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We're planning a couple of family camping trips this summer with our 3 year old and 18 month old.  Having only ever camped with a 2-man tent the comforts available for family camping are quite exciting!

Our first task is to get a suitable tent.  We have the option of acquiring a large tunnel tent, similar to the Outwell Vermont L.  It is 7.7m long and 4m wide.  It will be ideal, giving us an indoor area for the boys to play in wet weather and a seperate fully covered area for cooking, avoiding the need for a further extension or tarp.

My only reservation is the size and problems it may cause at campsites.  We were looking a few campsites.  The Willows in Abersoch (a gentle re-introduction to camping for Mrs M!) states on its website that tents over 6.4m long cannot be accepted in high season.  Is this a common limitation?  I don't want us to find a tent only to discover no camp site will allow us pitch!

hi and welcome

hard one to answer as far as i can tell there is no standard size each site seems to set the pitch size to what they want.apart from to caravan club and camping and caravan club which seem to have a min size.anyway all the sites i use at the moment which tend to be the bigger ones as have kids have pitches of 9m x 9m.now that sounds big enough for your tent but once you inclued guy lines?

Always check with the site - if they say your tent is too big then you can find somewhere else.

You will have no problem on a C&CC site as their maximum standard pitch size is 9m x 5m (excluding guy lines)

Our Khyam Ontario 8 is 7.5m x 3.7m and we have never had a problem getting on a site, been told the tent is too big or charged for 2 pitches.

However I have come across a couple of sites with pitches as small as 6m x 6m INCLUDING guy lines - I wouldn't even fit my little 4 berth Licata on that!!

With hundreds of sites around all parts of the U.K this shouldnt be a problem, just book a site that suits your needs dont let pitch sizes put you off buying the tent. We had a similar issue 3 years ago after buying our Idaho XL but with the number of sites available in all areas we worried for no reason. All i would say is just do your homework on site reviews on this website and you cant go far wrong.

Welcome to the forum and i hope you and your family have many fantastic trips away.

Thanks for all the responses guys and the warm welcome to the forum!

Missed out on the Norfolk Lake tent as was watching, so back to the drawing board now!  Still hoping to get a decent size tent for the family.  Thinking of a Outwell Montana with an extension to give us a little more versatility and similar space to the Norfolk Lake.  Liked the look of the Outwell Airtech fabric but trying not to get carried away when purchasing our first family tent- can always upgrade!

Plenty of other first time family camper questions but the forum is proving to be a great resource; lots of handy information to be found!

Mefster hi and welcome...

 we have the montana and the awning oh and the extension LOL. the thing i love about the montana is the versatility, we can have it all on or have just the tent should we need it on a small site but to be fair we never camp if the site wont allow us to have the tent and at least one or the other I LOVE my montana and it is for that reason that i do. I hope you get sorted soon let us knwo what you decide xx