advice on family tents please?

[Bluebell]

went camping on the weekend and used our 2 very small, very cheap, not very efficient tents. Despite being cold, cramped and wet we had a great time and can't wait to do it again. (Well maybe next year when its warm again) Would like to do it more frequently - we have a friend with a field so potentially we could use it a lot and use it if we go away aswell. ANYWAY would love to get a decent size for my family and potentially if we have the kids friends join us too.
So what are good makes? Things to look out for? ANY ADVICE appreciated x

[zippy]

I have a corado 6 from gooutdoors it's fab, we got it on offer paid 275 but well worth it, all steel poles so should last, light and airy. Check out the reviews or visit gooutdoors there's loads to choose from

[sarah707]

If you are anywhere near Cheshire Oaks a company often puts up tents on one of the fields just next to the roundabout off the motorway...

Are there tent shows I wonder? :laughing:

:D

[mrs_scottydog]

We've always had Kyham tents. Easy to put up and down, currently have a Kyham Chatsworth but they do bigger ones. My inlaws have an 8 man Kyham tent which seemed ok too. We did have to buy our current one off the internet though. Hx

[Boris]

We bought a Kampa Bamburgh 6 this year. It's lovely. Lots of space for the kids to play if the weather is rubbish and 2/3 bedrooms. Easy to put up too.

[JCrakers]

We have a 10 man khalahari :laughing: there's 4 of us and it's mahoosive.

We only got it because go outdoors were having a sale and snapped it up for about £250 :D

Think it's hi gear and it's so simple to put up. Our friends went with the sensible idea of having the 8man even though they paid more for it. It's £299

If you go to go outdoors they usually have loads on display.

[blue bear]

After many light Witt tents we finally bought a second hand frame tent.
They are so much easier to put up much sturdier and a bigger space to live in.

[caz3007]

We have a Wynster Montpellier 6 which we love, easy to pitch, sewn in groundsheet and big enough for the 3 of us for a week and it was under £150. We also have a Royal Pescara 8, but thats huge, like a bungalow and heavy to pitch, so we havent used it for a couple of years and it was expensive.

There is a great forum for camping called www.ukcampsites.co.uk and they all sorts of sites and reviews written by members as well as a brilliant forum

[TheBTeam]

Our Outwell Montana 6 was an amazing tent, and withstood very powerful winds and huge downpours of rain, and because of the integral groundsheet we were perfectly dry while others were washing away. We are looking at getting the bigger one at some point.

[PixiePetal]

don't know about tents but I recently bought a GPS for geocaching online from Go Outdoors and they were really helpful - would go there again, there are stores about but none near me :rolleyes:

Will be watching this thread as we had an old tent from my sister and I am thinking of getting a more suitable one for us

[kindredspirits]

Don't buy pro action they r rubbish

[The Juggler]

i told dh I wouldn' tcamp with him without a tent with sleeping pods and a space to sit inside if it rained.

We got a £300 skandia tent for £89 on e-bay. It was brand new - a company buys them and sells them on.

It's fab - we have a 3 bed/pod one. it's huge. Def. recommend them. and a canopy at front so you can boil a kettle cook outside but kinda undercover if it rains. :thumbsup:

[francinejayne]

We have an outwell hartford 8 man tent, it is great - sewn in groundsheet (which I highly recommend), a living room with fitted carpet(!), 3 bedrooms, a porch area and an extension!!!

All of the outwell tents are really good, but I would say if you go by what they say with regards numbers you will be very snug - so I would buy for example a 6 man tent (minimum) if there are 4 of you. There are 4 of us and we have the right amount of room in our 8 man tent!

[loocyloo]

we borrowed a friends 4 man tent.don't know make, but it came from halfords! 2 double sleeping inner tents and a ground sheet for the middle bit! easy to put up and withstood a fair amount of rain! only thing i didn't like was that the ground sheet for the middle was only pegged down :( i prefer built in ones, then you don't get random snails/mice etc coming to visit :rolleyes:

if we were buying one, i'd get a 6 man/3 pod one, so there is a place to put all the boxes/bags/wet waterproofs etc ;) :D !!!!

don't get one of the pop up ones ... they go up super fast, but go down very slow :D friends saw a man just drive off and leave his this summer, after wrestling with it for over an hour! apparently the site owner had a stash of bent & broken & NOT folded pop up tents to go to the dump!

[clareelizabeth1]

I love bell tents. Nice and large, sides can go up on a hot day so its like a nice breezy shade. They will fit a family in but can with practice be put up by yourself. Even better you can stand to get dressed.

[Toothfairy]

This summer we upgraded our family tent to a Hi-gear Zenobia 6.
I can honestly say it is the best tent we have ever bought.
It is very easy to put up, roomy and has a built in groundsheet throughout.
We also bought the porch extension which was great, we used it as a kitchen and it was great for storing all the shoes, Wellies etc in too.

I would highly recommend this to anyone :thumbsup:

[jellytot]

We have a suncamp mercury 1000

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/tents/p/SunnCamp-Mercury-1000/1372

Fantastic tent, but having to sell it 9if you are interested) only selling as I suffer with my back and struggle with not sleeping in a bed now.

Although its big as its a tunnel tent it is easy to put up and doesnt take too long either.

[Jods]

we have a Gelert 9 man Cyclone which I got in Halfords at the last knocking in the sale for £89, about 9 yrs ago and its still going strong.

Just go and test some - Space is important the bigger the better so go for as much as you can afford, also standing space is important, as is the sleeping arrangements x

[lilac_dragon]

Hi, re the comment from Sarah about are there Tent Shows?
If you're ever up Norfolk way, Norfolk and Norwich Camping have display tents outside for you to go in and out seeing what's available, how they're put up, how big they are etc. I know other olaces do this too, but have only been to the Norwich one.

[mrs c]

we have a lichfield 6 man frame tent - had it for about 12 years. As children grew and left home we then bought a vango 5 man tent but still prefer to take the frame tent as its more roomy and so easy to put up.

[Bluebell]

wow - thanks everyone!! Off to check out all the tents mentioned now! (except the proaction!!)

[LauraS]

We have an outwell Montana 10, its great. Absolutely huge, sewn in groundsheet (an essential in my opinion, keeps dirt and insects and rain out and warmth in). Has a fitted carpet which insulates.it really well and means you can walk about barefoot in the mornings/let the kids play on the floor in comfort.

There are.six.of.us and we usually put the bedroom pods up just at one end rather than both which gives a bigger living space. We then put cooker, wardrobe, dog cage, cupboard at that end and have a big table and camping chairs.in the middle. There are two doors, one with a porch, so we keep wellies in the porch (or once, at the.v.festival, a bucket :D.)

You can also.get kids bedrooms as an.add.on for the outwell tents which are decorated with flowers etc :)

[TheBTeam]

We have an outwell Montana 10, its great. Absolutely huge, sewn in groundsheet (an essential in my opinion, keeps dirt and insects and rain out and warmth in). Has a fitted carpet which insulates.it really well and means you can walk about barefoot in the mornings/let the kids play on the floor in comfort.

There are.six.of.us and we usually put the bedroom pods up just at one end rather than both which gives a bigger living space. We then put cooker, wardrobe, dog cage, cupboard at that end and have a big table and camping chairs.in the middle. There are two doors, one with a porch, so we keep wellies in the porch (or once, at the.v.festival, a bucket :D.)

You can also.get kids bedrooms as an.add.on for the outwell tents which are decorated with flowers etc :)

Ah that has really helped me cos we were thinking of getting this to have room for the dogs, but the thing that was putting me off was having the living space central as in the montana 6 they were at one end, which is better so to know you can is great. We too had the carpet and the full sided front extension which with a windbreak at the front a groundsheet and a little pup tent for the suitcases made the actual tent huge, we used the side door as the toilet area!