Tent recommendation - weekend camping with young kids - quick pitch!

[Looster]

Hi - sometime since we last camped and we have doubled in size since then - DD1 = 5 years, DD2 = 14 months and a complete handful. We are booked to go to Hollands Wood in late July for the weekend - so do need to sort out a tent soon!

I'd love something quick and easy to put up - DD2 may not allow us that much time to pitch the tent...and preferably something we can grow into. Anticipate that we will mostly camp up for 2-4 nights at a time but would like a tent we can grow up into. Budget - £200 ideally, up to £300. Happy to buy second hand on ebay if that puts more into our price range. A friend has recommended khyam and I like the look of the Harewood but a bit out of our price range unless I can steal a deal on ebay!

Any thoughts? many thanks, looster

[Looster]

just won manufacturing 2nd vango tigris 800 on ebay - slight mark on door otherwise perfect and still has the lifetime guarantee. £216 (cheapest could find on internet otherwise £235 and stocks really low everywhere). yippee - no more agonising...about tent at least!

[Looster]

BB - v helpful as we saw the Tigris 400 today and the shop we went to didn't have the 600 up but had other 6 and 8 berths up and have spent all afternoon contemplating 6 vs 8 berth but think will go for 8 now cheers!

was v taken with outwell montana - but out of price range and a bit big for our weekends away

[BetsyBoop]

we have a vango albany 800 - bedroom at each end with optional divider, so can have 2, 3 or 4 rooms.

As kids are little now (3 & 19m) DH & DS sleep at one end & DD & I at the other. (we split the bedroom so they are sleeping "on their own" as that's what the are used to at home, but obviously we are close at hand just the other side of the divider.

The plan when they are older is them at one end in split bedrooms & DH & I at the other end in one HUGE bedroom

The other advantage of an 8 berth is that the living area is big, ready for playing in if we need to when if it rains...

It's last season's model so we managed to pick up a new one earlier this year for £180, there are still some knocking around, but I think this year's vango tigris 800 is fairly similar.

As it's a simple tunnel tent construction, DH & I can erect it (including footprint groundsheet, inners & guys & tent carpet ) in under 30 mins now & we are getting faster each time.

[Looster]

hope to go see a vango tigris this pm - not having any joy with bidding on ebay!

[Looster]

am now confusing myself further with reviews on ukcampsite! will check out the iowa as well and head over to youtube. DH is already sick of discussing tents...

[WhereTheWildThingsWere]

Yup, here for pitching vid. This is how I put up my Monty now, though I am not as quick, maybe because I don't run....

I do heart my Montana 'tis fab.

[JetLi]

The Montana is a beauty - my BIL/SIL have one, but unfortunately I didn't witness the pitching. A glorious tent though. Are there any wee vids on YouTube maybe of tents getting pitched? Might be worth a look?

[ShePeeTeePee]

I was going to suggest the Outwell Iowa as an alternative to the Nevada (has been good for us). But if you want your 5yo in with you the Nevada is perhaps better. Your short-list looks pretty good imo. Guess you've already started ploughing through the reviews on ukcampsite.co.uk?

[Looster]

my daughter who is 5 will need to be near or in with us as gets spooked - quite like the look of the big 'bedroom' in some of these that i listed above that you can split into two or have as one big bedroom

was planning to put dd who is 14 months in a room on her own! she doesn't like sleeping with anyone near her, disaster when she was in our room when friends stayed, she didn't sleep at all and was really agitated - total opposite of first child - so was planning on taking the travel cot and sticking her in her own room. but perhaps she will behave differently when camping?

[ShePeeTeePee]

Have you decided how you'd like to sleep everyone? i.e. all together (perhaps with zippable divider) or children in their own 'room' apart from you?

[Looster]

Thanks Jetli - will have a look at those.

Have also been looking at

Khyam Harewood (2nd hand)
Outwell Montana (2nd hand)
Outwell Nevada L - can afford new
Vango Tigris 600 - ditto

any comments on these?

[JetLi]

We've upgraded recently to the Coleman Galileo and that was surprisingly quick to pitch, even on our first try. However it was def. a two person job - I reckon about 20 minutes start to finish. But I can appreciate 20 minutes is like a lifetime for the little people.

[JetLi]

If you have a Decathlon nearby, they do big pop-up tents now and I think they're modular so you can buy extra zip-on "rooms" as you go along. So they're almost instant to pitch.
Sadly the website is a touch crap, but there's a video - we've got a couple of Decathlon tents and they're fine.

[Looster]

Forgot to say, SIG preferred