Why do people buy those massive tents (and who on MN has the biggest)?

[sethstarkaddersmum]

You know, those ones that sleep 12.
I'm not in any way being critical, just want to know.
I can get that it's nice to have a bit more space than they nominally cater for, but some of these things are huge.
If I was going camping with more than about 8 people I think I'd want to have a couple of tents so you're not all milling about in each other's way.
And big tent=heavy, takes up more space in the car....

Family of 4 here and we have a 5 man Cabanon. However, bit squashed so have invested in a pup tent for our 9 year old. He loves having his own very cosy tent and cuts down on nightime squabbles.

The living space is a bit cramped with all clothes etc.. but I am not very organised so sure would just create more clutter if we had a bigger living space.

I think it depends whether you just go for a night or two or for a whole 14 days. We have just been to France in a big tent Outwell hartford (the one with 2 bedrooms, porch and massive living area). We went for 2 weeks and were doing all our own cooking so needed space to store everything and fridge. It was brilliant. We wanted to have a relaxing holiday not all be cramped in not being able to stand up. We wouldn't buy a caravan because of the cost, no where to put it at home and the extra stress towing it on country roads etc. We are thinking of getting a smaller tent for weekends away though!!!

Well... just returned from a week in the deluge of north Devon. Our Gelert Mayon Vario (6 man)- see link two or so above for pic) tunnel stood up to many hours of vertical, pounding rain. Not a splash within.

However, our friends have a huge, square 10 man affair with 4 parallel metal poles across the roof as supports and the truth is, with that size of roof area, you can't get sufficient tension on the fabric to prevent pooling- thus they got back to the site to a bulging puddle of water so large their roof, from adult standing height drooped to 4' above their floor AND there were several puddles all over the groundsheet. Lucky the bulge in the roof didn't give!

So though their tent was great for setting up a cinema for the DCs every night, not so good for weather-proofing.

I've got the Montana 12, we do call it the bungalow, it is huge. But it has bedrooms for each of the kids and one for us and we use the other sectins for clothes/equipment. THe middle bit is great as can have camping kitchen, table for cooking, table for eating and a fair bit of room to move about.

Just back from the 5 nights in the Kalahari 10, can't recommend it enough even just for the four of us :D