Hiring a tent

[shipfaced]

Anyone know whether I can hire a tent - canvas bell tent type?

Or would you recommend buying a canvas tent Do you love yours?

if you've not camped much before go somewhere that has them ready pitched and try one out.
If you love it, hire one for the next trip, and if you still love it, then buy one.

Whereabouts in the country do you want to go, Wardley Hill in Norfolk, Walkers Cottage in Hay on Wye and the NT Great Langdale sites all have canvas tents for hire.

We love canvas tents, have had them for 30 years .... but we also have lightweight technical tents for other sorts of holidays.

Must add that those are three of my favourite sites ever, hence I mentioned them, we are off to Great Langdale this weekend.

Last year we spent the kids' inheritance on lots of bits of Karsten tent. It is truly a thing of (canvas) beauty but my goodness it's heavy!

Ok you're all putting me off with the weight!

Yes vv heavy. Just checked and our pyramid is 33kg plus windshields plus vario canopy. I cannot lift the main tent canvas on my own and I lug bales of hay around.

I do love my canvas tent. I can get it in tne car if the poles are in a separate bag.

Things to consider:
You cannot put a canvas tent away with even a tiny patch of damp. If you have to pack up following rain, you will need to dry the tent at home, may be impractical for flat dwellers!

Bell tents do not have windows. Some now have screen doors, and you can get bedroom inners, and you may not want to sit inside when it rains. But it's worth thinking about.

Tne Dutch Pyramid style is popular because of some of these features, and taller doorways.

we have 3 pre-erected de Waard Dutch pyramid ones to hire on our site this year - so you can try them out and avoid the hassle of putting them up and taking them down. They are a thing of beauty!!

link here

Do you leave them up all season NettleTea? If so how long do they last/have you ever worn one out?

We swapped our albatros for a new one in 2015 and have only used this one for two months so I expect it will outlast me. My old canvas tent that I bought 28 years ago is still going strong with a friend.

Just curious.

with this site, its a pop up 28 day only one in August, although the Albatross and the Zilvermeeuw were both used on our main site from May- Sept (didnt think they would handle April as sometimes it went down to minus figures, and these tents didnt have woodburners in. The Zilvermeeuw was brand new and was up for 3 years and was then reproofed - we replaced it last year with a yurt as that had a burner and was fitted to a platform, so we got an extra month each side of the season which meant it paid for itself in one year (bargain from ebay)

Zilvermeeuw is coming out again with it's vario canopy this year. I expect it to last for ever. The albatross and Zilvermeeuw junior were secondhand from the same family, and came from Holland - DHL were very reasonable to get them shipped. Think they were about 15-18 years old and had been used for 1-2 weeks per year

Wow NettleTea, that is an amazing tent lifespan, 15 solid months and counting.

I will tell DH who, despite being very happy to have two very expensive tents, sometimes tells me it is obscene to have two very expensive tents with very different uses and one with a stove for winter.