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Aha! Me again. Found their website which gives Taunton as their UK dealer.

This link takes you to their tent page HERE Do you know which model they were looking at?

They look like very well made tents but they aint cheap when you look at Taunton Leisure website.

Hi. I have seen various Eureka tents up at the camping exhibitions Taunton Leisure have up in this area in the spring/early summer.

Taunton Leisure's main focus is on the more technical side of camping but they do also do family stuff. The staff in their shops are always very helpful and knowledgeable and tend to be campers/walkers/climbers themselves. TL would be my first choice inner city camping shop here, rather than eg Milletts, Blacks or Snow and Rock.

Last year they 'took a bit of a punt', as it was put to me, and introduced two Eureka models: the Outside Inn and the Outside Inn CV.  I looked at those two models very hard: more expensive than a lot of tents you'll see about but a different and interesting design, different materials. I liked them a lot but didn't buy one in the end. Someone I know did and has been very pleased with hers. Anyway, Taunton Lesiure sold out of their Outside Inns last year and have greatly increased their Eureka range last year so that probably says something!

I have seen their bigger Eurekas up on display this year but didn't pay an awful lot of attention as I was not looking for a big family-type tent.  The ones I saw looked fine, would be distinctive on a camp site and I think that although they are a polycotton type fabric they are relatively light compared to even nylon tents of a similar size.

One thing I have noticed is that a lot of the windows on Eureka tents are mesh rather than plastic. This would of course help keep the weight down and provide great ventilation in hot weather but would probably mean keeping the window covers closed if it was raining.

Hope that helps. MT

I have now browsed their full range here

Matt, they look like they are very well engineered tents indeed. I would think that the combination of poly cotton and alloy poles means it is worth the £699 price tag. And there is the added advantage of them bring quite low weight tents for their size, so that is a good space to weight ratio too. I think that is why they are higher in price than the comparable Outwell "Lake" tents which seem much heavier for the same dimensions. I see that the model your parents are interested in is the one with the big write up from TL's director.....praise indeed!

It is worth noting Merry Terrier's observation about the windows though. I have big mesh windows on my Vaude Opera and they are great for ventilation and minimising condensation, but in wet weather they need to be closed, which then cuts down on day light and nice views! So it may be a good idea to just flag this up to your parents, in case they ahd not looked at the window cosntruction.

Hi Matt,

I live not far away from Taunton Leisure in Bristol and its where i get most of my camping stuff, great shop, very helpful and know their stuff (discount card also available for £5 but only off full price items which they dont consider tents to be generally).

They have a tent show open until 2nd September at sanders gardenworld just off junction 22 of the M5 and they have the Eureka's up (or at least did when i went a month ago), also about a mile away from their is highbridge caravans who have a load of Cabanon's up.

The Eureka's did look very well made but the Cabanon Guadeloupe is the one for me

Cheers,

Jon