Having a wobble about tent purchase...

[AgnesG]

We are first time campers, due to go away in a few weeks just for a few nights (will hopefully follow up with others). Just 3 of us.

Following a recommendation from a friend I ordered an Outwell Oakland XL 5 person tent

It arrived this morning.

Howver having read some of the posts on here and reviews on www.ukcampsite.co.uk I'm wondering if I'd not get better value from a Gelert Horizon 6

I don't mind paying a bit for money for a quality tent which will hopefully last a few years but the Outwell reviews seem to be sugggesting it's tricky to put up in contrast with the Gelert which terrifies me just a little bit...

I still have time to return the Outwell we haven't unpacked it yet. Any thoughts, anyone???

My sister has the out well but bigger, seems ludicrously easy to erect and really good tent.

Thanks Caerlaverock! Anyone else?

AgnesG - We have the very same tent that you have ordered and IT IS FAB! Last time we put it up it was raining and we managed it in 15 mins (3 of us), but normally a little longer. The trick is to peg out the 4 corners of the base first, the open the door zip, put the poles through and lift from the back one at a time.

It's a great spacious tent and we have never regretted buying ours. We bought it 2 years ago in the sale at Go Outdoors for around £200.

That is reassuring thanks (though you do sound like you know what you are doing I'm trying not to let that influence me )

I have no experience of either of the tents that you've linked to, but the Outwell would be far stronger because of it's poles which in my book would make it the hands down winner.

I think that Outwell make much better quality tents than Gelert. I think that the little touches like: overall design, windows, zips, stitching, guy ropes, waterproofing, poles (as mentioned) etc will all be better on the Outwell.

We've got the outwell oakland, having initially bought a vango which turned out to be faulty. We have camped in our outwell twice, and I love it, the porch is spacious and light (the vango only had two small windows).
We are still learning on the pitching but i'm sure practise will make perfect!
The quality seems good and we wanted a decent hydrostatic head (i.e how waterproof it is). We are about to go to France for 3 weeks in ours, can't wait!

I may sound like I know what I'm doing but honestly, we only started camping 2 years ago. On the Outwell website they have a pitching video, but I did a google search and found all sorts of other Outwell pitching videos on uTube - made by other outdoors companies. Here is the one that we found best

We also have the side extension which is brilliant and we use it as out front entrance, store our coolbox, dry food hamper etc in it and it's also a shelter if there's a shower.

Brilliant, thanks everyone. I may man up and actually take it out of box today .

Side question... I assume we should we put it up somewhere to test it before we go on our first trip. The problem is we don't actually have a lawn, just a small area of decking. Any advice/creative suggestions?

Local park?

We did not do a trial run, but if we had the space we might have done. Good luck!

Definitely do a trial run in a park or friends garden.

One new tent we bought years ago had a big rip in the roof of the bedroom. I'm glad that we found out and exchanged it before our first trip!