We camped a lot when I was a kid. Started in a big family tent, then a pop-up, and then a VW minibus. I joined Boy Scouts and started backpacking and absolutely loved that. Then I moved away from home and the nearby mountains for college. The friends I fell in with did not have much experience camping and hiking like I did, and my experiences thru my 20s were few and far between. Then in my late 20s I met my now DW, who had a similar childhood. Our big vacation every year, for close to 15 years, involved camping. On many of the trips, we'd fly to some cool location (usually with at least one national park) with our gear, rent a car, then car camp. Sometimes we'd try to sneak in a night or two of backpacking. My DW was not nearly as big a fan as I was of having all that gear on our backs though. Moab, Acadia, Banff, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Zion, Great Smokies, Grand Tetons, Mesa Verde, Monument Valley, Jasper, Shenandoah, The Outer Banks of NC, Bryce, Durango, plus tons of trips to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We finally started branching out our travel and visiting various spots in (mostly) Europe about 5 years ago, although we did throw in a return to Moab once in that timeframe (our 3rd visit). But we've supplemented those vacation with various long weekends camping closer to home.
Driving to camping spot has allowed us to really up our car camping game. Instead of small, easily packable backpacking tents, we now have a giant multi-room family tent and cots. Comfy camp chairs for sitting around camp. I even realized we could bring a coffee maker and run it off the lithium ion battery pack I use for my photography studio lights when I need to shoot somewhere remote. We've thought about a camper/rv, but the economics just don't work with us still working.
While we've upped our car camping, I've also found a new back-to-the-basics thing I love. I'm too old (50) to really want to backpack anymore, but with bikepacking/bike touring I don't need that weight on my back. Yeah, peddling up a mountain with all that gear on a bike is a challenge, but still easier than carrying it on my back. I've only done a few short trips. Looking forward to FIRE and having the time to do a month+ tour. It's hard to describe the serenity of traveling by myself this way. The camping aspect is pretty spartan. Small one man ultralight weight tent. A "quilt" instead of a full size sleeping bag. A blow up mattress for comfort and warmth. So far I usually just buy what I need at gas station convenience stores, so don't even bring cooking gear. That may mean eating Clif Bars for a couple of days if I ever wind up somewhere remote.