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Hi I'm new on here and to camping so bare with all the silly questions please.

We bought a cheap tent to give camping a go and this was a big mistake. We are now looking to buy somthing better but not too expensive. Approx £200.

I have seen a coleman Sahara 8 on special offer at £199 and it seems to get good reviews on previous threads. (bit of a bargin?)

Some have mentioned you can put up the fly first if its raining. Dose this make it harder to get up?

Dose anyone know if the bedrooms can be devided as idealy we would like 3 bedrooms as we have a teenager and two much younger kids.

Dose anyone think any other tents are better bearing in mind we can't afford more than £250. Whats the Vango colarado 800DLX like?

Hope someone can help

Andrea.

As a recent convert to the sahara 4/5, I have to say they are fantastic tents. I can't really comment on the vis-a-vis but there will be someone along who can very soon (anne, I should imagine!{hello anne}). The 4/5 goes up like a dream although we have only put it up inner first so far but to be honest even if you couldn't put it up fly first, the inner is so quick to erect that a torrential downpour probably wouldn't affect your use of it too much (ish!).

They are definitely value for money (see previous threads on the wonderfulness of the flysheet quality, and if we were camping on a day like today we could put all those awnings up and get some fresh air instead of that usual hot air you get in most tents), we paid £130 for ours. It's great!

As far as other tents are concerned, I do lust after the Vango Aspen but hear such bad things about the pack size, impossibility to erect and peg out in less than a weekend, drafty bedrooms etc that I'm can quite easily keep the desire under control!! Coleman all the way!

Hi ALFEARN (and Hi Debs)

The Sahara 8 has two bedrooms (in vis a vis style) and, as far as I know, there is nothing to divide the bedrooms.  They are really large though. 

We have put our Sahara 4 vis a vis and Sahara 4/5 up fly first, cos it was raining at the time, but it is easier to put up inner first.  It took us about 20 minutes to put ours up but we are old hands at tent erection.

As Debs says, the quality has to be seen, and felt, to be believed.  However, if you want three separate bedrooms, you might have to look at something else.

HTH

Camping Ecosse in East Lothian were doing the 2004 Vango Colorado 1200 dlx for £250 not so long ago. They don`t currently have a web site but there`s contact details here...

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/directory2/details.asp?revid=453&typeid=24

Might be worth a look?

They`re my local camping shop. btw. I bought my own Colorado 1200dlx from them via their ebay shop....though I didn`t realise it was them till the tent arrived.