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Hi all,

We need some help here, had enough of the poor quality of most UK supplied tents and so we have sold our Outwells and have decided to go Dutch.

We are planning on heading over to Holland early in the new year but do not have a clue where best to head for.

So, can anyone tell us where there are any suppliers that have a good range of tents ??

Any help would be apreciated.

Thanks

Depends on your budget.

Expensive....

De Waard, Karsten

Less expensive...

Esvo

Cheaper....

Obelink

What style of tent are you looking for?

Cotton or polycotton?

Budget?

And I assume you are looking for brand new?

Angie

Quote: Originally posted by AngelicMinx on 02/12/2009

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Depends on your budget.

Expensive....

De Waard, Karsten

Less expensive...

Esvo

Cheaper....

Obelink

What style of tent are you looking for?

Cotton or polycotton?

Budget?

And I assume you are looking for brand new?

A little more info and we should be able to direct you to the right store :)

Angie

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Hi Angie,

Yes new is what we are after and poly cotton, budget is not that important as we are looking for long term quality. Size, well we have just sold our Outwell's including our Norfolk Lake so we would like something around the same size as this if possible. We had considered a Cabanon Biscaya 440 or 500 but we are just not totally convinced about it being all season polyester rather than poly cotton (we know its supposed to be as good) and also it just doesnt feel right for some reason.

We have looked at the Nomad Bantu 5 Air which we liked very much, the quality is excellent, but the bedroom pods are seperate and the divided living area put us off slightly.

So any ideas would be great.

Thanks

Gary

Okie dokie, a few links with some ideas :)

Falco  Cotton not pc but excellent quality, long lasting and gorgeous  Not cheap though.

Esvo tunneltents Same comments as Falco :)

Bardani  Lovely tentage and PC. Check out the first 4 on that page as they are the biggest. Alot cheaper than previous links.

Nomad Bantu 5 Air

Nomad Touarec 5 Air

Active Leisure Brenta

Active Leisure Sun Valley (very nice and comes with tarp that attaches to the tent!)

Active Leisure Brixen 6

There you go, a few ideas :)

Angie

Hi, I see that Angie has mentioned a Karsten, and has added some great links for others - If you wanted to visit the Karsten Factory, the Karsten Tent Club website has all the information you require about visiting the area and where to stay.

Cheers

James

I think the OP wants a tunnel tent but here is a link for Karsten just in case.

They are inflatable and bulky so you would need a trailor (unless you use a van for camping) but are gorgeous and top quality.

But I am no Karsten expert so if interested I respectfully point in the direction of James and say "He is your guy if you have questions"

Angie

Hi Angie,

That's been a great help and some great looking tents. Quick question if you dont mind, do you know what the Base Camp Ambato VI De Luxe is like ? are they a good make ?

Just need to find some address's now so we can start to plan a route for the spring and get booked up to get over.

Would ideally like to go somewhere where they have a good range of tents on display, or a collection of places as long as they are not all over the country.

Thanks again

Gary

Hi Gary

The Basecamp Ambato is a nice tent. We had a Basecamp Vitoria and were very happy with it. First trip out was in April and we had nasty weather but the tent was great.

There are a few places with good displays so how about we stick to the South so you dont have to travel too far between stores?

Kampeermarkt  is in Eindhoven. Not the largest store but lots of tents on display and they do have Basecamps but according tot heir website, the Ambato is not available until the middle of next year. That is where we got our Basecamp from. The link takes you to the list of makers :)

De Wit  is also Southerly and is huge ! They dont do Basecamp but do have a decent display and the store is so large that is takes more than 1 huge building !

There is a Vrijbuiter in Gouda (also in southerly). Not as large as the store in Roden but still large enough :)

Vervat is in Rotterdam. Never been there but it has a good reputation.

Outdoor XL is in Barendrecht (south). Not been there but know someone who has and they love the store. Looks like they have the Ambato too :)

If I think of any more I will let you know :)

And if you are stuck then you can email me if that is easier. Not around so much at the moment as it is very quiet on the forums.

angievanwinsum at live.nl

Hope this helps

Angie

Angie your a star thank you,

I would have been going around in circles trying to find this sort of info for days.

Lunch and a few glasses of wine on us I think when we come over then !!

Thanks again

Gary

Quote: Originally posted by 2gocampin on 04/12/2009

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Angie your a star thank you,

I would have been going around in circles trying to find this sort of info for days.

Lunch and a few glasses of wine on us I think when we come over then !!

Thanks again

Gary

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More than happy to help and lunch is a very nice gesture, thankyou. But we do not live in the South lol.

But if we can help further, dont hesitate to ask ok :)

Could this be a possibility? They had these in De Wit last time we were there at much less than the suggested price of almost €800. I think they were around €500.

I wouldnt rule out the Active Leisure tents either. If you shop around you can get good prices and they are fab tents :)

Angie

Hi Arthur,

I know what your saying is right for the likes of the mainstream tents but we are fed up with the quality issues that come with these makes. This year we payed out the best part of £1600 for 2 outwell's, which still have major design faults in our opinion.

When we got our Norfolk Lake we had to return the first 2 tents because of manufacturing defects before half heartedly accepting the 3rd even though it still wasn't perfect. On our first outing with that tent the front door zip came apart and the mesh over the corner vent pulled away from its stitching as it had been so poorly made. It seems that last year was not good for Outwell quality and if they are going to continue manufacturing in China then things sadly wont improve in our opinion.

So what's the alternative? a Cabanon, we love the Biscaya 440 and would happily pay the price for one as they are so beautifully made but the 2010 colours are just awful. A Dutch made tent we feel is going to give us the quality that we want and if that means paying more than we would for an Outwell to get the long term quality then that's fine with us as in the long term it will make more sense financially.

Thanks for the info about Virjbuiter it will definitely be one that we visit and if nothing else planning the trip and going to look at all those tents has got to be a good weekend away.

We have just returned from a trip to Holland and we had a great time.Angie and her husband were absolutely fantastic and took us to different shops including vrijbuiter. It was huge.

We came home with 2 tents and are more than happy.Plus we had translators when we all went out for dinner lol. If you have half the fun that we did these past few days then you have a lot to look forward to.

Dawn and Dave