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Hi Bec, we just bought a nice tent.. we are only 2A 2C but we got the Campus Indiana 8.

It's the easiest tent we have owned for erection, It took us about 15 mins to get up and another 20 -30 mins to peg and guy out! It has 3 bedrooms that can be made into 4.

One end has two completely seperate rooms.... each big enough for 2 single airbeds or one double. The other end has one massive room that will accommodate 4 people. Either 4 single airbeds, two doubles or 1 double and 2 singles. This big room has a dividing curtain that you can attach to split the room into two.

Living area was more than adequate too... and it comes with a 3 section groundsheet that runs the complete length of the tent so you're bedrooms have double insulation under.

You can see the dims on www.campusoutdoor.co.uk Good luck.

I would definitely buy at least 2 berths bigger than you are people. Look for an 8-10 berth

The vango diablo 900 and Hartford XXL both seem lovely and big. Im sure there will be loads of choice around at the moment in the sales

Wild country homestead 10 is a great tent and you can get them from their factory shop at a conciderable discount. have a look at www.terra-nova.co.uk and navigate to the "factory shop"

Sean

Hi

Totally agree with everything said by Adams family above, we love our Indy and can't recommend it highly enough.  We are a family of four but regularly have an extra one and the bedroom combinations are ideal, plus a decent living area too.

Here's a link for you

http://www.outdoorgear.co.uk/eshop.asp?wce=51109801&wci=product

Hope this helps.

Trace x

we have a montana 12 also and there are only 4 of us and the dog....loads of space, we also have a royal daytent to house all the cooking stuff and food...

enjoy looking

keren.

Hi Bec

My wife and me have a Montpellier 12, its a lovely tent, plenty of room with 4 x pods and plenty ofheight and seating area. The pods are meant to sleep 3 x adults but this might be a push, 2 x adults would be fine.

Also the tent and be got at a reasonable cost, plenty of sales on, so crab yourself a bragin. It will take aprox 1.5 hrs to erect plus pegging out.

Thanks Gary & Shelley

Whilst the larger tents may give you more space, bear in mind that they're not as warm, and as Sparkey has said, often take a long time to pitch - not ideal after travelling to get to the site, arriving latish and then wanting to get heads down quickly.

Also, be aware that although tents themselves are getting relatively cheaper, the ground they cover may take up more than one pitch (as per a previous thread, can't find it now, sorry), so you may get charged more for it than you would for a regular 6-berth unit. These also will probably make booking more essential than before - whilst a 2-man tent can usually find space, fitting on something the size of a caravan (or larger) might prove a little problematical at busy times if adequate notice is not given.

It's not site owners getting greedy, it's more for safety's sake than anything else - some of the more modern tents can go up very quickly if you have the misfortune of a fire.

S

Be careful about buying too big... know a few people that thought the more space the better.... and then regretted for the next few outings until they ditch that one for a smaller one...

As someone mentioned earlier, two major disadvantages are lack of heat and pitching time... ok, so you can buy a heater, but you have to be pretty careful with these especially with kids, but the pitching time to me is quite paramount... if it takes too long, you get hacked off and it becomes a chore... I wouldn't say go for a 12 man tent.... 2 berths bigger than your needs is more than adequate so ideally a reasonably sized 8 berth should be fine...

Living area is another talking point, the size of this can be quite different for everyone and depends what you want to do it init!!

We have the Indie 8 and the living is about 9' x 9'. We get four chairs, a 4' table, camp kitchen, larder unit, fridge and 3 storage boxes in and still have room to wander about a bit. OK, so if it's peeing it down, you can't have a party in there, but I would rather be comfortable than have the disadvantages I mentioned before... Good luck in your search!

Hi

In terms of size of tent to buy depends how you intend to use it.

We've got a Diablo 900 which we use for longer hols. The living space etc is great if the weather isn't good. Children do need space to play. The porch is brill for storing outdoor stuff. Although it says its a 9 berth I wouldn't put three adults in one of the bedrooms 'very cosy' although it would take the airbeds. Fine for two adults plus child.

If you look on the Campsites message board there is a pinned thread with loads of sites that are quite happy to accept larger tents. To a certain extent I think it depends what type of campsite you want. We go for good but simple facilities not bothered about restaurant, bar etc 

We've also got a Montana 4 for weekend breaks   

You also need to think about whether you want a sewn in groundsheet or not as this will influence.

Whatever you choose have a good look around the different websites as prices can vary significantly !

Good Lubk

Jen

 Hi Bec

We have just got a  Vango Vista 800DLX ofr our family of 2 adults 2 children (boy & girl(she's 16, he's 9 arrrrrr lol). So we wanted separate pods for them. The tent has one huge pod with a curtain in the middle on one side and on the other 2 seperate pods. So the plan is to let the children have the big pod. We can use one of the other pods to sleep in and use the other pod for storage.

It's 750cm x 325cm plus the porch. The living area is very roomy, so we should (in theory) be able to tolerate each other should the weather be unkind lol  

We found it easyish to put up in our garden and are off to shell island for the proper test

have a look at one if you can.

hope this helps  

Eoj