Our first tent cost £35 PMSL, Argos one in a sale. That holiday was one of the best we ever had (thankfully hot as we were broke as anything) and each year we have upgraded one level, selling the last on and making most of our money back. Am so glad we bought the utwell SV8 last year as they discontinued it (no idea why) and it does seem to be eprfect for us ATM, first year we've not even been temted to replace though ahd things been better financially a teepee may have amde it as a weekend tent

we were given our Cabanon family tent on Freecycle . But if I had to buy a tent I would say yes, you get what you pay for.

you mean you don't Kathy?

We recently bought a cheap (er) tent for weekends and have been really really pleased with the quality of it. It was still 199 quid...but you know.. not maaaaaaad money. It's a Terra Nova 'wild country' tent. The attention to detail is really good...better than my outwell in places and HH is as good too.Even the pegs are better.

ahh but it is a camping forum innit

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OMG they define themselves by their tents
Thanks Slubber, lots of useful stuff there!

I bought mine from Asda for £35 and I love it!!

Interesting thread here

I think the post by pete (on pg 2) about how you pitch your tent is valid too.

We bought an Outwell Florida 6 this year plus the extra extension. It's still polyester & not canvas as our garden is too small to dry a canvas tent on the frame if needed.

florida 6

Pretty expensive at £500+ but we camp for at least 4 whole weeks each year and aim to get at least 5 years out of it. On that basis at £25 ish per week it seemed a good investment. I'm 5ft9 and was fed up with stooping all of the time in our old Wynnster sattelite 12. Plus the new tent has loads of room for rainy days.

We tend to go for quality as DH is an aircraft engineer so is very picky on the smallest design flaw. I wanted the smaller and slightly cheaper Montana 6 but the Florida offered a more space while still just being withing camping & caravan club pitch sizes..

I have a Eurohike tent, (Millets own brand), Under the fly sheet its very similar to a vango diablo (actually identical except the front porch is smaller).

It was abut £140 (reduced price) I think, so we are talking the tesco own brand of tents, it's great I love it, hh is 2000, it's got a sig, sleeps 6 comfortably, came with an LED light system, has stood up to the most horrendous weather last year in the Gower without a single tear or bent pole.

Also have a Campus Oregon Deluxe, it's a monster of a tent, sleeps up to 12, heavy weight polyester, it's made by Khyam, original full price £450 (about 3 years ago), also stood up well to bad weather, 4000mmhh.

Both good tents different in price, totally different types, only downsized to the Eurohike as I go away a lot on my own with the dc and I need another adult pair of hands to put up the Campus tent (am selling it if anyones interested).

I don't necessarily think lots of money means a good tent, I think if you shop wisely and do your research and know what your looking for so you can make comparisons, you find some really good bargains.

We got our second hand cabanon antigua on ebay for £190 (including a table and other bits and bobs). It was as new and a total bargain.

We love it but the bags are huge and heavy. You need a big car!