50°F. ENO lists its Ember underquilt at $119.95 and 27 oz, with a 40–60°F comfort range.

ENO Ember underquilt at ENO

The ENO gear in this guide

Prices and specs are ENO's own published figures, checked Oct 15, 2026, except where marked as REI's.

Product	Price	Weight	Capacity / size
ENO SingleNest	$54.95	16 oz	400 lb; 9'6"×4'10"
ENO DoubleNest	$74.95	19 oz	400 lb; 9'6"×6'4"
ENO Atlas Hammock Straps (a.k.a. Atlas Suspension System)	$29.95	9 oz (pair)	400 lb; 9 ft; tapers 1.5→0.75 in.
ENO Atlas EXT	$19.95 (REI's price; ENO's not covered)	Not covered	2 in. wide (REI's figure)
ENO ProFly Rain Tarp	$84.95	22 oz (stakes included)	10'6"×6'4"; 70D, 1000 mm PU
ENO Guardian Bug Net	$64.95	15 oz	9'4"×4'3"
ENO Ember underquilt	$119.95	27 oz	40–60°F comfort range

Sources

Facts in this article come from our research briefs, library/hammock-vs-tent-camping-2026-10-15.md (compiled 2026-10-15) and library/sleep-system-weights-hammock-vs-tent-2026-10-15.md (the sleep-system weights supplement, checked 2026-10-15), and these sources cited in them. Buy links for ENO gear go to ENO directly; see library/hammock-affiliate-programs-2026-10-15.md (affiliate program research, 2026-10-15) and ENO's affiliate program page below. The personal notes above are my own experience. Prices were checked on Oct 15, 2026 and change often, so check the retailer before buying.

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