Oh My! I NEED a Bell Tent!!

[wickedfairy]

I realise I am a little late to the party with this declaration, they look fabulous and I need one!

We have a 4man nylon-y tent at the moment, which does the job but with DC3 on the way, we would need to get a bigger one anyway. I figure we may as well get a fabuous one, while we are at it. So, sorry about all the questions....

So, is a 5m one the best for a family of 5? Are they really massive - can you get one pitched on an average pitch or would you need to book 2 pitches?

We normally go camping in France, this year at a place where they have "open" pitches that are not demarcated, so I would assume this is best? But we do also go to Wales as well.

Where is best to buy from - belltent.co.uk or soulpad.co.uk?

Thanking all you bell tent experts in advance!!

[tootsietoo]

That sounds easier than the nylon tents look. All that slotting together pole A and pole B. Great! Thanks.

[NannyR]

Really easy - you lay it out and peg it down, crawl inside with the central pole and erect it in the middle, then slot the a frame into place. Then peg out your guy ropes, done!

I have the smallest size and can easily do it on my own in under 15 mins. With a larger one, the method is the same, the tent is just heavier.

[tootsietoo]

Zombie thread - but I thought I'd add to this rather than start another new bell tent thread.

I am about to buy one. But I am wondering how hard it is to put up? I'll be on my own with the DDs (8 and 9) - DH doesn't do camping - and so I need to be able to do it by myself. Are they fairly straightforward to put up? I'll always have a trailer with me so stacks of space to store everything and I won't need to carry it anywhere, just roll it out of the trailer!

Anyone done any recent shopping around for one? Which are the best websites to buy them from at the moment?

Thanks!

[Trista]

Bell tents are gorgeous, and I think the bell tents in Canvas and Cast are of top quality and worth it though it is more expensive than others in the UK market.

[cutegorilla]

We need 3 bedroom spaces though really. One for us, one for the boys, and one for DD. By the time we've got all those set up there really wouldn't be much room left which kind of spoils the beauty of the bell tent. I think they look much nicer inside without the compartments anyway. I was wondering if we could rig up our own curtains to divide up sections for sleeping, then we could roll them back for openness during the day.

[VivaLeBeaver]

Yes, you could put 2x quarter bedrooms in. Ot sure if that would leave you with enough space or not.

[Migsy1]

You can get a bedroom compartment cutegorilla

[cutegorilla]

DH and I are getting seriously tempted by bell tents but I'm not quite sure it would work for us. We have DD(9), DS(5) and DS(1). I think DD is of an age where lack of privacy will become an issue in the next couple of years if we don't have separate sleeping areas. They are gorgeous though.

[VivaLeBeaver]

Nikki, I got mine from Soulpad. I got a 5m ZIG and I'm happy with it.

[ifeelloved]

Get a separate bag for the groundsheet if you get separate. Easily fits into the bags then.

[Nikkibrook]

Hi, I've got the bell tent bug,looking to buy a 5m..where's the best place to buy from,..PIG..OR ZIG??could really do with some advise please, so far only looked at belltent uk,looking for cheap flooring too,rugs mats,etc..HELP PLEASE:)

[recall]

oh yeah, never thought of that

[NonnyMuss]

recall wave bye bye to your grass if you put a bell tent up for 6 weeks.

Dh is less than impressed at our 5m circle of scorched earth in the middle of the lawn, and the tent was up for only a week (was wonderful to have it there though, I spent most of the week out there hiding from the kids chilling out.)
Am considering Astroturfing the circle so I can put the tent up whenever I want in future :o

[VivaLeBeaver]

Carrying it wet is impossible

You can't get it back in the bag. It took me and dd 20 mins to drag the wet tent from my front door to the back door and I don't have a big house.

Though the genius solution of having 2 bags should help.

I wish I had a mesh door at the front of mine. Though I suppose I do now have a 1/4 inner so no beasties in that.

[Carla123]

I have the 5m with SIG from soulpad, purely for the mesh netting at the front door. I really appreciated the mesh over the weekend at Creaksea Place (we got lucky and had glorious weather all weekend) . The few tent pitches were fairly close to a lake, which was beautiful, but teaming with mosquito's.

I originally wanted the new ZIG with mesh door from Karma Canvas, but they had sold out. My SIG is heavy, so I can see that the ZIG or PIG are the easier options. However, I have just changed form having an Outwell Bear Lake 6, so the bell tent is literally half the weight. I can manage fine as long as I carry the poles & pegs, separately. I haven't had to carry it wet yet, which is something I am dreading, though I do have a folding trolley just in case. I would be able to re-pitch in the garden to dry it out, but if I couldn't I would have gone for the ZIG and had to try and fashion my own netting. I'm not overly spider phobic, but mosquitoes and midges seem to love me, so the net was essential.

I bought a spare groundsheet for the 5m soulpad lite and use this as a footprint, to keep the groundsheet clean. At £40 it is a comparable price to the average large tent footprint.

[Hattieboo]

We have a bell tent (5m) from www.belltent.co.uk
It is amazing. We've used it loads for camping, in garden decorated for play tent at parties etc...
You do need to spray water proofer (?) on every so often (I think bell tent suggests after five serious down pours! I would say not that often but you do need to do it!) probably worth doing after a camping trip if you've had a lot of rain before your next trip.
Definitely get the one you can roll the sides up on as it becomes so much more flexible. Our friends have the one that is fixed together and really regret this decision. (unless of course you have a spider phobia, as there's always a few bugs in there with you!)
From a size point of view we've slept 9 all on mattresses comfortably in ours and had 20+ kids having party teas inside it too!

Hope you get one soon and that the sun shines for us all this summer!!!! X

[VivaLeBeaver]

The council have attached bunting to my front fence to be there for when the olympic flame went past. I'm tempted to nab it for my tent now the flame has gone. But it does say London 2012 all over it which spoils the effect.

[recall]

I might just get one to put up in the garden for the 6 week holidays

[recall]

we ought to have a MN bell tent festival

[recall]

I want morrocan lanterns and stripey rugs ooooh bling a bling

[recall]

how do you power the fairy lights ?

I must be pre menstrual, cos I actually felt a bit teary when I saw your tent Pictish it is lush, I AM HAVING ONE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[VivaLeBeaver]

Muddy groundsheet is definetly a problem. Footprint sounds a good idea.

[poppyboo]

Sutton7 you're going to adore your bell tent! They're lush to camp in!

[poppyboo]

We just zip on once it's dried, and store groundsheet with canvas in its bag it came in ,but I think it's a personal preference thing. We have a foot print to go under groundsheet to save base of tent getting muddy you see. The footprint gets rolled up separately and stored in bin bag on way home so no mud goes near canvas.