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Hi,

We are thinking of going camping next summer with our 2 year old. We are discussing what kind of tent we need and are having a few disagreements....

What would you suggest suitable for a family of 3 (that may expand), for camping in the south of the UK and in France? I think that head room is important incase of adverse weather - we will have space to sit and relax. We have a large saloon car, but not huge and will need to cart around all the associated toddler paraphernalia.

We also would like to know of any shops that have these tents on display in the Wokingham/Reading area.

Any help would be gratefully received!

Princess Jelly

Hello Princess Jelly, you could do a lot worse than the Montana 6 at £289.99 as advertised in another thread that is several below this one in the listings.

We have the 2005 Monty 6 and it has been a fantastic tent, there are just the 2 of us but we find it very spacious and to date we have not had any faults with the tent at all.  It has withstood terrible ice storms in the French Alps and didn't budge an inch.

I imagine you will find you will quickly buy a roofbox and/or a trailer tbh, we have a Nissan Almera and it was a squeeze getting everything into it along with us 2 so I now have a Primera and a Thule Back Box (go to the equipment section and I think on the second page there is a discussion about these).

Good luck hunting, I don't know the dealers in Reading but I do know there is a good one in the New Forest that won't be a million miles from you.  It will be at least Easter before the displays go up so check before travelling anywhere.

http://www.theforestcampingcentre.com/catalogue/index.php

Ali

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly! I have been following the Help I'm Drowning thread too and there is a lot of useful info on there for me as we have made quite similar posts (my fault, I thought it was about a leaky tent until I read it!!!)

Talking of leaky tents, there is a thread about the number of Outwell tents that get returned due to leaks, is this normal or was it a 2007 phenomenom?

Princess Jelly

Well certainly the 2005 ones were fine, yes there have been some returns in 2006 and 2007 but this is my theory - Outwell are a very large manufacturer with a hitherto excellent reputation.  As a result they sell thousands of tents and of course a percentage of anything manufactured is going to be faulty.  If you are a small scale manufacturer then you will hear of less faulty tents, but I bet if you took the percentage of faulty tents against the number they despatched it would be a very small percent that had a problem.

The other thing is that if something is faulty you are more likely to hear about it, bad news spreads fast lol.  We have the Monty, we also have an Outwell Jersey pop up and a Vango Venture 500 and all are just fine.  Outwell and Vango are two of the bigger manufacturers.

I think you have to have a wander around the shows, decide what works for you and go for it.  Erect it before your hols even if you have to grovel a friend's garden or the public park and treat it to a good downpour or a hose if the rain is not forthcoming.

I don't think these manufacturers are going to want to have bad reputations so I bet they are working hard to resolve the issues that cropped up previously.  Cabanon are the creme de la creme of tents, made of canvas, will last for years if looked after but cost a lot and weigh a lot.  You have to dry them out thoroughly before packing them away.  So if you want great quality they are worth a look if you have deep pockets!

Welcome to UKCS btw, forgot to say that earlier!

Ali

Princess Jelly, welcome to UKCS, 

There is : Camping and Leisure World,Frensham garden centre, The Reeds, Frensham Surrey GU10 3BP. Tel : 01252 795 293. (About 30 or so miles from the Wokingham / Reading area)

Very helpful, and loads of tents on display, we bought both our tents from there. Staff not pushey and will advise you on what would be best for you. We go there quite often for bits and pieces, mind you we had bought most of the kit BEFORE we found this addictive site, and realised that there are bargains to be had.

But its worth a look so you can see the tents erected before you buy. I am also told by a friend that they will pricematch, if found cheaper..

Happy hunting.

Stumpy....

Hi All,

Thanks again for your many responses! I have had a look at the Camping and Leisure World website and might head on down there, it looks a good place to start.

Princess Jelly

If you have a Go Outdoors near you, they have tents on display all year. Then Millets and Yeomans have displays coming up but I'm not sure when. The Montana 6 is a great tent and very roomy and you'll have room to grow. If you would rather have something a bit smaller there is the Minnisota 4 or 6. I have been in the 4 and felt it was quite roomy with a nice living area, plus you can get a canopy to extend your outdoor space and you would still have room for another child. We are a family of 4 and we are still considering getting the 4 as a backup tent.

I too, love the cabanons, but the idea of making sure it is thouroughly dry worries me as we would have to go to our family's house to dry it out. And after last year's season, we would be spending a lot of time there.