To wonder why it's so tricky to find a good family tent?

[OhwhyOY]

Looking at reviews for best family tents and every site has a completely different list, whereas for lots of products the best list usually has at least a bit of overlap.

Every one I've thought sounds good based on 'best' lists, even on reliable sites, throws up problems when you look up that specific tent e.g. one brand of very expensive tents apparently doesn't provide spare parts in the event that anything breaks. So you could spend £700-2000 on a tent that becomes unusable because e.g. a pole gets damaged. Anyone got any suggestions on a robust family tent that they really like? 4 person family but would like a good bit of space as planning some lengthy camping holidays.

We used to have an ouwell bear lake 6 for a family of 4. I can highly recommend it if you are looking at 7+ nights camping.

Upside is that it's very spacious and you don't mind spending a rainy day wrapped up warm in it.
Downside you really need 2 tall people to pitch it.
We bought it used and it came with a few handy extras and spares. All neatly packed in a small trailer.

We sold it on, after about 5 years, nothing wrong or broken, just a bit more faded with some wear as you'd expect after 7+ years of family use.

We have a really basic euro hike Buckingham elite 8 and love it

We got a high gear 6 man tent 5 years ago, I think it was called voyager. It's got 3 bedrooms which are blackout and a huge living space, plus in the deal we got a gazebo too. We got it from Go Outdoors, and they do spare tent Poles too, I think you'd just need to same length if one broke rather than having to get a tent pole the same make.

5m bell tent with sewn in groundsheet. I can pitch it by myself, loads of space.

Another vote for Outwell.

We have a Khyam Ridgi dome which we were given and it’s brilliant. It’s poles but they are already attached for the dome and you just expand it and then screw it in place.
we’re not seasoned campers so being able to get a tent up in ten mins is a dream with two young children.
So yes, work out what your priority is - ours is ease of putting it up and down.

Outwell montana is fantastic

OP - your problem is that there’s too much choice between loads of very good options. It’s pretty likely that nearly any of them would be excellent. So you can’t choose.

It’s a bit like when I’m trying to buy a new kettle, or toaster, or microwave. The reality is that pretty much anything I could buy, at least from a reasonably reputable make, would be totally fine for years. But as soon as I find one I like, I check the Which reviews and the Amazon reviews and the Mumsnet reviews, and they all disagree with each other and bring up things I never really cared about in the first place but start to obsess over. I could just buy the first one on the list and it would be fine.

I suggest you get yourself asap to a camping showroom where a load of reasonable options are pitched up, and go and have an actual look at them, if you haven’t done that already. Most of the better known makes will all be great. There are always a few reviews complaining about this that or the other, but they’ll generally have loads of great reviews from satisfied customers.

Then when you’ve looked around in real life, work out what really matters to you - what size do you want? Blackout rooms? Air or pole? Three rooms or two? (We like two large rooms rather than one bigger one and two small, and that always narrows it down).

We had an outwell Montana 6 - excellent. Then a kampa bream 4 air tent - smaller for shorter breaks. Now we have another larger outwell, with air poles - the Montana is still fine but we wanted a bit more space and air poles. Love the quick and quiet doors. I’d recommend pretty much anything outwell do, Vango always look mostly identical to outwell but alternative brand, and the kampa one we have is also great.

I’m intrigued by the prices of these tents. Basically, you’ve got to have at least 2 hols before it’s any cheaper than a holiday rental

You're massively overthinking it.

Go to a shop, get one which is the right size, has a decent hydrostatic head and any other features you want and go with it. If it's just going to be chucked in car for the odd family holiday in the summer just about any old tent will do the job.

We just bought the Outwell Airville 6SA but I had spent weeks watching tent review videos on YouTube (check out Attwoolls!). There aren't many tent shops near us so I couldn't view too many tents (and none of the ones on my shortlist) but it gave me an idea of what we wanted - bedrooms separated by zip rather than toggles, a porch area and DS wanted a separate room to chill out in. Our previous tent was an air beam so we wanted that again. The shop we dealt with are Outwell agents so should be able to help with parts etc.
We did have to compromise on size though, it's bigger and heavier than I would have liked.

We’ve had an Outwell XXL erm big pole tent (name escapes me!) for 12 years now and it’s still going strong. Loads of room and 3 sleeping pods. Love it!

I boight our Vango 6 person Icarus tent (poles) about 8 years ago and it's still going strong - currently coping with a week of awful weather in Cornwall!

we're the opposite - love air tents and on our second
our first survived a couple of really bad storms - including gale force 8 winds - that had those with poles packing up
in high winds the air beams bend, but they don't snap like piles do

I have a beautiful Dutch- made tent (I think) by Eureka!, it is a poly cotton steel poled number which easily sleeps 4 with two additional rooms/sections for living and cooking. It’s pretty similar to the larger outwell poly cotton ones mentioned here. Unfortunately I can no longer use it owing to having a Honda Jazz, too many children and a dog. So, I’ve now bought a decathlon Quechua air tent which is bloody brilliant. I’ve never bought a new one, always second hand, no need to spend loads on one. The giant Dutch one was £300 with all accessories and the decathlon air one, £120. Dutch one about a quarter of retail price, decathlon a third.

We have 2 tents.
A Vango Maritsa 500 which is a steel pole tent, it’s ok for short trips but too small for anything longer and a Kampa studland 8 air beam that I absolutely love.
We are a family of 5 and the air beam is amazing, DH and I can put it up and down in 15 minutes including the guy ropes.
The steel pole takes about 45 because each pole is colour coded and you have to line them all up.
The major drawback of the kampa is the weight, it’s bloody heavy and takes up loads of space in the boot of the car. The Vango comes in 2 bags so the poles go under the kids feet and the tent in the boot.

I'd go for a decent make and look on ebay as a few people will have had their first camping trips in the rain recently and be selling up.

We have a 4m bell tent (plenty of room for 4 people imho but some would say a 5m is necessary for 4)
Pros -
I can put it up by myself in 15 minutes.
Cool in the hot sun.
Fantastic breeze through if you unzip the bottom section.
Lovely noise if it rains
Only one pole
Looks awesome!

Cons -
heavy, bulky takes up a lot of space in the car
only one "room"
If you pack up on a wet day........ you need to re erect it somewhere so it can dry out before you pack it away or it'll get mouldy.

No idea how they compare price wise tbh. We love ours.

I think this is a problem that is more to do with having internet access which can unnecessarily complicate your thinking.

My take is that most tents will do the job well, there are always pros and cons.

In my case I have an Outwell Trout Lake, made of poly cotton, so extremely good in hot weather, and also warm in cool weather.
Downside is that it’s quite big and heavy to transport, but we have a roof box to carry clothes etc for trips away. The point is that during our holiday we are comfortable, not sweltering away in a nylon tent.

We have the Coleman Mosedale 5, cost around £400 and we've done at least 10 trips in it for far and it's still going strong.

My tent must haves are: enough height to stand up straight, blackout bedrooms, at least two doors for good airflow on hot days, buy the matching carpet for cosy feels, then get a fridge, fairy lights and an electric hook up - sorted!

Can't comment on other brands but we love our tent perfect for a family of three 🏕️

I think you're overthinking the replacement poles thing. We have a basic £200 tent, a Vango. When a couple of poles went we bought some replacement ones for about £12.

Thanks so much all for your advice. Will research some of the specific tents mentioned. I like the idea of going on camping forums for advice also.

Interesting so many people have recommended Outwell, that was where I was thinking of going but lots of recent reviews suggest the brand has gone downhill quite a bit in recent years and they are the brand i mentioned in the OP who generally don't offer spares. Am wondering whether the best plan might be to buy a second hand Outwell tent and then hopefully it will be more robust (as sounds like they used to be better-made than now) and also if it does break it will have been cheaper so less drama if no spares possible.

We have a Vango Nadina.

Three (blackout) rooms, good main space and a porch which is ideal on rainy mornings when you need a cuppa.

It has really sturdy (heavy though!) poles which have lasted through extreme winds where our neighbours airbeam didn't...

We are on our 4th summer with our Berghaus 6xl Air... no issues whatsoever and we use it several weeks each year. All 4 of us can comfortably lounge around in the living room (indeed 8 of us have when camping with friends... but we usually take the gazebo for that). We actually have an electric pump for it too. The covered porch area is very handy as well.

We have observed that some cheaper brands of air tents have very narrow beams making the tents appear very flimsy. The berghaus ones are like tree trunks!

I love our Berghaus 6 with porch addition. It is very roomy, my tall husband can stand in it, and it is very easy to put up and take down. Whatever tent you go for, buy a footprint ground sheet. It will keep the bottom of the tent dry and protected, and is easier to rinse/dry than a full tent.