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Quote: Originally posted by Liddenham on 01/3/2008

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PS Before anyone suggests it, we have a Biscaya which is supposedly a stylish tent, but we bought it because it is a Cabanon with SIG, not to make any kind of statement.

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Quote: Originally posted by JK98 on 27/2/2008

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We bought a new Sunncamp Vario 6 for our first camping trip. After one breezy night (not windy, just breezy) we decided we just couldn't stand the flappy fabric and the creaky fibreglass poles - we just couldn't get to sleep.

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Funny, isn't it - I quite like that noise. Mind you, I used to sail a bit, and the noises are quite simialr. Maybe it just reminds me of being on a boat!

Well, our story.

Started camping as total newbies about ten or twelve years ago. Always bought nylon tents as I assumed they were more modern and therefore technically superior. Ahem.

Found this messageboard a few years ago and started hearing the siren call of  the canvas side. One weekend in a Pacific and I was totally seduced. Easier to put up, comfortable, quiet, safe feeling, quality. I had thought canvas might take longer to dry than nylon but I was wrong with that too, canvas dries just as quickly.

I did use a nylon tent one weekend last year when I knew I was going to have to take the tent down very wet but it would be 24/36 hours until I would put the tent back up again to dry it. Thinking about that decision since, I would have been more comfortable during that bad weather weekend in a Cabanon and could probably have got the tent put back up at home the same day if I really tried. So given a repeat of that situation I might use a nylon tent again, but I'm not sure.

Can't think when else I'd use a nylon tent from choice though as I don't do festivals or backpacking - about the only two situations when I think  nylon tents are better.

Canvas all the way for us now, and I just wish I'd worked this out years ago. D'oh!MT

Over the years we have purchased a sucession of polyester tents in different styles - domes, tunnels and dome tunnel hybrids from reputable manufacturers such as Khyam, Nomad, Wild Country, Lichfield but we were never really happy with any of them for many of the reasons encountered by others wind noise, condensation, heating up in sunshine etc.

About 18 months ago during our annual quest to find the ideal tent we were again visting camping exhibtions and viewing the latest designs but we soon became quite fed up as we found new tents to be very complex (numerous guys, complex pole systems, flaps, zips everywhere) and very large and many of the polyester tents on display were already discoloured and some were ripped. We had almost decided to stick with our current tent (poly cotton Nomad) when we noticed the canvas frame tents, these we had always completely ignored because we considered them to be old fashioned and couldnt possibly be as good as modern tents. Out of curiosity we decided to have a loook at the frame tents and soon realised that because of their design there was much more useable space inside for a relatively small footprint, they felt solid, were quiet and had suffered no discolouration or rips through being on display. We chatted with the people who erected the tents for the display and their coments on how quick they were to erect finally convinced us to take the plunge, so we purchased our first canvas tent and our first frame tent.

Since using it our biggest regret is not buying one years ago, it pitches in 20mins, is stable, doesnt overheat and is so quiet. We were worried about drying it but as others have stated the canvas dries very quickly and has never been a problem.

We are definite canvas converts and I cant see us switching back to polyester.