Which 6 man tunnel tent is best?

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Have no clue at all, went camping once 8 years ago, am looking for a tunnel tent that is easy to put up, would like 6 man tent.

Is it best to have open bit at front like a porch but open, with roof and sides or is it best to have enclosed bit?

Mostly wanted for weekends or 3-4 nights stay.

Colour? Does colour make a difference, ie more hot, more dull etc, etc.

Am looking at getting

Tent
Blow up beds
Sleeping bags
Table
Kettle
Stove
Pots and pans
Water bottle
Chairs
Light/torch

Anything else a must have for first trip?

TIA

Oh how I love camping. I have an Outwell Vermont XL tunnel tent, purchased after lots of research. It's huge, but has a sewn-in groundsheet, so no river running through the tent/unwanted bugs & beasties and it means we have separate sleeping/living/cooking areas. I think an enclosed bit is useful if it rains. It takes two of us about 30 minutes to put up, although I can do it on my own. There's a really useful youtune video showing how it works.

There are lots of really good tent and campsite reviews on www.ukcampsite.co.uk.

I wouldn't be tempted to buy a cheap one from Halfords or wherever, otherwise you will end up as one of those sad families huddling in the toilet block on an unexpectedly wet or windy night.

Aswell as the above, I would take camping chairs, blankets, wooly hats, camping gas (easily forgotten) CORKSCREW, airbed pump (can get one that works from your car battery), more socks than you think you need, beer, wine and a washing line.

No idea on the tent - we have a vango maritsa 500 which is an arse to put up but wonderful once you've done it - but as for your list:

A washing up bowl or two and lots of plastic bags,
a decent sharp knife with a sheath,
flip flops for the showers,
loo roll!

Have fun.

ukcampsite is best for reviews - as well as the star rating look at how many reviews and you can see which tents are popular.

For camping bargains Go Outdoors and Decathlon have everything under one roof. Some of the Go Outdoors Hi-Gear tents are quite good, depends how you want the bedrooms laid out. E.g. the Hi-Gear Zenobia 6?

We have a tunnel tent with bedrooms at one end, a living area and an outside porch with a roof, it suits us fine. It's quite helpful having an area a bit sheltered by your door, but where you don't necessarily have a groundsheet and can cook/take wellies off/ leave toys. Also the poles are all the same length and the shape is an oblong, so it is easy, (albeit not very quick) to put up.

Outwell make great tunnel tents and have something called a Whitecove 6 on the GO website - is that in your budget? Or a Vango Anteus 600?

Thanks for your help everyone, I went out and had a look at tents at go outside, I was amazed at just how big some of these tents actually are

I looked at the whitecove 6 and the vango anteus can't remember which is which but we wanted one with 3 compartments along the back, then probably open 2 into 1 and use the other for clothes/shoes storage.

Really need something that's not impossible to put up, don't mind a bit timely but quite easy to fix all together would be great.

Thanks for the list of bits we will need, always handy to write a list.

Feeling quite excited

Do you need a 6 man tent for 6 people or for less? Most 6 man tents will only hold 6 people that really know one another very well and have huge amount of patience!
We've worked on a 2man room per child then they keep all their stuff in their spaces.

It's also useful to have a porch with an overhanging door - that way if it rains you've not got puddles dripping into the tent when you have to go outside!
Check out Outwell tents. They've a huge range - we've had loads of different ones over the years (we're addicted to tent buying) and they've all been great.
Go Outdoors is good for stuff but think we've bought most of our tents from outdoormegastore.com
Check out youtube for videos of them being pitched. It's a great way of seeing how it should be done!
If you're camping in Scotland I'd advise sewn in groundsheet etc to avoid midges swarming in on you! They also help keep the draught out.
Get a big plastic crate with a lid from a cheap homeware shop and keep your pots, cutlery, plates etc in it. That way bugs and mice aren't going to crawl over your stuff when you're sleeping or away from the tent.
Take baby wipes for many uses and anti-bac wipes for quick cleaning of chopping knives and boards - you'll be surprised how often you use your tap at home when its not there and easy to do!
The most important thing to pack - the corkscrew!!

Hi

I highly recommend looking at camping world in Horsham, they have about 150 tents on display!! We spent a painful 5 hours' yes 5 hours choosing our next tent.

We have just sold out vango samara 600 with front enclosed canopy and have got the Kampa Filey 6 Air...wow up and usable in 60 seconds!!
Strangely enough the staff at camping world couldn't speak more highly of Kampa as the alternative to Outwell.
Kampa use outwell innovation so you get the gadgets without the outwell price tag, although don't get me wrong, our tent was £1200!

We loved out Vango but overall now we have used the Kampa find the quality of material much better.
Funnily though our second choice was the outwell Vermont XLP

Happy tent shopping!
Cheers