good tent for HOT weather ie Spain

[jamaisjedors]

Last summer we got away with borrowing a tent but now we need to buy one.

Also last summer we went to the Vendée and had 7 days of rain out of 10 so heat not an issue (although leaking was!).

I am guessing a cotton or poly-cotton tent would be good - or has anyone any experience of the outwell tents in the heat?

All I can find on the web is lots of advice about how to HEAT your tent and not how to keep cool!

We are in France already so would probably drive down to the Costa Brava or some such.

I have an outwell Montana 6 and it doesn't perform well in heat IMO
It gets boiling hot inside instantly on a hot day even with doors and flaps open.
I would advise a double skin tent. I have 2 of these and find they keep a much more constant temperature. Slower to heat up when it gets hot... Plus not as hot as my single skin Monty and also slower to lose heat on a cold evening too.

I think the OP is asking about the Outwell polycottons, though? - Sorry if I've misunderstood.

We have a Bear Lake 6, which is polycotton, bought mainly for camping in France when we thought it might get v hot sometimes - it's been good when it has been warmer, but actually the weather hasn't ever been as hot as anticiapted so we've not used it in really hot conditions.

we do like polycottons though, and have found that they are cooler than friends' polyester tents in warm weather as well as warmer in cool weather - plus they are much quieter!

Oops Sorry

Thanks, both messages are useful, even just to confirm that "normal" tents are too hot etc.

We are going to Corsica for 2 weeks, just about to book the ferry, the prices for gîtes etc. are ridiculous and camping will give us more freedom with dates too (not Saturday to Sat)...

Would be grateful for any advice about camping in the heat.

Canvas is the coolest fabric to camp under but tbh if you are going somewhere proper hot like Corsica how much of the time do you envisage you will be staying in the tent anyway?

We have a 100% cotton canvas tent (on profile) and last year whilst in forrin in temperatures above 25 degrees it was getting too warm to sit inside the tent during the day.

What really is a boon in a good tarp. You can pitch it pretty quickly and easily outside the tent for some shade during the day, with open sides obv so any breeze can easily swoosh through, and you can shift it around/reposition the sides to maximise on shade as the sun moves. It's also a really lightweight and portable bit of kit so you can take it down to the beach very easily to make a shelter down there.

A small canvas tent with as much ventilation as possible to sleep in at night and a tarp is what I would go for. Or even back packer tents with a removable outer (so you just sleep under the inner to keep the bugs out) with a tarp over if you want to go minimalist.

this appears to be the smallest 100% cotton canvas tent Outwell do, but at over 50kg for the fly and the poles that is a BEAST of a thing to transport (and pitch). My pyramid is 24kg and takes up a lot of space in our estate boot.

Anther tip for camping in the heat are sleeping bag liners (slik if you can afford it) to sleep in at night and we also took 2 season lightweight down rectangular sleeping bags that you can open out to act as a very thin blankets should it get a little cool at night (or zip up into proper bags should the weather turn even cooler)

Thanks - that is great advice - I was hoping you would be along because I seem to remember you did an epic road trip last year - is that right?

I am a little worried about how we would get a big tent into the car.

Last year we borrowed a fairly small one (slightly smaller than holdall size) vis à vis for 4 and the car was full...

Mind you we might be able to do without the wellies boots and waterproof trousers for Corsica (that's the idea anyway!).

You're right, we wouldn't be in the tent in the day, even last year we were never in it, apart from one long rainy afternoon.

It's night-time I worry about and early mornings. On the other hand your idea of removing the outer is good.

We might change campsites every couple of days so I want something fairly easy to pitch too.

Any recommendations for a good tarp? I hear the Decathlon one is not UV proof...

Thanks

I camped in France in a Mackenzie Cabin 6 a couple of summers ago and it was great. There are vents at the roof of the sleeping compartments that you can have netted, open or completely closed, also one at floor level and above the roof. The living area opens completely on two sides. Obviously if you leave it closed up it still ends up absolutely baking but tbh I don't think that's going to be any better with a canvas tent. Ventilation is more important than fabric IMO.

It was a Coleman btw!

yy Jamais, it was me who did 6 weeks in forrin chez tent last year.

this is our tarp. I love it and for such a large bit of fabric it packs away very small, perfect for slinging in a rucksack if you are heading down to the beach.

The sleeping with just an inner is what dh and I did when we camped round Oz. it was just far too unbearably hot to even consider the outer but we needed protection against biting things. You have NO privacy however with just a sheer inner, fine if you are wild camping, not so much if you are on a site cheek by jowl with other campers

www.decathlon.co.uk/t62-xl-air-c-id_8171137.html

We have one of these - pretty good for hot weather (actually looking to sell it if anyone is interested).

Aha slubber that's the one I've been looking at - been surfing on lots of "bushman" sites!

Am thinking now that a polycoton tarp over a normal tent would possibly work?

We don't really want a huge tent but got fed up last year packing all the tables and chairs and cooking stuff every night into the car boot.

I have seen those tents chippy - Decathlon is down the road from us. We are in France though so probably not an option to buy from you. why are you selling if you don't mind me asking? The DS and I saw that tent last year and liked it.

ah no, actually we saw the other Air tent, vis-à vis, I still think I would like the DCs slightly AWAY from us in the night iyswim...

Think it was this one

We got a bigger one (kalahari 10) and find ourselves camping in climates not quite as warm as we used to! It was bought in France mid holiday after a tent calamity.