we are camping regularly with my sis and bro in law and their kids so there are 8 of us in total and two dogs. We would like somewhere to sit all together on rainy days and have been looking at one of these. I have had a quick search on the forums about them and not come up with much. Would anyone recommend these or are they just an expensive gazebo??
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Last year we saw more and more these appearing on both the campsites and show fields at various car shows. They're also popping up at more Scout camps as well, so they must be pretty good.
I was wondering if they would be allowed on your pitch?! We have a Kalahari 8 whic is 7m in length, if we added one of these, the length would be a whopping 11.5M!!!
I would check with the campsite first and dont be surprised if there is an additional charge!
------------- April 2011 - Tour of Scotland (motorhome) 11 nights
June 2011 - CCC Charmouth (Lyme Regis) 1 night
July 2011 - CCC Charmouth (Lyme Regis) 7 nights
August 2011 - CCC Charmouth (Lyme Regis) 6 nights
The quencha tarp is 2.9m on it's longest side, add another 1.6m to that and more to the shorter side to get the footprint of the Event Shelter. It's a monster of a gazebo!
I can't see many CCC sites allowing that plus a large family tent onto a pitch, but I may be wrong.
I'm nit saying I don't like them, I wouldn't mind if I had room in the car, just pointing out that it may be larger than one first thinks.
------------- April 2011 - Tour of Scotland (motorhome) 11 nights
June 2011 - CCC Charmouth (Lyme Regis) 1 night
July 2011 - CCC Charmouth (Lyme Regis) 7 nights
August 2011 - CCC Charmouth (Lyme Regis) 6 nights
Always look at the event shelter if we're in GO, it's really solid and huge, i'm very impressed with it. But with our big tent i think we'd be taking the mickey asking to put one of these up too, even supposing we could afford one!
------------- April/May - Georgia destroyed in high winds sob
May - Loch Ken, 1st outing for the wolf lake
July - Waterside House, Lake District
July - Inside Park, Dorset
have to admit that where we camp regularly for weekends doesn't have regulated size pitches and there is a charge for gazebos so guessing an event shelter would be classed as that. If we do go to a site that is more strict not sure how we would work it. If we had adjoining pitches maybe could sort something but it certainlyis a monster size wise. Something to think about. We did look at the quechua tarp but is no where near as roomy. Maybe worth looking at again though if not charged for...we could get one each and could be more flexible shape wise etc...thanks all xx
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They are really huge and quite sturdy but be warned, these are not suitable to use on exposed sites or in windy conditions. I have seen one self destruct and its not pretty If you treat it as a mighty big gazebo you will be fine.
We use a malu tarp for shelter from rain or shade from the sun.
Be ready to drop the shelter down if weather was looking bad. Trouble is, do you take the thing down every time you go out for the day in case the weather changes? I know I would worry about leaving something like that up if I was away from the site for the day. I probably worry far too much about things in general though!
However, if your like me (a worrier) thats why a tarp can be handy, very fast to take down and if it was left up and you were unlucky with the weather its far less likely to damage other tents on the site should it decide to go awol.... not to mention people of course! lol
------------- (Quechua popup addict!)
Planned for next year, hopefully!
Summer Solstice wild camp.
Chilled in a Field, July.
Crantock, August. Fouth year with the fantastic Quechua Base Seconds 4.2!
..... and the odd night wild camping in my Argos 1 man tent...
we have decided to go for a couple of quechua tarps. We were going to go halves on the event shelter but have decided to get a tarp each. It'll be much more versatile and we will have one each if we go away without each other lol. Thanks for all your feedback...much appreciated.
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