How to plan an epic car camping trip!

Camping season comes and goes faster than you think, so it’s important to plan ahead if you want to make the most of warmer weather. 

If that last sentence stressed you out - you aren’t alone! 

Planning for a trip is never fun, but if done right - it doesn’t have to suck! 

Use this simplified 3 step guide to plan out an epic car camping trip this summer. 

Step 1: Pick Your Destination 

Desert, Mountains, Beach - what are you craving the most? 

Once you can put your thumb on the environment, you can figure out what city, town, or state(s) you’ll be heading towards. 

Step 2: Where To Stay 

Okay - you know what state and town you want to visit, now it’s time to find an epic campsite! 

This is where the research starts, but with these apps, it takes a ton of the work out of the process: 

• iOverlander will show a bunch of dispersed campsites all over the country 

• Trails Off Road - shows a ton of offroading trails that highlights their difficulty and dispersed campsites (often in epic locations if you can get off the beaten track) 

• HipCamp - a great option if you don’t want to worry about someone being in your “perfect campsite” 

Check out this article for more information on finding epic dispersed campsites. 

Step 3: Gear Check 

If this is your first trip of the season, take some time to dig through your camping gear to make sure everything is operational: 

• Propane is full

• Lights are charged 

• No creatures are living in your sleeping bag

Sounds like an obvious one, but I can’t even count the number of things I always forget to bring/prepare on the first trip of the season.

This is also a great time to re-evaluate your car camping set up to see if there’s any improvements to make. 

If you haven’t already built or purchased a sleeping platform for your vehicle - this is something worth considering. 

Sleeping platforms elevate your bed so you can store/organize gear under your sleeping area. 

With spare parts already limited to the size of your vehicle, this is the ultimate hack to unlock maximum organization and comfort when car camping. 

If you don’t want to build a sleeping platform from scratch, I’d recommend checking out the Hele Box!

It’s a modular sleeping platform and storage system that fits in almost any vehicle. 

Finally - Hit The Road! 

Once your trip is mapped, gear is loaded and organized, the only thing left to do is to hit the road on your epic adventure! 

If this is the first car camping trip you are planning and are wondering what other gear might be worth bringing with you, check out our ultimate list of car camping gear.