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We have just had a full refund on last years purchase of a Vango Aspen 700 (hole in groundsheet as we pitched it for only 5th time) and need a new tent.

Despite the hole in the Aspen, we like the Vango make, and had thought the Amazon was perfect for us - big windows to let in lots of light, smaller footprint than the Aspen (which we found embarrassingly big to pitch at times!), and the canopy at the front looks brilliant to hide under in the evenings when camping with friends in the rain.

So went and viewed it today at cross camping and made the mistake of going into the outwell vermont as well......another £150. 

We like the smaller size of the amazon - and think we'd happily be able to leave kitchen and coolbox under the canopy rather than bring into main living area - anyone else done that with no problems?  Or would we need to bring them into the main tent? 

We also like the bigger windows of the amazon - it felt ligher and brighter, although difficult to judge as the display tent had the roof ripped off!  Does that not bode well for Vango tents? 

We didn't like the bedrooms - we have 2 small children, one of which is still breastfed in the night so needs to be in with us ideally, but this wouldn't be a problem next year onwards - not planning on feeding much longer and not planning more children bar accidents!  But even so, more flexible bedroom space would be good for us, which you get in the vermont with zip through bedrooms.....

And if we had one child per bedroom and us in the middle, there would be no storage for clothes, and you get that warderobe bit in the vermont.....though I guess we could buy a warderobe thingy, or be a bit more tidy with clothes!

Is the vermont worth the extra money just for the zip through bedrooms and warderobe?  But then we lose the big windows and open canopy of the amazon....

We could get the 800 Amazon and have the bigger middle bedroom, but we are back (almost) at the Aspen pitch size..........which we would still have if the hole hadn't appeared. 

What to do?  Opinions?  One option is to do nothing and buy nothing until next year and see if anything new appears on the market and ticks all boxes, and our children are that bit older and we might be able to envisage them sharing a small bedroom a bit better.  But we had quite fancied going somewhere for the bank holiday weekend coming up.....

Sorry for the long rambling post, I've nicked my husbands login, so this isn't actually a man using 100 words when 10 would have done....

Any thoughts welcome.  Is Outwell a better brand?  And worth the extra money? 

Thanks

Abi

We keep our chemical toilet in the wardrobe of our Vermont. We get on so well with that arrangement that whenever we think about buying other tents, we often rule them out because they don't have place for a loo!

Quote: Originally posted by belinda1512 on 10/8/2008

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we've got 4 kids & have just used our amazon 6 for the 1st time & loved it. although no longer breast feeding my littlest still likes to sleep with me & hubby & we didn't feel cramped having her in middle pod with us. tent felt really bright & airy without taking up a huge pitching space. we had one single bed in a bedroom pod for our eldest which left room for storage. we didn't use our kitchen set-up as we were pitched in a relatives front garden but will be using the sun canopy for it when we next go.

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belinda

I have four children aged 6-12 years. Thinking of buying the vango amazon 6. Would a five foot 'determined' lady be able to erect this alone? Is there enough storage space for wellies etc? Any cons?