About to invest in our first family tent - about £400 - £500 to spend, experienced campers I could do with your input please

[jenthehen]

We haven't been camping since we were students but now the children are 5 and 3 we would like to start again. This would be a weekend activity and we'd like to invest in a really easy to pitch (DH not likely to stick it out if it's a pain), fairly spacious tent. We don't have a huge garden or garage to dry a tent in so this needs to be taken in to account. I didn't realise there were so many on the market so I could do with some advice to narrow down my search.
TIA

You shouldn't need to spend that much money!
Our Sunncamp Calypso (a big f*cker with 3 bedrooms) was under £100 - we got a bargain but it would only have been twice that full price.

ebay also for bargains, find what you want then see what it is on ebay.

Ohh

there are some fab tents out there and you have a good budget!

Two that I have my eye on are the following

outwell nebraska

and this one

outwell vermont

I've not put either of these up, but they seem similar to my outwell Colorado (now not made) and putting my tent up is dead easy. 30 minute job, on my own.

DH is holding the purse strings, or not, as the case may be. I started off thinking we'd pay about £200 for a good tent but he has an eye for detail/quality and he was drawn to the Outwell Bear Lake at the camping show we visited yesterday. I think that was about £500. Looking out of my window today it's chucking it down so I don't mind paying a bit extra to get a good tent should we be stuck with 2 small children (and a fairly short fused husband) in weather like this.

Bear lake as a stonkingly good tent.....

.....but 'tis canvas. If lookeed after it will do you for decades. But canvas is a bugger to dry. and if you put it away even the slightest bit damp it will go mouldy. Also V heavy.

Enough to make me yearn for it though. A beautiful tent

I would say, a few things which really make a difference would be:

Find a tent you can stand up in, in at least one bit of it. (I have spent many a camping trip bent over the whole time. If it is raining outside and you can't just step out to stand upright it really starts to get irritating.....putting jeans on hunched over is no picnic!!)

Tents with inside bedroom/bedrooms away from the entrance are better. Nothing worse than having to climb straight into your bedroom bit with wet/sandy/mucky shoes or clothes.

The newer designs with the bendy poles are much easier to put up. Our new tent has two bedroom pods and a living bit in the middle, and was about £200. The door opens and can be propped up as a kind of porch, which is handy. (I've actually put it up on my own, so I can vouch for its easiness)

Maybe if you have spare cash I'd recommend getting a cheap basic gazeebo to put up over the entrance. It keeps the actual tent much drier, and cleaner.

HTH

We've got an Outwell Montana 4 - and have 2 young children too. It is very easy to put up.

The Montana 6 would obviously give you more room but don't know if it would be a bit harder to erect. If you have a look at the Outwell site you can do a virtual tour of the tents!

The vermont has masses of living space, ideal if it rains. The front part can also open up into a sun porch if the weather is good.

With a HH of 5000 it is also well waterproofed

I'm checking out the outwell Montana now.

We have the 8 berth variant which is exceptionally easy to pitch and I recommend wholeheartedly

The Outwells are also a good investment- but surely if its a weekender and Dh isn't necessrily going to stick it out you want to be thinking along the lines of Khyam Quick Erect tents as you have the budget, have a look at the videos on here to see how easy they are to erect? Similarly they ahve great resale value should Dh really not be happy LOL!

bear / Norfolk lake great tents IMO- thinking about the latter one day

The higher the HH the better, outwells and some Khyams (ours certainly) have 5000 HH which is far mroe than adequate

We have a Outwell Montana 6
I have 2 kids (10 and 4)..and it's easy to pitch (about 35 mins) and gives you masses of space.
It's fairly big for drying out though (we only have a small yard so have to dry it in our garret room.
Bear Lake is a lovely tent

Ok I've narrowed my choice down to either the Outwell Montana 6 or the Outwell Bear Lake either 4 or 6. From a practical point of view which is the better one? Is the Bear Lake really difficult to dry?
I know DH prefers the looks of the Bear Lake but the Outwell site suggests it is better suited to hotter climates. Which would you go for?

I think from looking at them both that the Monty would be easier to put up, simply in terms of it's weight, the poly cotton of the Bear Lake is sound proofing but the bag/s is/are bloody heavy!

and there is the drying issue as well.

But the Beal Lake would give you soooooo much more kudos on the campsite than a Montana

not helping here am I?

Should DH hate it Bear Lake has a higher resell value

Bear Lake far superior should it get really hot in the summer

summer? - hot?

Peachy do you know something we don't?

Actually Luce they reckon that it could go up to 40 degrees this summer! (it'll be July though not August i reckon, seasonal shift- August to be abvoided for camping unless you like rain)

Based purely on our hot week last year in Juky (fiorst week of hols) and then everyone else being rained out LOL- DS3's birthday, always seems to happen (and the sites are quieter first week of summer hols too)

The BearLake looks fantastic. Really, really fantastic. It is a tent to last you 20 years. It looks wonderful.

But it is canvas and will be a real sod to look after.

So I will relucatanly stick to the polyester tents.

Just a thought but my experience of tent buying is that if you're not sure about one, then you haven't met The One yet

Maybe worth a second look around?

Aren't there some polycotton alternatives to canvas atm? The Coleman Galileo Weathermaster for example (pictures of it are shite but its gorgeous in RL)

For this sort of money take yur time and be sure. We always narrow it right down- and then fall in love with another and grab that. And we're always happy with the choice for us.

Peachy - when you are stuck with school holidays then of course it's going to rain all August!

It will rain at about lunchtime on Sunday 29th July, just south of Newquay, Cornwall - as that will be when we are putting our tent up and we have never pitched in the dry yet!

oh and a week on Saturday too.

so as you can avoid us.

We shall be passing you on the M-Way Luce, we go the week before (thats the first week of hold for us, we're restrained to them too, but go early as poss as DS3's birthday the 27th July)

I shall wave my Outwell doormat out of the car window at you Peachy!

dh and the dd's don't finish school until the Friday - I think we are the latest finishing school authority in the country!

We finish on the 20th! So that is late!

in the guardian camping guide this weekend they recommended vango TBS oregon 400 for a small family (of 4) £150

sorry, wasn't finished:
best family tent for all seasons:
Galileo XL weathermaster (colemqan) £549.99