I want a tent and I want it DARK!

[midnightexpress]

Any recommendations? Looking to buy a family tent (2 under 4s and DP and me). We'll be using it mostly in Scotland where summer evenings are soooo light and mornings so very very early, and we haven't taken the LOs yetm so wondered if anyone has any recommendations for a dark tent?

TIA

I will ahve a look at this yeras colour ranges for you- they do vary. I know what ytents would suit, just need to see what sahdes they are in ATM

Ooh thanks Peachy, that would be great!

OK

Well Khyam, Coleman and Vango seem to have suitable colorways this year, particularly Vango who are seeming to offer a choice, one of which is very dark indeed

The suual protocol is to add 2 to the number of people using your tent to get a berth size that will allow for storage etc. Beyond that there's a taste factor: this might be a suitable tent (Coleman, Khyam, vango all very good brands) Any idea if you fancy a certain bedroom layout, or a specific shape (tunnel, vis a vis, geodesic or dome?

If you're not sure what they are will link to examples for you

Thanks - that looks good. Hadn't thought much about it so far, tbh, but good tip re storage - the bigger room would allow us to maybe take DS2's travel cot too, which would be good.

Travel cotswith LO'sare invaluable (ds4started camping at 5 weeks LOL), esp. as camping usually involves hotstovesetc and no stair gates.

When you find the tent you like, check out the website uk campsite for reviews- if there is an issue with any tent (eg one main brand had arun of dodgy zips one year) it will be on there.

Will do, thanks again. DS1 (3.5) is a highly sensible chap who would no sooner go near a hot stove or make a break for freedom than eat all his vegetables, so he'll probably be OK, but ds2 (2.2)is more of a renegade, so I suspect that it may be advisable to pen him in to prevent midnight departures into the highland scenery/nearest loch.

We have a coleman galileo 6-berth that is dark green, and I did notice when camping with friends that it was much darker inside than their mid-blue one was.

If you have plenty of space in your car, you could also take large, dark bedspreads and drape them over the inner tent "bedroom" parts (make sure they don't touch the outer at all though, as that could let rain through)

Just a quick note - dark tents don't let light through so well but they do absorb the heat terribly, so even if the light doesn't wake you early in the morning, if you are lucky enough to have good weather, dark tents can become stifling very quickly once the sun's up. This is less of a problem with larger tents but just something you might want to be aware of.

I have a white canvas (not nylon) tent which is useless for keeping light out but cool enough to sit in all day, should you want to. I love it to bits!

Wouldn't have thought heat would be too much of a problem in Scotland . But seriously, thanks, I hadn't considered that.

Muffle, looks like that one isn't available any more. When did you buy it?

Steamed ahs a valid point- we had a lovely dark green tahoma; we were camping on the hottest day of that heatwave we had a few years back in the hottest part of the UK... our plastic glassware shatterd from the heat

Many tents can be opened all the way to create an almost gazebo like quality; look for that. Also, mesh window pamnels so you can air a closed tent and what we find best is a covered porch area- we keep quite a lot in ours, cooler by far that inside the tent.

the upside of a dark tent of course is that when it is cold it warms better ready for the nights.

Another idea- Outwell tents now do kids bedrroms that insert in the pods (we have one): excellent for play in the day but also lined in black gauze. ours have never slept in tehirs but after reading the iea about draping a bed pod- I imagine that's why they make them from that LOL. Silly me, never occurred to me.

Ooh steamedtreaclesponge just the person I'm looking for, someone with a bell tent.

Please could you come over to my (rather lonely) bell tent thread and give me lots of info about how fantastic they are so that DH will let me buy one to replace our perfectly good nylon tunnel tent. Pretty please....

Hmm, yes, now that I ponder further the heat might be a consideration. DS1 is a redhead and v fair skinned, so he may well have to spend a bit time under cover in the hot part of the day (ha!), so we should consider that. The kids' bedroom pods sound interesting; will see if I can find them to look at.

Got ours early last year, midnight. But there are a lot of dark green tents out there - I would also say go for a quality one with thicker nylon, for the best dark effects.

We're in scotland too and I really think the heat thing is a plus, to be honest.

Ours opens up at both sides and one end so it's like a big canopy, great if it's hot. Again there are loads like that out there - have a search.

kids room- you'd need an outwell tent but tehre are so very many and they are all good quality.

Look at ebay for last year tent models at goodprices- many great tent dealers sell on through there

Last year wandering round Go Outdoors (the tents are outside) and the black Vango tent was very noticeably hotter than the other tents.

We have an outwell kids room in our Montana tent. The black bit doesn't really block out any light unfortunately; the fabric is fairly sheer - also the kids room has an enormous open vent bit on the front which lets through lots of light. We usually have to drape something over it in the evening so we can put the lights on in the tent after the boys have gone to sleep.

I think you just have to stay up late and wear them out in the hope they sleep later in the mornings

One of the outwell polycotton tents would help to block out the light as the canvas part of it works really well, along with a kids room, should do the trick! Also as it is part canvas, it also stays cooler in the sunny weather!

Worth thinking about....

How about something like these?
Depending on your budget....there are also these..

I have some off cuts of black out lining from the curtains I made recently. I am thinking of sewing them all together and draping it over the top of the bedroom. I know it wont stop all the light, but its worth a try.

I think there's a gap in the market for a blackout innner tent here.....

I wonder if the inside of the inner tent could be painted black, then you would have the cooling effect of the outer tent with the black out effect inside...not sure what you would use to paint/dye it with - I have a light-ish blue coleman and it is tall but I still find it gets very hot and lets in lots of light (in Scotland).....

try the Vango Tigris, easy to pitch dark in colour which I feel is a bonus as its never hot in England! I nearly bought an Outwell tent but this years colour is too light and I was warned it would fade easily so if you fancy an Outwell I would look at last years range

You can actually buy tents made out of black out material

blackout tent:

www.blacks.co.uk/product/095827.html

also

www.onestopfestival.com/pro duct_info.php?products_id=237

not sure if the second one is blackout material, but the top one seems to be