The easiest way to make your next car camping trip comfortable is to make sure you have a well thought-out bed setup. Nothing can ruin a camping trip like waking up with a stiff neck or a sore back from the sorry pile of blankets you tried to convince yourself could be called a “bed”. Comfort while car camping isn’t as hard as you might think! A good mattress, decent pillow, and a few small extras like blackout window coverings can turn a nightly disaster into the best sleep of your life. Keep reading to see how you can car camp comfortably.

A great mattress (Buy it, don’t DIY it!)

When we built our car out we saw all the DIY mattresses that people built for their cars, but none of them seemed that comfortable. In most cases, building a mattress yourself will turn out to be more expensive as well. While you can’t customize the size as well as when you make your own foam cut out, a premade mattress has higher quality foam, comes with its own mattress cover, and allows you to spring for options like memory foam layers that would be too costly and time-consuming to make yourself.

This has made all of the difference to us. A sheet of foam you can buy at Home Depot does not compare to an actual mattress. Bonus points if your mattress folds up like ours does! We normally opt to make most of our car camping gear ourselves, but the quality of mattresses available online is nearly impossible to replicate at anywhere close to their prices.

A quality pillow (no purchase necessary)

And while a good mattress is important, a quality pillow is nearly as important when getting your camping bed setup as comfortable as possible. In fact, why not bring the pillow you love from home with you on your trip?

We do! Instead of bringing a slightly smaller, more compact pillow that won’t support your neck enough, bring the pillow that you know helps you have a great night’s sleep. If you are worried about cleanliness or smell, swap the pillow cover and get a pillow protector that you can just pop in the wash when you get home. A good night’s sleep is well worth an extra load of laundry.

Layering (or how not to freeze to death)

Now, we don’t want to forget about actually making your bed space cozy! The kind of weather you will be traveling in will decide how many extra blankets you pack. Since there are two of us sleeping in the back of the car we layer our bed with a sleeping bag on the bottom. Then, each of us has a cozy blanket we’re allowed to hog all to ourselves. No more waking up shivering while your spouse is wrapped in a perfect blanket-rito (burr-lanket? Blanket burrito?).

If it’s really cold, add a thick blanket that covers the whole bed and then another sleeping bag on top. The fuzzy blankets will give you the comfort factor while the two sleeping bags insulate from above and below, keeping you nice and toasty. (Don’t forget your favorite pajamas and fuzzy socks!)

Space while sleeping (no knees allowed)

By the same token, the amount of space you have available to sleep in is important. What type of sleeper are you? Do you stretch out and take up as much space as you possibly can? Maybe you curl up in a ball and take up little to no space! How much space you take up in the car while sleeping is dependant on how you sleep. 

I like having enough space to sleep on my stomach with my leg kicked up beside me. Dylan sleeps like a log either on his back or his side. Because of this, we knew that we needed a fair amount of space, but we’re also good at cuddling so we knew our car bed didn’t need to be queen sized. Dylan is also 5’11’’ (and a half, I guess) so we had to create enough space in the back of the car for him to lay flat and not be smushing his toes into the bottom of the bed.

Knowing how we sleep allowed us to be able to plan out and build a sleeping space that we look forward to climbing into after a long day of exploring. For us, that means we have a platform that is almost the entire length of our car and we also have to push the driver and passenger seat forward to create enough space. How you setup your car to maximise your car camping comfort will depend on many of these same factors. Thinking through these steps before-hand will ensure that you look forward to climbing into your car bed. 

Proper insulation and/ or airflow (sweaty nights are a no-no)

Next on the list is proper insulation and/ or airflow. I don’t know if you have ever tried sleeping while you were freezing cold, but I have and it sucks! It’s important to take all the right precautions to stay warm when you are camping in the cold. We already talked about remembering to bring the correct sleeping bags and extra blankets you think you might need, but an extra step you can and should do is to have insulated window covers for your car. Not only does this help with keeping you extra warm, but it also helps you create privacy for your car! 

Our window covers are black on the outside and white on the inside. This means no one can tell that there’s anyone in the car when they’re looking in from the outside, even with a flashlight. And since they’re white on the inside, blackout window covers make the interior of the car feel bright and spacious. Well, as spacious as the back of a car can feel! We built our blackout car window covers ourselves rather than buying, as most of the premade options were very expensive.

But what if it’s hot outside and you want airflow instead of insulation? Easy! Get netted covers for your windows. While this does take the privacy down a notch, it allows you to keep all of your windows down without letting any mosquitos or other bugs have access to you. Bug bites kinda suck.

If it’s really hot you can get one or two battery-operated fans to place near the windows to circulate the air in the car. This can make all the difference when trying to maintain a comfortable temperature in your car.

Wrap-up

If you follow this advice, your car camping sleep setup will be incredibly comfortable and you’ll be waking up refreshed and ready to go each day! But remember, comfort isn’t the only consideration while car camping. If you’re interested in learning about our six most underrated car camping essentials that we use on every trip, click here.