Buying a tent - tips please

[roisin]

We bought a tent from Argos on Saturday (bargain), but when dismantling it the elastic in the centre of one of the fibreglass rods snapped ... so it went back to the shop.

(In my defence we went to a camping sale/showroom first - but they were very busy, and had no stock left of the sort of thing we were looking for.)

Can some of you happy campers recommend manufacturers of quality tents? I'm happy to spend more money, if the quality is better.

Also any tips on designs to favour/avoid are very welcome.

For inf. we are looking for something small - to sleep 4 but only for a couple of nights at a time, with a car parked nextdoor, and only if it's fine. So we don't need something huge with space to cook and eat and store everything inside.

Thank you in advance.

Some good sites for you, roisin!

Camperlands doesn't sell online, it's a huge retail place in S Mancs and we bought ours there (Vango), but the site has loads of helpful inf re brands, styles etc. The others sell online and have inf too I think.

wild day
camping supplies
camperlands
outdoor focus

Wow! Thank you ... I'm a lot more educated than I was 20 mins ago. Not sure I'm much closer to making a decision though.

We are driving very close to the camperlands place tomorrow, (unusual for us provincial types to even make it as far as the M6!), but unfortunately it's closed on Wednesdays .... ggrrrrr...

Thanks for your help.