Message Forums

Greetings all,

Here we go, I have gone in a complete circle from having tents to trailer tents and now I'm back looking at tents. I'm looking for a family tent (4 to 6 bed) but am looking at spending as close to £100 as possible.

The tent will only be used for short weekend breaks during good weather for now, so I dont want to spend much on it in case the other half doesnt take to it. We live in Doncaster so any pointers towards tent makes/models and where we could see them would be appreciated.

We have already had a look at Don Valley Sports and seen a Coleman Canyon 6 which seems to tick some of the boxes, any thoughts?

Ta, Scott

Ermm well it depends exactly how many there are of you. If its 4 then a 6 should be fine cos the extra space is invaluable. Have you looked at stans there is a link on here to see what they sell in your price range? WE have 7 in our family and have  a wynnster mercury 9 2003 model which we are considering selling as it is too small now for us but am going to put a seperate post on later asking for peoples opinions on that later. Try doing a search for tents on google specifying the berth sixe you want and see what comes up.

Good Luck

Kate

We started off with a pro action arizona from argos £99. Lasted 3 years! not bad for a cheap large tent. they do a similar one now the link is below:

Sorry the big one I was thinking of has been taken of the site, they have just changed everything for the winter catalouge but this smaller one is available.

http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-1428744-10294381?url=http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3400085/Trail/C%24cip%3D1500006333.Garden%2C%2BDIY%2Band%2Bleisure%3EC%24cip%3D1500006334.Camping%2Band%2Bcaravaning%3EC%24cip%3D1500006337.Tents.htm

Thanks so far for the help.

There are three of us and although this tent will be for weekend breaks I'm hoping that it gets used a bit more than that. All depends on if the other two in the family take to it. My 5 yr old boy can't wait, but Mum isnt convinced yet!!

We've planned a day looking for tents tomorrow so any more advice before we start looking will be great. Going to drive over to Mitchell's near Wakefield then to Sheffield if we don't find anything there. Would like a list in my head of what would be a good buy, either by way of names of tents or what to look out for in a decent one.

Thanks again! Scott

Hello Scott.

The best advice is look around which you are obviously doing. The living are you will need to look at is about 3m * 3m, that said I am looking at a tent of 3m * 2m at the moment.  If the tent you are looking at does not have a sewn in groundsheet (SIG) make sure it has Mud/storm Flaps, this will keep out most of the drafts from the tent.

I believe Mitchells is part of Go Outdoors.  In which case have a look at the Outwell Oregon 5 at £143.  I am considering the Easycamp Toranto 600 at the moment at £134, though the Easycamp Livorno 450 would probably suit you needs admirable at £98.  Easycamp are owned by the same company that own Robens and Outwell.  They are positioned at the budget side of the market, which means that they compromise on the Hydrostatic Head and Pole Size.  The hydrostatic head is not a problem as tents (if they leak) usually leak through seams and doors anyway whatever the Hydrostatic head.  The poles probably won't be much of an issue to a fair weather camper anyway.  Whatever happens Easycamp should be a much better bet then Proaction.

Remember the standard width for a Double inflatable bed is 140cm and I think the single is 84cm (some tents have narrow sleeping areas, or narrow at the bottom).(the Gelert Double is £10, buy it there if you like it)

I hope this little list is of help, I don't own any of these tents nor have experience of them - this is just my opinion. 

Just bought a 4 berth 2 bedroom tent from sainsburys for £9.99 so you could make it very cheap.

I've had a very similar tent from argos which I have used for the last  5 years and its held up really well!

We have recently purchased a Vango, Oregan 400 http://www.vango.co.uk/products/tentsinfo.asp?typename=223

It might be a bit over your price limit but it is an excellent tent, easy to pitch, enough room for 2 adults and 2 kids, one a teenager the other nearly a teenager. It can be bought for less than the RRP advertised here as we paid £125 for ours, it also come supplied with  sturdy holdall that contains everything in three pockets. Overall a neat piece of kit after some of our previous tents.

I've been to both of these shops before and if I remember right, Mitchells has an outdoor display and has more tents up to look at (unless its still recovering from the floods!) so thats why I want to go there first.

Got a short list of the tinternet,

Outwell Parma 600, Gelert Cirrus6, Coleman Canyon 6, or Wynnster Corvus 6. Thses are all £89 and would give us a bit of space.

As to which one is best for us???????

What about this easy camp san remo..bargain

jans

Well its finally happened....

We went to Mitchells today and the £100 budget got blown! After reading up on here about SIG's, colours of tents and just about every other topic to do with tents we ended up buying the Coleman Magellan 6.

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/redirect.asp?redir=http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/1000000570168

Bit more than we planned on spending but it seemed a good offer on a tent that we could keep for years if the other half takes to it.

All the others that we went to look at around £100 all had there plus's but the thing that made our minds up was the dark colour in the inner tents and on the outside of the tent which might give us an extra half hour sleep with our little one!!

Going to have a go at putting it up tomorrow before going away for our first trip out next weekend. Maybe I'll let you know how it went and put a review on about the tent from a noobies point of view.

Nice looking tent, probably find the fresh air will knock the little one for six whilst the cold beer/wine does the same for you!

best wishes simon.