25 Prime Day Deals for Your Post-Vax Summer Adventures

Last summer sucked. We stayed inside and video chatted with our loved ones, pining for some karaoke or at least a semblance of normalcy. This year, thanks to finally having Covid-19 vaccines available, the CDC announced relaxed masking guidelines, and summer travel is picking up. Instead of staying home and trying to find a thermometer in stock or scouring the web to save money on hand sanitizer, we’re finally beginning to emerge from our Netflix stupors and socialize without so much distance. We’ve gathered up deals to help with just that.

Note: We strike through items that sell out or rise in price as of publishing. We will update this article, but discounts sometimes return quickly, so be sure to check for yourself. Our picks come from our team’s experiences reviewing products and research. You’ll need a subscription to Amazon Prime to get most of these deals.

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The newer version of this made our list of the best Bluetooth speakers, but we still like the original, especially at this price. The JBL Boombox packs a punch—handy for beach-bound bassheads—and the battery lasts for a full day. It’s $5 cheaper than the previous best price we’ve seen.

This gadget’s fun design earned it a spot on our best Bluetooth speakers roundup. The price is really good too—about $70 cheaper than the next-best we’ve seen. The built-in handle makes it perfect for parties, especially when you’re bouncing from room to room playing songs that make you nostalgic. (Does anyone else do that after a couple of beers?)

If you host friends or family at your house over the summer, this countertop appliance comes in handy. It’s like a fancy, futuristic Crock-Pot. It has several different functions, like pressure cooking and sautéing, and enough capacity to feed up to six people. I (Louryn) use mine to make rice and mashed potatoes quickly. These tend to go on sale during major shopping events like Prime Day and Black Friday.

Going viral on TikTok or shooting a stellar Instagram Story will be much easier with the help of this gimbal. It stabilizes your smartphone so you can take shake-free cinematic shots free no matter how bad your caffeine tremors are. It even has smart features like active object tracking and the ability to swap between portrait and landscape orientation with one press of a button. While you can use it like a monopod, it the built-in tripod can prop up your phone on a table or other flat surface. We haven’t tried out this specific model, but we like other stabilizing gear from DJI. 

We aren’t normally advocates for fast fashion. But for your first post-pandemic summer barbecue, we will make an exception for this truly amazing pineapple print Hawaiian shirt.

This is also a great price for these binoculars, which you can use to catch the Perseids or go birding this summer. This set comes within $5 of the best deal we’ve seen for them. The binoculars are good for beginners and intermediate users. The kit comes with everything you’ll need to get started. You can also get this other pair for $88, though the price isn’t as enticing compared to past discounts.

No camping excursion, tubing adventure, or sporting event is complete without the help of a cooler. This one is both cheap and tiny. It has enough room for six cans, plus ice, making it a better option for a trip to the park or a parade than a multi-person, multi-day outing. Other, bigger Coleman coolers are also on sale today.

This deal is cheaper than the previous historic low price by $50. The Fitbit Sense is a capable wearable that can keep tabs on your stress levels, blood oxygen level, and more. Read our in-depth review for details about everything it measures. Our favorite fitness watch, the Fitbit Charge 4, is also on sale for $100, though it’s not technically a Prime Day deal. Both would make good companions for summertime workouts.

The Garmin Fenix 6S Pro (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is the best outdoor fitness tracker. It’s comfortable and not too bulky, and the watch has features like user-friendly maps and intelligent power management to ensure you can keep using most of the features even if you’re totally off the grid. You can also save on the Garmin Venu (on sale for $220, its best price). It earned an honorable mention spot in our guide.

One thing that none of us missed about not going to the gym? Catching a cold or flu after touching the same surfaces as all those strangers. We may be iffy on herbal immunity support, but Nuun’s tablets don’t taste as barfy as a lot of other supplements. The electrolytes can also help you rehydrate after an intense workout. These Airborne Elderberry + Zinc Gummies are also tasty (and on sale.)

CamelBak is known for its hydration bladders, but the brand also makes solid water bottles. This one’s designed to fit seamlessly into most bike cages (though you could also use it when you’re not biking). It’s easy to squeeze and has a lifetime guarantee, and the Prime Day price is a match of the lowest we’ve seen. For more, check our roundups of the best reusable water bottles and best bike accessories.

Is your kiddo ready to ditch the training wheels? Keep their noggin safe with the help of this discounted bike helmet. It’s available in a few colors, none of which go on sale very often. Just make sure to measure their head and consult the company’s sizing chart first. For grown-up helmet recommendations, this guide might help.

Briggs & Riley bags are expensive, but they’re long-lasting investments. Senior associate reviews editor Adrienne So has dragged hers around the world for more than 10 years without fail. This carry-on, two-wheeled bag contains a built-in garment bag that lets you fold suits, shirts, and jackets without as much wrinkling as if you’d just folded or rolled them up.

I don’t care what anybody says: sleeping on the ground sucks. It seems like no matter how well you sweep the area for rocks and twigs, something always manages to stab you in the back while you try to rest. I (Louryn) swear by self-inflating camping pads, especially for car camping. They’re sort of like air mattresses, meaning you’ll want to keep a close eye out for leaking air, but they do make it much easier to sleep outside. They roll up compactly and take very little effort to inflate, even if it’s dark outside.

Do you miss the maddening din of airports and train stations? We didn’t either. The Sony WH-1000MX4 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) are the best wireless headphones. This is a very good sale price. In fact, we haven’t tracked a price this low before for this model. With active noise-canceling and impressive call quality, plus 30 hours of battery life, this deal is a fantastic choice if you’re in the market for new headphones.

Contigo’s reusable mugs are good for camping, road trips, or chugging caffeine while you work from a local park. These will keep drinks hot for five hours and cold for up to 12, and they’re easy to use one-handed. The AutoSeal lids prevent the vessels from leaking.

It wouldn’t be Prime Day without a LifeStraw deal—for some inexplicable reason, WIRED readers seem to really love these discounts, which don’t pop up too often. This year, you can get two straws for half off the normal price. These have a cult following, probably because they’re so simple to use. The straw’s built-in filter cuts out 99 percent of gross bacteria, parasites, microplastics, dirt, and other nonsense. Stash them in your zombie apocalypse bag or hiking pack and you’ll be able to stay hydrated without worrying about anything (except the zombies).

Planning to document a road trip or a family reunion? Make sure you don’t run out of space with this super-fast solid-state drive. While not featured in our website coverage yet, a couple of our Gear team members have used this and loved it. It has blazing fast transfer speeds so you can easily back up videos or photos on the go, and it works as reliably as SanDisk’s other storage gadgets. This Prime Day deal is a match of the best price we’ve tracked.

This is the best Kindle for most people. It’s $5 cheaper than we’ve seen before. This is the model with ads; you can choose the version without ads, but it’s a bit more expensive. Kindle ads do tend to be tasteful and unobtrusive, and they never appear while you’re actually reading. But if you don’t want to see them on your lock screen, you can always upgrade the software to get rid of them. This e-reader features a built-in backlight, a super-long battery life, and a paper-like display that won’t strain your eyes the way other screens can. Once you take a Kindle on a plane, you’ll never go back to analog books. The waterproof Kindle Paperwhite is also on sale, as is the luxe Kindle Oasis.

For older kids that don’t need toddler-like guidance, but also don’t need a smartphone with free reign of the internet, the Fire HD 8 Pro Kids Edition is worth a look. It’s snappier than other Amazon Fire tablets, with a better display and more apps available. You won’t sacrifice parental controls or the two-year guarantee, though. Check out our Fire tablet buying guide for additional info, and keep in mind that there are lots of other Prime Day Amazon device deals.

Nothing says “summer” quite like friendship bracelets. This kit is only $10, and while it’s usually pretty affordable, the Prime Day price is a match of other lows we’ve tracked. It includes a bunch of embroidery floss, a plastic clip, and beginner-friendly instructions. Added bonus: busting out your summer camp floss-braiding skills will definitely impress your cool niece or nephew.

Cross dodgeball with a card game and you have Throw Throw Burrito. This is the outside edition of the classic version—the burritos are bigger, bouncier, and burrito-ier. If you’ve ever wanted to pelt something at your loved ones, all in the name of good sportsmanship, you’ll probably have a blast playing this over the summer.

Every parent dreads it: at some point between weeks two and six of summer vacation, your child will track you down and say, “I’m bored!” This Spirograph kit should help keep them entertained. It comes with several different gears, plus pens, paper, a guide book, and a storage case that features a built-in work surface. It goes on sale frequently, but rarely this low.

Yes, it’s from a random brand, and the reviews are slightly mixed, but it’s also a slip and slide! And the price is better than Amazon’s offered before. It measures 16 feet long and features a built-in sprinkler. It even includes two boogie boards to prevent that horrible plastic-skid rugburn. When in doubt, you could always go analog and buy a discounted tarp. 

This is the best price for one of the coolest Lego sets ever. It’s a tricky one, but it looks amazing when completed, and it could make for a great family rainy-day activity. (Okay, maybe a rainy week, considering there are nearly 1,000 pieces.) This is part of a bigger Prime Day Lego sale. 

You haven’t lived until you’ve pulled an all-nighter watching all three extended Lord of the Rings movies back to back. This is the lowest price Amazon has offered for this box set, which includes a digital code as well as bonus content in addition to the Blu-ray discs. Your summer sleepovers are about to get a whole lot nerdier.

If you’d like to check more deals yourself, here are some links to sales going on this week.

1-Year of WIRED for $30 $5!

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