Car Camping allows you to camp anywhere you can drive.

Car Camping is definately a favorite of young people who are the more purist in defining the term, believe me, I used to be one of them! In college, I would drive my car somewhere with a friend or alone, and use my car as the place to sleep and my "storage" place. I would sleep in the back of my car in a sleeping bag, or in a front seat with the back reclined down. As mentioned before, this is definately not a recommended form of camping if you have kids along on your family vacation getaway!

The more common form of car camping, involves using your car as the transportation and storage vehicle. You bring along a tent(s) and set it up outside your vehicle at whatever area you deem a good camping spot. This form of camping is definately a good alternative to backpacking, for the family who doesn't want to actually haul all their camping equipment along on their backs.

The essentials to making car camping work are the same as what is explained here, but one thing is missing to make it right. You should have a 4x4 if you really want to visit the places that are fun. Granted you can car camp in any National or State Park, but if you want to go into the wilderness, National Forest or BLM land, you should really consider taking a vehicle that has high clearance so you can access some great places.

We have some family friends that take their 4x4 to Death Valley and drive into the southwestern area of the park to access some of the hot springs. You can only get to it by 4x4 or a really long backpacking hike. It is an awesome place to visit, and you generally have the whole place to yourself.

Another strong reason to consider car camping is when you have limited time and want to spend your camping trip exploring, rather than hiking. For instance, if you only have a weekend to camp, driving to your location and hiking around it is preferable to hiking to your location, spending a night and hiking back out. You may not feel like you got the most bang for your buck.

This brings me to the final reason why car camping is a great alternative to backpacking. When you drive into your campsite, you will have all your energy saved up to explore around the site and do all the little hikes, you wouldn't necessarily do if you had to hike 15 miles in to that spot. Sometimes you are so tired from your hike to a place, that you fail to see the true beauty of your camping site, because you are still recovering from your hike in.