I turned my Ford Fiesta into a ‘flat bed’ campervan for £15 – I went to Wales & slept on a mattress topper from Facebook
A WOMAN has shared how she transformed her tiny Ford Fiesta into a campervan for just £15.
Saff explained that she wanted to take a trip to Wales but had a strict budget, so had come up with the idea of turning her car into a place to sleep as well as her mode of transport.
She documented the transformation in a video on her TikTok page, as she began by removing the parcel shelf in her car and folding the seats down flat.
“There’s still not a massive amount of room, but it’s enough – I’m only small!” she grinned.
Her initial plan was to put a single air bed down, laying across the folded down back seats and into the boot.
However, when she looked at how much room she actually had – and the size of the air bed – she quickly realised she had a problem.
Saff blew up the airbed inside and then tried to position it in the car in a way that was comfortable for her to sleep.
But unfortunately, she would have had to sleep almost vertically if she’d wanted to make the air bed idea work.
So, she went back to the drawing board, and hit the jackpot when she spotted a single mattress topper being sold on Facebook Marketplace for just £15.
And it “worked perfectly”.
Saff was able to fold a tiny section of the topper down to make a “little headrest pillow type thing”, and it fit so much better that she was even able to lay down flat.
On the day she was heading off on her adventure, Saff threw in a duvet and some pillows, as well as a sleeping bag and a heated blanket.
“Because I was going to Wales and I knew it was going to be quite cold overnight,” she explained.
“So I wanted to make sure that I was going to be warm enough.”
Once she’d reached her destination, Saff set up her bed, before making some dinner, having a drink and playing her video games ahead of going to sleep.
“And I was perfectly warm enough the whole night!” she added.
“So 10 out of 10 – I will definitely definitely be camping in my car again.”
“Proof you don’t need to spend money on a campervan to have adventures!” Saff captioned her video.
Three camping tips from an expert
David Scotland owns camping equipment retailer Outdoor World Direct and knows all about how to make a camping trip run smoothly.
When visiting any campsite this summer it’s important to make sure you’re not making simple mistakes that could ruin your holiday.
Check your tent
David recommends putting your tent up a couple of weeks before you’re due to travel to give you enough time to repair or replace any damaged parts.
He told Sun Online Travel: “You’d be surprised how many people turn up with broken tents.”
Test the ground
Picking a good spot to pitch your tent is difficult, with lots of things to consider.
One of those should be the condition of the ground you’re putting your tent on top of, according to David.
He said: “Once you’ve found the perfect spot, test the ground with your pegs before you commit to camping there to make sure the ground is soft enough.”
Don’t nap in your tent
It may seem the perfect place for it, but a nap in a tent could end badly, if it’s done at the wrong time of the day.
David explained: “If the sun’s shining and it’s hot inside your tent – don’t do it!
“One of our friends nodded off in his tent during a heatwave at Glastonbury and ended up at the medical tent with heatstroke.”
Instead, he recommends finding some shade outside or somewhere well ventilated.
“I’ve done the same with my Fiesta,” one person commented on the clip, adding: “it’s so much fun going car camping!”
“I’d choose it over tent camping any day,” Saff replied.
“Did you block the windows? I wanna do this but scared people will look at me!” another admitted.
“Yeah I had no time to buy proper ones so I blocked out the windows with binbags and tape,” Saff said.
“No insulation but it did the job of blocking the windows.
“Honestly it looked like such a bodge job but it worked!”
“How did you go about locking your car while in it, does it not set the alarm off?” someone else questioned.
“I just took out the interior motion sensor alarm so I can move around inside while it’s locked, the outdoor one is still on,” Saff said.