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Hi All
We are new to camping and after some research have short listed 4 tents as follows. In no specfic order they are;

1. Royal Biarritz 9
2. Lichfield Arapho 9DLX
3. Coleman Columbia 10
4. Aztec Cantera 9

Has anyone used any of these tents and are they any good ? I did find 2 small reviews on the Coleman both stating that the tent when erected had dips in the roof and that the bedroom walls hang in your face when lying down. Currently I think I shall go with the Aztec.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Regards
Nick

sorry I dont have experience of either tent but I didnt like to see the sad blue face.

We looked at the Lichfield Arapaho 9dlx and thought it was a very good sized tent for the price. The only thing that put us off was the HH of 2000. Whilst this is the recommended minimum HH for british weather, we wanted something with a higher rating after a very wet easter trip.

We have made a list of all the good and / or bad points about the tents we liked and went from there.

Good luck with your decision.

Hi

I don't have any of the tents you mention, but I have had 2 Lichfield tents and I can't fault them.

Look at the walls of the tent and bear in mind a sloping wall in a bedroom may well touch your face in the night.  Look at 'living' area and weigh up what will go where like cooker, chairs, table etc.

If you have a camping shop near to you go and actually have a look inside the tents - that may help you decide.  Some on-line camping shops have videos of inside and outside each tent (like Millets).

Let us all know which one you buy and why.

Happy shopping

Jackie H  

the biarritz gets good reviews on here.  i believe it has extra poles in the bedroom areas to prevent sagging bedrooms.

if you do a search on here using the search button then you should find more info on those tents.

i personally am a fan or Royal tents.

Hi Nick

We have the Aztec Cantera 9. We looked hard and long before going for the Cantera 9 and what a great tent it is. Bedrooms good size, but headroom a little low. Main living area ample and over 2.5m headroom so you can easily standup. Tent easily pitched with a little practice, our first attempt 80 minutes from start to finish. HH of 4000mm so able to cope with most of our weather. Last outing very windy but tent stood up well in the conditions.Tent although advertised as a nine berth more like a six berth but we all know that. If you wanna ask any other questions about the cantera, let me know.

Hope this helps

Hi,

we have a Royal Biarritz 6, just the same but only 2 beds. It's great. Easy to put up and loads of room. No sagging in beds, which are a good size with loads of headroom, cos of the extra pole. Loads of light and vents and really sturdy in the wind and rain.

Thanks for the responses so far.
Having done a fairbit of research and  headscratching,also looking at a vango colorado 800 dlx, Khyam Arizona we think we have decided on the royal Biarritz 9.
The only thing concerning me before taking the plunge is the physical footprint of the tent at 7.9M by 7.35M. I have seen some reports on this site that say some campsites wont accept a tent this big or charge for 2 pitches. Has anyone experienced this with one of the larger tents ? I would think the vango diablo 900 is approx the same size. What is the normal or average size of a pitch on a site? The footprint of this tent is a lot bigger than most caravans

Hi, I picked up a Biarritz 6 at the weekend and think that its a whole lot of tent for not a bad price.

I saw a guy on ebay selling one, he was really helpful in helping me try to trace a 2005 model Biarritz 6 and even rang the manufacturer and gave me numbers of other stockists.

The Biarritz 9 is for sale on this link, I don't know the guy but since he was so helpful to me I thought I'd return the favour and recommend him plus this is the best price I've seen for a Biarritz 9.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BIARRITZ-9-MAN-DOME-TENT_W0QQitemZ270007241059QQihZ017QQcategoryZ82292QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

All arrived as promised. Went for a trial pitch yesterday and it took about an hour after working out the very limited instructions that came with the tent. Devised our own now and on next attempt hope for about half an hour not including guy ropes.
Overall very pleased with the tent.Does anyone else have a royal biarritz 9 ? We could not install any of the vent poles as described and had to use the loop in the middle instead of the sleeve as described. Broke one trying
Now I have to try to get a new one..............(pole)