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Hi Sonia.

You might have a problem there because heaters that burn fuel such as gas give of a lot of condensation !! If it cold outside then the inside of your tent could become dripping wet. The best form of heating I have found is an oil filled radiator but as you say you have no hook-up. Try instead using good quality sleeping bags and/or duvets. In addition sleeping on camp beds also helps as you are of the ground. Incidentily I camp all year round with no problems. 

Hope this helps.

Hi Sonia & welcome to the forum

As Steve says, gas heaters can cause condensation. A good sleeping bag will keep you toasty at night, but you may need some heating during the evening if it's chilly. Most campers on this forum recommend the Coleman Black Cat Heater which is the safest gas option with young children around as it burns without a flame. It operates on the small gas cannisters, so no need to take a large calor bottle with you. Hope this helps.

Extra clothing! To be honest it works for me and the kids.  OH will still complain that she needs a jumper in the middle of the day in the middle of the Sahara

Mike J

We have just come back from the BH weekend and used our Black cat for the first time.  It was excellent.  When the sun was still shinning we closed off the inner tent, vents and everything.  This stopped the tent getting too cold.  We then put layers on and lit the heater when it was dark.  It took the chill off the air.  It will never make it like home, but once we turned it off to go to bed we noticed the difference.  The tent will not hold the heat.

We had picnic rug under airbed, then a furry blanket and fitted sheet, then a sleeping bag and finally two blankets.  I then gave hats to the girls to wear, but these just fell off in the night.  We were very warm and it was cold in the tent we could see our breath, but we were very snug.

We have camped with children early and late season when the nights can get very chilly, we found layers weren't always enough even though the kids thought wearing hats in bed was great. Hot water bottles to cuddle upto are a good idea for children. 

We did resort to buying a cheap (end of season) Portable Butane gas fire after a continued spell of near freezing conditions, needs must! and yes you do get condensation but it worked well in our fairly large tent and warmed up quickly. Our children knew to stay away from it, much like a fire at home.

This may not suit all but it served us well and we make sure we take it if the weather looks a bit on the chilly side.

Thanks Peridot,

I never really thought about using the message board before now, we mainly use the site to look for campsites and read reviews of them, but this is great especially when you are looking to buy new equipment and want to know what others think of it, wish I'd found this sooner would have saved money on some bad buys!!