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We have decided to go camping for the first time since having children and are off on Weds for 3 nights in my father in law's 28yr old frame tent! If all goes well, we'd like to buy our own and have been to a Yeoman's show today to have a look at what's around.

We liked the look of the Vango Killington 600 (but lots of poles), the Outwell Hartford XL (but have read on here about problems with poles and tensioning) and the Monty 6 (but only 2 rooms)

I really do need 3 rooms don't I if the tent is to be used long term? The children are 5, nearly 3 and 15mths. Also, are tunnel tents much easier to erect - am thinking what on earth we do with the kids whilst putting the thing up!! Lastly, how receptive are campsites to these bigger tents? My last experience was with a little 3/4 man dome tent.

hi ange and welcome.

yes, tunnel tents are much quicker to erect than the ones with seperate bedroom pods coming off the sides. .

flysheet first is also much quicker than an inner first tent.

the monty will take much less time to set up than the other 2.

have a good look at the tent reviews, and view as many as you can in the flesh before deciding .

the tunnel shapes are also better use of space on pitches so more acceptable on sites.

as for whether you really need 3 rooms, that will depend on whether the children will prefer sleeping in one room together.

I have a 9 year old son and my grandchildren are 2 and 4 and they all  like to curl up together on one double airbed in the same room as me when camping .

My tents have 4 berth and 2 berth inners, so we all sleep in the 4 berth and use the 2 berth for the toilet and clothes storage.

The nevada xl is a quick and easy tent to erect, has a 4 berth one end, and a 4 berth which can be divided into 2 at the opposite end. On offer at yeomans at the moment fr £215 with free carpet. completely draught free, sewn in groundsheet , and has bug mesh on all the doors too.

We have the SunValley6 (two bedrooms), wich we love.  You might like the sunvalley 8?? 

I might be looking at upgrading to the SV8 shortly - a 3yr old, 18month old and new addition in January might push the space a bit much in the SV6...

We have just bought a killington 600 - have a toddler and then there's me and the hubby - another tot is not a foregone conlusiong in the near future and we took that into account. We liked the fact you could choose not to hang the bedrooms, and we are thinking of missing the middle pod out for extra space and a back door.

We have been away in a diablo 600 this summer which is a similar set up and found once you get the knack of popping the poles up there was no probs. Killington seems a great tent and its fly pitching first which means, unlike the diablo, your inner skin will not get wet if you have to put up/take down in rain.

We were very tempted by a tunnel tent but feel that the killington felt more snug after viewing them in windy and rainy conditions.

Linny x x x

PS Hope you have fun - our tot LOVED it and I mean LOVED it! Didn't mention bloomin Beebies once all holiday!

Go for three bedrooms. Our two sons (9 and 12) sometimes will sleep in the same bedroom pod but we often need to split them up! The third bedroom in our Norfolk Lake is useful because we can take it down during the day and use the living space.

If you are going to buy something good that you are going to use for a few years, think about much older your kids will be, they won't always curl up together nicely.