Tent advice for family

[Daston]

Hey guys,

Now that our little girl is turning one we thought it was a good opportunity to get camping this summer, we already have the WEC at silverstone in mind and a few other trips

We have been looking into tents with a lot of room as my wife likes her comforts!

Has anyone had any experience of these tents and what did you think of them? Or any others around the this price with ample space you can recommend?

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/hi-gear-voyager-elite-...

[castex]

No.
Rent a cottage.
Otherwise it's washbag walk of shame and reading by torch.

[snake_oil]

That doesn't look anywhere near big enough. I've seen some pretty funky tent set ups on campsites when we take our van. How about...

http://m.gooutdoors.co.uk/hi-gear-kalahari-elite-8...

Or

http://m.gooutdoors.co.uk/vango-nadina-600-family-...

I like Vango tents. Great quality.

[MG Mark]

With a one-year old in tow, suggest you go for something that is easily erected and dismsntled, preferably by one person.

So, a small tent and a separate gazebo/shelter, or a bigger tent with inflatable beams.

[craigjm]

With a one year old in tow forget a tent

[Djtemeka]

I have a 9 month old little one and he’s been glamping and camping already. 3-4 months old at the time.
Glamping was his first trip to test the water. Camping a month later.
It was no different to camping without a child.
We have a large extra room in the tent for the luggage etc and changing him. The weather was awesome though. May have been different if it was crap.
We were in a large group so we had help
On the tent as you can’t leave a little one alone.

[48Valves]

I went for a Berghaus air 6 and the air awning. It should be plenty big enough with a toddler.

Its super easy to put up and take down. I can do it on my own so I don't need the wife and kids anywhere near

It survived a faily bad stormy night last year when a couple of traditional pole tents didn't.

[WilliamWoollard]

We’ve got the Vango Avington 600, well made, easy to errect, and the little porch area is great for the great British summertime, meaning you can leave your wellies/shoes outside the tent and Lee them dry. It’s also great for de-wellying when it’s chucking it down.

There’s a few of us go camping together regularly and we all have vango tents, very highly recommended.

Edited by WilliamWoollard on Sunday 28th January 08:16

[fat80b]

Ignore all the "you can't" posts - with a 1 year old, it's relatively easy and gets better.

We regularly camp with our 2 - did Camp Bestival last year (2 & 4) and I took a 3 year old to Le Mans the year before that.... Plenty of people said "you can't do that" and they were all wrong and boring.

I'd suggest if you haven't really done the camping thing before, the best way in is to get a second hand one on Gumtree - much better value than new.

You'll find plenty of large tents that have barely been used there for a fraction of the new price. - We got a "new to us" Vango 3 bedroom thing last year for £80......

I'd recommend chairs and beds to get off the floor - and my own favourite personal tip of get a wallpaper pasting table as a cooking table (getting off the floor is key to the success of camping imho). They only cost a tenner and you can leave them behind......

Nothing beats a beautiful early morning with a mug of tea and a bacon sarnie after sleeping outside....sometimes it even makes up for having had kids in the first place......

[HardtopManual]

You don't want something too massive - it'll be a pain to carry and take up loads of room in the car.

We've got one child and need to fit all our gear into a Golf estate, so I went for a Vango Solace TC 400. Plenty of room, without being too massive, and being inflatable, one person can put it up in a quarter of an hour. There are some excellent deals on last year's model if you shop around - don't forget a footprint and carpet. The front extension is worth having too. In fact, I notice there's a package going on eBay at the moment for £400.

The tent is made from cotton rather than plastic, so it doesn't get full of condensation and remains cool even when it's hot out.

[tenohfive]

Vango Capri 500XL gets the balance between space and convenience pretty much perfect for my needs. Took it touring across the continent, put up and taken down all over the place (including higher up in the Alps then Ben Nevis reaches.) Brilliant tent. Big enough to not get on top of each other when you're stuck inside, covered porch for cooking in the rain and it's inflatable so it's easy to put up and down.

Bigger is better if you've got the car space. Our less portable option is a Kampa Croyde 8, and that's both absolutely massive and totally bombproof in the weather. The poles weigh a tonne but if you're camping close to your car it's brilliant. But it takes closer to 45 minutes to get it up, so it gets reserved for week long trips.

Ignore the naysayers - camping with them that age is actually a bit easier than when they're toddling. A lot easier to keep in one place for those moments when erecting or dismantling the tent requires two people (most do, however briefly.)

[PH5121]

We have a Go Outdoors own brand Hi Gear Kalahari 8 tent. We used it a couple of times (before we bought a caravan) and combined with a porch awning, foot print and interior carpet it made camping quite a pleasurable experience.

I've no doubt that our standard Kalahari isn't particularly durable or great quality, but the whole set up cost us less than we'd pay to hire a cottage for a week.

[djsmith74]

Left field choice, but what about a bell tent? Putting aside the glamping associations, they're very robust, practical and very easy to put up and pack away.

We got ours from Blacks of Greenock, as they come with an inner tent and matching canopy:
http://www.blacksofgreenock.co.uk/16-bell-tents

[boyse7en]

Have a look at Outwell tents too. Been using them for years and find them to be good quality.

The Montana 6 we've got is great.

[aberdeeneuan]

Dangerous game this ;-)

We started with a 3 man Vango EOS 350 for just me and my son (5 at the time). Then decided we enjoyed it, so the family came too next time - this needed a new tent. We bought a Royal something or other, it's a 6 man, complete with carpet for 160 quid new in a sale. Loved it, but it took up the entire boot. So we got a Vango Icarus 500 and the matching awning. It's not as nice as the Royal, but it means if we go away for a weekend we can just take the tent, if we need more space we take the awning too.

Some nice tents mentioned above, the Solace we loved at the caravan and camping show, but was too small for the 4 of us. The Outwell Montana is what we'd gone to look at when we looked at the Icarus but the bag wasn't really any smaller than the Royal.

Def get the carpet and the footprint for a family tent too.

[agent006]

Go Outdoors is very much one long game of "dodge the own brand". Our local one has just brought their outdoor tent display indoors, presumably as it was a very good way of spotting the rubbish tents.
We have a good local independent (attwools) who have much better quality tents at not much more money. Worth looking for something similar near you.

We used a £5 damp proof sheet from wickes instead of the rather expensive footprint thing for our old Outwell tent.
Two Awning poles, a tarp and some guy ropes is a great way of making a flexible covered space. Much more fun than an also extortionate porch extension.

Edited by agent006 on Monday 29th January 19:07

[tenohfive]

agent006 said:

We used a £5 damp proof sheet from wickes instead of the rather expensive footprint thing for our old Outwell tent.

Been using builders tarps as a footprint for years. As long as you remember to make sure it doesn't stick out from under the edges of the tent, you're fine (otherwise it catches rain which pools between footprint and groundsheet.)

agent006 said:

Two Awning poles, a tarp and some guy ropes is a great way of making a flexible covered space. Much more fun than an also extortionate porch extension.

Or better still, buy one with an awning built in. It's less faff, less space and less likely (read: it won't) blow down if the weather picks up. Personal thing, but I wouldn't buy a campsite type tent without one - they're pretty standard.

A carpet however is worth spending an extra few quid on. As are decent Thermarest or Exped sleeping mats if you're going away for a week or more.



One other general pointer I'll offer - tents with fibre glass poles (i.e. they bend to form the arch of the tunnel shape) - I won't ever touch one again. Fibre glass perishes with time. Firstly, it's a ball ache to place sections that snap. Secondly, they never snap when you're chucking it up in 25c and breathless sunshine - it's when it's chucking it down, blowing a hoolie and when you could really, really do without a tent collapsing around your ears that they'll inevitably start snapping.

Inflatable or metal poled tents are both (FWIW) much better in my book. They also seem to maximise the internal space due to the shape they come in (slightly sloped sides, with a more horizontal cross-piece than the arches fibre glass poles.)

Edited by tenohfive on Monday 29th January 21:31