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Hi there, hope you can help.

I bought a Halfords family tent pack a couple of years ago, which did the job, but now we have the bug and want something a bit better.

Requirements: -

- Must fit 5 (2 adults, 2 Children, and a baby on the way).  I'm thinking a 'sleeps 6' for room.

- Must have a decent sized living space, and standing room, so we can sit together round a table when the weather's bad / at night.

- Must have a sewn in ground sheet (I think - the halfords one let the wind / cold in at the bottom of the tent).

- Although we will only be using it for long weekends a few times a year (spring / summer) - must be weather / rain resistant (do I need a 3000mm Hydrostatic head?).

- Budget up to £200, but won't be offended if anyone tells me that's unrealistic for what I need.

Have looked at the Skandika Jasper II (£199), Gelert Horizon 6 Man (£169), Vango Icarus 600 (£199).SKANDIKA TORONTO 6 (£150 ish), but I would really (REALLY) appreciate any advice you have.  There are soo many tents out there with soo many different specifications.

Thanks in advance!!!!

search for a good Hartford xl the three bed rooms around a living space and then the front porch are a god send. esp as you can also have the rear door open for when it gets hot. you realy must have the facility for thru draught with children when its hot, to reduce the inner temp.

there are plenty on flea bay

you should get a good second hand one (as new) for under £200. and I was able after no time at all to set one up in 20min with a seven year old boy helping. it has the advantage of setting the sealed inner up first so the wife can start setting up the interiour and get the children in out of any weather whilst you set the outer fly sheet. and peg is all correctly. whole camp should be set up beds and all within an hour.

had ours in gale force 4 storms and it was great. also very cool in summer. it is large but with the right positioning you can get it onto a 6x6 pitch. with a baby you will need the third bedroom for play pen cot mats etc etc. and the childen still have a good size room and you get your space. plus the 3mtr living area. etc.

3000 head.  and I am over six ft and can stand up in it. also a fully sealed groundsheet.
have seen many but none could compare with it for spec and quality. will take some practice setting up first so take a picnic and go to the park we did, and had great fun, but won in the end.

then moved onto tin tents. but do miss it.

Going to suggest the Sunncamp Kansas 8 (this is a higher HH specced version of the Sunncamp Shadow 800) which is exclusive to Outdoor Megastore.

As an 8 person tent will be much more comfortbale for the 5 of you.

Vis a Vis style with bedroom pods at opposite ends of the tent.

There is a single pod one end which would be prefect for you, other half and baby (this has a removable divider so later on can be turned into 2 seperate pods). The other end has 2 single pods which would be great for the kids.

Decent sized living area of approx 3.2m x 3.6m in the middle, fully sewn in ground sheet, HH of 3000, 2 doors and a nice blue/grey colourway.

And, its in budget.

 If you purchase the OM Loyalty Card (£4.95) you can then purchase the tent for £199 (normally £249).

Service from OM is very good and delivery is free and lightning fast. Ordered a.m on one day and deleivered a.m. the next.

Hope this helps.

Here's the link.

http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-1428744-10475506?url=http://www.outdoormegastore.co.uk/acatalog/Sunncamp_Kansas_8_Family_Tunnel_Tent.html#a4493

Ignore the £249 price. if you go to the homepage and click on the link to the Loyalty card it then lsts the tent as one of the Loyalty Card offers at the reduced price.

campasarow

Thanks so much for all the responses so far.  I think I may need to increase my budget to get closer to what I'm looking for (and new). 

The frontrunners at the moment are The Vango Calisto 600 (£240) and the Vango Icarus 600XL (£250).  Apologies to those I've discounted.  Any views on these (or other tents) greatly appreciated.

The Nevada L looks the part, but I can't stretch the budget that far.

Thanks again!

Thanks arsenaldes.  I've since spotted an Outwell Nevada L (2010) close to budget.  I've added another post to the site to see if anyone would recommend the 2010 over the 2011 (taking into account the massive saving).  I see you've posted on that thread too.  Thanks.

I'm like a child in a sweet shop - need to make a decision soon though, want to try my new toy for the bank holiday.

hello there, we were the same our family started camping about five years ago, and started off with a cheap ebay buy, we have changed every year and finally got our dream, an outwell bear lake 6, by far the best we've had, it really does seem you get what you pay for. we used to get an idea of what model we wanted then look on ebay, preloved and of course the classifieds on here, we found a couple of real bargains, cheers, gary

Hi,we had a look at the nevada L last year and could find nothing wrong with it at all,you really can't go wrong with Outwell (in my opinion)..the only reason we didn't buy it....we had only gone to get a few bits and bobs and DH couldn't be persuaded that we really needed another tent

I've not seen one of these in the flesh but the spec looks pretty good for £250

http://www.yeomansoutdoors.co.uk/products/tents/5-6-man-tents/outwell-texas-l-tent.aspx