We currently have a little camper van but I don’t think we use it enough to keep it long term (and it is our third car). Has anyone moved from a camper to a roof box and inflatable tent set up instead? It is the ease of getting out and the general lack of faff of the camper that we are trying to replicate. My thinking is that if we have a store box with everything in and a decent roof box it should be nearly as easy to just jump in and go? An inflatable tent at the other end should not take much longer to set up than our current drive away awning? We are fair weather, light weight campers and so we don’t need something to live in for days. A quick Google suggests £250 for a roof box, £75 for roof rack and £700 for a tent (from previous threads)? Anything else major needed for a speedy get away?

£700 for an inflatable tent?! What if it goes pop!
Have you looked at trailer tents? Thule do a roof tent too. Never going to be as easy as the camper though, I’ve pretty much got mine self sufficient now so I just chuck in clothes and bike and go. Soon as you have to pack stuff it loses its appeal, and the ability to just get on the road last minute.

Sell the second vehicle and keep the camper.. 😀

I’ve just gone from tent to camper. The latter is much easier to just jump in and go so is going to get used a lot more often than the tent.

Friend of mine has just switched from a caravan to an inflatable tent. Seems happy with his choice so far.

If we had space to store it I’d have a dedicated camper in a heartbeat. Our current set up is a flexible second vehicle that can be a car, a van or a camper. Not quite jump in and go unless it happens to be set up right from the last trip.

An inflatable tent at the other end should not take much longer to set up than our current drive away awning? We are fair weather, light weight campers and so we don’t need something to live in for days. A quick Google suggests £250 for a roof box, £75 for roof rack and £700 for a tent (from previous threads)? Anything else major needed for a speedy get away?

Two years ago I spent nine days camping in a three-person Millets tent that cost me £75, that went in the back of my Octavia.
Decathlon do an inflatable tent with a fairly large sleeping area and separate ‘vestibule’ for around £200, I’m thinking of getting one before I go away this year. If you’ve got a decent size hatchback like the Octy, or even better a mid-sized estate, you shouldn’t need the top-box.
You haven’t said how many of you there are, but if it’s just two of you, you really don’t need the kitchen sink for three or four days, I just had a cheap collapsible stove that burned wood I scavenged from the beach fro boiling my kettle for tea, and a cool-box for milk which I put cold water into from the tap on the site I was on to keep the milk fresh for cereals in the morning. Cooking was left for the chefs in the pub in the village in the evening.
Here you go, four-person blackout tent for £199: https://www.decathlon.co.uk/air-seconds-family-4-xl-fb-id_8384154.html

If you go down the roof box route and live near me I have a large one for sale at the moment.

Seen quite a few of these while I’ve been traveling around Europe in our camper. Personally I would hate something like this but I would still hate it less than a tent on the floor!

You mean a spacious stable place to sleep with a comfy 7-10 cm self inflating mat that matches most domestic mattresses for comfort? Space for your pillows, a duvet, seating and all your things handily placed?

Yep 😉

After a recent camping trip I’ve also been thinking about this. I have concluded that an inflatable tent is quicker to put up, but we’re talking about 10 or 15 mins here, not worth the expenditure. I’m trying to think of ways to massively reduce the rest of the time it takes for a family of 5 (young children) to set / pack up.
For example, a multivan (i.e. not a camper) with a kitchen unit with fridge in the back, maybe removable. Shelving for boxes so that clothes etc remain in the van or are easy to remove and replace (everyone has one box for their clothes and one for their junk).

£700 for a tent – are you looking for staff to get it sorted for you as well? That is a serious amount of cash for the tent – considering your roofbars are being priced at £75 – does that include all the fixings to attach it to the roof?

You are looking for the convenience of a camper but not in a camper as you don’t use it as much. Given the alternative isn’t quite as convenient as a camper, are you sure you’ll still do this? If the current situation is as ‘easy’ as it can be, what makes you sure you will use the ‘solution’ more often when it is less convenient?

Roof box will need added to the car (and packed); tent will need to be packed then your clothing and gear for the few nights away. It sounds like there is more ‘faff’ without the camper van.

What kind of camper van is it?

Rent a camper or caravan as needed?

Rent a Shed Glamping Pod on a campsite as needed?

Hotel.

Sounds like you have space for storage at home, so a trailer would be an easy option

Either a trailer tent, or a trailer that’s packed with all the right bits already. Connect it up and off you go, you can leave it on site while you drive around on location too

I was parked up a couple of years back int he camper, Dornoch I think, when one of those landies with the roof tent rolled up. We were sitting outside having a cheeky vino and some pre-dinner snacks and thus in 100% nosey mode.
A rather large, plump lady got out, really quite large, the guy was shouted at and immediately jumped up the ladder and started to erect the tent. Once complete he disappeared up, then she did. about a minute later the whole shooting match was jiggling around, rhythmically, a lot. It looked like an earthquake. Put me right off my sausages that did.

Are inflatable tents really that much quicker? They still need to be pegged down and guy ropes pegged out. So as far as I can tell it’s the time taken to slide three poles through the canvas against the time taken to pump up the air beams. Either way you then need to faff with air beds/mats etc.

Just use the camper more.

I don’t think inflatable tents are much quicker at all. The wife and I could put up our family poled tent in about 10 minutes by the time we had it down to a fine art. Putting it away was the PITA, not because of the poles, but rolling it up and squeezing it back in the bag. The inconvenience of tenting which pushed us towards a campervan, is the overall faff and that we’d never consider tenting for a 1 or 2 night weekend trip, especially if the weather is looking anything but perfect. This is where the campervan comes into its own, its on the drive, my daily drive, so if on a Friday night the weekend is looking good then we can, at very short notice, be off somewhere within 30minutes of me getting home from work. Only had the camper since March and we’ve used it 5 times for short last minute weekend getaways. We’d never have done that tenting.

Hmm. Apart from glamping, which takes away the spontaneous aspect, it sounds like the camper is actually our best bet. It’s a Bongo and there are 4 of us. I don’t think it would really work as a daily run around, it has 20 year old van reliability, but maybe we should look into sharing or off site parking? I think you have pushed me away from the tent alternative.

I think the petrol Bongos are meant to be pretty reliable – the biggest issue with the 2.5V6 will be fuel economy if you’re using it as a daily run-around. Ours is non-converted but with hook-up and leisure battery fitted. We just have a 4-berth awning that gives us the room and flexibility of the tent and makes a viable camper for a family of four…