Family Tent Recommendations
Discussion
It's a few years since we went camping as a family and for some reason i'd ended up believing it was rubbish. However, some friends having recently bought a caravan persuaded us to join them over the weekend at a local site.
It was brilliant!
They rucked up in their 4 berth caravan and pitched a pop-up gazebo and we arrived with two 4 man tents, one for the Mrs and I and one for the kids and dogs, we took wind breakers long enough to seclude us from the rest of the very busy site and sat around essentially drinking and playing with fire while the kids disappeared to be the social animals they are for 3 days.
On the rare occasions I did manage to hoist myself out of the chair I took a bit of a wonder around the site, walking the dogs and looking very enviously at the different array of setups people have. I can't believe how far tents have moved on in recent years! Which brings me to this thread, we want to do more of this, from long weekends away to perhaps even a full fortnight by the coast, but if we do, I want the right kit, starting with a bigger & better tent.
I've spent a few hours looking at the various offerings and I think i've about nailed my criteria;
- Large family tent with three rooms and ALOT of living space to entertain kids, dogs and friends as we'll be going away as a group more often than not.
- Light weight when packed away, i'm unwilling to have a towbar fitted to the car so i'll invest in either a single large roof box, or a couple of long, thin roof boxes. The tent will go into the boot with the dogs and moon chairs, then all of the other kit will be stored on the roof.
- We will only ever camp on sites with nice facilities & electric hook-ups.
- We will only go away during the summer months and spring/Autumn school half term weeks.
So far, i've got a shortlist of 5.
£999.99 OR Ozone 6.0 XT Air
£849.99 Kampa Croyde 6 Air
£999.00 Outwell Corvette XL Air
£554.99 Kampa Croyde 8
£799.99 Outwell Alabama 7P
I like the idea of tinted windows in the Outwell and Outdoor Revolution tents. I like the ease and quick pitching of the air tents, as well as the lower packed weight. The Kampa tents appear to be massive for their lower price and the Outwell tents seem to be the better quality of the lot with some very nice design features.
If anyone has experience of these tents or others I may not have considered i'd appreciate any advice. As well as any other advice in general really.
TIA.
It was brilliant!
They rucked up in their 4 berth caravan and pitched a pop-up gazebo and we arrived with two 4 man tents, one for the Mrs and I and one for the kids and dogs, we took wind breakers long enough to seclude us from the rest of the very busy site and sat around essentially drinking and playing with fire while the kids disappeared to be the social animals they are for 3 days.
On the rare occasions I did manage to hoist myself out of the chair I took a bit of a wonder around the site, walking the dogs and looking very enviously at the different array of setups people have. I can't believe how far tents have moved on in recent years! Which brings me to this thread, we want to do more of this, from long weekends away to perhaps even a full fortnight by the coast, but if we do, I want the right kit, starting with a bigger & better tent.
I've spent a few hours looking at the various offerings and I think i've about nailed my criteria;
- Large family tent with three rooms and ALOT of living space to entertain kids, dogs and friends as we'll be going away as a group more often than not.
- Light weight when packed away, i'm unwilling to have a towbar fitted to the car so i'll invest in either a single large roof box, or a couple of long, thin roof boxes. The tent will go into the boot with the dogs and moon chairs, then all of the other kit will be stored on the roof.
- We will only ever camp on sites with nice facilities & electric hook-ups.
- We will only go away during the summer months and spring/Autumn school half term weeks.
So far, i've got a shortlist of 5.
£999.99 OR Ozone 6.0 XT Air
£849.99 Kampa Croyde 6 Air
£999.00 Outwell Corvette XL Air
£554.99 Kampa Croyde 8
£799.99 Outwell Alabama 7P
I like the idea of tinted windows in the Outwell and Outdoor Revolution tents. I like the ease and quick pitching of the air tents, as well as the lower packed weight. The Kampa tents appear to be massive for their lower price and the Outwell tents seem to be the better quality of the lot with some very nice design features.
If anyone has experience of these tents or others I may not have considered i'd appreciate any advice. As well as any other advice in general really.
TIA.
Ok, i've managed to spend a bit of time over the last two days popping out to a few local camping centres to check out some of the tents, as such i've managed to pretty much wipe clean my shortlist and now start afresh.
I've seen a Vango Eden V 600XL AirBeam tent, polycotton, massive living area and a lovely big canopy. Almost all of the things that I want in a tent, all at a very good price. This tent is now second on my list.
The number one object of desire today however is an Outwell Vermont XLP. It ticks all the boxes, massive, well made, great features etc etc but i'm buggered if I cn find anywhere with one on demo. If anyone knows of such a place, i'd be willing to travel a fair distance to see it.
I've seen a Vango Eden V 600XL AirBeam tent, polycotton, massive living area and a lovely big canopy. Almost all of the things that I want in a tent, all at a very good price. This tent is now second on my list.
The number one object of desire today however is an Outwell Vermont XLP. It ticks all the boxes, massive, well made, great features etc etc but i'm buggered if I cn find anywhere with one on demo. If anyone knows of such a place, i'd be willing to travel a fair distance to see it.
Thanks for that Watchman, good points. I managed to go and look at a Vermont XLP today, it had everything I wanted at a weight and packed size I thought was workable. Last in stock and a decent package price including footprint and carpet so I snapped it up.
My issue with air tents is that they're huge when packed away, also, none of them offer the features that the traditional poled tents of Outwell do, such as zip up curtains, tinted windows and black out liners in the bedroom.
Oh another point, I couldn't find an air tent as big as this Vermont, size matters you know..
My issue with air tents is that they're huge when packed away, also, none of them offer the features that the traditional poled tents of Outwell do, such as zip up curtains, tinted windows and black out liners in the bedroom.
Oh another point, I couldn't find an air tent as big as this Vermont, size matters you know..
jbaddeley said:
We are after an Outwell Vermont. Did you get the package deal?
Yes, got the tent, footprint and fleece carpet for £1040 from outdooraction.co.uk.I'll try and pick up the roof liner and, following the advice from watchman above, i'll see if I can pick up a Montana 6P front extension to create a canopy area.
Took the Vermont XLP out this weekend for the first time. It's bloody big!
Two of us took just over an hour to pitch it. We probably used 2/3rds of the available pegs which got it very stable, the remainder seem to be for things like ventilation flaps and weather flaps.
Putting it away wasn't easy though, it was very windy yesterday and getting it down and the air out of it took twice as long as putting it up. We did it though and it eventually went back into the bag it came in.
Two of us took just over an hour to pitch it. We probably used 2/3rds of the available pegs which got it very stable, the remainder seem to be for things like ventilation flaps and weather flaps.
Putting it away wasn't easy though, it was very windy yesterday and getting it down and the air out of it took twice as long as putting it up. We did it though and it eventually went back into the bag it came in.
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