How to Car Camp – Inspiration Travelers

What is Car Camping? Car camping is creating a home away from home at a campground where some of the luxuries of home are brought to the campground.

What are the benefits of car camping? The biggest benefit of car camping is saving money. Most campgrounds will cost between $15-45 per night versus the cost of a hotel or motel that is typically over $75 per night and upwards of $200+ a night inside National Parks. That can be a big hit to your travel budget, especially if vacationing for several weeks.

Our car camping essentials are:

A good tent with a full rain fly, taped seams for waterproofness, and a large vestibule.
A tent ground cloth to keep the tent dry.
A High Rise Inflatable air mattress.
Warm Sleeping bags like the Coleman Big Game 0°F Cold-Weather Sleeping Bag
A throw blanket or beach blanket for inside the tent.
A beach mat for outside of your tent door (in the vestibule)
25′ to 50′ outdoor electrical cord
BESTEK 300W Power Inverter DC 12V to 110V AC Car Inverter with 4.2A Dual USB Car Adapter
Coleman Camp Propane Grill/Stove
Colman Propane Lantern
Coleman Propane 16 Oz Camping Cylinder (Quantity 2 or 3) for items 9 and 10 above
Multiple Headlamps and flashlights
Helinox chairs and/and or camp chairs
Hammocks (Regular and/or chair varieties)
Small handbroom and dustpan
Hydroflask Water Bottles/Extra water
Cooler
Plastic bin with all you utensils, plates, bowls, and cups/mugs
Mini travel games for those rainy days/other fun items of your choosing, like frisbees, soccer ball, football, etc.
Flip Flops and Towel for the campground shower.

More Details about the list:

When we say a good tent, we mean do not go to your local big box department store. You will need to go to a store like REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.), EMS (Eastern Mountain Sports), L.L. Bean or search online for an equivalent outdoor recreation store. The tent we use the most for car camping is a Kelty Green River 4 person tent. It is over 11 years old and and has been on countless trips and is still standing up. We were able to pick it up for around $173 US dollars, which is less than one night’s hotel stay near a National Park. The tent should have a full rainfly (the waterproof outer layer) that covers the entire tent to close down to the ground and taped seams for waterproofness. The vestibule is a sheltered area that extends from the rainfly to create a space outside the main tent area. This area is like a mudroom of your house, you can keep your shoes out there and a few chairs (that is why we say large). And if big enough you can stow your bikes under it when it is raining or to keep them out of site if away from your cammpround and not using them. You can also stow your campfire wood in the vestibue to keep it dry.
A ground cloth or footprint is an extra layer against water and potrusions such as small stones and twigs that you did not clear from your tent area. We recommend purchasing one specifically made for your tent , with the correct deminsions. Do not use a tarp, these are not made for your tent.
This is where you can splurge to make your car camping experience much more comfortable. We use a High Rise Inflatbale Air Mattress that has a built-in 110-120V internal pump that will inflate and deflate the airbed with the switch of a button. A mattress with built in storage area to stow away the electrical cord will keep you from tripping over th electrical cord. You are probably thinking how to do I fill this thing with air if it has an electric cord and the campground does not have electricity. That is where #7 & #8 comes into play, the BESTEK 300W Power Inverter plugs into your cars cigarette lighter outlet and coverts the cars DC 12 Volt power to 110 Volt AC (House Power), then just plug your extension cord and run it into the tent to inflate your air mattress. Note: make sure the Bestek is turned on and you may also need to turn on your vehicle for it to be able to provide enough power. Otherwise you will need to stay at tent sites that have electric and water, which may cost a little more per night so that you have the electricity on the tent site.
Warm sleeping bags in any season is a must have when tenting. There are some Natonal parks that can get into the 80’s during the day but drop down to the 40’s at night. We have encountered this in Yellowstone National Park and other locations. You can get light weight 0 degree mummy bags or because space is not as much of a concern car caming as compared to backpacking, you can get larger sleeping bags. We use two Coleman Big Game 0°F Cold-Weather Sleeping Bags. They zip apart and the two bags can be zipped together. This provides more warmth if sleeping with someone as you will be sharing your body heat under what is like a large two person sleeping bag. Always keep in mind that different people have different comfort levels as far as what temperature they will feel comfortabe at. A 0 degree may be comfortable at 0 degrees for one person but not comfortable at 20 degrees for another person. The rating is almost always not a temperature you will feel comfortabe sleeping at. REI has a good write up about sleeping bag temperature ratings Understanding Sleeping Bag Temperature Ratings | REI Co-op Journal.
It is nice to have some kind of throw blanket or beach blanket inside the tent where you may be standing or kneeling. Tents are typically made of a rip-stop Nylon which can feel cold and damp on your feet in the morning. This is just a nice extra to have.
A beach mat at the entrance of your tent and inside the vestibule is nice place to take your shoes off before getting in your tent. This avoids getting dirt on your feet or socks and dragging that dirt inside the tent. We keep a small handbroom and dustpan out here as well Item #15.
An electrical cord is a must for filling the air mattresses without battery operated pumps. There are other types of air matresses that do not require an electrical plug in, but we have found these (Item #3) to be the easiest to fill and deflate. The campsite may have an electric connection, which is even better as you can plug in other items as well. In cold weaher we will bring an electric space heater (Caution: Make sure to have a flat area away from all loose items in the tent. Use a hard surface like a cutting board or other heat resistant flat item to place it on). It amazing how warm a tent can get with a space heater. Do not use a Propane lantern in a tent to warm it, this can lead to asphyxiation and even death. In the summer we may even bring a fan to plug in. This definitely helps keeping the air moving to relieve the heat build up in a tent, especially if tenting in an area with poor shade protection.
BESTEK 300W Power Inverter DC 12V to 110V AC Car Inverter with 4.2A Dual USB Car Adapter is by far the best power inverter we have ever used. It is solidely built with a durable metal housing and has 2 AC outlets and 2 USB ports. We run it in our vehicle as well as using it to inflate our air mattresses. In the vehicle we use it for additional USB ports to charging cell phones and cameras/GoPros
Cooking at your campsite can save you money on eating out. The Coleman Camp Propane Grill/Stove + is nice to have as it has one burner and a grilling area that you can use at the same time. The “+”means “Instastart™ ignition for push-button, matchless lighting”. This is an good addition as it is easy to start up without a lighter.
A Coleman Propane Lantern is a good way to light up a campsite at night. It is especially if you need alot of light when setting up a tent in the dark. There are also battery operated lanterns available if you do not want to deal with the propane.
Coleman Propane 16 Oz Camping Cylinder are use for the previous two items, ideally you would have one for each ite and spare back up for when the next cylinder runs out of fuel.
You can never have too many headlamps and flashlights. There are now rechargeable headlamps available that are veru bright and is convenient to just plug them in and re-charge them with a USB cable. We like to have at least one headlamp for each us plus a couple of handheld flashlights. Headlamps allow you to have your hands free to do things like start a campfire or set up a tent if you do not have a lantern.
Helinox chairs are comfy lightweight camp chairs that fold up into a small stuff sack. The downside is they do not have drink holder, so we also like to bring a couple standard camp chairs with cupholders as well.
Hammocks are great if you have at least a couple good sturdy trees on your campsite. It is nice to swing in a hammock when you want to take rest and just enjoy the outdoors. You may also be able to find hammock chairs, which you will either need a very sturdy branch of a tree at the right height or use when lean-to camping, A lean-to is a three sided shelter built out of logs or stone.
A small handbroom and dustpan are handy to sweep any debri that gets on the tent floor or the beach mat you put outside the tent door and inside the vestibule.
Hydro flasks are great at keeping water cold, you can fill them half or 3/4 full of ice and it can stay cold for several days, A few gallon jugs of water is a good idea as well, we like the 2 or 3 gallon with a spout, so you can wash your hands or do dishes at your site.
A good size 5 day cooler will be needed if you plan on cooking your own food. A block of ice will last longer than the bagged cubed ice. You can also make your own ice if you have the capacity in your home freezer. You can just take a a couple washed out 2 liter soda bottles, fill them with water and freeze them.
A sturdy plastic bin to carry all your utensils, plates, bowls, and cups/mugs. Other important items, a bottle opener, a can opener, and a spatula. You may also want to have aluminum foil for the grill to keep things clean. We also keep some spices in this container for cooking.
You do not want to get stuck in your tent on a rainy day with nothing to do, so bring some mini travel games for those days along with a good book or magazine. We have had fun hitting a beachball around inside the tent and you do not have to worry about it breaking anyhting. Then for the nice days bring some other fun items of your choosing, like frisbees, soccer ball, football, a kite, etc.
One of the items that I want to make sure we bring is our flip flops and towels. It can become an uncomfortable issue if you have to use a public shower with bare feet. It really is not something you want to do. Make sure to also bring shampoo and a bar of soap in a soap container or body wash. Campgrounds do not provide these items like a hotel does.

This list is a good start to a comfortable and enjoyable car camping experience. There may be other items that you add to your own list, you will figure out what is right for you the more you car camp.