Hi, my family and I (that's 2 adults, 3 children and a dog) have decided that we'd like to go camping! We've been agonising over tents for months and ideally want to spend around the £200 mark for tent, footprint and carpet. We've found some tents we like, the Royal Atlanta 6, Hi Gear Voyager 6 and Vango Breakout 600DLX...could anybody recommend any of these please? Or anything else?! Thank you!!
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Welcome to the world of camping Seymour. Always a bit of a minefield recommending a tent to someone. What suits one person may not suit another. If you haven't already done so I would suggest you go to a camping store that has a lot of tents already pitched for you to look at. I don't mean just a couple of tents. The Winfield store in Hull for example usually has around 60 tents pitched so you can really get amongst them and see what feels right for you. Worth having a read in Tent Reviews as well I hope you find something suitable and you get many days of pleasure from it.
As for a Footprint. Save yourself some money. Don't buy a purpose made one. Go to a DIY store and get some heavy duty builders poly sheeting at a fraction of the price. Just remember that when you cut it to size, to make it about 12 inches smaller all round than the size of your tent so that the rain running off the tent doesn't run onto the footprint and get between it and the tent.
My top tip is to try to see some tents on display to try to work out what design/layout you like. The Vango & Royal have bedrooms at each end but the Hi Gear has bedrooms all at one end. The main advantage of the Hi Gear design is you will have a larger living area. If you get a chance and live close to a GO Outdoors store (only store to sell Hi Gear Tent - Own Brand) have a look at the tent display (don’t buy anything though!!) and see what styles you like.
My recommendation would be the Kampa Croyde 6, it’s a bit over budget at £375 but this will include a carpet and footprint as these are included in the price at the moment.
Just having a quick look your budget of £200 to include tent, carpet and footprint may be optimistic. As 9iron has mentioned you can get away with making your own footprint which will probably save £15 - £20
Post last edited on 07/08/2012 09:03:09
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As Mcguire has already suggested try and get to see some tents first even if they are not the ones on your list at leat you will be able to decide what design/size suits you best.
Post last edited on 07/08/2012 09:13:02
------------- Experience enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
Everything has been said before, but since nobody ever listens we have to keep going back and saying it all over again and again and again
Are you after a weekend tent, or a family tent? Vis-a-vis, dome or tunnel? Blue, green or other colour?, Poly or polycotton? SIG or ZIG? Fibreglass, steel or ally poles? Fly first or inner first?
If you dithered on just one of those questions, then I'm sorry, you are not ready to buy yet!!
With respect, I'd suspect that with a budget as tight as that, for what will need to be an absolute minimum of a 6 berth, imo, (but pref an 8) you can't afford to get it wrong. And I don't mean to be rude when I say that.
Do as others say, and (window) shop around. Plenty of looking, plenty of research, but most of all, plenty of questions on here, because the good folk on here really know their stuff..... I can vouch for that, from what I have learned on here since signing up just a couple of months ago.
There is no such thing as a daft question. Even if it sounds like one to you, it won't be!! So whatever is on your mind, throw it out there, and you will get answers.
Take your time, so you can eventually sit back with a big grin on your face, a beer in hand, watching your family have the time of their lives in a perfect tent.......... that you picked!!
We went on our first camping trip as a family last week and we were going to take our basic 4 man pro action tent. I can't stand in it and there is very little space in the main section, so we decided to go on the hunt.
I have read that you need to go 2 man up on how many in your party, so if there are 5 of you - you will need at least 6/7 man tent but more like 7/8 man tent
We had our heart set on the hi gear zenobia and went to buy it from Go Outdoors, but we decided to look at the other tents and speak to the tent expert.
He said it is okay but not very good if we have lots of rain, so we looked around and fell in love with the Nevada M, it is a 5 man and was perfect for us ( 2 adults and 2 children, 1 dog)
We liked the windows, that you could stand, the sewn in groundsheet, the fact it the bedrooms were together but split (young children), and the latte colour meant it was cooler than the darker blue zenobia.
We should have done some research on the Nevada on the net like we did the Zenobia but I fell in love with it there and then so we brought it, fortunately all reviews were decent.
We did have a few little faults, and Go Outdoors have replaced it.
I really recommend trying before you buy and doing a lot of research on the net too :)
I've practically moved in to our local Go Outdoors and Jacksons of Old Arley, I've been dragging the family back and forth since last year to window shop! It's good to know that isn't such a crazy thing to do. We were even accidentally locked outside with the tents last night at Go Outdoors!
Ideally we'd like two tents (being greedy now!), looking at getting a smaller weekend one for now and then spending a bit more in the future on an upgrade. The three I mentioned are within budget but, as a few people have mentioned, I do worry that we'll be rather crammed in!
I've seen the Royal Atlanta and the Hi Gear Voyager, both seem to have a fairly large living area compared to other 6 berths, bedrooms might be little tight, though.
I had a look at the Kampa Croyde 6 and the Outwell Nevada tents, they both seem fantastic and really roomy...I might have to go back to the drawing board (the other half) and try to re-adjust the budget a little.
I shall certainly do some more research, this site especially is brilliant! Thank you all again, sorry about the waffling...
It is very quick and easy to erect, has SIG, large windows, good ventilation, groundsheet drops flat at the doors so no trip hazard, 3 large bedroom pods which can easily accommodate 75cm wide airbeds instead of just 50-60cm wide mats, spacious central living area, standing height throughout, 5000HH rating.....
Overall, you get a lot of good quality tent for your money.
------------- Helen xx
Mini Mad Mum
Don't forget to leave a review of all tents you've used, for a chance to win fantastic prizes
like the thread above, we are a family of 5, in a khyam ontario 8 with zipped sun porch, where we have our kitchen area. The sleeping arrangements suit us well, we have the big pod for our queen size double heigh bed, only luxury for me and other half, the oldest child has there own pod, and the 2 youngest share. We have a khyam carpet to finish off, we bought ours about 6 years ago ex display for £100 - we have considered other tents, but there is nothing we feel on the market that matches the HH of 5000 or living layout that we want, and to boot that will cost us another £100 - we got the footprint to match from khyam direct in a sale for about £25,
there are some great tents out there, but for a family of 5 you do need an 8 berth tent, with standing room if possible, we wish you well with your search
Get the best you can for your budget even if it means stretching the budget a bit, you would be suprised just how many so called quality tents suffer snapped poles with the wind and rain our Summers can provide. I see far too many of these tents ending up in our skip, turns an affordable summer holiday into an expensive disaster!!!!
Check out the Outwell range, we don't see many of them collapsing!
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: New to family camping!
