The Rise of Car Camping: Are More Campers Skipping the RV?

A new ‘car camping’ filter on Hipcamp started as a fix for a search problem. But what happened next made us wonder whether something bigger is going on.

Not long ago, we added a few new rig filters to Hipcamp.

On one level, it was a practical product update. We’d been hearing more and more from campers whose camping style didn’t fit neatly into the way our search had traditionally been organized. Car campers, truck campers, and people with rooftop tents weren’t really looking for tent sites. They needed sites that worked for vehicles: easy access, enough room to park, the right kind of level ground, and often amenities like bathrooms or showers nearby. But they also weren’t RVs.

They needed a different way to search.

So we added new filters for car camping, truck camping, rooftop tents, and other rig types to better reflect how these people actually camp.

A few weeks later, when we looked at the data, one thing jumped out immediately: Car camping had already become the fourth most popular rig filter on Hipcamp.

It was getting more searches than class A RVs, pop-up campers, and fifth wheelers. Combined with rooftop tents, it was also outpacing class Bs (vans).

We knew car camping was popular. But even so, the speed of that response surprised us.

It got us wondering: Is car camping having a moment?

The campers who didn’t fit the old filters

The reason we added the filter in the first place was simple. We were increasingly hearing from people who weren’t sure how to find the right campsites for them on Hipcamp.

They weren’t tent campers, exactly. They weren’t looking for a walk-in site or a grassy patch where they’d unload a trunk full of gear and pitch poles and stakes. But they also weren’t traditional RV travelers.

They were sleeping in the vehicle they already owned. Sometimes that meant an SUV or hatchback with the seats folded down and a mattress in the back. Other times it meant a more built-out setup: a truck bed, a rooftop tent, or a sleeping platform in the rear of a crossover. Either way, they needed sites suited to vehicles, not just tents.

Before the new filters, those campers often ended up in a strange in-between. Our support team would hear from people asking how to find sites that worked for car camping. Social channels got similar messages. Even internally, we knew the workaround many people were using: search for drive-up tent sites, then message the Host to ask whether sleeping in the car was okay.

That was a sign the search experience wasn’t matching the reality on the ground.

The early data that made us look closer

After launch, car camping quickly became one of the most-used rig filters on Hipcamp.

That alone doesn’t prove some giant national shift. But it was more than enough to make us curious.

So we went back through our review data. And what we found was striking: Mentions of “car camping” in Hipcamp reviews have more than doubled over the last four years, growing much faster than review volume overall.

That matters because it suggests this wasn’t just a behavior waiting for a label. Car campers were already here. They were already booking on Hipcamp. And they were already describing themselves that way, in their own words.

More than that, the reviews suggest car camping is not just generic camping with a different name. It often comes with its own set of priorities.

Car campers talk about things like easy vehicle access, level ground, room to park, quick overnight stops, bathrooms, showers, and feeling safe when arriving late. They mention ordinary vehicles too: Subarus, Teslas, SUVs, hatchbacks, RAV4s, and everyday crossovers.

In other words, this isn’t only about hardcore overlanders or people with custom van conversions. It’s also about people making the most of what’s already in the driveway.

What Hosts are seeing on the ground

We got in touch with our Hosts.

One of them was Deanna, who runs Idaho Springs RV Resort Campground in Colorado. When the campground first opened, she noticed something interesting: People were booking tent sites, but sleeping in their cars.

“At first, it seemed odd to me,” she told us. “So I started asking why. Every answer was basically the same: ‘I just want a safe place to park, sleep, not get kicked out—and honestly, having access to a hot shower and Wi-Fi is a huge bonus.’”

That insight changed how she thought about the space she had.

“What looked like extra parking turned out to solve a real need,” she said. “Now, we’ve intentionally created separate options for tent camping, RV sites, and car camping, so guests can choose exactly what works best for them.”

And the demand has been consistent.

“My campground has only been open about a year and a half, so I can’t speak to long-term trends just yet,” she said. “But we’ve had car campers here pretty much every single night.”

What stood out even more was how she described those guests. In her experience, most aren’t trying to “graduate” to RV life. They genuinely prefer the simplicity and lower cost of car camping, especially for road trips and overnight stopovers.

That distinction feels important. Because if car camping is growing, it may not just be because some people can’t shell out for an RV. It may also be because, for a lot of trips, they simply don’t want one.

A taste of vanlife, without buying a new rig

Call it serendipity, but the same week we talked to Deanna, we noticed Murray from car camping brand Hele Outdoors popping up on Shark Tank.

Hele Outdoors makes sleeping platforms designed to help people camp in the cars they already own. We reached out. What Murray told us made the broader picture feel even more interesting.

Murray said Hele saw 5x growth from its first year to its second. More interestingly, he described the appeal of the product as giving people “a taste of vanlife without investing in a new rig.”

It’s a phrase that stuck with us.

Because it gets at something bigger than affordability alone. Car camping isn’t just a workaround. For some travelers, it’s part of the appeal. It’s lighter. Simpler. Lower-commitment. Easier to drive. Easier to park. Better on gas. And often a much more realistic fit for a quick weekend than a bigger, dedicated setup.

Murray also said he was surprised by how broad the audience turned out to be. It wasn’t just younger travelers or people priced out of larger rigs. He was seeing interest from people over 50, including some who already owned RVs but wanted something more economical and maneuverable for shorter trips.

Why now?

If car camping is having a moment, the timing makes sense.

The latest KOA Camping & Outdoor Hospitality Report points to growing interest in road trips that include camping, alongside broader financial pressure shaping how people travel. This year’s Route 66 centennial adds another reason road travel is in the air. And for many travelers, the economics of a big purchase or a rented RV may feel harder to justify than they once did.

That doesn’t mean RV travel is going away. Far from it.

On Hipcamp, travel trailers remain the most popular rig filter, followed by campervans and class C RVs. There is still plenty of demand for larger rigs, more built-out setups, and classic RV road trips.

But early evidence suggests that alongside that, something else is becoming more visible too: converting the car you already own into an affordable, flexible, accessible way to get outside.

That might mean an overnight roadside stop with a shower and some Wi-Fi before heading off again in the morning. It might mean a simpler weekend in the mountains without the cost, size, or learning curve of a bigger setup. It might mean the feeling of vanlife, in a more stripped-back form.

However people define it, car camping seems to be emerging as a real middle ground: more vehicle-oriented than tent camping, but cheaper and easier than making the leap to an RV.

And for a growing number of travelers, that middle ground may be exactly the point.

Find a great place to car camp on Hipcamp

If car camping is on your mind this year, Hipcamp now makes it easier to search for sites that fit your setup. Use the Car Camping filter to explore campsites that work well for sleeping in your vehicle, whether that means an overnight road-trip stop or a simple weekend escape.

When searching, look out for the things car campers tend to care about most: easy vehicle access, enough room to park comfortably, level ground, and amenities like bathrooms or showers nearby.