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

OOh I didnt see that- my tent of the moment is doing well eh?

Right, I think I need to find the coleman one in real life as the pictures on the web didn't really convince me. I had no idea this was going to be such a tricky decision, I'm fairly sure that we'll end up with the Bear Lake though as DH was really impressed with the style of it but I'm not convinced it's the most practical. Oh well another excuse to go to a camping show!!

I would have a look at that one in RL, I thought it was awful in the pic- walked into it at the camping and kite centre and went 'Wow!'. The boys adored it too.

Yeah, the Galileo is not the best looking tent, very practical tho. The "best tent for a large family" was the Norfolk Lake by Outwell, but it is a whopping £849. Looks amazing tho!

Have been in both (some great camping display in the somerset / east wales areas atm)

galaileo- looks fab IN PERSON, looks awful in photographs. Its one of thsoe tents that you don't recognise from the publicity at first.

Norfolk Lake is fantastic, i've seen it for less money thogh (£700 or thereabouts), we'd adore one but its just too much cash.

we've just bought a tent to go camping for the first time tmrw and its a Vermont XL...its £499 (ive looked everywhere inc the ebay and its all the same price)

it is the MOST solid tent that ive come across as the rest were crap if it was in the gales!

its fab!!

If youve got that tent biglips ensure you use delta pegs- solid ones in a gale are great (TBH I have sat through a good few and never seen a premuium level tent failbut the risk is that the solidity acts as a windbreak; hence delta pegs to absorb that risk

Any tent of or around 3000 HH is going to be largely weatherproof, many of the current outwells / Khyams / Colemans are now 5000. Thats beyond adequate.

thanks for your advice peachy x

Can anyone recommend a good camp show close to the East Midlands?

jenthehen - u best to start a new thread of searching for a good campsite close to E mids just so you will get more answers on here as i dont have a clue myself

We had a practice run of putting our new Outwell vermont L up yesterday and it was surprisingly easy - much easier than our old Gelert Lokon Vario 6. I can't wait to go away next week now

Well done dustystar!

How is the wardrobe?

Ds tried it out and has informed us that he will be sleeping in it next week Think i may remove the hanging bar bit though!

They are a bit extra room like aren't they?

Dh reminded me he once fancied a MOnty earlier

foryunately he doesn't now, as on the sites we go to, they may as well just call them Outwell Commission Sites, which is fine by me as I have less than no sense of direction (been here over 2 years and Is till can't tell you which turning is for Tesco though I do know how to rectify it when I get it wrong LOL) and can easily spot our lone Khyam amongst the 'others'

you dissin' Outwells again?

trouble with ours is that it's the same design as one of the Pro Action ones from Argos - so no trendy points for us

sorry but PMSL at that

(actually had a proaction once and it was absolutely fine! try telling anyone that though and they won't have it...)

You know why I dont like Outwells?

Seriously girly and very very sad this

I don't like the khaki colour

I do rather like the blue ones and we nearly got the sun valley this year.

AS it happens the main reason I recommend ours to newbies is the price- at £189 I think its a great buy coz it is as good as the Outwells. I am always befuddled by these poeple who blow £500 on a tent and never use ita gain.

We bought a sunncamp wardrobe the ther day, huge andd gorfeopus. We got it for £7.50 coz they bought it, went camping it rained so they never went again.

??????

Surely you buy the expensive stuff when you know you like it?

Good buy on the wardrobe front!! I was looking at one in Go Outdoors this morning...but we really can't fit it in the car - even with our new 580litre roof box

and you know my tent is BLUE!!

We went ina Monty again today and still didn't like it!

yeah but Luce

tehre's virtually nowt to choose between your and mine LOL, how could I not like it?

I mean, it took Dh (how sd are we?) about 5 mnutes of studying your canopy to work out the differences!!!

lol at your dh - studying my canopy......say no more

Have you seen the weather forecast for next week? They keep changing their mind, we were forecast thunder for the middle of the Whit week in Wales!

it will probably just drizzle!

yep it says thunder for this part of wales too, luckily site we're at ahs enough facilities that as longas we can pitch in the dry we'll be happy (there's a sort of TV room with a p[lay area, and Dh's mate runs the entertainment)

Mind you i shall skip te mouse racing

Another newbie camper here - thinking of buying our first tent for us and 3 and 5 year old boys. Like the look of Coleman actually !!

Other than tent what do we really need?? As knowing DP once he starts shopping he can get carried away

Which Coleman? They're prety good though one of them looks to me as if it falling down (its intended though, just my take on it LOL)

What else do you need?

sitting stuff
eating stuff
cooking stuff
sleeping stuff

anything much else can be added on afterwards

True MN tradition however states Thou shalt not go camping without a corkscrew and a bucket with a lid

Do we need the table and chairs? If we turn up with only a large picnic blanket will we be sneered at ?

first time we went as a family, we took 2 fold up chairs (cheap in asda atm) and the kids had booster seats LOl from the car

Nobody will sneer, campers are friendly. And we still don't have (never will either) a proper folding table / chair set- we just use the normal caping chairs and have a hitec folding table as well. And we dont always bother with the folding table.

try to take as much stuff from your own home as possible, especially pans and crockery at first or buy 'value' stuff.