Lightweight family tent

[SayDoWhatNow]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a small, lightweight family tent?

We currently have a Vango Icarus 500, which I do love because it's so spacious and easy to pitch. It works fine when we take the car.

But. It's so heavy and bulky. I'd love to do a bike camping trip and it's just too big.

What are some smaller, lighter alternatives? We'd be using it in the summer/autumn with a 4yo +1yo.

If you're on bikes any family sized tent is going to be very bulky to transport. How about using a bike trailer for luggage?
Other option could be using 2 or 3 small igloo-style pole tents. Pop ups won't be any good as the circle shape isn't easy to manage on bikes.

Have a look at Decathlon family tents. They tend to be light but sturdy.

I would go for two two-man tents, adult and child in each, possibly connected with a tarp to give you some covered living and storage space.

Interesting idea! I can see 2 tents possibly working!

We have a bike trailer! It's for the kids but has some storage space at the back. So we're not totally limited for space and we won't be doing intense bikepacking, more like pottering between campsites!

I think what I'm looking for is something like a dome tent with 2/3 poles and a bit of awning at the front. Doesn't have to be really tall. But big enough for 2 adults and 2 kids! Does such a thing exist?

Have a look on vangos website. They have a range. I'm looking at the scaefell 300 plus which is under 4kg.

We had a 4 man dome tent from Coleman a few years ago. Looks like the ones they have at the moment are 6.2kg and about £120

Thank you @helpfulperson and @Myfridgeiscool - the Coleman Darwin 4+ looks like it could be a good option for us! And there is a similar one by Vango - the Tay 400 - that could work too!

https://www.millets.co.uk/products/eurohike-cairns-4-deluxe-nightfall-tent-green-503096?variant=56157186818396

If you want something you can stand up in check the weight / pack size of the Eurohike Sandero

That could also be a nice option.

I'm a bit hesitant about the internal blackout stuff though. We had a tiny 2 man tent with some blackout coating on the inner and after a few years it sorted of perished and started smearing black grease on everything. Maybe that was a one off, but it wrote off an otherwise perfectly good tent!

What's the budget?
There's some very nice Scandinavian tents such as Helsport Gimle or Helsport Valhall, or Hilleberg Keron, or Fjalraven Abisko. None of these will be less that £1k, but will also be alarmingly small and light.

Robens (great quality) do a few - Cima(?) or Paso, both £400-600

Jack Wolfskin also do good light and spacious family tent IMO - Great Divide tunnel is nice, but I think they also have some geodesic still.

Vaude do an unusual one called a Badawi - maybe not as small and light as some, but oodles of space, and they still do a Taurus XT 4 which I've used before.

Finally, Alpkit make the very compact Axiom 4 as well.

These are all Basecamp type tents, but designed that you could carry them a distance if needed.

Whatever you do, split the weight between you. If not 2 tents, then one person takes outer & pegs, the other takes inner & poles. We had a Vango Venture (100?) which broke down easily and was plenty big enough as our “big” tent until the dc were about 8 & 11.

These tents have a normal fly sheet but the inner tent fabric is dark and less light permeable. I don't think they will exude gunk.

Would you all fit in this? Grey Eurohike Teepee Tent – Millets

I think these are well above my budget I'm afraid, but they do look great! Current tent was a fb marketplace bargain!

We have our first trip of the season coming up in a few weeks (first one with 2 kids) and we'll be taking our big tent for that. DD is still a bit wee for long trips in the bike trailer so we have some time to think about what exactly we might need from a smaller tent!

Smaller and lighter tents still regularly pop up on Gumtree and FB Marketplace in my experience. It is worth knowing some of the 'posher' brands and setting up a search.

My main tent for trips is a lovely Robens 2-person tunnel, RRP £190 on sale at £120, mine was used on one DofE and was £30 and a good clean....

I also have a bigger 'basecamp' tent that is a Vango Galaxy 300 - similarly it is £390rrp, £300 in sales - I got it for £75 after one week of use as someone had snapped a pole. A new pole section was £8 from Vango and 10 mins to swap it out...

IME a good brand tent can give a huge amount of use and be nicer to use than cheap tents - my old MacPac did a decade which does not sound lots. But I am a mountain leader and canoe coach/tour leader, and for the first 8 years I spend about 40-80 nights a year in it, in all sorts of weather, then it went round the world with a family member for 6 months bike touring in NZ and Aus, and finally died halfway through a 5-day river Spey canoe tour because a drunkard fell on it.....

Have you considered an inflatable tent so that you don't have to worry about the weight of poles? Loads to choose from and they come up on the second hand sites a lot!

Inflatable tents are heavier and bulkier to transport than fibre-poled tents!

And with the disadvantage that the poles can't be divided out to be carried by separate people.

I would definitely have a look in Decathlon, their tents are great. We currently have a larger Quenchua pump up tent, which probably would be to heavy for you but we used to drive to Spain and camp on the way down. So kept the big one in the car and slept in the super easy to put up 3 man tent for three nights on the way down. We did this for years with all 4 of us plus a dog in that tent. I think the last trip we had to put the blow up bed the other way around as our boys were getting a bit big 😀

Instant 3-person camping tent, 2 Seconds Fresh & Black | Decathlon

Obvs if you are staying longer, I think the idea of two tents would work well.

Doesn't tick all the boxes (awning etc) but the Alpkit Tarpstar 4 is very light and would be ideal for bikepacking I'd say.

Have a look at this. Wild Country are known for backpacking tents but have previously done 4/5 man tents in their range that you can still find. Very lightweight and clever. We were lucky enough to find an Aspect 4 a few years ago. https://ebay.us/m/sTp2Zj