Hi all. Great website with lots of useful information. Having watched from afar without posting, decided to go for a Khyam Ridgi-Pod the year before last. Didn't think that I could justify or afford the cost of a Karsten at that time. Probably a false economy as I have never really hit it off with the Khyam. Looking now to bite the bullet and upgrade to a Karsten that will hopefully do the job for many years to come. As I live in the North of Scotland it will prove difficult to get down to the UK supplier in Norfolk. If possible, I would like to choose my tent and order by phone. I have all the brochures and see that there are numerous options available. My question for those in the know is: for a family of 2 adults and 3 kids (12,10 & 7) no pets, what model/spec do you advise?
Many thanks in anticipation of some good advice.
KKB
PS. There are some great campsites up here in the NE of Scotland that never get that busy. Well worth the trek in my humble opinion.
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I've dealt with this supplier many times over the phone and visited their shop, they are very helpful. I would give them a ring and ask for their advice.
Where in NE Scotland are you?
Thanks for the prompt reply Sue S. I plan to give them a call once I have a bit of a better idea about what I want, hopefully following some advice and pointers from fellow campers on this forum. In answer to your question, bang in the middle between Aberdeen and Inverness in a small town called Keith. Cullen and Huntly campsites, owned by the same person, highly recommended.
We'll be up at Glenfiddich distillery in August on a camping & caravan club THS. We usually camp at the club site near Archiestown. We've been to Keith many times but never to the campsites at Cullen or Huntly.
------------- sue
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Hi Kkb1i have a karsten 300 which i have put up for sale plus road trailer,but dont think it would be big anough for 3 kids unless you buy the additional awning that attaches to the archway extention and frontwall if interested e mail me advert on for sale site
if you want to email me at julesrush at hotmail.com i can give you some advice about this tent, sorry ony just replied was looking through old posts lol
You should realize that Karsten mainly is a dome on a square footprint of the size indicated. You can extend with canopy and/or front wall, plus a tunnel extension in between those two.
The SIG however will be limited to the original dome.
In the dome there are zippers in case you want to have two sleeping spaces in there. Zipper are applied half way zo that's the depth of those spaces.
I never ordered these dividing curtains, as I would be too tall for the sleeping space. Moreover by that time my 2 kids were old enough to want to sleep in tehir own little tunnel tents. Hence the Karsten serves as sleeping tent for all when traveling through just for overnight, and as 'dry home basis', eating etc when on the places where you stay longer, offering living space in case of bad weather, while the by than nearly adult kids have their own tent (on the same pitch).
The big advantage is the resistance to storm/gale, the relatively compact shape, while at the same time offering good standing height, durability, and especially easy and fast setting up by inflating the main dome. Oh plus the excellent ventilaton system.
If ordering new, it is possible to order sleeping extension in the main dome. This is in fact done by applying a second door at the side with zipper, to which a spacy extension is applied.
Mine would be available as I started caravanning, but unfortunately this is useless for you as postage and all would be far too expensive from Holland.
------------- WL
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Hi kkb1
I ordered our 350, with the zip and door for a sleeping extension and an extra window, without seeing them in the flesh. Our car died the weekend we were due to travel from London to Norwich to see them and what with the length of karsten's waiting list we decided to order and hope. We found that we have never needed more space which the sleeping extension would have provided and we probably would not have ordered it had we seen the tent first. However, it is nice to have a back door in the main pod which we would not have otherwise had. There are four of us, 2 adults and 2 children, then 7 and 12 years old and there is/was lots of room, but it wasn't long before the kids wanted their own tent. So me and the Mrs rattle round the karsten now but the huge awning is great for eating together etc while the boys have a button tent for sleeping.
The 350 is huge and I think they make a whopper the 380, I'm 6 ft and can only just touch the top of the center of the tent. I think that the 325 would be big enough for 5 especially if you had an awning for the daytime, the awning for the 350 is slightly larger than the 325 though. We never bothered with the sleeping dividers for the pod either. The great thing about Karsten's is that they come in component form and as long as you have the zips in place when you order the base, you can add extensions, awnings even connect another tent at any point in the future. I only got my rain awning this year, which is brilliant by the way, it has taken us 3 years to get all the bits we want. First the tent and comfort awning, next by an awning extension and front wall and then the rain awning. It is what makes them so flexible, by far the best tent I've ever had or probably will ever have.
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Topic: Karsten Tents
