By Catherine Best,
July 8, 2025
I’ll never forget the first night in our new caravan. The excitement of peeling back the doona, slipping between the sheets and sleeping in our cubbyhouse on wheels for the very first time. Spoiler alert: it was lousy. We tossed and turned and both woke up with sore hips and a stiff back. Turns out the ‘orthopedic’ mattress that felt so comfortable on display was not so comfy after all.
This was not the vanlife we’d imagined. We quickly went online and bought an 80mm bamboo topper, trimmed the corners to fit and stuck it in place with Velcro strips. It was a crude fix but it worked. Our sleep improved instantly, but it was a constant battle keeping the topper in place in the linen-lasagne of mattress protector, sheets and doona. Add to that our kids using the bed as a daytime crash pad, and by day’s end the whole lot spilled onto the floor in a manchester avalanche.
Introducing the Wanderluxe caravan mattress topper
I don’t know why we persisted with this set up for five years, but caravans are always a work in progress. There’s always another mod to make, another accessory to buy, another must-have gadget to get… Recently we finally procured a mattress topper specifically made for caravans, and it’s a game changer. The Wanderluxe Caravan Mattress Topper by Dreamer RV is not only more comfortable than our non-caravan-specific topper, but also stays in place and is contoured to the curves of our mattress.
The Wanderluxe is the brainchild of Australian couple Jim and Tara Cameron-Smith, whose caravaning-with-comfort journey was much the same as ours. After travelling Australia for five years with their three young kids and trying many makeshift solutions, they realised caravan mattresses just don’t cut it. They designed a mattress topper specific for caravan beds that delivers on its promise to help caravanners ‘wake up ready for adventure’.
Why is the Wanderluxe better than a regular mattress topper?
Putting a standard mattress topper on a caravan bed is like buying a wedding dress off the rack. It will do the job, but it won’t have the same fit and feel of a custom-made product. The Wanderluxe is tapered for caravan beds, with rounded foot ends and elastic straps to keep the topper in place. Importantly, it also has an anti-slip base of fine nodules that prevent any movement. The topper weighs 7.2kg, is made from 50mm of memory foam infused with cooling gel for temperature regulation, and has a soft Tencel cover that’s removable and washable.
Our Wanderluxe arrived vacuum sealed in a box. Dreamer RV recommends leaving the topper laid out for 24 hours to regain its shape. We didn’t have this luxury as our caravan is kept in storage when not in use, but we found it sprung back to shape after a few hours. The topper was a good fit (the Wanderluxe comes in 12 RV sizes), even though the corners cut in a little short, although this did not affect its function.
We have a north-south bed with a bolster (having an expandable bed enabled us room to add a club lounge), and we were concerned about how the topper would work when the bed was made and the bolster folded up over the mattress. It does require a bit of manoeuvring and we had to un-loop the topper straps at the bedhead to fold it over. This can make the bed linen a little untidy but the Wanderluxe sits much better than our old topper did.
The biggest improvement by far was in our sleep. The topper gave our bed a luxurious pillow-top cushion and provided much better support and comfort than our old topper, despite being 30mm thinner. Instead of sinking into the topper at the heaviest points of contact – hips and shoulders – we had good all-round support. Just enough give, without being spongy.
Linen for caravans
I’m ashamed to say that until recently we used standard queen-size linen on our caravan bed. It seems unthinkable now. Why spend tens of thousands of dollars on a shiny new caravan only to dress it with old ill-fitting sheets from home and a cheap generic mattress protector that gathers at the corners? Replacing our old mattress topper was an opportunity for a complete linen overhaul. We opted for the Dreamer RV Queen Bundle that came with a matching mattress protector. Like the topper, it has rounded end corners and is made from soft Tencel. It’s 100 per cent waterproof and has a deep skirt for a snug fit.
Our sheets came from MeanderWild, made by another enterprising Australian family fed up with the lack of practical yet stylish linen options for caravanners. Their sheet sets zip together at the foot end, so you never have to worry about the top sheet going AWOL during the night. With loose, deep sides, the top sheet gives you the freedom to poke a leg out on a hot night or stay warmly tucked in when it’s cold. The sheets unzip entirely for easy washing and for nights when you decide to jettison the top sheet altogether. Curved at the end corners, the sheets provide a snug fit that you don’t get with an off-the-shelf label at your local linen store.
When we put these sheets on our bed, I almost made my husband shower first. They certainly don’t have the appearance of caravanning sheets. Made from 100 per cent cotton sateen, the 500-thread count sheets have a luxurious silky feel and lustrous sheen. They gave us hotel feels in our box on wheels. MeanderWild sheets come in four colours and, despite promising to only go with dark colours in our van, we opted for the driftwood, which has a silvery-grey tone that matches our cabinetry (not that you see the sheets when the bed is made).
The verdict
I will never again put standard linen in my caravan. Nor will I wrestle with an uncomfortable mattress that only serves to spark marital arguments about who had the most restless sleep. There’s a whole range of crockery, storage solutions and gadgets designed specifically for caravans, so it makes sense that the bed – where you spend a third of your travels – is caravan-customised too. Now I just need to get some new linen for the kiddos.
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