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Hi all

Firstly what a great website and community!

I am looking for your general advice/thoughts. My wife and I have a 9yr old girl and are planning on having a baby for next year.

We own:

* Karrimor Beta - a nice sturdy 2 man tent for little trips on our own. We haven't used this since getting our...

* Vango Orchy 400 - We love this tent! We also have the optional extension too.

My dilemna is this. The Orchy is excellent. It's really quick to put up and just about covers our 3 person camping needs with the extension up for a week in Cornwall. It is also really nice even for us going away on our own as we did this bank holiday weekend. However our little girl is all of a sudden a lot braver than we imagined and wants her own room (rather than a partitioned area with us). Given that we are planning on a baby too, something like the Outwell Hartford XL looks pretty ideal, with loads of living space and 3 defined sleeping areas.

So I am tempted to sell the Vango + Accessories whilst it is in very good condition and 'upgrade' to the Hartford. However I am worried and wonder what you all think about the following concerns I am having:

* The Hartford will take a long time to erect (ppl saying 2 hours?!?!) for a long weekend(Fri-Mon) break

* The Hartford is massive and may not be welcome on some campsites? (The one we are using in Cornwall again next year ARE okay with it though)

The 'ideal' solution seems to be to keep the Orchy 400 and still buy the Hartford, but I have limited space in our little flat!

As it stands I am just holding off and am trying to decide what to do.

Your thoughts are very very much appreciated!!

Danny

I'm sure more qualified people wil be along to help you, but we have a Hartford XL...so far

we haven't been refused at any sites (or charged more)
after the first couple of attempts we can pitch the tent in under an hour (fully pegged)

the roominess of the tent is truly amazing and the spacious sleeping areas are perfect for us. I looked at quite a few tents to start with but just fell in love with this one. Read the reviews on this site and decide for yourself.

I can't comment on the pros and cons of setup and pitch size (although I see loads of Hartford's when out camping) because I don't own one. One plus point at the moment is it being £250 at Go Outdoors now (if you can find a store with one in stock).

However, whilst the Hartford is definitely a good tent (especially for that money), perhaps it is a little too large. If your DD needs a bedroom to herself there a plenty of smaller tunnel tents around that have separate sleeping pods side by side, or at opposing ends (and not just a dividing wall in one pod). The Nevada M springs to mind (cos a have one), but there are plenty of others out there. I appreciate you may want three sleeping areas, so this lowers the choice, but there are tents out there that will meet the requirement.

If pitching time and effort and pitch size are a worry then it may be worth a look at  more "conventional" tunnel tents.

Thankyou for such speedy replies!

twisted - I saw one pitched in Cornwall and had a look around inside. It was amazing I thought. I can get our Orchy up within 15minutes so was hoping that the Hartford could be done in under an hour...excellent :)

Audsleyl - I can't find it in stock at the moment, but what an awesome deal!!

I see lots of tunnel tents. Are they better? Personally I much prefer the dome style purely from an aesthetics point of view. Are tunnels better in the wind and rain? I'll check out the Nevada M!

that's one of the downsides...they are so popular you can't get hold of them.

I recently upgraded to a 2010 version as I managed to get a deal I could resist and so my 2007 is up for sale. I did a hunt at go outdoors to see if they could match it, and a) they couldn't (mine was under £250) and b) they didn't have any anywhere!!

Good to here you got what you wanted. I was tempted by the price but it is only me and OH the majority of the time so it was impossible to persuade her it was a good idea.

At that price it is a real bargain for the amount of tent you get. I'm sure there will be no regrets. If you have space try a test pitch before you venture out in it.

Happy camping.

Hi we have just bought the Hartford XL from Go outdoors with the footprint carpet and canopy and managed to find a 15% off coupon too so we got the lot for around £300.  (don't think the cashier looked at the voucher as it wasn't supposed to be used with any other offer Oops) We had a practice pitching this weekend just gone and had no problems at all it took just under 1 hr and should be able to easliy get that down to 45 mins with a few more practices. Can't wait to get away in it now.

Great to hear velmskacamps!

I haven't had a chance to pitch ours yet so it's encouraging to read this.