Bell tent officionados and affectionados, come tell me your stories and give your opinions.

[AttackOfTheKillerMonsterSnowGo]

Ok. So, this is it, the years of the Bell tent.

I have it down to two and I need, firstly, some advice and secondly your experiences of camping in one of these beauties and what have been the best buys/waste of time purchases of your Bell-y adventures.

I am torn between the soulpad 500m hybrid, and the karma canvas 5 metere.

For the Soulpad I can buy mesh to go around the edge, should I wish to raise them, but no mesh for the doors.

On the Karma I get mesh doors, but no mesh for the edges. And to me in the pictures the doorway of the karma looks different and doesn't have the same 'ridged' bit that I'm seeing in theoi course of all other bell tents. (I hope you know what I mean, I'd describe it as a kind of 'roman nose' shape at the front of the doors, the karma seems flatter and I prefer the shape of the soul pad.)

What I really want is the Soulpad shape, and mesh for the edges, AND mesh for the doors, because I'm greedy. SOOO my questions if you have got this far are...

Do you have the mesh edge and do you use it enough to justify the price? (£45)
If you have no mesh doors is that really as much of a pita as I'm thinking it might be with flies and midges invading your tent constantly?
Have you seen both tents and if so which is the better quality iyo?
How big are these things? We have an outwell Montana 6, which takes up a lot of space, are they comparable when packed?
Are they a nightmare to get into their bags like most tents, ESP when wet?
Should I resist those very handy looking Indian style low tables, (which I'm thinking are cute, and would be very handy, but am not sure if bell tent madness has the better of me and they are in fact naff!?!)
Ditto the handwoven mattresses you can buy...don't they just get wet due to condensation.
Are rugs a necessity or just desirable?
Will we be cold due to lack of inner? (Don't want to buy the inners as to me the whole Idea is the openplan roundness of it all)

Any answers or ideas I haven't thought about yet or advice about Bell tent life gratefully received!

:o

Ok, ignore the nose question, I have seen another pic, the Karma has got a nose! :o

Lots of questions there, I'll answer the ones I have any idea about.

No mesh doors or mesh edge on our tent, never really been bothered with flies or midges even in deepest darkest Scotland although we can go through about a gallon of citronella oil in a weekend. We've had the sides rolled up about twice in the 2 years we've had it, the only times it's ever really got that hot that it's been worth the faff, could be related to our Scottish camping habit though.

Huge when packed up, we used to have a Gelert 8-berth something and the bell tent is slightly bigger and heavier when packed IIRC.

We don't try to get it back into the bag wet, wet decamps we sling it wherever it'll fit and dry it off at home before attempting it.

Low tables are very very handy for wine glasses but we went for these which fold away, more convenient but aren't nearly as lovely as the glamping ones.

We had an inner and hated losing the open planned effect so we returned it. Camping is pretty cold at times but I can't personally see one extra layer of thin canvas making a massive difference.

Rugs a necessity IMO, we have lovely stripy Ikea flatwoven ones and they make the floor more comfy, easy to clean up grass etc by dragging them out and shaking them, and they just look so damn pretty!

Hi Nonny, Thanks, loads of useful info there, think we are going for the karma camping 5m which has mesh doors and not worrying too much about the side mesh now. Don't think we'll bother about the inner either. We take a lot of extra blankets and a duvet or two when we camp and have never been too cold yet! :o

Oh, but one more question. When we usually go camping all the blankets on the top of the beds have a dampness to them from condensation...does this happen in a bell tent or does the high ceiling negate this?

Never had any condensation problems with our bell tent, not sure if it's the high ceiling or the breathability of the canvas but not damp at all except Scotland last year where the torrential rain formed a little stream under the tent and made a few small puddles at the joins of the groundsheet

Just been csmping for 3 weeks in wet and windy New Zealand in our 5m hybrid.

mesh on doors would have been a godsend - sand flies meant door had to be clsed at sll times.

never undone edges in 2 years of iwnership. Too much faff.

rugs definitely nerded.

no condensation or damp ess ever.

We unrolled our sides everyday in the heat,no nets on the sides,just doors and windows.we had the coir rugs which made an absolute difference to any camping I have ever done before.We had one inner so we could have privacy at night (put the children in the inner)and the roll out wool mattresses.No condensation but it is coder at night,but...don't laugh we just brought our quilts(high in Swiss mountains with low temps) .
Ours is a Soulpad HybridG 5000