Hi all, I am a novice camper who has only ever been camping with my family twice with disastrous consequences, I made the mistake of buying a "cheap tent" which wasn’t really cheap just a rip off literally from ebay. We did manage a few days in march in criccieth but it was hellish to put up and down on my own with help from my eldest daughter Megan who's 8 while amber who’s now 6 sat out of the rain in the car giving encouragement. Our second trip was to morfa farm in the overflow field where the wind was relentless, I got the tent pegged out got the poles in (again with Megan's help...she's a star) but the mix of a huge badly maid tent and the wind from cardigan bay was noooo good, I broke three guy lines off the tent and the poles just lay buckled on the floor!!
Luckily I was only a few miles from an Argos, I was on a budget so I bought a 3 man tent got back to the site pitched the tent and it seemed ok (tried to position my car to shield the tent) but when it came to night time the wind shifted and I spent the night re zipping the door shut...around the tent I had placed hefty rocks on the flap on the outside to keep the wind out but obviously I couldn’t do this with the door. When I took the tent down 2 days later in terrible wind I found that 3 of the poles had split all the way down the middle. Argos did give me my money back and the cheap tent from ebay £90 went in the bin now back to the point next year around april i am looking to buy either 1 good size tent with 2 beds and a sewn in groundsheet or 2 smaller ones and put a tarp across and between the both for a living area. What should I buy for around £200?
I have been looking at the gelert twister 3 do I buy 2 of these and pitch them next to each other?
I will be cooking with gas and I also have a 3 yr old who will need the kampa kazi in the night. The wife and me use the gelert camp beds and the kids use the 3/4 size ready beds from asda
Please help me choose
Thanks, Leon
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I don't understand why you would buy 2 tents? Why not just buy one that is an adequate size and layout for your family's needs?
The best thing to do is have a look on - lets start with the big names - outwell and vango's websites. Then have a gander at some camping stores online and see which of them is within your price bracket. Newer ones you are more likely to find up at a dealers so if you can I would go and see them erected. In fact a tent display is probably THE best place to start. You will get a feel for which styles will work for your family. General rule - tunnels are easier to put up than domes. THEN when you think you have found one you like use the tent review feature of this website.
Some ideas to get you started - i would personally recommend my outwell iowa L, my friend has a nevada m and likes it. Vango orchy or tigris or icarus.
due to my bad experiences with wind i was going to get 2 tents and face them in to each other, the ones i mentioned are not too tall so should be better in the wind shouldnt they?
plus the twisters look really easy to erect on my own!!
------------- Life is for living!! who cares what other people think!!
Don't forget to leave a review of all tents you've used, for a chance to win fantastic prizes
I too am a novice camper, got the argos hyperdome! in it's defence it did stand up to the tail end of hurricane bill, just wish I'd found this site prior to buying a tent. Finally settled on either the Horizon 6 or Zenobia 6 (which are the same) nightmare trying to find stock however just ordered the Horizon 6 2008 fot £149.99 from camping&general can't wait, Going to order the canopy ASAP & the footprint & carpet.
Good luck & all I can say is surf this site as lots of seasoned campers with loads of great advice from tents to sites & more
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Topic: reccy a tent for me?
