This is a little apples to oranges in so much as a doubles pad is likely warmer with a partner; but I just tried out the Exped 6.5 Duo with my wife in Patagonia this week. Our lowest night was around 35f plus some wind chill sneaking through the tent. We were extremely comfortable with a 15 deg enlightened quilt.
Exped Ultra 3R Duo for most 3-season conditions
The 6.5 version if you need it for colder.
Double mat is a huge quality of life improvement over 2 double mats assuming you share a quilt.
Exped Ultra Duo pads are the lightest two person pads with reasonable r-values that I'm aware of. Personally, I like CCF pads for kids though.
I've shared a two person quilt (UGQ Tango) with my 5yo when I've taken the kids out solo, but mostly they use their own quilt (UGQ Youth Bandit).
We have several exped mats. As others have mentioned, the ultra are light weight for backpacking. We have an ultra duo and an ultra 3r, both are very comfortable.
If you are sleeping in your car, the megamat auto is amazing. I also have the megamat luxemat dou and find the megamat auto to be more comfortable. We have used the auto version in our tent as well. The regular megamat is very very comfortable and I highly recommend it.
I had an Exped Ultra for many years, which was pretty comfortable, but wasn't a big fan of the vertical baffles. When it finally failed, Exped replaced it with a duo Ultra. Good customer service.
Since then I've had the Thermarest nxt and a ZenBivy which I didn't find comfortable. I bought the Nemo Tensor Extreme last week from Backcountry for 20% off. I haven't really had it out, but I highly recommend it. Six foot, 200# side sleeper. I don't have to keep it rock hard.
I had an Exped Ultra for many years, which was pretty comfortable, but wasn't a big fan of the vertical baffles. When it finally failed, Exped replaced it with a duo Ultra. Good customer service.
Since then I've had the Thermarest nxt and a ZenBivy which I didn't find comfortable. I bought the Nemo Tensor Extreme last week from Backcountry for 20% off. I haven't really had it out, but I highly recommend it. Six foot, 200# side sleeper. I don't have to keep it rock hard.
I bought my exped duo used and it was still a little more than your budget. Definitely worth the extra $ if you can swing it.
ETA I also rented at first because we inky went for a couple of days at a time. That was a great way to try out different gear to see what worked best for us.
Top Sleeping Pads on Reddit
1
Exped
MegaMat Series
92% positive of 454 users
Car camping comfort champ, but some side sleepers find it thin.
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