Bell Tents

[LovesTents]

Are they too hippyish ?
I love the look of them, just don't want to be mistaken for a mung bean eater

www.canvascamp.com have optional inners, it looks like one big inner taking up one side of the tent not sure it can be halved with a curtain

ooooh another bell tent lover.
i so so so want one. and i'm not a lentle weaver. i have to save up for one though as i had a new tent last year and can't quite justify anoter.

We've got a bell tent. I don't think they're particularly hippy-ish, my worry is that we look like we think we're trendy.

Pros, lots of room (we had a tiny two man tent before DS). They are lovely to wake up in and a dream to put up

Cons, no porch (nowhere to cook when it rains, put muddy shoes etc), no pods, which doesn't matter as DS is small, but will matter when he's a bit bigger.

mmmmmmm nice bell tents. am a bit dim. how many £s is 299 Euros?

don't know, but that doesn't sound bad. I think ours was £300-ish. go on, they are lovely

wll get one when DH isn't watching. he still doesn't know about last years leetl purchase

www.belltent.co.uk sell them for 299 pounds I think ( my keyboard is acting up - won't let me do pound signs).

I was thinking of maybe throwing 2 oldest dc's into a pup tent - hee hee

That's where ours came from

They have an offer on at the mo , if you mention Larmer Tree Festival you get a 10% discount ( look on their website under rentals)

mmmmmmmmmmmm

We have one and love it - we're not hippy at all. We got ours from the Netherlands here: www.obelink.nl/ws/assortiment_overzichtpagina3.asp?cat=1&id=18&arid=2442

From what we can work out, they are the tents Bell Tent sell but a lot cheaper. There are thicker ones available and ones with wooden accessories for extra authenticity but we have found ours fine and saved about £100 buying it from there (although the pound may have devalued a bit since).

It takes a bit of work to order it - a mixture of guesswork and an online translator as they don't sell it on their English site (I think because they sell through Bell Tent here) but it went fine and arrived within a few days.

Well spotted Surfette - do you think they're the same make as the Bell Tent ones?
Is the quality good?I've heard to avoid the bright white ones , is yours the creamy colour?
I would buy from obelink as they are definitely cheaper , but a bit worried about the quality..

I am fairly certain they are the same ones Belltent has been selling as someone on another forum said she had asked and they said that is who they sold through in this country.

I am not 100% certain that their new range is going to be from there though as I saw on Belltent's ebay site that they now have the option of an inner tent which needs hooks on the tent itself. I think they may be getting their new range from Canvascamp - could be wrong though.

If you want an inner tent I don't think Obelink do a version with that yet so you might want to go to Canvascamp. Their site says they don't ship to England but when my husband queried that they seemed pretty happy to send a tent to him (we left it as we didn't think we needed two ).

As far as our Obelink tent is concerned,I was a bit worried about the colour but ours is a lovely cream and the quality seems fine to me - you can get thicker canvas but, there again, it weighs more. Certainly the listed weight of 285 gsm is the same for Obelink, Belltent and Soulpad tents, so I think you have to pay a bit more to get much thicker canvas - I have seen sites advertising up to 400gsm.

Personally, we are very happy with ours - we've been away in it three times now - with a couple of nights of pretty heavy rain - and we have had no leaks and that's without the sewn in groundsheet.

And if you later decide you want the whole traditional look - wooden accessories instead of plastic - you can buy a trad pack from Soulpad (not bothered myself but it's an option).

I love ours - wouldn't trade it for a normal tent now

My MIL calls them bell-end tents. She has no idea why this makes us smirk

Cotton Canvas Tent Stout Bell 4M 5M (100% Cotton) is one of the best tents in the market. Here s full review campinga2z.com/stout-bell-canvas-tent/

I started out camping with bell tents back in the 1960s. It wasn't long before my parents upgraded to one of the new fangled frame tents. Much more practical in every respect for family camping with a car.

I do like the look of them but see them as a fad.