Meet the reviewer
Mikkoa Travel Yoga Mat: first impressions
If you're in the market for a travel yoga mat, you're most likely seeking something that can fold away in your backpack or suitcase when you're on the move, but still offers good grip when you're moving through your sun salutations. This travel yoga mat from Mikkoa delivers on both fronts, folding up like a towel but with a rubber underside that sticks to hotel room floors and grassy campsites.
The top of this yoga mat is made from microfiber, which gets stickier the sweatier your palms get, making this a good option for hot yoga classes and practicing in tropical environments. Best of all, you can throw it in the washing machine to freshen it up after a sweaty adventure.
• List price: $89 / £69
• Dimensions: 72 in L x 26 in W / 182 cm L x 66 cm W
• Packed dimensions: 10 in x 6 in / 25.4 cm x 22.8 cm
• Thickness: 1.5 mm
• Weight: 2.5 lbs / 1.15 kg
• Carry bag included: Yes
• Materials: Natural Rubber base, Vegan microfiber surface
• Colors: Melon, Galaxy aurora, Midnight ocean, Mystic marble, Cosmic flow, Dancing chakra
• Best use: Active travel
At 1.5mm thick, you may want a little more padding under your knees if you're practicing on a hard floor, but it means that you can also use it as a top mat if you're using a public mat at a yoga studio and concerned about hygiene. It's slightly longer than a regular mat too, so you get plenty of space to stretch out in Savasana at the end of practice.
Foldable mats like these aren't the most stable when placed on sand or grass, but we were really impressed by how well this grips to natural surfaces and found it far better than other similar designs. It's a little heavier than it looks, but well within the standard for a travel yoga mat and while rubber isn't the most durable of materials, it's biodegradable (though the surface material probably isn't) and the price is right. Best of all, we love that it's made using vegan materials and Mikkoa plants a tree with every purchase.
Mikkoa Travel Yoga Mat: in the field
I've been practicing yoga for decades and now that I'm doing so much active travel for my job with Advnture, it's become really important to me to have a good travel yoga mat. That way I can stretch out after a long day on a plane or climbing a mountain.
Lately, I've been testing out the Mikkoa yoga travel mat. I recently took it on a camping trip to South Downs National Park, a forest bathing expedition in the Lake District where I snuck off for a sunrise flow by myself, and a hotel room flow in London in between those two trips.
Here’s how it performed:
Weight and packability
Because this is a foldable mat, I honestly expected it to feel a bit lighter than it does, but the rubber base means it's a little weightier. That said, it's quite a bit lighter than my other travel mat, and it's in line with most travel yoga mats out there. Obviously, weight doesn't matter much when I'm checking a bag, but since I usually travel with a backpack, I do like to save on pounds wherever possible.
That said, grams on the scale aren't the whole story, and this mat is a dream when it comes to packability. Much like a towel, it folds up or rolls up, so it's really easy to fit into a 30-liter backpack for a few days away and obviously no problem with a suitcase. It's not quite small enough to roll up and squeeze into the side pocket of my pack, but its portability easily makes up for the weight.
Performance
If you've tried a towel yoga mat before, you'll know that they're not the most stable and they can wrinkle up more easily under you than a regular roll-up sticky mat, especially on surfaces like grass and sand. That said, I tried this out on a couple of grassy patches and was really impressed by its staying power. The rubber underside really does grab onto whatever surface it's on. I had a few moments where I was hopping forward from downward dog and it felt like it was going to shift, but it didn't.
It obviously won't sit flush to the ground if the ground isn't flat, and on a hotel room floor you might want an extra towel under your knees for padding, but it's more supportive than you might think. I also love that the entire bottom is rubber, rather than those yoga towels with the microdots underneath that hurt my knees.
On the top side, the microfiber is sweat-absorbant. I don't have particularly sweaty palms and sometimes I find these types of mats a bit slippy as a result, but I had no such problems with this one. If you do, just wet your hands and feet before you use it.
Sustainability and value
We yogis care about our impact on the planet and not all yoga mats are great for Mother Earth. Fortunately, this one seems to have decent eco creds. It's made using rubber which is naturally biodegradable, but the vegan-friendly microfiber surface is probably synthetic, which I'm assuming isn't biodegradable. However, the company does pledge to plant a tree for every purchase.
For a high-quality and high-performing yoga mat, this one comes in at a decent price point, especially considering how versatile it is. Rubber isn't the most durable of materials and if you're machine washing this regularly, it won't last forever, but hanging it out to dry before rolling it up should improve its life span.
Mikkoa Travel Yoga Mat: the bottom line
If you're looking for a foldable yoga mat that gives you more performance than your average yoga towel, you'll find lots to love about this mat. It's portable, easy to clean and grips to every surface we've tried it on. That said, if you really want the stability of a proper mat, check out the Liforme Classic Travel Yoga mat.
