Experienced campers - are these bargain tents ok?

[Anicehotel]

Unlikey to get used much so don't want to spend a lot - but don't want to end up soaked either!

Such a huge range of pricing that i wonder why these are so cheap.

first is Zenobia 6 Nightfall Tent £220
second Eurohike Hampton 6 Man Family Tent £240

I'd avoid any tent with fibreglass poles as they break so easily

If you can stretch your budget, this would be a solid buy..

https://www.leisureoutlet.com/four-berth-tents/tents-by-size/tents/171514-vango-skye-ii-air-400-tent-airbeam-4-berth?surface=active&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0oCDBhCPARIsAII3CHAEPGvL404Q7G-FYZ-yiRe2zQUAZkLI3IhCAjEibBy8sbonjEAviUaAoTcEALww_wcB

And don't stress too much about HH. My £650 2 person tent for winter camping has a HH of 1200... it's the quality of the fabric that's important. So a lot of the time in camping you get what you pay for.

You can get a really good solid small tent for £200, but you'll struggle to get a big one for that much.

Also, inflatable tents are brilliant, especially in the wind, but their packed size is massive compared to poled tents, so you need to take that into consideration, unless you have a massive car!

have a look at ' Decathlon' they have loads of tents
I wouldnt go for an 'airbeam' tent we spoke to people on a site last year and they said they are quite heavy for the size

those tents look good for the price though

The decathlon (Quechua) inflatable ones are good value although we only have the four man one. I've only ever used a canvas tent once and it didn't impress me enough to spend the extra but I am fairly fair weather anyway 😂

Eurohike is a fine brand, I don't know the other one but as others have said it's the poles and probably end of line that make it such a keen price. We've had pole tents in the past that have been fine but we have had to replace poles here and there. O just prefer the ease of putting up the air tents, I can do ours on my own in 10 minutes in decent weather.

I have a four person tent but need more sleeping space, DC bigger. Decathlon great but a little bit more expensive for same size.

We did pitch next to people with inflatable version of same tent once and I was a little envious.

If I start to spend more I will be creeping closer to the tipii tent price!

How old are DC? If it's extra bedrooms you need then buy them a small tent (pup tent) and let them sleep out in that, while you stay in your original tent.

I haven't camped for a few years, but when I did most sites allowed a pup tent on your pitch for free or very little.

Where we camp tents with proper poles is best (canvas or ordinary). The campsite is on a slope, and rough ground. I've seen more than one air tent get a puncture, and the wind blow the beams bent. That's only Norfolk so we're not talking up a mountain. Air tents would have to get a bit more robust before we bought one.

We usually go for a week or two each year, plus have it up in the garden for the DC to play in occasionally. Vango have stood us in good stead.

The only one in twenty years to fail on its first outing was an own brand Argos one that leaked. And then it wasn't all bad as we got a full refund and didn't have to store it until the following year.

I would go for it, OP. You can always add a porch or borrow an awning for cooking/eating. To make your tent last...

1. Don't skimp on tent pegs. Get nice, big decent ones. Drunken experience has also taught us to get neon guy ropes.

2. Even if it's a nylon tent, don't put it away wet! Hang it over the line (or the kitchen table, if desperate) and pack it when dry. This prevent mould and mildew.

3. Take a mat for just inside the tent and enforce everyone taking off their shoes on it. I also take a dustpan & brush and do a sweep before we break the tent down.

4. Keep a patch kit handy (or gaffer tape, in am emergency). You can prevent a rip spreading out of control with immediate action.

Good luck!

Youngest is too young and im too nervous anyway to let the 11 year old sleep without me. I am sure he will love having a tent with a friend beside us some day.

Thanks for all the tips.

We've got a Go Outdoors own brand tent and it's doing okay so far, we've had it 5 years. One of the poles split when we put it up a couple of years ago but if you wrap enough duct tape it'll survive the trip until you can fix it!

We have a separate shelter for cooking in, like a mini gazebo. I'm not up for having the cooker anywhere near the tent itself.

For me, it is all about being able to stand up in the tent. As long as I can stand up I can put up with most other problems also we accepted that the tent would always need to be put up in the garden when we got home to clean it/dry it out.

Our Eurohike (only 3man) lasted for a good 8 years, and we only had to get rid of it because we lent it to someone and it came back with holes in it.
Agree about hydrostatic head.
How many people will sleep in it? Four man for 4 people is rarely big enough.

Apologies. Just looked again. 6 man should be fine for four.
We have only ever had nylon tents and they have been fine.

There were 3 of us. Me and 3 children. But the four man space is tight. We have stayed in (rented) tipii tents and slept better - futon beds help of course - but also you are less on top of each other so shuffling around, reading lights etc aren't disturbing each other. That's why I thought two rooms would be good.

YY I've always mentally subtracted two people from whatever the manufacturer describes the tent as suitable for. So my personal private tent which dates back to solo trips from before I had children and is now 25 years old is actually a three man. Our Zenobia six man tent was used by me, DP and our two children. The children are now grown ups and have their own tentage. The Vango airbeam is officially a four man tent but has only once had more than two adults in it, for a party weekend when we had a mate crashed over in the living area. Agree about head room, I'm getting too old to pull my trousers up while bent half double! Another good thing about the Zenobia porch is that it provided a well ventilated but covered area for wet weather cooking.

Only get airbeam tents if you will be able to pitch right by your vehicle. Ours did go onto a festival site and back on a garden trolley, but it was a real struggle, even Vango, which are the lightest of the type for their size weigh a ton. And the trolley didn't survive the experience on the Monday due to mud. We're going to book a campervan pass next time and sleep in our work van with the Zenobia porch over the side doors. I deliberately chose the van to be long enough to get our lovely fishing chair beds in!

Festival/party camping is a very different thing from holiday camping. You really are just using it as a sleeping space, all the eating and drinking and socialising is elsewhere. Family camping you tend to be in the tent for far more of the waking time.

Festival camping sounds so appealing!!! I haven't done adult boozy camping in years. Yes very different to family camping I'm sure.

we didn't for a rather long gap in the middle... then when our wonderful amazing brilliant children grew up and developed their own social life including useful things like driving licences - we redeveloped our own. Realistically it's not going to happen this summer, not the way we'd planned anyway, but I'm feeling reasonably confident about this autumn and 2022.