I am another camping newbie looking for advice from seasoned experts. I've read the other similar threads and you seem like a very helpful & friendly bunch of people!
I'm completely new to camping, used to go as a child and have finally persuaded OH to give it a try this summer. We have 4 kids aged 2-10, so am looking for something pretty roomy, but don't envisage we will use it more than a couple of times a year, in the UK I expect. The Wynnster Antares tents have caught my eye, but I haven't seen any reference to them in the threads that I have read - does anyone have any opinion?
Also slightly confused about berth vs pitch size - assuming a 6 berth tent wouldn't be comfortable, but do I need to double it and look at 12 berth, or is that overkill? Have taken to heart the suggestions of having the cooking in a separate utility tent, but am now concerned that I may be looking at several pitches worth of tenting! Opinions apprecaited!
I know some people have said you must see a tent 'in the flesh', but there does seem to be a January sale thing going on at the moment - am I going to miss out on the bargains if I take my time too much and wait til the displays go up?
Thanks for taking the time to read this!!
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Have a look here for a start which will give you an idea about your tent. I'm not familiar with that tent in particular but we have had Wynnsters and have had a few problems, now resolved, and their customer care is excellent.
I've got a 2006 Antares 13 which is a fantastic tent but it does take some putting up, not sure I'd like to do it with 4 kids to "help". It takes around an hour for 2 people to fully put up and peg out etc. and is brilliant for holidays of a week or more but not so good for weekends. There's loads of space inside to have the table and chairs to sit round and eat if it's not very good weather and once it's pitched it doesn't move an inch even when windy. We use ours without one of the bedroom inners and use that end as a kitchen annex, the kids have a 5 berth inner between them and me and OH have a 4 berth which has room for the airbed and room to stand and get dressed round the sides. it has great head height, at 5'6" tall I can just reach to toggle in the bedroom pods so that's how tall it is!
I know they did change the design and layout of last years models so that's all probably not much help to you! Wynnster make some great tents, I've had 3 and not had any problems with any of them.
For ease of putting up you would probably be good with a tunnel or frame tent, one with a 2 bedroom inners that could be divided depending on who the kids want to sleep with!