Rooftop tent (Part 1)

Home Above the Ground - Why We Chose a Rooftop Tent

Shortly after midnight above the Arctic Circle, the sun is visible on the horizon. An expedition to Norway.

It sounds like a simple question, but it might be confusing for someone who has never slept in a tent on top of a car. That’s why we decided to split this topic into a few parts.

In this first one, we’ll try to explain why we chose a rooftop tent and what other options we considered.

What are the biggest advantages and disadvantages of this setup?

And what would we choose today instead of a rooftop tent?

Mountains and the sea. An expedition to Corsica.

When I was five, my grandma made a tent for me out of blankets. I could play inside and pretend it was my own little world. But I had to wait a few more years for my first night in a real tent. The small 2-person tent I got when I was eleven was a dream come true. It was heavy and difficult to pack compared to modern ones, but it was my portable home - something I could take with me anywhere.

A roof tent with an annex featuring a sealed floor. One of the rainy days in Norway.

Before you read further, ask yourself: do you enjoy sleeping in a tent? If you’ve never tried it - this could be a good moment to give it a chance. If you love living under a tent - come and get to know ours. If you really don’t like tents - maybe this article will confirm your choice, or... maybe it will change your mind. 😊

Hidden in the bush, warm rainless nights are an opportunity to remove the flysheet from the roof, with only a mosquito net between us and the stars. An expedition to Portugal.

To explain why we use a rooftop tent, we need to say what we love about life outside cities. The sounds of nature: the wind - soft or strong like a storm - the rain, the sea, the smell of trees, and even the tiny noises made by small creatures around us. You won’t hear those unless you spend a night in a tent, far from town lights.

Somewhere in the bush near the Atlantic coast.

We use our tent during mountain trips - there are few things like falling asleep in a warm sleeping bag, inside a tent covered with snow and shaken by strong wind, high in the mountains. We sleep in a tent during bike trips too. For us, the tent is a soft and personal border between our sleep and the wild world around us.

This time on bicycles with a regular tent. An overnight stay by the Biebrza River in Poland.

Since we often travel through rough terrain, carrying heavy cave diving gear, we always use our Land Cruiser. This car became our answer to the problem of "how to get somewhere." We just pack, start the engine, and know we’ll arrive. At some point, instead of setting up a tent next to the car, we decided to put one on its roof.

A tent, the rear awning, and bicycles on a hitch-mounted rack, all shortly after arriving at a lake somewhere in Germany.

What other options did we consider?

1. A camping trailer

2. A 4x4 camper van

Why didn’t we choose them? Because they feel too separate from the places where we sleep. I used to travel with a trailer - it was very comfortable, and I fully understand people who choose that style. A camper van seems even more compact and you don’t have to tow anything. Some self-built campers are actually inspiring - we sometimes use similar ideas in our setup. The huge campers we saw in the U.S. are like real rolling homes. But in the end, all of them try to bring the “house feeling” into travel.

...and that’s just not our way 😊

Norway once again, this country never gets boring for us. Sleeping bags airing on the tent roof; the entire ceiling of the tent opens up as a mosquito net.

We’re always happy to meet people who travel differently than we do - and that’s what we want to offer you too: If you don’t have your own way of travelling yet - be open. Try every option before you say no. Think: Will this help you enjoy time together? Will it let you rest and discover new places?

Rooftop tents, trailers and camper vans - all can be rented easily today. Try each one and find what fits you 😊

This is what the roof tent looks like inside. Choosing the three-person version was a deliberate decision; there is more room for the two of us and the dog :) . Somewhere by the Gulf of Bothnia.

Main advantages of a rooftop tent (no particular order)

• you feel, hear, and see the nature around you

• you can mount it on almost any car (except convertibles)

• you sleep above the ground - helpful in wet or rainy areas

• some tents let you remove the rain cover and sleep under the stars, protected only by a thin mosquito net

• it’s always with you - wherever your car is, your tent is

• after the trip, you take it off, and your car is just a car again

Not visible in the photo but important: even though our LC120 has pneumatically adjustable suspension, you always need to bring extra leveling wedges for when the ground is uneven, like here, on a downward slope. Somewhere by a lake in Sweden.

Main disadvantages of a rooftop tent

• you climb in using a ladder - this can be a problem for some people

• depending on the model, the tent might stick out beyond your car’s shape - which can be a problem on some parking lots

• setting it up takes a few minutes - you can’t sleep in it the moment you stop the car

Sweden, an overnight stay on the Baltic in the Gulf of Bothnia, one of the places on the Baltic most surprising in its silence and beauty.

In the next parts, we’ll go into more detail, show our own tent model, and talk about the many types of rooftop tents.

And of course, you’ll see how our dog Mrok handles sleeping on the roof 😊

Mrok, tired after a bicycle trip to the Atlantic, sleeping soundly in the roof tent. Somewhere at the southern tip of the Gibraltar Peninsula.

We’ll be happy to include your feedback, questions, and comments in the next articles. PS.

What would we choose today instead of a rooftop tent?

A rooftop tent. Same model, same ladder, same mosquito net.

Mrok voted too - and he sleeps closer to the stars than we do.

Where you stop is actually less important; in our opinion, the closeness to nature that a night under the stars gives you cannot be overstated. And the stars are closer, because after all, your tent is on the roof :) .