Advice for complete novice, please

[MummyDoIt]

I'm due to go camping this summer for the first time since I went with Girl Guides aged 11! I need to buy a tent and have absolutely no idea what to look for. Which brands are the best? How do I know how weatherproof they are? Which are the easiest to put up? I need something pretty small and basic to sleep me and my two DSs. Must be easy for one adult to put up alone. Any advice gratefully received!!!!

Hello

Khyam do a great range of tents that are really easy to put up on your own. They have a lot of the poles already attached to the tent and you just click them into place. Their web address is www.khyam.co.uk/

Camping is great fun, i've been doing it since i was a kid and now i go with my own DD. Hope you find something that will work.

Thanks! One of our local gardening centres has a huge display of tents at the moment. It's easy to pick out one that's the right sort of size but I have no idea which brands are good. I'll check out that one.

Hiya MDI

weatherproof- most tents (millets used to vary so double check) are graded with a HH rating, hydrostatic head, for waterprrof (basically the No of MM water the canvas could take in a standing water sit).

I wouldn't buy under 3000 in the UK but 3000 is perfectly fine and will be enough. I think that's pretty much the UK benchmark.

Otherwise you're looking at two things: inner first tents are IMO not truly weatherproof becuase of the potential to end up with a soggy tent if you pitch in rain- never happened to us when we had one but that was luck as a few years back we helped someone with the same model pitch in rain and realised just how bad it oculd get!.

Stability in wind is the other thing- a correctly pitched main brand tent should be stable but this si mroe complex; if you get a tennel you need to pitch so it doesn't form a windbreak, remembering that wind may change over the course of a trip: your tent is still unlikely to shift but the nopise can be scary for kids. OTOH a tunnel is incredibly easy to picth, often one person can do it (I suggest a khyam ontario as the ideal tent or shape (because its big so you can buy smaller similar ones) for new campers).

A geodesic (mul pod) tent is the epitome of stability but can be a nightmare to pitch and too big forsomesites.

How many people, MDI? Add 2 to actual occupanyt numbers to get berth nneeded