The Honda Passport Trailsport is a Perfect Weekend Warrior

If you’re heading even slightly off the beaten path, I don’t recommend using Waze for directions. I learned this when I entered “Cougar Buttes” as my destination and set off. The drive on pavement was hassle-free, but as soon as I turned onto the dirt, I knew I wasn’t where I needed to be. I was never worried, though, since the Honda Passport Trailsport is a pretty great weekend warrior adventure mobile.

My daughter and I were on our way to the Lucerne Valley region of California for a bit of desert camping. Unfortunately, due to our schedules, we set off a day later than the rest of our group. But the 3.5-liter V6 with 285 horsepower on hand had no issues helping us pick our way through the relatively sparse Saturday morning traffic. Sure, the rig could use a bit more grunt to make up for the added weight of its rather nice interior, all-terrain tires, and extra stuff that comes fitted to most modern cars. Add in the meager weight of my camping gear, and we had a decent amount of stuff of our own—but this Passport kept on trucking.

The aforementioned problem arose, as I said, when we got to the dirt. Good news for the Honda, however, is that this was not a capability issue. Waze had sent us about a mile and a half away from our actual intended destination. Here, off the beaten path, not far from the even more rugged Johnson Valley landscape, I needed to pick a spot in the distance that seemed like a good idea, and ramble my way up and over rocks, across dual-track width side-by-side trails, and through the increasingly hot California desert landscape.

Never once did I put a General Grabber tire in the wrong spot. There was no complaining from the suspension system. And the only weak spot in the whole setup is a braking system that could use a slight punch up in performance to handle the overall heft of the Passport Trailsport.

Once settled, I was able to test some other fresh gear: my new Gazelle T4 tent and Hest Foamy Wide sleeping pad. I purchased both with my own money (however, Hest did send a second pad for me to test free of charge—it just didn’t get here in time for our camping trip). This sleep pad isn’t cheap, but good sleep goes a long way when you’re camping.

With sustained winds north of 10 mph and gusts hitting the high 20s, the ideal camping weather was not to be found. Still, my Gazelle tent stood rock solid while other tents were crumpling in the wind. Setting it up is a delightfully simple affair, and the stakes held their ground wonderfully. Inside the tent, I let my daughter have the sleeping pad for the night while I just double-stacked a pair of sleeping pads. We both slept great, and I actually got some time on the Hest pad in the morning when my daughter woke up early to go for a short walk.

This setup is easily the most comfortable I’ve felt in a ground tent. There’s so much cushion in that Hest pad, and it’s a perfect blend between a stiff mattress and memory foam squish.

Since I no longer have my roof-top tent (or my Montero, more on that soon), this will be my new go-to camping method: the Gazelle and the Hest. After a weekend in fairly brutal winds, I’m happy to report just how well the whole setup works. I look forward to my next camping trip that much more, in fact.

Once the weekend was over, everything was effortlessly swallowed up by the Passport. This is a perfect weekend-warrior machine that doubles as a comfortable daily driver capable of easily dismissing the average potholes around town.

This trip helped show me that, while my roof-top tent was great, sometimes a simpler setup can deliver an equally or more impressive weekend away from home. Even if the wind doesn’t want to play nice.

Disclaimer: Honda tossed me the keys to the Passport Trailsport and included a tank of fuel. Hest sent over a sleep pad for review, but the specific one used here I bought myself. And I’d buy it again, it’s awesome.