Norway isn’t exactly known as a budget-friendly destination. And while we really wanted the freedom of a road trip, renting a campervan for almost two weeks would have taken up a huge part of our travel budget.

So we decided to keep things simple.

Instead of renting a campervan, we booked a regular rental car and turned it into our very basic home on wheels for 12 days. We bought a mattress and two camping chairs at IKEA, brought our sleeping bags and camping stove from home and picked up a few additional things once we arrived in Norway.

It definitely wasn’t a luxurious camper setup. You have to be willing to lower your standards a little, and we certainly wouldn’t recommend this way of travelling to everyone. But for the two of us, it worked surprisingly well and allowed us to experience Norway without spending a fortune on accommodation.

Our Budget Camping Setup

We rented a VW Caddy Maxi, which turned out to be a really good size for the two of us. With the rear seats folded down, we had enough room to fit a mattress in the back and could both sleep relatively comfortably.

This is definitely something to consider before trying a similar setup. Whether sleeping in a rental car actually works depends a lot on the car and, quite simply, how tall you are.

We learned that firsthand when our Caddy broke down during the trip and we had to switch to another rental car. Suddenly, our simple setup didn’t work quite as well and sleeping became a lot more challenging.

After picking up our original car, one of our first stops was IKEA. We bought a mattress for around 930 NOK and two simple camping chairs for around 175 NOK each.

Our sleeping bags came from home, as did our camping stove.

For some privacy at night, we went with probably the least glamorous camper conversion imaginable: black garbage bags and magnets. We used them to cover the car windows from the inside. Cheap, simple and surprisingly effective.

It certainly wasn’t a beautiful camper conversion, but that wasn’t really the point.

Cooking Without a Fridge

One thing our setup didn’t have was a fridge, so we planned our food around that.

We mainly bought ingredients that didn’t need refrigeration or would keep for a while without it. Things like pasta and other dry foods were easy staples, while harder cheeses such as Parmesan were practical when we wanted something that could last a little longer.

We also brought small seasoning and sauce-mix packets from home for meals like Spaghetti Bolognese, Beef Stroganoff and so on and so on. They took up almost no space in our luggage and made it really easy to cook proper warm meals with just a few fresh ingredients.

It wasn’t sophisticated camp cooking, but after spending the entire day hiking or driving through Norway, a hot meal was usually all we wanted anyway.

We brought our camping stove from home and bought two small gas cartridges in Norway for around 290 NOK in total.

If you’re flying with camping equipment, make sure to check the rules of your airline beforehand. In particular, don’t plan on bringing gas cartridges on the plane – buying them after arrival was the easiest solution for us.

Where We Slept

We travelled through Norway in June, which worked well for this kind of road trip.

We usually decided spontaneously where we wanted to spend the night, depending on our plans and how far we had driven that day. We looked for suitable places along our route where we could stay overnight and always paid attention to local signs and restrictions.

Having a setup that took only a few minutes to turn from „car“ into „bedroom“ gave us a lot of freedom. Once we found a place for the night, we covered the windows, rolled out our sleeping setup and were basically done.

What About Showers and Toilets?

Probably one of the first questions that comes to mind when you hear „12 days sleeping in a rental car“ is what we did about showers and toilets.

And this is where you definitely have to lower your standards a little.

We used public toilets along the way and showered whenever we found public shower facilities. And then there were the days when a shower simply meant jumping into a Norwegian lake or underneath a waterfall.

Was the water cold? Absolutely.

But it was all part of the experience.

You shouldn’t expect the comfort of travelling in a proper campervan with your own bathroom, running water and a hot shower whenever you want one. For 12 days, though, we were completely fine with making it work as we went.

How Much Our Setup Cost

Keeping the setup simple was mainly about spending our money on the actual trip rather than accommodation or an expensive campervan.

For the two of us, our main costs were approximately:

• Rental car for 12 days: 5,800 NOK
• Ferries: 1,750 NOK
• IKEA mattress: 930 NOK
• Two camping chairs: 350 NOK
• Two small gas cartridges: 290 NOK
• Sleeping bags: brought from home
• Camping stove: brought from home

That comes to roughly 9,100 NOK for the two of us, excluding fuel, food and activities.

Over 12 days, that’s around 760 NOK per day for two people for the rental car, ferries and our basic camping setup.

Of course, this isn’t a complete Norway travel budget. We still had to pay for fuel, groceries and everything we wanted to do along the way. But by sleeping in the car and cooking most of our own meals, we were able to keep two potentially expensive parts of a Norway road trip relatively low.

Is Sleeping in a Rental Car in Norway for Everyone?

Definitely not.

You need to be comfortable with having very little space, changing clothes in a car, not having a shower every morning and generally lowering your standards for a while.

The size of your rental car also matters much more than we initially realised. Our Caddy Maxi worked really well for us and our height, but after our breakdown forced us to change cars, we quickly noticed how much of a difference a smaller or differently shaped car can make.

So we wouldn’t book just any rental car and assume it will work.

But if you don’t mind giving up some comfort, enjoy being spontaneous and would rather spend your budget on the trip itself, it can be a surprisingly fun way to experience Norway.

Our setup was incredibly basic. We had a mattress, two sleeping bags, a camping stove, two chairs and garbage bags covering the windows.

And somehow, for 12 days in Norway, that was enough.