Thoughts on tunnel vs vis-a-vis tent

[HiGunny]

So we're looking to upgrade our Decathlon 4.2 tent to a bigger air tent with a sewn in groundsheet. We're planning on a trip to France next summer as well as a few weekend trips at home. Currently torn between an 8 man vis-a-vis such as the Berghaus 800 nightfall or a tunnel tent with zipped bedrooms (like an Outwell 6p). We are 2 adults and 2 kids age 9 and 10 and the 10yo is muttering about having his own bedroom, so would prefer 3 bedrooms.

DH and 10 yo are pushing for the Berghaus for the separate bedroom areas whereas I like the living space and brightness of the tunnel tents. Any thoughts from experienced campers?!

You get more usable living space in a tunnel normally with more walls rather than doors. T7nnels normally easier to put up.

Can you get a three bedroom tunnel tent, think vango do one?

We have a 4 bed 8 man tunnel tent. Much easier to put up.

Agree living space and brightness of tunnel tents my preference too. DH wasn't so keen until we visited Camping World and saw all the tents side by side, the tunnel tents felt much more comfortable and airy.

Thanks for the replies....with the tunnel tents do you find you disturb each other during the night? DC are afraid DH's snoring will wake them up 😄 Also thinking longer term, are teens usually happy enough with side by side bedrooms?
We're 2 hours from a decent tent shop so not easy to pop in and take a look!

would it work to start the older one off in his own small / pup tent?

We have a vis a vis tent - Kampa Watergate 8 - and it works really well for us. 2 bedrooms at each end, with a large living area in the middle. Very big windows too, which makes the middle bright when we open the blinds. We use the extension for longer trips too. Our daughter loves being at the opposite end of the tent to us, as she is less disturbed by snoring. We have a poled tent, as the air tents are huge and heavy when packed away, and would take up all of our car boot 🙂

OP, if you can’t see the tent in the shop, do check the pack size. Big air tents are huge.

I just picked up a Kampa Studland 8 air tent and it is indeed MASSIVE. I love the layout (not vis a vis) but just wanted to echo the above about how big air tents are. We will have to take a second car 🥴

Just to update, we ended up getting the Outwell Airville.... It's massive and heavy but was the only tent that ticked most of our boxes. It has an annex that can be closed off to use as a play area or as an extra bedroom so DS is happy 😁 We had our first trip away in it and there is so much space compared to our old tent.

Now looking into getting a trailer 😂

Oooooh, that looks an amazing tent. Very smart, too.