Help! looking for tent with 3 beds - baffled by choice

[whojamaflip]

We are planning on going camping at Easter with the 4dcs and need to buy a tent. For sanity sake it needs to have 3 bedrooms and a reasonably large living area and I would want a porch as well ( happy to buy seperately if necessary).

Also it needs to fit on a "normal" pitch and be reasonably easy to put up!

Any recommendations? Not so worried what it looks like as long as it does the above and hopefully stands up to the weather - oh and it needs to pack up reasonably small and fit in a roof box or on the floor behind the front seats.

I'm looking for a needle in a haystack aren't I?

Bump - anyone?

Here's a thought-how about a 5m bell tent with an inner tent? We've put ours up for the first time today, and its a lot bigger than I thought it would be. With the inner tent up as well it would give you two rooms plus the main bit at the front, which would be more than big enough for two to sleep in, and have lots of room left over for all the rest of your rammel. I'm a late convert to bell tents (we found the last tent we had claustrophobic for two adults plus 8 yr old plus dog plus everything else), but I have to say it seems to be a genuinely good piece of kit.

We bought a Vango Amazon 800 which is absolutely fantastic and big. However, it is too big to fit some pitches, so you may want to have a look at the smaller Amazon 600. This link is the 2010 version; I think they've updated it a little now. Very robust (ours stood up to very strong Welsh clifftop winds last summer), tons of space and 3 bedrooms. I can highly recommend it.

We bought this last year:
www.breakoutdoors.co.uk/Outwell-Deluxe-Michigan-8-Tent-2011-P877.aspx
It stood up to a serious Scottish drenching and was really cosy. We cooked in the porch area during one downpour, we are thinking of adding an extension this year but it is fine without. We also have 4DCs and find that using the extra room as a storage room is great as we can make the bedrooms comfy and the living area clutter free. The living space allowed all 6 of us to eat/play cards seated in comfort. Was fine on the pitches we used last year - including a very popular West Highland Way stopover site.

Outwell Vermont XL ticks all your boxes.

Thanks for the replies

twattock would love a bell tent but dh says no way - may have to do a bit of persuading.....

Fuctifano and Mrs Heffley - Fantastic tents but unfortunately they're out of my price range.

Sherlock - I think we're leaning towards the Vango Tigris 800 - couldn't find the Amazon anywhere but the Tigris seems to tick a lot of the boxes.

I feeling a little more confident about choosing a tent - time has moved on since dh and I went backpacking with a tiny 2 man dome tent. Hopefully the kids will enjoy it and I shall probably be back for more advice of what equipment we will need to get. Cheers!

I've got the Tigris 800!

I have three sons plus me and DP and we fit lovely. DP is 6' 4" and fits in the bedroom pods no problem.

I want to get the add on porch thing this season and maybe the carpet

Yipee - I'm now the proud owner of a Tigris 800!

Now just have to go and bankrupt myself getting wll the rest of the bits and pieces we will need.

Any recommendations of what kit is good (and won't break the bank )?

Have you got anything already?

What are you planning to do for food? - a cooker (+gas/fuel) + kettle,
(cutlery, plates/cups but you can take ones from home to save £ if you need to) or lots of local takeaway menus

Chairs (+ table?)

Sleeping bags (poss extra blankets depending on how cold you get/weather)

Air beds/ Self inflating mats

Mallet

Gin or Wine

Oh! I've just realised you might mean specific items and not a general list D'oh!

General list is what I'm after

Mainly got q's like -

Is it better to have a combi table and chairs or is it more useful to have them seperate?

Whats best for cooking on - the small gas units with the small bottles which snap in or a large one with the big gas bottle attached by a hose?

Air beds or camping rolls?

Plus any other seasoned tips which I wouldn't think of - eg I would never have thought of taking a washing up bowl with me

All we have at the moment are sleeping bags and a tent! Oh yes another q - do I need a special sleeping bag for the 2 yr old or will she be ok in an adult one with the end tucked under?

Cheers

I think those combi chairs and tables are flimsy and tip up easily.

I have an unleaded Coleman petrol stove after a few years of getting fed up of lugging gas about (and the price of it) and it is very powerful and fast. Those suitcase style ones are ok for kettles though but are quite slow, especially if it is cold. Coleman Stove

I have Alpkit Self Inflating mats and would not use anything else now. Airbeds are essentially slabs of cold air unless you use lots of blankets underneath you, which I do not have room in the car for. Alpkit Mats

I have this for washing up Gorilla Tub

For my ds, 3 yo we use an adult sleeping bag, folded over with a bungee cord around the excess part to stop him slipping down into it. Although folded over seems to work just as good on it's own.

Ooh I like the stove - but I think it may have to wait a few years before we get it

Will def get the sleeping mats and the tub (prob more than one cos they might make good toy storage at home too)

Thankyou for the links - I have been spending hours on the net trying to figure out what is good and what is needed and it makes a lot of difference being able to just go straight there iyswim

Well most of my stuff was copied from more experienced than I last season

We got our stove for around £70 because we pricematched with GO Outdoors (again we bought out of season). Have you got one by you? They have lots of stuff at good £££. I think of it as the camping version of
IKEA

A lantern and torches you will also need!