Purchasing a new tent - please help!

[j741]

We’re looking to buy our first proper family tent and I’d love to hear from people who camp regularly with children.

We’re a family of four with two young daughters and are hoping to use camping as our main UK holiday for years to come, rather than paying for cottages every summer. We’d like to buy something once and keep it for a long time.

We’ve spent today looking around tents and now feel more confused than when we started! We really liked one of the larger Vango air tents because it felt so spacious, but then started wondering whether it would be too big for some campsites and a pain to pack away if it was wet.

One thing that’s important to us is that we already have a king-size airbed and we’d like to keep using it, so we’re looking for something with a decent-sized bedroom rather than squeezing everything in. We’d also like enough living space that if the weather is awful for a day it still feels comfortable to spend time inside.

Has anyone bought a really big family air tent and either been pleased they did, or wished they’d gone a bit smaller? Also, if you’ve had both polyester and polycotton tents, was the extra cost and weight of polycotton worth it?

We’re not in a rush to buy and would much rather get it right than regret spending a lot of money, so I’d really appreciate hearing about real-life experiences rather than just reading manufacturers’ descriptions.

Family of four here, due to disability we needed a tent I can put up and pack away myself. We have the berghaus air 6 nightfall, its roomy, easy to put up and down, the bedrooms fit our airbed with room to spare, so I think king size would fit.

I do love tents and have had many over the years. I did briefly have a polycotton one but sold it as the weight was awful when dry but trying to put a large, wet polycotton tent back in the car was awful, i nearly left the bloody thing at the campsite!

I prefer tunnel tents, have had Otwell and Vango tents and like both. I think for 4 people you need at least a 5 berth, maybe even a 6 berth tent.

if I was going to get another tent at the moment I’d be looking at the Qercha air tents from Decathlon which look nice. I’ve had a medium size pop up Quercha before which was a nice tent. I think I’ve seen a nice looking vango air tent recently as well.

There are a lot of tent videos on TikTok which might be worth searching out, lots of reviews, etc.

This is the one I’m eyeing up, there is a 6 person one as well

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/5-person-2-bedroom-inflatable-camping-tent-air-seconds-5-2-fresh-and-black/324972/m8584565

We have a 6 man air tent for 4 and have had it for 10 years.

The pros have been that it’s quick to go up and had plenty of of room.

The negatives is that it’s just so big and heavy. Unless you have a trailer you might need 2 cars. I don’t think I’ll have an air tent again.

Do think about having blackout bedrooms. We’ve found them to be very useful with keeping younger DC asleep a bit longer in the mornings.

Outwell for us with steel poles. We go to windy campsites in Northern Scotland. We’ve had other tents not manage with the weather! Always tunnel for child protection reasons.

We are selling one of those. @j741 if you are in the derbyshire area let me know!
I found having a porch useful especially when the dc were younger as the middle bit became a space to play quietly/store clothes/bedtime stories while the porch for eating when it was wet

Think carefully about poly cotton, it’s so heavy and hard to pack away, carry. Looks great up but lot of hard work. God knows how I’d dry it if it got wet!

Air tents are overly bulky and heavy. I’ve got a 8 man tunnel tent with piles and that’s big not the same air tent would be even bigger and heavier. Not practical with my car and even with my current set up we need two cars. Next year I’m hoping to swap my car to a small van for work related properties so will possibly go to a 4/6 man air tent then.

Thank you, this one looks like a really good option for us - looks to have the width which some don’t have but not overly long!

Thank you, we have a large estate car so think we’ll have space for it. We are currently taking a pushchair with us everywhere but that won’t be for much longer so will give us more space.

Someone else mentioned blackout bedrooms too, so think we’ll try and make that a priority.

This is one area where we just don’t know which way to go. We love the sound of polycotton for the look and in particular staying cooler. We aren’t averse to hard work when packing away but I realise I am saying that with no experience of doing so, although I have put away bulky inflatables before!

Go for it (i.e. camping)! I'd camped for years (since I was little) and started taking the DC from when they were tiny (as it was way cheaper than renting holiday cottages or doing Butlins/Center Pracs etc). We've done so many trips over the years, to the point that the investment in camping gear has more than paid for itself.

I had a Robens 5 poled man tent initially (when it was me, XH, DS, DSS and DD) - no SIG (so draughty!) and it was a tight squeeze for the 5 of us! Then upgraded to a Berghause Air 8: very spacious but no porch area (I bought the air porch thing too but it was a pain to put on). Split with XH and then I went for a Kampa Croyde 6 (Air and polycotton/TC) for me and DC. Still very big/spacious but with bedrooms in the back, a great living area and a porch bit at the front. Also cooler in the summer and warmer in the colder months. Used that for 4yrs and then "future proofed*" by getting myself a VW T2 campervan (and getting small Coleman dome tents for the kids to have their own space - they're now 19 and 12). The Coleman dome tents we have have blackout rooms and this is brilliant!

I'm very lucky in that I have a large garden where I can re-pitch the tents to let them dry/leave them out until they dry. We've camped in all weathers over the years and this was a god send!

Another tip: get a large waterproof roof bag for the car. Use it for bedding/soft bulky stuff on journey to campsite. If there's rain on the day you're breaking camp, you can lob everything into the car, and then take down wet tent and lob that in the roof bag, rather than wrestling with trying to fold the bloody thing into the tent bag.

*i.e. this will allow me to keep doing camping trips as I get more old and decrepit!! Also is a lovely quiet place for me to sit/read/have a cuppa on my driveway whilst the house is full of teens/tweens :D

I think an area large enough to dry out the tent at home is really useful. We’ve packed up in some truly awful conditions and had to dry the tent out at home.

Just popping on to say I am looking for a 2 adults, one 11 year old and one dog tent. Any recommendations welcome! Thanks.

Picking a tent that will fit in your car and still allow room for passengers is also a good move.

Some of the larger air tents are absolutely huge when packed.

I do agree if you get a poled tent look for steel poles. I’ve been camped in stormy conditions before and my outwell with steel poles and friends steel vango were ok. All the flexi pole tents collapsed.

We always go bigger. So for 4 of us we had a 6 berth. Very roomy but if you choose am air tent just check the weight and dimensions when packed as they can be very big and heavy. I think in your situation I’d choose a tent with poles as your DC will be more than capable of helping

Get one with a fitted porch- so handy for dealing with muddy boots and somewhere to sit outside with protection from the elements. Make sure you can stand up easily in the tent and get twice as many berths as people.

Thank you, noted. 🪷

The problem with the Vis a Vis layout (as in the Berghaus nightfall 600) is that you can't all fit in one sleeping pod so if the kids wake in the night you have to unzip your pod, cross the living area and unzip theirs to get to them.

With a tunnel tent with the sleeping compartment at the end you can tie up the divider wall and all be in the same pod. Then when they get a bit older, you can use the divider wall for more privacy.

Polyester has a shelf life - it degrades in sunlight and may only survive 6 weeks of strong sunlight before getting crispy / leaking. Airbeam tents are coming down in price but you are still paying more for a tent that won't last any longer. But you can use a roof protector to keep UV off, and Fabsil Gold is sunscreen for tents.

If you buy airbeam buy spare beams! The moment you need one is not the moment to find that the nearest supplier is miles away or a delivery day away.

We have a 8 berth for 4 of us. 2 adults and 2 teens and a dog. My DH is 6ft 4 so needed one he can stand up in. We have a detachable porch which we use to store the food/kitchen stuff in then there is more room in the main part of the tent. Me and DH go in one end and the teens have a divider between the pods at the other end. Out tent is a eurohike Buckingham 8 elite (old and no longer sold) but we have used it twice sometimes three times a summer for at least 8 years and only had to replace 3 poles.

We camped from young toddler / baby age through to currently adult sized teens.
We had a steel pole 6 person outwell tent for years and switched to a slightly larger 6 person outwell air beam tent 5 years ago. This is the one we have, though it’s no longer available. https://www.outwell.com/en-gb/ecommerce/tents/air-tents/6-person-tents/airville-6sa

Best things about it -

Dark bedrooms - makes a huge difference. Definitely get these!

Two large living areas - a cosy large indoor one, and a large porch area for all the stuff, camp kitchen, muddy zone etc. We open up the front when we cook - either fully or partially - for safety, but it’s still wholly under shelter and sheltered from wind. A porch area that you can make more / less sheltered is perfect - we can close it up to keep it dry and safer during the day, then open up when we get back.

Air beams - so much easier to put up. But it does make it v v heavy and you can’t separate the poles weight like we could do with previous tent.

For this reason I don’t think I’d consider a polycotton air beam tent. The one we have dries off v quickly, and we can barely move it around with two of us. We wanted a large tent but any heavier and it would be practically unmanageable. It dries so much faster so it’s easier to take care of.

Really spacious living space - we’ve had holidays when it rains a lot! Lovely to be cosy and lots of room for kids to play / lounge around.

Two large bedrooms was my def preference - nobody is incredibly squashed and we can fit in nicely. Lots of the 6 person tents have three small two person rooms, and we didn’t go for any of these. Though it’s personal preference - you might prefer one child in each room, or all the luggage stashed in one room.

Thanks for the help - we went with this one in the end - https://www.attwoolls.co.uk/vango-lismore-air-tc-600xl-airbeam-tent

Looks fab.

Great choice - enjoy!