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Topic: Help needed - Vango or Kampa polycotton?

beckstrous

29/1/2018 at 2:42pm
Location: None Entered
Outfit: Vango Illusion TC 500XL

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We are a family of 3 and we go to several music festivals a year. We currently have a Vango Seaton 800, which is a bit big for us and hard for my husband to put up on his own whilst I look after our 5 year old and make sure she doesn't run off. We have very kindly been given some money by my parents and they wanted us to do something frivolous with it, so we have been looking at inflatable tents.

I'd like to go for polycotton, because it would be nice to be able to take the tent abroad and not melt (impossible with our current tent: it gets very hot). There's a website at the moment with some amazing deals, but they expire tonight.

I'm really torn between the Vango Illusion TC 500 (on offer for 1019.99) and the Kampa Croyde 6 2016. Are there any owners of either tent on here that might be able to help me to decide?

We have also been considering the Kampa Hayling Classic 2017 (can't justify the cost of the Croyde in the 2017 version). I'd really like a tent where the bedrooms are as dark as possible.

I've been told by a very helpful person at a rival online retailer that the Vango deal I've seen is amazing and I should seriously consider it, but the cost is still very jarring even though my parents' gift means we could definitely afford it!

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David F

29/1/2018 at 3:00pm
Location: Aberdeenshire
Outfit: Vango Illusion TC 800xl

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I'm afraid that I have never owned a Kampa tent so can't comment on that tent, but I do own the Illusion 800 TC and it is a fantastic tent for main family holidays and even long weekends.

However for festivals I would be getting something as light and quick to pitch as possible. I have a Quechua 4 man pop up tent that we use for festivals as I would not like to drag the Illusion (all 50kg of it) from the car to the campsite.

Does your frivolousness stretch to buying 2 tents? you can never have enough tents.

beckstrous

29/1/2018 at 5:03pm
Location: None Entered
Outfit: Vango Illusion TC 500XL

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Thanks for the reply!

The pop-up tents are great, but we stay at some festivals for a week or maybe more, so we want a bit of comfort. I didn't mention that we don't actually carry our tent at the moment (it's not as heavy as the Illusion by any means, but it's a good 26kg at least). It goes in a bike trailer. So the weight isn't that big a deal, as long as the bag sits in the trailer or can be secured with bungees, as we do currently. The trailer is a double and the weight limit is 60kg, though we have definitely exceeded that carting stuff to and fro in the past.

Do you find that the bedrooms in the Illusion are quite dark in the mornings? That's one thing I am really keen on...bit tired of getting woken up by my daughter at 6am on a festival morning...it is far too early! We slept in a posh canvas tent somewhere once, though, and with the dark bedrooms, she slept until 8...

duffs54

30/1/2018 at 12:51pm
Location: Cambs
Outfit: Ford Duetto Autosleeper

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We have the Kampa Croyde Classic Air, just love it had it 4years now

kampa croyde

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Duffs54

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hankakampa

15/2/2018 at 6:45am
Location: uk
Outfit: Karsten - sun storm - doesnt matter!

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i have the illusion 500tc, the solace 400tc and also the illusion in vango's green plastic 420D fabric.

the illusion tc is dark but not as dark as you might imagine. oddly, its the living space which feels gloomy with everything being brown.
last summer i camped in my solace 400tc ( same fabric as the illsuion 500tc ) and it was a hot week and the brown color seemed to exagerate the heat - i found the solace didnt breathe unless i opened the side door but there was lots of flies around and then they came into the tent - it was quite an uncomfortable trip i have to say!.

the darkest tent you will find are the current Coleman tents - they really do have Blackout bedrooms - total blackout - i had a look inside one recently, went into the bedroom and closed the zipper and had to fumble around looking for the zipper to get back out - it really was pitch black inside - i was amazed by how pitch black coleman get their bedrooms.

by comparison the vango feels like your on a theatre stage with the spotlight on you!!!.

if dark bedrooms are your priority, then look no further than the coleman tents!.

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