What style of family tent is best?

[ThreeFeetTall]

Hope you can offer some advice...should we buy a tent with one big room?

When our first child was born we bought a tent with two separate rooms not next to each other. Will try to post a pic of a similar tent below. I had an idea that after the baby stage was over the kids would enjoy having their own room and my husband and I could have our own room (easier to go to bed later without waking the kids).

However seems like I didn't know anything about real children- I now have a nearly 2 year old that doesn't sleep through and a 5 year old that comes into our bed every night

At the moment we have one adult and one child in each 'pod' of the tent which feels a bit anti social!

Should we change to a tent with one big room like in the picture? Seems like that's what most families have, and seems to make sense if the kids basically want to be next to us anyway. But maybe a waste of money since we already have an otherwise good tent??

What sort of tent works best for 2 adults and 2 young children?

My rules of camping are one room per two people plus an indoor sitting space. My youngest two are 6 though and are their big sisters best pals so sleep with her usually.

I'd like a tent that had a walk through bedroom to their room iyswim

Mine are 12 and 15 and when we go camping we all kip in together, although the sleeping pod can be split into 2x 2 berths. We sleep DD15, me, DS12, DH. We've always slept together although not necessarily in that order! Next step will be pup tent(s) I think, no way will the kids ever sleep together now they are teenagers...

Thanks!

Interesting about the teenagers- I'm not sure why I think my kids would love to share, wishful thinking?

We have a tent almost identical to the Vango one in your OP and it’s been great. Kids are now 6 & 9 and it’s a bit of a squeeze, especially if you want a decent inflated mattress (which I do!). They’ve always managed ok in their own section and just smash their way through the dividing ‘wall’ if they need us!

@ThreeFeetTall

Thanks!

Interesting about the teenagers- I'm not sure why I think my kids would love to share, wishful thinking?

Well your kids are only little so you've got a good few years before they can't stand each other as teenagers! Mine were fine together until the last couple of years

We have a bell tent, everyone in the same space and that works best for us. Although dd is now 13 and likes to bring her own separate tent now. I'd much prefer her in with us though! Having good height is nice.

We had a tent like the blue one in your pictures and I hated it, having to get up to go across to the other 'room' was a pita.

We always went for tents that had a sleeping area that could be divided up with the zipped separators or unzipped and rolled up.

We have three kids and got a BIG tent as we wanted somewhere to roll the double buggy into when it was raining and they were asleep in it.

Now they are older the little ones like to be the big sleeping area and my eldest likes his privacy. It works much better and we have plenty of space inside for the rainy days.

Also we went for an air tent. It's so much easier to be able to have dh pump out the air tent on his own in 10-15 mins while I sort kids out, do toilet runs and feeding etc !

When ours were little we had a tent with a central living area then four bedroom pods. We used these for storage as well as bedrooms... As toddlers it was one parent one toddler in a bedroom, then the kids shared as they got older.
Invested in an air tent last year, with the bedrooms connected. Kids still share (both girls), then one area for us, one for storage. Or if they don't fancy sharing, they take a room each.
When camping by canoe, DHs and DDs take two small tents.

Definitely get a tent with a living area you can stand up in. Makes bad weather more manageable. And space for storage helps massively too.

@wonderstuff

We have a bell tent, everyone in the same space and that works best for us. Although dd is now 13 and likes to bring her own separate tent now. I'd much prefer her in with us though! Having good height is nice.

We had a tent like the blue one in your pictures and I hated it, having to get up to go across to the other 'room' was a pita.

Yes I hate having to get out of the nice warm room and onto the super noisy ground sheet to get to the other room!

Totally agree about being able to stand up- it was one of our main requirements and makes a big difference.

An air tent sounds great but I've heard they are big and heavy when not up? Since we store the tent in the loft I don't think it is an option. Same for a bell tent sadly

I didn't really thing about the rooms having an optional divider, that might be the answer- one big room now and then divide it up when they don't need to sleep right next to us.

Bell tents are heavy and do take a little while to dry, but super easy to put up and down, can do it solo in 20 minutes. They don't get hot and sweaty when the sun comes up, I'd definitely recommend it.

The 2 family tents weve had both had dividers in the bedroom pods that can be up or down.
I don't think a 5 man tent is enough space for a family of 4 in the uk when you are usually going to end up with a few bad weather days.

We have a Quechua inflatable tent and wouldn’t be without it we’ve currently got 4 man with decent size living area can stand throughout, bedroom easily fits double inflatable and kids air bed plus bag of clothes and works well for us. No heavier than other tents, similar size bag packs away easier than most we’ve had! just have the inflator to store separately Only ever had Vango before this but hoping to get bigger Quechua next year as much more affordable for longer breaks our lo is 3 and we’ve only done 4/5 nights which current tent is ample for! love it 1 person takes less than 10 mins to pitch

Optional divider was going to be my suggestion but actually I'd be tempted to get an 8 man if you really like camping. That way you can store things in the little rooms and in a few years the five year old can move into one of the spare rooms and then the two year old later.

We had one like this:

ll l l
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So two rooms one end and a big one with optional divider the other.

Hmm that will teach me not to use preview. Terrible diagram, it should have a big communal room in the middle.

I love the diagram- reminds me of those pictures made of brackets that you had to scroll down to see
So do you have a separate storage 'room'?
Now I'm dreaming of a tent with a walk in wardrobe!

@Donteatpurplebroccoli
With the inflator does that have to be connected to the car?

We have this tent it's massive! We all sleep in the big bedroom and the other bedroom is our walk in wardrobe. It makes such a difference to have somewhere to stash all the stuff.

@ThreeFeetTall

I love the diagram- reminds me of those pictures made of brackets that you had to scroll down to see So do you have a separate storage 'room'? Now I'm dreaming of a tent with a walk in wardrobe!

So not any more as everyone wants their own space: grown ups sharing the big room and younger ones in each room. But if you don't want all the pods in the tent you can either not put all 3 up (1 big with optional divider, two small) or you can store stuff in the unused one. If your two are very little you could not put the two spares up at all but you'd have them for when they get older.

I think what you've already got is good. If you go too big, it's such a process to put up that you'll use it less than if you have a handy one. But separate bedrooms are important, unless you have a huge bell tent. When the kids are not very much older, they'll want friends to come into your tent and play cards etc, and you won't want the friends sitting on your bedding –or dirty underwear–. Keep a separate adult bedroom or you'll have big regrets. And as PPs have said, you don't need to put up all the separate bedroom pods if you ever fancy just one bigger space. If the pods are integrated, leave them flat and chuck a mattress on the top.

We have one similar to the klarna, it's the vango orchy and is good for one adult and two teenagers, they have a 'bedroom' each and I sleep in the main part or we take a pup tent for the older one and I have the other 'bedroom'

If you sleep in the main but you need extra blankets as it's colder than the bedrooms are.

We have one like your 2nd pic OP, although the sleeping pods are permanently fixed as 3 and 2 man. We had one very squished year where 3yo DD1 and 1yo DD2 squeezed their readybeds alondside our double airbed in the 3 man pod. I can't remember how we managed it now, just that it was extremely cosy!
We've since had 3 years of them together in the 2 man pod. Being only separated from us by 2 thin pieces of nylon and right next to each other (so could hear us and didn't feel alone), they have slept well with fewer wakings than we would have at home. Last summer they stayed put in the pod on both camping trips ('trips' used loosely as one holiday was in our garden 😂), but in previous years one or other would occasionally join us in our bed part way through the night. We always leave the horizontal bottom section of each pod unzipped so that we/they can get between pods easily. The only issue we've had is needing to put one to bed, and then the other once the first is sleeping. Otherwise they will still be awake chatting at midnight due to the novelty of sharing a room.

On the complaint of moving between the pods and rustling ground sheets: you need a tent carpet! No rustling and much nicer under foot.

The only thing I'm unhappy with about our tent is that we didn't buy the porch too. They have since been discontinued, rarely come up on Ebay, and when they do are miles away and collection only... We've bought a gazebo instead that we butt up, but the set up doesn't work well in the rain. We bought the tent pre-DCs and never expected we'd need as much extra space as we do because we now need to do grown up things like cooking proper meals, rather than just heating water for a Pot Noodle on the Trangia before necking more cider and heading back into the festival.

Oh and to add, don't get an air tent. Last time we went camping there was a huge storm. Our vango was the last tent standing as the air tents didn't do well in high winds.

We have vango, ours is similar to the one you have except it's bigger and an airbeam. It's great. Lots of space, with high ceilings. 6 of us on ours with lots of space.

@rabbitholes

Oh and to add, don't get an air tent. Last time we went camping there was a huge storm. Our vango was the last tent standing as the air tents didn't do well in high winds.

That's funny, our vango IS an airbeam and it's never moved. We have often woke up to be the only ones left or out helping others keep there's down. Ours has never moved, it's amazing. Maybe it's ten brand rather than the airbeam.