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Firs tand formost Owlish, wellcome to UKCS. Its horribly addictiove and highly informative. I'm new to this tenting thing as well but am happy to give my thoughts (ignorance is a wonderful thing)

I get the impression that it really is a case of "you get what you pay for" in terms of tents. I've not seen much against the "polycotton" Outwells. Indeed, most seem to love them.

I see you note that it's "well over the 20kg baggage allowance on easyjet". I don't think anyone takes large family tents on a flight (someone will doubtless prove me wrong). We drive to the south of France over a couple of days - you can stop-off in hotels for a night rather en-route rather than set up the tent. And I want ot go further afield if things keep going well. I can't help thinking that making the trip part of the holiday gets everyone into the right frame of mind.

My thought - and its why we ended up with the Vermont XL for three of us - is get the biggest you can. The extra space is worthwhile on longer stays. If you're only thinking of short breaks it might not be worth it - but I'm happy with spending ~1hr putting a tent huge tent up when you get a huge amount of space. It sees to me ZIg has the benefit of SIG and non-SIG. The weather-proofing is really good - think perhaps of a baby? - no drafts etc.

So I would suggest really thinking about the Bear Lake. You say its too big, but with even the possibility of kids get the biggun now rather than ditch the small tent now and pay for the big one in a few years.

Hope this helps - but do take it as one man's views.

just bought a BL6 today and have it pitched in the back garden as we speak.

We first saw the BL4 and fancied it but the BL6 just suited our needs a bit better.

Can't really comment much further than that as we've not slept in it yet, but there are a few things purswaded us to by a Lake tent;

1) Polycotton just feels nicer than nylon etc

2) bucket type ZIG

3) the warm at night and cool in the day feeling you get under canvas/polycotton

4) tent longevity (hopefully)

5) nice big windows and a canopy built in - great for rainy days

Look at the montana it looks like a great tent!

Kevin x

Quote: Originally posted by Owlish on 03/7/2007

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and we're such a helpful, cool store that I wanted to buy it from them.

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