Glamping on the cheap for mid-fifties couple
January 30, 2019 7:39 PM   Subscribe

My wife and I swore we would never sleep on the ground again after our last camping adventure. The hotels around national parks are terribly expensive, and we are both teachers. What's our next move?

We have been thinking about buying cots with mattresses and trying that option. Or maybe we should just take sleeping pills when we camp. We also have a Ford Econoline XLT--perhaps we could put a sleeping platform and mattress in the back.

What has worked for you? Should we just find a motel six within an hour of the parks we want to visit?
posted by mecran01 to Travel & Transportation (34 answers total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
You already have the van...there are like a million blogs and YouTube channels on ways to outfit yourself for #vanlife on the cheap(or the expensive!)
posted by rockindata at 7:42 PM on January 30, 2019 [10 favorites]


Air mattress!
posted by Grandysaur at 7:43 PM on January 30, 2019 [4 favorites]


Response by poster: Air mattress: every time I buy one they spring a leak within minutes.
posted by mecran01 at 7:49 PM on January 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


Some state parks near us (Maryland) have cabins & mini- cabins that have cots. They are reasonably priced, however there is usually a 2-3 day minimum, and we bring linens. Woodalls used to have a searchable database that was helpful when we removed RV options. We’ve also found nearby clamping campgrounds in the Appalacians on AirBnB. When a family member had knee surgery and started sleeping with a CPAP, this was easier than investing in wheeled options. YMMV, and we know plenty of people who are happy with pop-ups.
posted by childofTethys at 7:51 PM on January 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


Oh, there are budget motels that are fabulous and others that, are not worth the budget price. Do your homework if you go that route.
posted by childofTethys at 7:56 PM on January 30, 2019


There are camper cabins in a lot of Minnesota state parks too. Super cozy!
posted by lakeroon at 8:03 PM on January 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


There are a fair number of glamping options out there, as well as vacation rentals, state park cabins, stationary caravan/RV parks. I always like to do an airbnb/vrbo search around my desired area just to see what's on offer.

Certainly get on youtube and check out #vanlife and "econoline vanlife".
posted by Lyn Never at 8:13 PM on January 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


dang if I had that van I would definitely get it cozy. You could put a real bed in the back, along with a mini toilet and shower and heater and oh man.
posted by bbqturtle at 8:17 PM on January 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


Vanlife!

...or, more portable, something like this? I've not used this exact one, but I have used the original design from the guy who invented them, and it was pretty nice (I thought; keeping in mind that I generally dislike the outdoors because then why would Jesus have invented AC?).

Anyway, check them out at a store if you can.
posted by aramaic at 8:44 PM on January 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


> Air mattress: every time I buy one they spring a leak within minutes.

You've either been unlucky or too cheap. Use a good air mattress, on ground you've cleared of sharp sticks and stones, preferably with a tarp under the tent to reinforce protection against punctures, and you'll sleep wonderfully. Get a 12 volt air pump for easy setup. We got our air mattress at Costco and have had many excellent glamping trips (and zero leaks!)
posted by anadem at 8:46 PM on January 30, 2019 [15 favorites]


seconding air mattress, with ground prep and tarp first. i like the one the wirecutter recommends with the built-in electric air pump.
posted by zippy at 8:59 PM on January 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


Some people find hammocks comfier than their beds at home. YMMV considerably but it’s worth considering and less cumbersome than cots/air mattresses/etc if you find it works for you!
posted by Gymnopedist at 9:01 PM on January 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


Yeah, with that van I'd be tempted to go all #vanlife and trick it out. But couldn't you also just squeeze in some memory foam mattresses for the drive, and set up tents with those at car campsites? Perhaps easier than dealing with inflating and deflating air mattresses. Some very light googling indicates that Ikea foam mattresses are easy to modify.
posted by stowaway at 9:01 PM on January 30, 2019


Cots.
As we entered middle-age, cots made all the difference in the world.
We have these ones, which I like because the lever doohickey makes it easy to get them taut.
They are very comfortable, but very heavy, big and bulky.

There are lots of other options if you want something easier to manage or lighter. Some are lower to the ground as well.
You'll need a sizeable tent, though, because they take up a lot of space inside.

One hint, get yourself a light blanket or similar to use as an under-quilt. Because cots have a lot of airspace underneath, they can get pretty chilly.
posted by madajb at 9:05 PM on January 30, 2019 [5 favorites]


I hate hate cheap motels. The idea of bedbugs just gives me the heebie jeebies. Good clean dirt, scorpions, and snakes for this girl! Give me a tent.
Better yet, don't bother with cots or tents or crap you have to set up every night. Why use a tent when you can put a mattress in the van and never have to deal with the dew or rain?
Van for the win! Put in a foam mattress on a wooden bunk, put your storage under the bunk, set up a camp stove out the back door under a shade tarp, and you're gold. If the weather's bad, eat sandwiches out of the cooler. We've camped for weeks and been comfortable in a little Mazda pickup with a shell. So convenient just to open the back and have your bed already set up.
posted by BlueHorse at 9:12 PM on January 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


Assuming you have flat ground, self inflating air mattresses are some of the best sleep I've gotten while glamping. I use Kamp Rite but there's others. The downside is that they're bulky and do best stored unrolled. With the flat ground caveat, I prefer them to cots.

That said, a real mattress in the back of a sufficiently large vehicle is hard to beat, assuming the vehicle can go everywhere you want yo sleep.
posted by Candleman at 9:40 PM on January 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


Van! You've already got the van. We were car campers for years and then bought a van. There's nothing better than knowing that, wherever we are, we'll always be sleeping in our own bed. Motels, for some reason, don't like campfires. Don't ask. With a bucket for relief, a nice 12 volt fridge, some ramps for leveling and a nice mattress we put over 9000 miles a year on ours while still working full time. Over the years we've added solar and a nice roof fan but other than that you don't need much and you'll be so comfortable. Van!!
posted by Floydd at 9:41 PM on January 30, 2019


I spent all of 1995 travelling around Australia in an old VW Kombi. The Kombi is rear-engined, so it already had a raised platform at the back for the engine compartment. I built a full-width timber-framed extension topped with 16mm particleboard to take that forward for a total platform length of 2030mm, then we put a queen size wool/cotton/foam futon on top. It was super comfy for the two of us to sleep on.

Rolling up the futon toward the back of the van allowed us to use the exposed extension platform as a working and dining surface. I also cut hatchways into the top of it to allow easy access to the corrugated cardboard storage cartons we kept underneath. I'm sure you could easily do something similar inside an Econoline, with the added freedom of not having to conform to an existing platform height; just set the height to suit your preferred under-bed storage bins and make a hatchway that gives you access to the spare tyre well.

The other thing we did with that Kombi quite soon after getting the bed happening was add demountable mosquito screens for the front windows, constructed from ordinary fibreglass flyscreen and self-adhesive Velcro tape. Having a bit of flow-through ventilation stops two sleeping bodies from making every interior surface damp with condensation and yields ridiculously luxuriously comfortable sleep.
posted by flabdablet at 2:44 AM on January 31, 2019 [2 favorites]


With a bucket for relief

Use a sawdust bucket for luxury's sake.
posted by flabdablet at 2:58 AM on January 31, 2019 [1 favorite]


We sleep on a folding full XL foam mattress on a platform in the back of our Honda Element (SUV) - you could probably even get a queen in the back of an Econoline, and you can just put it on the floor (the platform is just so that we don’t have to take everything out of the car to go to sleep). We camp at campgrounds (or very occasionally wild/stealth camp) and set up a kitchen/dining area but mostly keep everything in the car.

Our mattress is only 4 inches, which is comfortable for me (average size woman) but my husband (slightly larger-than-average man) bottoms out a little; we’d probably get a 5 or 6 inch if we were buying again.

Also sleeping in the car can be stuffy, so we have usb-powered fans.
posted by mskyle at 4:32 AM on January 31, 2019


you can just put it on the floor

It will stay cleaner with less effort if you raise it, though.
posted by flabdablet at 4:38 AM on January 31, 2019


We built a little teardrop trailer (using these plans) for similar reasons. Not the cheapest option, but cheaper than going to hotels every night. The bed in our teardrop is just about my favourite place to sleep now. Since it holds almost all our regular camping gear, when we want to head out we just do some basic provisioning and safety checks, then hook up the trailer to our minivan and go. I used to dislike car camping because of how much setup, takedown and moving stuff around it required, so it felt more like doing chores than relaxing.
posted by Poldo at 7:31 AM on January 31, 2019 [2 favorites]


Couple of ideas:

- Pop-up camper

- Teardrop camper

- Hammock camping

- Small RV
posted by tman99 at 8:21 AM on January 31, 2019


Renting a small travel or pop up trailer from one of the rental places like outdoorsy.com? you’d have to check the towing capabilities of the van first of course.
posted by cgg at 8:40 AM on January 31, 2019


Outfit your van, go have fun. All the joys of camping, but with a comfy bed & privacy & in some cases your own teeny tiny wood stove. Outfitting a van is very in right now & there are a tonne of YouTube videos about it just search for phrases like van living, van life, stealth camping. If you're vaguely handy it's easy to do. If you're a bit handier you can make it like a palace in there for not much money.
posted by wwax at 8:40 AM on January 31, 2019


Another vote for van!

- Way better for camping in inclement weather (no packing up wet tents)
- Safer in bear and wildlife areas
- Plus you can save money by sleeping in it en route to further destinations — vans are welcome overnight in places like walmart parking lots
posted by mochapickle at 8:48 AM on January 31, 2019


A note on air mattresses: Most of the time the leaks are from around the air intake/output area. Bring a tube of silicone sealant with you (i got it from the plumbing section of the hardware store), and if the mattress springs a leak, put a generous amount all around those areas to seal up any leaks, wait a few hours, and voila!. I had the misfortune to have to sleep on an air mattress for a few months and when it eventually sprang a leak, that method fixed it right up. :)

(Also, i agree that you might not be spending enough on an air mattress. When i cheaped out on them, they would immediately die (this was before i knew how to fix them). When i got a $60 one, it lasted for many months of daily use before springing a leak (which i was able to fix).)
posted by miss so and so at 9:34 AM on January 31, 2019


If you go the cot route, it's totally worth the upgrade to the REI Kingdom padded cot. I'm a bit north of your age and have enjoyed luxury tent camping in this cot for several seasons now.
posted by rekrap at 9:36 AM on January 31, 2019 [2 favorites]


If you go the van route, you may also want to invest in some kind of tarp and some rope to suspend it, so you can put that over the van roof if it rains. Otherwise, you run the risk of being kept awake by rain drumming on the metal roof above you all night.

This advice courtesy of my parents, who decamped to the capped-over bed of our family pickup truck when we went camping and it rained. The cushions they already had back there were plenty comfortable, but the rain drumming on the roof over them was loud (my father compared it to "mice in combat boots").
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:55 AM on January 31, 2019 [1 favorite]


I frequently camp as part of weekends with my LARPmedieval combat game. A couple of years ago, I switched from air mattresses to rollup futon mattresses, sometimes combined with one of those cheapo 3" memory foam mattress toppers.
posted by hanov3r at 11:07 AM on January 31, 2019


I lived and camped in a Honda minivan for a lengthy(months) road trip. My stuff was in crates and plastic totes. For my bed, I had plywood on top of the crates, with a stack of camping and yoga pads, then an egg crate mattress topper. I made a tent extension to fit over the lift back out of old tents, secured to the sides of the van with magnets. Fresh air cant be over-valued. My plywood bed had loops attached so I could lift it and secure it to get at my stuff. If there's a buy nothing group or freecycle in your area, people have So Much camping gear in their attics. There are tent extensions for vans; the links are just examples. LED solar and battery string lights are so great for lighting; leave them in a bunch to read. National Parks are amazing.
posted by theora55 at 2:05 PM on January 31, 2019 [1 favorite]


Hammocks, hammocks, hammocks!

You can get yourself a comfortable night's sleep for $50 per person, and some people like the feel so much they'll build themselves indoor hammock stands or hammock anchors so they can sleep in hammocks even when they're not camping.

I'm happy to provide more detail if you're interested in this option. Or you can read (or ask) the extremely helpful Hammock Forums.
posted by meaty shoe puppet at 8:51 PM on January 31, 2019 [2 favorites]


You can get a used tent trailer pretty cheap, and it's so great to have somewhere dry to sit on rainy days, plus make a cup of tea. And the beds are great. Very easy to set up, and we'll never go back to sleeping on the ground.
posted by Enid Lareg at 1:55 PM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: So I had this wooden bed platform I had build a long time ago for my son, which was converted into just a bed at one point. We ended up creating a folding extension for it an putting it in our van with a queen-sized folding mattress. We kept our camping gear in plastic bins underneath. It was a bit cramped and we need to fine tune the whole operation, but it worked pretty well and cost less than $100.

Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the platform inside the van, but here are some pictures of it under construction and a couple from the trip to southern Utah and Arizona.

Linky
posted by mecran01 at 2:10 PM on April 22, 2019 [1 favorite]


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