Outdoors Appalachia

View Original

Is Car Glamping the Best Alternative to RV or Van Life?

Ever since photographer and road-tripper Foster Huntington unknowingly spearheaded the "van life" movement in 2011 by living out of an '87 Volkswagen Syncro, many restless travelers have been inspired to follow in his footsteps. Foster's Instagram hashtag #vanlife, which has now been used over 8.5 million times, has fueled this idealistic outdoor lifestyle of freedom on the open road. And this was all before COVID-19's travel restrictions inspired 2020's year of the road trip.

Like other city dwellers, I have fantasized about jumping on the #vanlife bandwagon, but have been inhibited by the realities of the van life dream. With family and home obligations, most of us simply can't drop everything to live out of a van, and purchasing and converting a van to a mobile dwelling space is a costly undertaking, with estimates ranging from $10K–$100K.

Fortunately, there's another road-tripping trend out there in which people have forgone RVs and vans, and simply use gear to camp inside their cars—a movement that I've dubbed "Car Glamping" after having invested in it myself. As a travel writer, I used to fly off to faraway places, but the pandemic has forced me, and many other travelers, to seek adventures closer to home.For me, the concept of car glamping has been a continual work in progress, researching the multitude of equipment on the market, and acquiring each component in piecemeal under the circumstances of this problematic year. I've managed to test all this gear through experience, having set up camp out of my Kia Telluride in coastal Maine, the Adirondacks, and the Catskill Mountains of New York on extended weekends. So far, I've come to discover what others have, that investing in camping gear fit for a car is a very viable substitute to a van conversion.

"Take the vehicle you already own and with a few thousand dollars, you can get pretty darn close the same experience you get with van life," says Sam Gross, CEO and founder of the Berkeley-based Nomad Kitchen Company, which manufactures mobile kitchen units fitted for SUVs.

See this content in the original post

Gross' vehicle-mounted kitchen, along with other gadgets in the growing car glamping market, have transformed the car to be less of a mere storage and transport vehicle parked on the side of a campsite, but rather the heart of the camp itself. Much of this gear has been invented out of a desire to elevate the car camping experience, by those who have already become aware of this van life alternative. Since roadtrips will continue to be trendy until a vaccine is widely distributed, you might as well camp out of your car with some comfort, convenience, and style.

Sleeping in a Car is No Longer an Act of Desperation

One existing option for using a car as the base of camp is a rooftop tent, so the interior cargo space can be used for storage. However, the issue with rooftop tents is that many car roofs aren't exactly designed to support a heavy load, and so, I simply sleep inside my car on an inflated mattress. I keep my gear in a rooftop cargo box, allowing me to fold the back seats down from the rear cargo space to make room for it, fitted with sheets, a blanket, and compressible pillows.

I'm not the first person to make a bed in a car. A quick search online reveals that there are plenty of inflatable car mattresses on the market, feeding the existing demand of people who have already come to realize what I have: sleeping in a car is no longer an act of desperation, but rather an easy, cost-effective solution for spending the night. However, I've learned over time that not all car beds are comfortable or durable, just as the founders of car mattress company Luno have.

"We all shared the experience of sleeping somewhat crammed in the back of our SUVs with thin sleeping pads, imagining that the experience could be a whole lot better than it was," says Allie Vaughn, Head of Product at the Santa Barbara-based company

See this content in the original post