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Don't you just wish there was an international website, with images and detail on every tent in the range? Just imagine how their sales would increase!

Reckon one would be winging its way to our house!

Quote: Originally posted by bowerbird on 07/5/2007

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Just got back from the De Waard tent exhibition mentioned by Rolph. We are now the proud owners of a Lepelaar tent We drove all the way via the Channel tunnel leaving home about 11 pm Friday (after a few hours nap after work) via the Channel Tunnel, through the north of France, Belgium and into the Netherlands. It was a straight forward journey, with very good roads, but long. A surprising amount of traffic considering it was dawn on a Saturday. Got there about 8am. put our little over night two man tent up (same campsite as the exhibition). Then - the bit we had been waiting for - seeing the tents. I was so excited. There was a field full of all the different De Waard models and we were given a conducted tour by Martin (who spoke very good English). This lasted about two hours as we studied all the pros and cons. We had intended getting the Stormmieu but actually liked the look of the Lepelaar better; the curved front of the Stormmieu didn't look quite right. The Lepelaar on site was already sold but Martin managed to get our tent and all the additional bits from two of their shops and had it delivered that evening. Otherwise it would have meant a 10 week wait whilst it was made. Meanwhile we returned to our tent for a bit of a sleep! The next morning - Sunday, Martin showed us how to put it up and take it down correctly and checked everything was there. He couldn't have been more helpful. We set off for home after lunch and we were indoors before 10.30 pm Sunday. It's amazing what you can do in a weekend if you set your mind to it, but I am pleased it's a holiday today. Yes it was expensive but this is our retirement present to ourselves and some people could have spent the same amount on a single holiday. We intend to try the tent out at the end of May. Just a bit worried that now we might look a bit out of place in a Rolls Royce tent at a camp site with a load of "old bangers". But I think I will enjoying people sidling round our tent to have a closer look see. Just like we did last summer when we spotted a Dutch Tent at the Fisherground site in the Lake District. I envisage our six grown up children arguing over who will inherit the tent!

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If you don't mind me asking, what exactly did you end up buying (re: tent and 'additional bits'), and what did you end up paying?

Anyone have any idea when the next display is to be held? Sounds very interesting.

Hi Liddenham,

As I said, the model we bought is the Lepelaar, we also bought the inner tent (binnentent); this is not strictly necessary as inner curtains come with it, but I do like to be warm and snug. We also bought 2 windshields (windscherms) and the varioluifel (variable awning) and a triangular storage thing. The whole lot came to 2,812 euros. A carpet for the living areas was thrown in for free. We paid in euros cash because we were advised that any card tranaction would have quite a hefty fee attached. Don't know when the next exhibition is to be held. I would e-mail one of their shops and ask. De Waard were very good at replying in English. We are going to Sutherland, Scotland to try it out over the half term holiday.

at Pauljaceay: Glad to have been of help.
Same experience with us: the kids want to have their own little tent, but still in bad weather one enjoys the space in the main tent and in case one of the small tents breaks down or leaks the Karsten will hold and offer enough space to seleep well.

In fact Karsten, De Waard and Randstad all are of similar qualit, but they have tehir own advantages and disadvantages. Karstens strong points is ease of setting up and the ventilation system.De Waard and Randstad need loads of pegs, but offer some more space (ready sleeping spaces). Karsten has better standing height all around the tent due to the dome shape.

Randstad is similar to De Waard (they were brothers who got into a fight inheriting the business of their father), but has a little bit different shape of the groundsheet (better for tall people) and a bit deeper fixed canopy. The other differences are not important. 

But again, all are top quality and stand extremely bad weather. I owned a Randstad first, later the Karsten and had heavy fall winds and thunder in the pyrenees with them. Got guests as their tent collapsed. That's when the kids came inside too as their small cheap tent leaked and kept being blown flat (small dome).

For both tents I usually used rock pegs as the camping areas usually were a bit rocky. I always enjoyed the secure feeling in them very much. On top of that I loved the fast and easy pitching of the Karsten.

Although the owners of e Waard, Randstad and Karsten are very fanatic towards their own brand, in the end it is a matter of preference and personal needs.
Enjoy camping.

at Liddenham: Of course I don't know about displays in the UK. As to displays in Holland, one does not really need them. Karsten has all tents displayed in their factory-shop plus two or three Randstad ones. De Waard has all of them displayed in their shop. Randstad has all or most of them displayed in their shop.
The larger camping shows like from the ANWB are early in the year (March or april).

Hello toine1962, 

I am seriously considering buying an Esvo Snoek can you tell me if these tents are of a good quality and can they be compared with Randstad or De Waard? 

I have been trying to find out more information on this forum but have had no replies so far. 

Karen

From looking at toine1962's link I could get a Randstad Jupiter for not much more than the Esvo Snoek, would this be a better buy do you think?