Bought a tent, what do we need now?

[hmb]

I have finaly worn dh down and we bought a tent this weekend! It is a colarado 8, anyone used one, and are the ok?? (insert worried looking face!)

Now that we have the tent, what would you camping experts recoment for a reasonably comfortable stay. Kids are 5 and 7, dh and I too old to admit . Like a bit of luxury, so not into rubbing two boy scout together to light the fire.

Your help greatfully received!

[roisin]

Hmb - do put it up in the garden as a practice ... we bought a new tent a few weeks ago (cheap). When I was dismantling it one of the elastic cables inside the fibre-glass poles snapped - so clearly poor quality.

In terms of gear - I would aim for the bare minimum at first, and go for a weekend break somewhere. If you all hate it, you won't have wasted too much money.

Also make sure everything will fit easily into your car.

You need (minimum):
sleeping bags and pillows for all of you, plus camping mats or lilos.
Torches or camping lanterns.
A small gas stove, plus a kettle and pan ... or more if you're planning to do more adventurous self-catering.
Washing-up bowl, dishcloth and liquid, crockery and cutlery
A foldable table and chairs.

HTH

[hmb]

Thank you for the feed back. We are aranging to spend a weekend at the end of the kids summer holiday on a campsite 30 minutes from out house. A mate has the basic kis and has kindly said they will lend the stuff for the weekend.

Anyone tried the tent and is it any good? We saw it set up and it seems fine and suits out needs but...... (getting paranoid now!)

[Janh]

Hi, hmb! We have just bought a similar tent (well I assume it is, ours is the Vango Vista 800, it's a long one with bedrooms each end rather than going off at angles).

The place where we bought ours gives you a fantastic introductory leaflet with great stress on the fact that, as roisin says, you really need to practise putting it up first; also that with a nylon tent you should waterproof all the stress points apparently.

We are struggling with this requirement as we don't have access to a piece of grass long enough so may have to do it in the park!

Is yours the outwell colorado or the vango colorado 800? Not that I have any experience of either but just so I can go and have a nosy.

[roisin]

ROFL at the thought of you putting it up in the park Janh! I don't know what your neighbourhood is like, but round here you'd attract a crowd of spectators.

(Yes, entertainment is a bit thin on the ground here.)

[hmb]

Outwell colorado. I have spent some time on the net and now realise that campers are quite tribal about their tent types

It is a tunnel tent with a big bedroom at one end and two smaller ones at te other end (have ds and dd so eventually they will not want to share so thought this would be helpful long term)

It will just fit in the garden!

[Kay1]

I would definately try garden if tent will fit. when we first got ours - very big but really comfy and good for softies - we took it to park, having first watched video about how to set it up (ours is actually very complicated!) Problem was it was very windy and tent blew away, with 18 month old wrapped underneath. I wailed and ran around screaming, dh gallantly tried to catch hold of the ropes and any men within about 200 yards radius in park rushed over to help - great opportunity to appear brave and macho(!) All very embarressing.........

Hope i haven't put you off - Have now learnt how to do it properly, even in high winds, and have soooo much fun when we are away.

We have gradually built up camping gear but i think it is a good idea to borrow stuff and decide what you really need. Have fun!

[Tortington]

fundamental question here....is it already waterproofed? if not you have to buy it and spray it on tthe seams

[Janh]

This is ours, hmb - definitely similar to yours!

Ours is 7.5m long. Coo. I think DH is putting off putting it up, but if he doesn't do it soon the Mumsnet Summer Party will see its debut and we can entertain a field full of people!

[hmb]

They are very similar, and the other one we considered getting was yours! The Vango looks better against the wind, but in the end Dh prefered the Colorado as he can stand up in the bedrooms, and we are a pair of softies!

The Vango has a massive living area! I was well impressed.

We are going to put it up in the garden as soon as we get back from our hold, and them we are going to have a weekend at a local campsite at the end of the summer hols.

I've started packing for our caravan holiday this year. If we go to the same site next year in our own tent, insted of the caravan we will save almost £1000! For that I will walk to the shower block!

[Katherine]

I wouldn't worry to much about gear to start of with although if you do find you like it then its amazing the gear you end up getting - so larger car or trailer ends up needed!

You DON'T need special cooking equipment or crockery - tupperware is handy to keep things in order - but just take your normal stuff from home. Tea never tastes the same out of tin or plastic anyway. We bought some cheap crockery from ikea in the end. You will need something to cook on.

Also although sleeping bags are great because they are less bulky you can make do with normal bedding at first. Also if you are breastfeedings then sleeping bags are torture (if a woman had designed the vango womens and baby bags they would have at least put the zips on opposite sides so you could feed in them!).

You need something to sit on but it can be chairs or mats. We have gradually progreesed to a variety of chairs and no less that 3 camping tables! (hence the long wheelbase landrover!). We also found that a windbreak is very useful for creating a safe zone around the cooker.

Finally with 2 kids aged 4 and 5 we find the most useful item to be waterproof trousers. Whatever the weather we just stick them on and they can play, wander round or sit wherever and they come back inside clean and dry.

Oh and one final thing - shoes which just slip on and off are great - wellies for the kids - otherwise you are forever doing laces or buckles etc.

Have a great time - we are off this weekend for 10 days and I can't wait. Just need to organise the weather now

[hmb]

The Ikea idea sounds a good one. I never need much of an excuse to go there

Have you ever had one of those folding able/chair combos? We tried one and I'm not sure. We already have two folding chairs for the beach, and a wind break.

Breast feeding is long in my past! But I don't think that a 'mummy' style sleeping bag is quite me, and anyway I'd be worried that I'm too fat to fit into one.....now that would be upsetting

Thanks for all the feed back, it is invaluable.

[Janh]

If you do buy sleeping bags check the width. Some are only about 75cm across and some are up to 90, and the bigger ones are far more comfortable when you turn over/shift around etc. (I got 2 fantastic ones from Lidl last year, £25 each which is a lot for Lidl but they are massive and v comfortable.)

On another camping thread someone recommended taking a few of those nesting plastic storage boxes - good for storing food (esp with a lid), carrying piles of washing up or laundry and just keeping the tent tidy.

We have a few with all the camping hardware in (but no spare empty ones - might add a few next time) so that it's always there and ready to go and we don't have to think about what to put in.

I am iffy about the table/chair combos - whenever I try one out it seems to wobble but that might just be because they're not put together properly. They are certainly neat and very compact when folded.

outdoor focus
wild day

Both have loads of equipment to look at and think about! Definitely get a gas lantern, they are lovely and bright. Can't think what else atm.

[Twiglett]

message withdrawn

[hmb]

Campsite I am thinking of for next years holiday has three swimming pools, a lake that you can row on, and a restaurant in the chateaux! So not quite rubbing two boy scouts together on the side of Snowdonia to get a fire started! And the kids will love it.

The en suite would be nice tho, and I don't think that a porta potty quite cuts it!

[Lawksamercy]

We've recently bought a tent (Vango Colorado 600 DLX) and various bits and pieces, and I would recommend the folding table/seats combo as the camping tables and separate folding chairs are not at the right height for eating. We got ours from Homebase, and it was perfectly sturdy and stable.
Some friends of ours recommended buying a nappy bucket with lid, so you can have a wee during the night without having to leave the tent - we haven't got one yet, but we will before we camp again.
Also, never underestimate how cold it gets at night. Last time we went camping (a few weeks ago) dd ended up wearing a vest, pyjamas, long sleeved t-shirt, a sweatshirt, her sleeping bag, with her dressing gown my fleecey hoody and two fleece blankets over the sleeping bag . She was a bit pink in the morning, but at least she didn't wake up every hour because she was cold, as she had done the night before.

[hmb]

Good advice about the cold. I'll invest in some blankets in Ikea. They do them for low prices, or so I've been told. MIL got a nice double blanket for £5

[3PRINCESSES]

Am following all this avidly. We go the weekend after next (a brand new Vango Diablo 900 lies menacingly in it's bag in the garage). Carry on, please, expert ladies....

[hmb]

3P, please post and let me know how it goes. I badgered dh into agreeing and now I'm panicing a bit [worried grin]

[3PRINCESSES]

Me too, h. Will we be forced to carry out unspeakable sexual favours for the rest of the year to atone for our mispalced enthusiasm, d'you think?? How bad can it be? (Don't get me started on that...)

[Janh]

huge sleeping bag from wild day. Looks v similar to ours. V warm too.

hmb, as you are going to France (I assume from ref to chateau!) and in the summer (I assume from saving on cost of caravan hol!) the overnight temp is likely to be less of a concern than, eg, Cumbria in May or N Yorkshire in June. So I wouldn't go mad with blankets. Fleece ones do squash up v small so if you have space, chuck a couple in, but loads of clothes (which you will presumably have anyway) work just as well. Esp socks! (But watch out for gaps round the midriff, they always wake me up.)

[hmb]

Plan is to go back to the Vendee next year. We have gone there twice and the kids (and audults) had the best holiday ever. We have been wimpy and have gone in a caravan. I'd always been put off by the thought of having to go to the shower block if I need a pee inthe night. And then I did the maths! £1000 =14 pees!

We are planning to use it for the main holidays and see how it goes. But we also want to use it during Whitsen half term. One of the things we want to do is go to the New Forest. Dh has family local to there and we will be able to have a break and see relatives without it bankrupting us or having to cram into someones house.

The kids are thrilled by the thought, and tbh if they are happy we are happy.

3P LOL Dh has been put off camping by all the survival training he has done over the years. As he says when he is in a tent people are often trying to kill him (sometimes literaly) so it has taken the edge off it for him!

[3PRINCESSES]

Blimey, h - if your DH has done survival training, you'll be FINE. How useful can an accountant be out in the wilderness?

[hmb]

He can build a bivvi in the middle of Exmore, not sure how good he will be at pitching a tent

And he moans like crazy every time he needs to re-do his survival training. He does not enjoy that sort of thing and thinks it very uncivilied. As he goes into battle sitting in his plane he thinks it is all a bit of a waste of time.

So the thought of camping for pleasure fills him with horror!

[elliott]

REading all this avidly as we are keen to get camping but haven't yet sussed how to arrange it so that ds1 will actually sleep....
He's 2 and 8 months and a very wriggly sleeper, still in a cot at home but getting too big for a travel cot now. we got him a junior sleeping bag but we can't get him to stay inside it - and even if we use it quilt-style its too slippy to stay over him.
Any ideas anyone? I am going to try a ready bed but it might be too heavy to take with us (we are going Eurocamping in Sept fly drive) I am dreading it already....!

[elliott]

ooops, threadkiller alert