I am really interested in buying a vango vail 700, but would like to see it in person first. Went to a shop in warrington who sell it but it wasn't up, anyone know where there is one I could look at in the northwest? Cheers!
We fancied one too, but ran into the same bother as you. As you probably know, this tent is ginormous. So tent shops don't fancy putting them up as they take up a lot of space of other things they might have put up in the same space. However the ones we spoke to said they could do it during the week when the shop is not at it's busiest and they might be able to make the space to put it up.
So you will probably have to arrange it specially with a shop that could spare the space rather than wait for it to be up somewhere.
I don't know where you are Jedda but the tent dispaly at Highbridge Garden Centre (Taunton Leisure's I think) had one up last year. You might be better waiting until the outdoor displays go up (around Easter) when you can see one in the flesh as well as seeing other tents that you fancy.
I looked at it last year (not to buy but just because I like tents!) and it is very big. I didn't like the bedroom layouts, it has separate divided bedrooms which I felt lacked the ability to change the layout if your family group changed or if it didn't suit you.
It's worth running a search for the Vail, I think a couple of people bought it last year and had some comments about pitching it.
No we didn't buy it because we couldn't see it set up anywhere! And because we live too far away from any tent centres to go on a week day to see it set up.
We've ordered an Outwell Montana 6 instead because it's a bit smaller. It should arrive in a week or so. Bit concerned though with all the posts about faulty Monties. Crossing fingers and hoping for the best.
The tent we are selling at the moment is a sunncamp chateau, and that is massive, I think the vail maybe the same sort of size but hopefully when we take it down it won't be as big to pack away. Are there any other suggestions for a tent around this size?
There were some good bargains to be had on the 2006 Vail, which has a riser groundsheet and option to position the front wall either at the front of the tent or further back. The 2007 model has a SIG, hence the front wall is now static.
We really liked the Vail, but posts on UKCS about pitching times put us off a bit and those window canopies just seem to collect rain (what is the point in them?).
My partner and I have two children, both boys, aged 18 months and 4. The last time we went camping with our massive sunncamp we used one bedroom for all our stuff, 1 bedroom for me and the baby and one for my partner and 4 year old. Sometimes though my niece also tags along, so we do need that extra bedroom. We also looked at the Royal Avigion, maybe thatw ould be better, any other suggestions?
I can't find any dimensions for the Sunncamp Chateau but it looks to be a very similar size to the Vail which is around 4.5m x 7.70m (I think). I'm not sure what problems that would give you on the majority of sites, it may be that it's not a problem.
I did like the look of the Vail, I don't think I'd buy one - it's a lot of money for a polyester tent. The pack size is shown here, I don't know how this compares to the Sunncamp and how realistic it would be to get it back to this size!
I'm not sure what the Vail gives you over and above the Chateau you have? If you need a tent this big it is going to take time to put up and is going to take up space in your car. Personally I'd probably rather stay with the Chateau and perhaps invest in a smaller tent (Indiana/montana depending on your SIG preference?) for weekend trips.