Car, roof & tailgate tents for car camping: why, where and top picks
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All the info you want (or didn’t know you need) about car tents (SUV tents, tailgate tents, rooftop tents or hatchback tents and awnings). This will help you decide whether you need one, what to look out for and what type is best for your needs. Plus some of my top picks to save you time searching and comparing.
Types of car / SUV tents that attach to cars
You might come across several variations of an SUV tent/hatchback tent – some attach to the car at the back, some at the side, others cover only the boot opening and don’t touch the floor and some are just awnings to give you rain and sun cover. The most frequently used types of car/suv tents are:
Tailgate car tents
(hatchback/boot tents)
Here you can find either big tents that cover the boot opening + create additional space behind the car (freestanding) – or – smaller boot tents that don’t touch the ground, just extend the boot opening area a big + protect it against rain or mosquitoes.
Typical price range: 50 – 800 EUR
Awnings
Protecting you from the sun or easy rain, these don’t do much for sleeping or additional floor space, just add more shaded area. They come usually in three versions: rear (boot), side door and 270 degrees (rear & side door).
Typical price range: 30 – 150 EUR (cheaper Amazon ones) or 150 – 2000 EUR bigger and higher quality ones
Side door car tents
These tend to be bigger and made for Multivan and bigger type vans. But sometimes they fit cars with sliding doors – like the VW Caddy, VW Sharan, Citroen Berlingo and similar. And most should fit a tailgate too, but always check the opening height!
Typical price range: 150 – 2500 EUR
+ depending on type and features
Rooftop tents
Move your bedroom to the roof… Handy if you don’t have any sleeping room in the back of your car, or you need it for storage, or you want to sleep more than two people in a small car. On the other hand – you need to climb the ladder each time you want something from there. Great for sleeping (higher up, safer, more room, additional features like a solar-powered fan), but quite expensive. They increase the total height of your vehicle, potentially limiting your car park selection options.
Typical price range: 500 – 4000 EUR
Each one of these SUV / car tent types has its benefits and disadvantages – it all depends on what type of car you have, whether you have a roof rack, whether you want to have easy access from the ground or don’t mind climbing up and what is your budget.
Benefits and disadvantages of roof tents
Roof tents offer the most comfortable area for sleeping, but they don’t serve well for daily use. You have to climb up a ladder each time, which isn’t something you want to do with a cup of tea.
Car roof tents typically have a collapsible design that allows them to be folded up and stored on the roof of a vehicle while driving. When you reach your camping or outdoor destination, you can set up the tent by unfolding it and attaching it to the roof of your vehicle using mounting brackets or a roof rack. Car tents usually come with a ladder for easy access and provide a comfortable sleeping space above ground, away from rocks, insects, and other potential hazards.
They are best used as a bedroom, to free up space in the boot for a kitchen or storage.
Most roof tents come with a comfortable mattress that can remain inside, even when driving.
They are very fast to put up and take down – usually in a couple of minutes. You will find hard-top and soft-shell roof tents, the latter being much cheaper.
Some roof tents allow you to leave your bedding inside when driving, mostly the hard-top ones.
They are the most expensive type of car tent.
Benefits and disadvantages of tailgate/side-door tents
Tailgate or side-door car tents offer the most versatile use – you can use them as a living room, bedroom, kitchen, for storage or as just a shaded area next to your car.
There are car tents manufactured specifically for cars, but you can also use many standard, bigger tents with cars. You can find examples of both at the end of this page or in our Car Tent category.
They are usually just a shelter, without anything inside, except windows with (preferably) mosquito nets.
They serve well (especially when equipped with mosquito nets) to let air into your car, especially at night, without letting any insects in. You can sleep with your tailgate open.
They are usually the cheapest type of car tent.
They can be freestanding or attached to the car using a rail. Some freestanding ones have a tarp that stretches over your car to protect from rain dripping into your open car door/tailgate.
They are a good entry-level option if you want to try camping with your car, before you invest in a roof tent.
As you carry them in your boot, they don’t increase your consumption (like roof tents do).
Benefits and disadvantages of car awnings
Awnings don’t offer much wind or side-rain protection, no insect protection or privacy, they are mostly there to provide shade and protect from direct sunlight.
🏆Best cars for camping 🏆
- Fiat Doblò camper XL, High Roof 🇪🇺 4.0/5
- Honda Odyssey 🇺🇸 4.0/5
- Volkswagen Sharan 🇪🇺 3.9/5
- Caddy Maxi Camper (Life) 🇪🇺 3.8/5
See all cars in our database, their boot dimensions and more ➡️
They either attach to the car or are freestanding, the latter being the cheapest option.
I would recommend buying a car tent/tailgate tent with windows and nets rather than an awning – it will serve more purposes and costs about the same. Or, don’t buy an awning as your first choice – buy it as an accessory to your car tent (be it a roof tent or a tailgate/side-door tent).
Often, you can accomplish the same result by just stretching a tarp from your car to a tree or a pole you carry.
How to choose a good car tent?
- Decide which type of car tent is best for you – a roof tent, a tightly fitting (purpose-made) tailgate tent or a generic tent/awning that fits the car well enough. Do you want to sleep in the tent or in the boot of your car, and the tent is for day use (a kitchen or storage)?
- does it fit your car well? Make sure it will fit your car’s boot opening (or side door) and also its height. For example, there are awnings made for VW T5 / T6 (Multivan etc), that have adjustable height – 180cm – 210cm or similar. A VW Caddy is just above 180cm, and Sharan is 172cm high (more with a rack) – you probably can fit it there too, but any lower than that might be a problem (i.e. water accumulating when it rains or not fitting properly and water leaking into the tent/car).
- does it need a rail to be attached or is it the “over van” type (you pull a sheet over your entire car and fix it into the ground on the other side of the car). The ones with a rail are more difficult to fit on a car without a rail.
- build strength – will a gust of wind send it across the field or break its supports? Low price is always welcome, but at a certain level, corners have to be cut somewhere – usually the quality of materials and build strength.
- Is it freestanding? Not having a freestanding car tent means that you can’t drive the car away when the tent is attached to it. It is much more useful to have a freestanding car tent and be able to take the car for a day trip or to the shop, without having to dismantle the tent.
- fabric quality and attributes – is it waterproof? tearproof? Is it a material you don’t like/prefer? (Polyester, nylon, cotton – each has its own benefits and disadvantages.
- ventilation – enough windows to let light and air in, preferably with nets to stop mosquitoes from getting in.
- make sure there’s a groundsheet included in the package (or that you are aware that you’re buying it without and need to get one)
- mosquito nets – any tent without mosquito nets is basically an awning and you won’t enjoy their benefits as much. Definitely get one with mosquito nets.
- weight and size when packed – this also depends on your car size, but usually, the lighter and smaller, the better. If you have more than enough storage space in your car, don’t worry about its weight or size when packed – your car can carry it, focus on other, more practical features you will use when camping.
- Inflatable or pole support? Inflatable tents are very easy to set up, but you do have to carry a pump with you.
- How often are you going to use it? It doesn’t make sense to buy an expensive tent if you are only going to use it a couple of times a year.
Are car tents any good? What are their benefits?
You don’t need a car tent to do car camping or sleep in your car. It will come in handy, if your car is too small, or you don’t want to/can’t convert it to a camper, or you have a bigger family to accommodate, you want to have a stand-up kitchen area. I see their main benefits as follows:
- they extend your floor space – add shaded + closed space to leave stuff in or to sleep in, have a picnic, rest – it can get hot in a car during a summer day, so a tent/awning will get more air, more headroom and you’ll be closer to the ground (cooler). Or at least you’ll get a space you can walk around barefoot, leave your shoes in – before you enter your car. You’ll have a bedroom (the car) + a lounge (the tent).
- headroom – you will be able to stand up yet still be “inside” – great for changing or rainy days
- storage – you’ll appreciate this, especially during longer stays – leaving things you use daily in the tent without having to pack them into boxes in the car or roof storage. Especially when you fit them out with some foldable storage shelves.
- shade/rain cover – even if you can’t store stuff in there safely (in case you get an awning), it’s still good to have a shaded area everywhere you go, no matter the time of day.
- ventilation – you can leave the boot or car windows open letting more cold air in during hot summer nights or during rain (not something easily done without a tent)
- mosquito protection – ventilation without mosquitoes getting in, as the tent works as a mosquito net
- car use without packing everything away – if you are in an official camping area, you can put your stuff inside the tent, close it up and take the car for a day trip – no need to pack everything into the car every time you take it somewhere.
- go and camp anywhere – you can take any 4×4 (4WD/AWD) and set up camp – even if it’s a smaller car, making the world your oyster :).
- elevated sleeping: Roof tents provide an elevated sleeping platform, keeping you off the ground and away from potential moisture, insects, and wildlife. This elevated position can also offer better views and added security.
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518-watt-hour lithium-ion battery pack, about the size of a basketball and has a solid handle, recharge using a wall outlet, car outlet, electric generator or a solar panel.
Where to buy an SUV / car/tailgate tent
In EU🇪🇺/UK🇬🇧, I still think you will get the best price-to-performance ratio at Decathlon. Their tents are well built, fit many cars and are cheaper than other companies. See which Decathlon car tents I recommend in our shop. If you’re from Germany🇩🇪, you might want to check out VerticalExtreme.de – they offer a good selection of Vaude car tents – a bit more expensive, but they are purpose-made to fit a car and their build quality is better. In the UK, GoOutdoors.co.uk offers a similar selection.
In the US🇺🇸, NapierOutdoors has a good selection and Rei.com has the biggest selection. There are also many car tents on Amazon.com.
Most websites only recommend tents available at Amazon. It’s mainly because it’s the easiest affiliate program you can use (i.e. the websites get rewarded if you buy from Amazon). Nothing wrong with that except it creates a bottleneck – the top 5 “suv tent” search results (blog posts) all recommend the same 5 tents on Amazon – but there are many more and better tents available, even at better prices.
MY TOP BUDGET CAR TENT – Decathlon Arpenaz Base M
MY TOP BUDGET CAR TENT – Decathlon Arpenaz Base M
129.99 GBP / 139.99 EUR
Available at any Decathlon website for your country.
I recommend buying this foldable table + 4 chairs too – good ratings, price and takes up almost no space.
There are three ways how you can fit it over your tailgate or side door:
Touran image source: rjrdaydreamer.com
second image thanks to: WILL WALKLEY OUTDOORS, third image: Sweeper Liam
Or Arpenaz Base M’s bigger and more comfortable version:
Inflatable car tent – Inflatable Camping Shelter – Air Seconds Base Connect car tent
INFLATABLE CAR – TAILGATE TENT – Air Seconds Base Connect Fresh
~300 GBP / 320 EUR
Available at any Decathlon website or store in your country.
You can extend it with an internal bedroom section made specifically for this tent – keep the mozzies out easier and have more privacy. A changing/privacy shelter during the day, bedroom at night. See images below.
I recommend buying this foldable table + 4 chairs too – good ratings, price and takes up almost no space.
There are at least two ways how to fit the Air Seconds Base Connect tent over your car
MY TOP MID-RANGE CAR TENT:
Vaude Drive Van
- Dimensions Length 350 cm, width 335 cm, height 225 cm
- Side and rear windows with mosquito nets and a wide front opening with a double zipper, allowing the door to be collected at the top
- Freestanding – drive-away (leave the car tent standing when you drive your car away)
- Waterproof sealed entrance zip
- Size when packed 60 cm x 20 cm
- Weight 7.1 kg
- Colour Sand (beige)
- VAUDE is a top brand when it comes to tents
- free-standing tent construction for docking on the sides and back of cars
- fits standard vans up to a height of 2.15 m
- excellent air circulation through mesh windows and vents
- inner tent available separately
- guy line collector and clamp in one
- PVC-free material: Flysheet: 100% Polyester; 75 D Polyurethane coated 3.000 mm.
SEE IT IN ACTION:
MY TOP VERSATILE CAR TENT: Dometic HUB Inflatable Modular Shelter 2021
Dometic HUB Inflatable Modular Shelter 2021 (awning + tent in one)
The best feature is the ability to REMOVE (unzip) ALL 4 WALLS – making it an awning + tent in one!
SEE IT IN ACTION:
Other good SUV & tailgate tents, awnings and places to shop
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Car roof tents & tailgate tents at Decathlon
Aside from the selection of standard car tents that also happen to fit cars well, like the Arpenaz Base M above or more in our shop, Decathlon recently expanded their offer by car rooftop tents, starting at 599.99 GBP.
Car tents at GoOutdoors.co.uk
Over 180 tents, many will fit over a tailgate at a good price range: 99 – 1600 GBP / 115 – 1850 EUR
Car roof tents at Roofbunk
Choose between a hard shell (£1,749) or soft shell (£1,049) car roof tent from Roofbunk. UK and EU delivery.
Post author:
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.
