Best cars for car camping & DIY camping conversions in the US and EU
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Take a look at my summary of the best everyday cars for car camping in the US, EU and UK with their dimensions, comfort, consumption data and ranking. This post focuses on cars you can use in everyday life and also for camping.
In this article:
What is the most affordable and hassle-free way of camping?
I think it is sleeping in your own car, possibly with a good car tent – you don’t have to pay for daily rental or have lots of funds to buy your own camper. You are also not stuck with just a camper, you have both – a 5-7 seats car for the whole family or bunch of friends when needed, and a camper for two people when you feel like it.
In recent years, camping in small cars has become a popular trend among outdoor enthusiasts. As people look for ways to enjoy the outdoors, and with the rise of van life culture and minimalism, more people are seeking to downsize their camping gear and opt for smaller, more compact vehicles. These vehicles offer great gas mileage and can easily navigate narrow roads and tight campsites, they fit any car park, and you can take them shopping as well as sleep in them.
One of the biggest trends in camping in small cars is DIY conversions into campers,
usually achieved by creating a sleeping area on top of the folded seats in the boot of the car, ranging from simple “mattress in the boot” solutions through more complex sleeping and storage platforms to advanced homemade camping boxes. Read all about such DIY Camping conversions in one of my many posts on this topic.
Read next: DIY Car camping conversions of everyday cars
Another popular way to camp using your everyday car is the use of rooftop tents. Rooftop tents are compact and easy to set up, making them a great option for car camping. They can be mounted on a wide range of vehicles, from small cars to minivans to trucks and SUVs. With a rooftop tent, you can quickly set up a comfortable sleeping space wherever you go, without the need for a separate tent or the aforementioned camping conversion of your car. I have summarised everything about car tents (SUV tents or tailgate tents) and reviewed the best ones here.
Read next: Car, roof & tailgate tents for car camping: why, where and top picks
Another trend in camping in small cars is the use of modular camping gear. Modular camping gear is designed to be compact and easy to pack, allowing campers to bring everything they need in a small car. Items like modular cook sets, folding chairs and tables, and portable stoves are all designed to take up minimal space, making them perfect for car camping. You’ll find my top car camping gear suggestions in this post and also scattered throughout the website.
Which are the best cars for camping conversions and sleeping in?
These cars have been carefully selected using the best camping criteria I can think of – boot length and height, their overall comfort, consumption and storage options. Because those are the things that people value the most when camping. Read more about the rating criteria at the bottom of this post.
Best everyday cars for camping in the US 🇺🇸
Honda Odyssey camper
Honda Odyssey is one of the biggest MPV-type cars, rivalled only by the Kia Carnival (Sedona) or Toyota Sienna. You can sleep in it easily, and have a storage box in the boot without it getting in the way of sleeping, that’s how big it is :). Its 245cm (96.5in) long boot gives you 200cm (79in) of sleeping area and still leaves 45cm (17.7in) for storage – or your dog.
Honda Odyssey is one of the top cars in our cars for car camping database.
Available in the US
Toyota Sienna camper
Toyota Sienna certainly is a big car! Even if you keep the middle seats in, just lift them up, you still have 180cm/70.8in of boot length behind them!! It is a leader in terms of size and it also fares well in terms of consumption, compared to its US counterparts. Not as good compared to the average EU MPV consumption, but you won’t find many Siennas in the EU anyway.
Toyota Sienna is one of the top cars in our cars for car camping database.
Available in the US
Ford Tourneo Connect camper (Grand)
The Tourneo is an even more comfortable version of the already comfortable panel van Transit Connect. You get a higher trim standard and drive comfort with a big boot for all your camping needs. When the seats are folded down, the boot height is 95cm/37.4in, which isn’t that much for an MPV, but good enough. Go for the Grand version of course – you’ll get an extra 40cm/15.7in boot length – that’s a lot. It drives well, but it also eats a bit more than other MPVs though.
The barn doors on most models are a downside, but they have a small plus point – you can open them all the way towards the front, by the sides of the car so that they won’t get in your way. You just won’t have a roof like you would with a tailgate.
Best everyday cars for camping in the EU 🇪🇺 & UK 🇬🇧
My personal top car for camping: VW Sharan (or Seat Alhambra)
I put my money where my mouth is as I bought this one in 2020 and thoroughly slept in it throughout Europe – road trips, holidays in camping spots, and local escapes to nature. I was deciding between a VW Caddy Maxi Life and a Sharan, but eventually found a Sharan sooner and really enjoyed the good balance between space and comfort.
The Sharan is a very comfortable car to drive, so I’d recommend it if you do long trips like me – Slovakia to France, Spain and back. It offers a very good size boot too – comfortably sleeps two people + a dog (labrador size). On long trips like this, my overall consumption is 5.8l/km (diesel, automatic). Maintenance costs are normal – the usual stuff you’d expect.
Sharan and Seat Alhambra are basically the same cars, so if you like the Sharan, but happen to find an Alhambra, go for it.
Sharan / Alhambra DIY camping conversions
(the first 6 images are my Sharan setup versions 1 & 2, right now I’m using Sharan camper version 3)
Benefits
- it is very spacious – long and tall, easy to sit in even when converted to a camping car at the back – it’s the biggest small car you can find out there if you want size, but not a van
- tailgate (why is this important)
- easy to maintain, no expensive or hard-to-get parts
- good level of comfort for long journeys, well equipped
- good price on models up to 10 years old (they still drive very well at an affordable price + will last for years to come)
- sliding middle doors
- 7 seater is easy – just fold all the seats and your flat surface for a car bed is ready
- The 5-seater has a double boot floor you can take out, which will give you two things – more storage space and you can use the boot floor as the bed platform. It’s built to bend in two places, so easy to open and reach anything in the storage, it’s solid and very light. See the images above, “My Sharan ver3 …”
Disadvantages
- the 5 seat version needs additional work to prepare the flat surface for a car bed – see how I did that easily under 106€
- not a 4×4 – ok for some off-road, but not too much
- Not as tall as van-based MPVs + smaller boot opening
- Boot opening floor not flat
XBUS Camper (to be released in 2023)
The Xbus brings a new take on a small camper bus/people carrier. Its main competitor is the VW ID Buzz, albeit the Xbus leads with its modular base and configurable components.
The Xbus is not for everyone – it is being developed with environmental and economic credentials as the brands’ main priority, therefore some compromises in terms of how many people it can carry or top speed need to be made. But I am sure it will find its place in many people’s hearts. I am definitely looking forward to it! The company behind the XBUS (ElectricBrands) has hired 13 new employees in 2022 with the work on Xbus underway, albeit with possible delays because of the unprovoked attack on Ukraine by Russia. BTW, the Xbus Camper is the most sought-after variant of the Xbus (in the private sector). Campers know what’s good, especially nimble campers! 😉 That’s also the reason, why the company has decided to build the camper as their next test vehicle that they will take to shows and exhibitions to collect feedback.
The XBUS is one of the top cars in our cars for car camping database although really, it’s a category on its own.
Fiat Doblò camper
If you’re thinking of Fiat Doblo for camping, then think of the Maxi XL High Roof version. It is the tallest MPV out there – overtakes the leading VW Caddy by a whopping 25cm/9.8in, giving you much more headroom or storage space (actually both!).
It’s about 8cm/3in shorter than the Caddy, but still one of the longest cars out there with 217cm/85.5in boot length. The rear seats can be folded (backrests) or lifted up & tilted forward, or easily removed – even more flexibility (see how in this video). Combined with good consumption, the Fiat Doblo Maxi High Roof makes an amazing camping car.
Fiat Doblò High Roof is one of the top cars in our cars for car camping database.
VW Caddy Maxi Life
The VW Caddy Maxi Life is the second biggest MPV out there (as of 2021) and probably the best small camper van option out there. If boot size is your primary criterion – you can’t go wrong with a Caddy. The car drives well too. Where it lacks a bit is comfort – it takes after its van origins and offers a more basic interior. But it makes up for it in storage – it really has a lot of compartments all over the place. It’s not the best car to take off the road completely – but you can take it down a good enough mud road without any big problems. A very good car camping / microcamping conversion candidate, unless you are planning to drive through forests and very much offroad – or you prefer a higher-class interior comfort.
VW Caddy Maxi Life is one of the top cars in our cars for car camping database.
PROs
- big above-head storage on top of other standard compartments
- it is very spacious – long and tall, easy to sit in even when converted to a camping car at the back – it’s the biggest small car you can find out there if you want size, but not a van
- flat boot door floor (loading area – easier to put a camping box/boot jump in and out)
- easy to maintain, no expensive or hard-to-get parts
- Volkswagen’s quality standards & reliability
- good price on models up to 10 years old (they still drive very well at an affordable price + will last for years to come)
- sliding middle doors
- tailgate (why is this important)
- middle seats can be lifted up or removed
- you can fold the middle row of seats and keep the rear ones up – and put your feet up (or use the middle row as a table)
CONs
- more van-like – lower interior comfort
- louder at higher speeds
- not a 4×4 – ok for some off-road, but not too much
- 3rd row rear seats have to be removed, and can’t be folded like in a 7-seater Sharan. On the plus side – the car is so long that you might not need to remove them as there’s additional storage space behind the 3rd row of seats
Nissan NV200
The Nissan NV200 is a very spacious car for its size. It is one of the tallest and offers a lot of headroom for a DIY camping conversion. Where it lacks behind is drive and interior comfort. It’s not a vehicle you would choose for long journeys – but of course, if you are not used to the comfort of higher class MPVs like a Sharan or your previous car, this won’t be a problem. It will get you there and you’ll be happily camping in its big boot, especially if you want to do your own DIY camper conversion or buy a camping box. For a simple conversion (not putting many storage options in) it doesn’t offer many built-in storage compartments in the back, you better come up with some good solutions yourself.
Nissan NV200 camper still ranks quite high in our cars for car camping database – mainly because of its boot height.
PROs
- it is very spacious – long and tall, easy to sit in even when converted to a camping car at the back – it’s one of the biggest small cars you can find out there if you want size
- the boot floor is flat + lower than most MPVs
- good price on models from 2016 – around 13,000 GBP
- sliding middle doors + tailgate (some models) (why is this important)
- front passenger backrest can be folded down horizontally to form a table
- 7-seater offers many seat configurations – you can either take them all or fold them individually (good for temporary camping or 1 person)
- good for DIY conversions (doesn’t come with too many built-in compartments, therefore offers more room for your own, without having to take the original ones out)
CONs
- not as comfortable for long journeys, motorways (louder, cheaper interior)
- limited built-in storage options at the back
- not a 4×4 – ok for some off-road, but not too much
- many reviews mention good consumption, but actual reports on fuelly.com report worse actual consumption than other MPVs Caddy, Berlingo or Sharan. I have found other claims of 40+ MPG (UK) from some users and or HonestJohn.co.uk, so there’s some mixed info out there.
Citroen Berlingo (Peugeot Partner) – Long / XL version
The Berlingo is one of the most often converted cars for camping, Peugeot Partner is close behind it. Despite both not being the biggest – very likely because of their affordability and availability. The Berlingo (and its similar cousins) is a good car for car camping, but not as good for general driving & comfort during long journeys. It’s not the biggest MPV out there (Sharan or Caddy are bigger) but offers very good mileage and low maintenance costs. It’s also very well-priced – there are plenty of used van or MPV versions out there. It’s best suited to fill the role of your second car that you can rebuild for camping. If you want it as your main car, it’s good if your budget is low, but otherwise, you’re better off with a more comfy and reliable Sharan or Caddy. The upgraded Peugeot Rifter (that replaces Peugeot Partner) might be a better option too – higher comfort and better features, but it’s only available since 2019 so don’t expect to find cheap used ones until a few years from now. It’s not an offroad car so don’t expect a thrilling offroad ride, yet still, you can take it down a not too steep/rough dirt track or through a meadow.
Because of its shorter boot length and lower interior & drive comfort, the Berlingo is lower in our cars for car camping database.
PROs
- one of the cheapest cars with good camping capabilities on the market
- easy to maintain, no expensive or hard to get parts
- sliding middle doors
- front passenger backrest can be folded down horizontally to form a table
- roof window (some models)
- roof shelf (some models)
- tailgate (why is this important)
- split tailgate opening (some models – open just the window or the entire tailgate – see a demonstration here)
- front seat folds down to form a table if needed
- flat tailgate (boot) loading area
CONs
- boot length is only 180cm/70.8in in the long model – meaning you have to push the front seats forward each time you have the bed extended, which reduces storage space.
- lower level of interior comfort – lower-quality materials
- not a 4×4 – ok for some off-road, but not too much (some 4×4 models are available as used too)
Best SUVs for camping
The reason why there aren’t any SUVs above is that they have a much smaller boot than any of the cars listed. Albeit an SUV might appear bigger from the outside, they aren’t that big on the inside and they are usually shorter than an MPV. Even a massive SUV like the Land Rover Discovery offers a smaller boot than the Sharan – length and height-wise.
However, SUVs, especially the more rugged ones, offer another advantage that a Sharan (or most other MPVs) don’t – they can go further off the road, and handle more difficult terrain.
If overlanding and going off-road is your preference, then an SUV might be the right choice. Especially if kitted out with a roof or car tent.
Here are the top SUVs for camping, but you can always browse our entire SUV database here or 4×4 cars only here.
Mitsubishi Pajero camper
(Also known as Montero or Shogun)
The best SUV in our database for camping. The Pajero’s boot is about as long (if not a bit shorter) than other SUVs, but it’s much taller, allowing you to sit and sleep in the back more comfortably. Plus, it is a frequent Dakar winner – you don’t need more than that to know it will perform really well off the road. Where it doesn’t perform that well, especially the older models, is on tarmac – it is a bit rougher than you’d like. Recommended if you plan to spend much more time off-road in rugged terrain.
It is perhaps a bit too rugged for everyday use, so a later model of a Peugeot 5008 might be better for you, see below.
- Available worldwide
- 4×4 (4WD)
Nissan Pathfinder camper
One of the best SUVs in our database for car camping – a big boot overall, but its width stands out the most (see comparison with other SUVs). But – it’s not very well rated on top car reviewing websites and it does eat a lot! You might find the Subaru Forester a bit better (2.8/5 Nimblecamper rating – similar size, better consumption and comfort), or, if you are after something more rugged and mostly for off-road camping, try the Mitsubishi Pajero (Shogun)
- Available worldwide
- 4×4 (4WD)
Subaru Forester camper
Although it offers a pretty standard SUV boot length and height, it does have more room between the wheel arches. But its most valuable asset is its time (and dirt) tested history – this car is well-rated everywhere and won’t let you down when camping off the road. Well-built and rugged, good enough size make it a well-rounded camper, ready to take you off the beaten path.
- Available worldwide
- 4×4 (4WD)
Peugeot 5008 camper
(newer SUV models)
A bigger version of the 3008, the 5008 is a 7-seater with ~17mm more ground clearance and an 11cm longer boot. There are two versions – a newer SUV, which is also more luxurious and bigger and an older MPV version (until 2016).
Compared to the Pajero above, this one is more suited for everyday use and camping too – but not too rough off the road, it is a city SUV nevertheless.
Available in the EU.
Find more everyday campers, their dimensions and rating in our database:
The database keeps expanding every month – find the best car for your camping trip, whether you are looking for size, comfort, low consumption or versatility.
Frequently asked questions
Other things to think about
To make sure you pick the best car for your needs, think about these points:
- do you need a 4×4 – SUV type? You do if you plan to go offroad properly
- do you want a car for long journeys – are you going to spend a lot of time driving as well as camping? Then pick a car with a higher comfort rating. If not, you should be good with a lower comfort rating, but better other attributes like boot size
- in terms of storage – if you plan to carry a lot of stuff, think about getting a roof box/cargo carrier
- if you’re a single person – you might have more fun with a 4×4, there’s plenty of room for one person (as seen in this Subaru Outback camping conversion)
- there are shorter cars (boot under 170cm/67in) that aren’t in our table – you can still fit a 180cm/71in person in them if you push the front seats all the way to the front + tilt the backrests. Not ideal, but if you find a car that you love with a boot like this – go for it
- for most of car camping, you don’t need a proper 4×4 offroad vehicle – there’s a good enough road going to so many places nowadays + a standard car can handle quite a bit of rough terrain too 🙂
I’ve looked at many camping car candidates out there and did a lot of research before I bought my microcamper. During that search, I relied on simple criteria to ensure I get the most for my buck.
What is car camping all about? What’s a microcamper?
For our purposes, it is literally camping and sleeping in your car. I don’t mean just driving in your car, pulling into a campsite and/or sleeping in a tent. It is taking your car – driving to a nice spot and sleeping in your car on that spot. As simple a definition as it gets :). You might have also heard the phrases “estate car camping”, “SUV camping”, “boondocking”, “dry camping” or “wild camping” associated with car camping. They are all a specific version of car camping, each with its own characteristics. A microcamper is either a small car you can camp in or a small trailer, see the difference here.
Don’t forget to pack the right camping gear!
Good camping equipment can make or break your trip – here are some items I would definitely recommend.
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Car camping / microcamper criteria – How to select the best car for camping
(I was looking for a microcamper – an everyday car I can also use for camping. You might want to change these criteria if you are looking for a camping van or anything bigger than a VW Caddy (one of the biggest small cars out there).
1. Car boot length – for a comfortable sleep (with your legs stretched out)
Have you ever tried to sleep in a car? It’s not the most comfortable of experiences if you don’t have the right equipment and your car isn’t prepared for it – meaning you sleep in the front or back seat. That’s not what you want to be doing whilst car camping. What we are going to focus on is comfortable sleeping in your car – so that you can travel, explore > rest > and continue exploring. And comfortable means the ability to stretch your legs when you lie down in the back, without bumping your head into the front seats. A general rule of thumb – you’ll need about 170cm (67in/5.57ft) boot length with rear seats folded down. I’ll allow some buffer as you can always move the front seats forward and easily gain about 20cm/7.9in. That should give enough comfortable space for the average man (~175cm / 69in/5.74ft) and woman (~163cm /64in/ 5.34ft). The best camping cars are ones with at least 200cm/78.7in long boot or more.
Look, there’s plenty of room at the back – and that’s just a tiny sample of all the cars and SUVs available:
Toyota RAV4 image: Reddit
2. Car boot height – the higher, the more headroom you’ll have, the more comfortable it is
No one likes to feel claustrophobic – even if you don’t suffer from claustrophobia, you probably don’t like to have to crawl into your bed or crawl out at night when you need the loo. Bumping your head into the roof (although padded) isn’t your aim in the morning either. The higher the car, the more comfortable your car camping trip will be. Aim for at least 90cm/35in from the boot floor to the roof, the more, the better. You really want to be able to sit inside, on the bed, without having to crouch or bend your head. The best cars are of course the tallest ones – MPVs, vans or custom roof extensions.
This also depends on your camping style of course – if you are into stealth camping, you might want to have a small and inconspicuous car. But if you are after comfort – you want a tall and long car.
3. Good storage options
The more bare the interior of a car, the harder it will be to live inside. If you have plenty of compartments, hooks, holders, lights, 12V sockets – it’s easy to keep your day-to-day things handy. If you only have some small compartments in the front (not in the back, where you’ll spend most of the time car camping), you’ll either have to create your own storage compartments or have to settle with things lying on the bed all the time. The best cars will have plenty of small compartments, especially in the boot, where you will spend most of your car camping time.
4. Lower consumption
This one might be down to personal preference, as some are more environmentally focused than others and some have deeper pockets than others. But it’s not a bad idea to look for a car with lower consumption if you plan to drive long distances across the country (or many countries). If nothing else, you’ll save yourself the frequent stops at a petrol station or having to carry big cans of spare petrol in a gas-guzzling car.
Lukas
Founder of NimbleCamper.com, avid traveler and outdoor enthusiast. Car camping and microcamping allows me to keep traveling and exploring with a much greater level of freedom & privacy – to go anywhere and sleep anywhere. I didn’t have 30K to buy a VW Multivan, so found my way to the world of everyday car camping conversions. Here I share my experiences and what I learn.
Check out my thoughts on a balanced life: sensimism.com
I recommend you do a ranking based on reliability and add it to this page. There are many many cars on this page that I would never buy. Janky turbos, bad cvts, unreliable manufacturers.
I am still rolling in a 2003 Honda Element. Naturally aspirated engine, simple well built geared transmission. Honda. Going pretty strong at 250,000 miles.
I will probably have to replace it with a continuously variable transmission. Pretty much everyone is going with those now unless you buy something big like a small truck and up. I trust two manufacturers with them. Guess which? It’s the two Japanese companies you think, and perhaps Mazda as well. Mazda has started making their own cvts after having big problems with Nissan’s supplier.
Anyone who buys a Nissan is insane. Or a Citroen. A Mitsubishi. Any Korean car. Most Fords. Any Chrysler except certain Dodge trucks. Or an electric car for car camping, at least in the United States. You are not asking to get stranded in the back end of nowhere, you already have it on order. No need to ask. You will get stranded in the ass end of nowhere, and even getting there to get stranded will be a huge pain in the ass.
I see this problem manifest many different ways with Europeans. It’s like with German pows: they all were like ‘oh my that was a stupid War’ on their fourth day of train travel to some nice family farm in the Midwest. We are not Germany. We’re not Poland. We’re not the UK. The UK fits into Oregon with room left over for Monaco. We’re Europe except bigger with less people.
Electric cars are an absolute lunacy here except as golf carts for the rich. If they actually try to make us use them 66% by 2030 or 2035, you just might see what the black rifles are for. I’m not kidding. That would be absolute war on the poor in a country this big with so many cold areas. It would be basically telling the poor and the MANY working middle class who rely on large trucks “your previous lives are forfeit. Your business is forfeit. Suck it up for the globalists, serf.” In many states that’s not the least bit hyperbolic. I’ve lived 80 km from the nearest supermarket a couple times.
You can pretty much count on that not happening here. Think Dutch and French farmers, except armed to the teeth and 20 times as many plus another 20x tradesmen. Thus it will not happen.
Which brings me to my other suggestion for this article: you need to add a section about hybrids. That leaves you with Honda and Toyota of course… and maybe a few Fords. Now hybrids, hybrids are a car for camping in the Great American West or for really roaming around Europe. Also in a Toyota you can use the car engine as a generator while you run the AC all night if you get stuck in a particularly hot humid spot. It just turns on for a couple minutes at a time to charge the battery. Ditto for running a larger monitor or other medium electric loads. I know less about Honda hybrids, but I imagine they do the same. Very very cool.
Definitely merits a section.
I only meant to make a couple suggestions here, but the politics seemed pretty salient once I got into it. In my opinion the Davos Wall Street Silicon Valley Brussels crowd really don’t want you out in the back country in a car. I think they wish to turn the States into estates and your Provinces into their province. It’s something to think about.
Oh dear. That had lots and lots of paragraphs the way I wrote it 8)
Hi there, thanks for the input and thoughts! Honda Element is one hell of a car!
I focus only on camping-related attributes on this website (explained which and why here: https://nimblecamper.com/car-camping-criteria/) and decided not to include other car metrics, like reliability, performance etc. Many (too many) websites do that already, no point duplicating it.
You can check which cars are best for camping in terms of their boot size here (as that was the missing info I struggled to find elsewhere) and then you can check which one is the most reliable on other websites.
I did include overall review ratings from other websites for most cars, but those weren’t clicked much, so stopped doing that, for example: https://nimblecamper.com/caddy-maxi-camper-life/ (look for “Standard reviews (not focused on camping):”
Electric cars might not be the best today, but give them 5-10 more years. Once their range doubles, which it will, they will be pretty good for camping too. I didn’t include many, but no point leaving them out completely just because they can only do 200-300km range. It’s enough for some people, especially in the EU, where the distances are shorter.
I don’t have a specific section for hybrids, because their body is pretty much the same as their ICE counterparts, same boot measurements, so no need to separate them. But I do have the engine type attribute you can filter by, I have added it to the filters now: https://nimblecamper.com/best-cars-for-camping/?filters=engine-type%5B2000954%5D
But good point about the additional features they offer – although I haven’t seen many people on the forums talk about it or recommend hybrids for this reason.