This is my first mattress topper of any kind and my first memory foam, so be advised I don't have much basis for comparison. But, I slept on this for the first time last night and it was great. I'm a side sleeper and sometimes wake up with achy hips (I'm female... they kinda stick out). I decided to try this to see if it would help. I don't always have problems with the pain so I can't draw any firm conclusions yet, but this was very comfortable and I think it'll do the trick. It was a very cozy amount of sinking in without feeling "stuck" or anything. The only place I had to air it out was in the middle of my living room floor, which is not much bigger than the mattress topper, so I covered it with a sheet to keep cat footprints and whatnot off of it. And it being winter, I don't exactly want to leave the window open all the time. So it wasn't the best of conditions for airing it out.... but after five days I could barely smell it through the sheet with my face pressed up against it so I decided to go for it. On the bed I can't smell it at all. I do use a mattress pad and have flannel sheets on the bed right now, so there's a lot for the smell to get through, but even without that I don't think it would be a problem since there's a pillow between my face and the bed anyway. I did follow some advice I read online to walk over it a bunch with clean socks to speed up the airing out process.