I'm back and forth on this. The rest value of a proper room can't be overstated, but given good weather, I think I could get a decent night's rest in a tent.
A campground with showers would be great. Bonus points if it also has laundry facilities, so I can wash stuff every few days. I'd plan on having to wash clothes every 2-3 days, but be prepared to go longer.
There are tents that pack up small enough to not take up an entire side case, and are fairly light. For example, this one at Amazon
I already have an REI sleeping bag that compacts well.
On my last road trip, I took too much stuff. Now that I have a better idea what I don't need, I think I could reasonably take enough stuff to camp, but not so much that I run out of room in my side cases.
My Eureka Solitaire tent only weighs a little over 2 and a half pounds, and packs down very small.
https://www.amazon.com/Eureka-Solitaire-One-Person-Three-Season-Backpacking/dp/B000EQCVNY
Unless you have a really good down sleeping bag, my entire sleep system is probably much smaller and weighs less than yours.
I just got this tent, only $100 and it's pretty sturdy and super easy to set up and take down. 2lbs 9oz, only downside is you can't sit up in the tent, but that does not bother me, with the netted roof that you can unzip it feels pretty open. Plus Eureka tents I've had in the past have always lasted a long time, I still have a 2 person tent from the 90's that is good as new! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EQCVNY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
This is just a shot in the dark but... What if you were to have enough room to set up a one man tent? They do have small little, big enough for one person tents. Eureka! Solitaire - Tent (sleeps 1) Or kind of like one of those tubes that kids crawl through, or dogs, that you could sleep in the middle of? Pawhut 16' Pet Dog Fitness / Agility Obedience Training Tunnel - Blue The point being, what if we could sleep inside of a closed tent or a tube where our exhaled air and body temperature would allow the air that surrounding us, to heat up? Would we be warmer in something like that? ( possibly the tube could be wrapped inside of a sleeping bag.) As it is I don't live in a cold climate. My solution was to move to California and it's working great. However if I had to survive a a cold-ass winter... I would consider some type of a coffin arrangement where my body temperature we keep the surrounding air warm enough for me to sleep through the night.
The collapsible dog tunnel would work great as far as a space saver. When we don't need to use it, it can collapse into a very minimal design. It could also be very useful as far as getting into at night. With it fully collapsed we could position our head into it while we're in our sleeping bag and gently allow it to expand to cover us the entire way. This would mean the the cold air would have to enter at our feet and make its way up towards our head for us to be bothered by it potentially. Another solution in this scenario maybe to have an additional down blanket by our feet that blocked off any cold air from entering our tube-shaped sleeping area. Almost as if it was cotton in a bottle.
Big fan of these: Eureka Solitaire