Cheap Tent for 1st time Camper

rolpaula

Hi

We're off camping again at the weekend and have just noticed in the Superdrug flyer they have Camping lantern with compass for £4.99. We are a bit short on lighting so will be popping down there to get a couple.
Couldn't find them on the website though although there may be some bits that could be useful
http://www.superdrug.com/everything.php

frizz_head

chinagirl wrote:

Frizz - Can you stand up in it? I have a tunnel tent which sleeps four, but its getting a bit tiresome for the adults to be crawling round on our knees like Toulouse LeTreque. I have decided its time to up-grade to a bigger model. I like your Argos tent, does it have dividers in the bedroom compartment? I also need to be able to fit my foldout picnic table in it for sitting round if we get rained on (hopefully not!).

Hi Chinagirl - yes you can stand up in it. In the bedrooms as well. The bedrooms can be kept as one room, or have zipped dividers, to convert to 3 seperate rooms (one double and two singles). The tent has loads of room, and can easily fit a folding picnic table inside. It is meant to be for 8 people, but I think you would be pretty squashed with that many. It was plenty big enough for the four of us.

Good luck with your hunt!
Frizz

chinagirl

frizz_head wrote:

The tent we got from Argos, which by the way is excellent, is now £89.99 in the sale.

Here

Can throughly recommend it if anyone is interested.

I like it a lot, and after your recommendation was tempted to buy it, however, it is now out of stock at all the stores near me. Shame! I will have to keep searching.

frizz_head

Chinagirl - have checked all my local stores and they too are out of stock! Sorry about that!

You could try posting in the Argos board to see if anyone has one near them.

Frizzo

chinagirl

I have just bought the £69.99 Adventuridge 6-man tent from Aldi. This was after reading the thread about it, praising its quality,size and value. Lets hope it does the job. I will let you know after I've used it.

Sheel

Sheel wrote:

Got my daughter a tent at half price at Halfords yesterday

Can't comment on the quality as yet , but will be able to after she's used it this weekend

Well that was a waste of £12.49 :rolleyes: It wasn't much good as it's a single skinned tent.

Have ordered a double skinned tent from outdoorgear.co.uk whose prices seem reasonable

nh

Wow what a great thread! I have just read it from start to finish.

My husband to be and I bought a big six-person frame tent last year from a local shop and it is great, but it takes an hour to put up and take down.

That is fine for our two-week break to France in the summer, but can be a bit off-putting when just going away for a weekend.

Can anyone recommend a decent 3-4 man tent with some storage space (just for two people) which doesn't take too long to erect - looking to spend about £50?

Also, how annoying is it if you can't stand up? For just a weekend (when we would spend most of it walking/in the pub/cooking a bbq outside) I would say it doesn't really matter. I would appreciate advice tho.

My theory is if it rains we would either go to the pub or come home! But I did think maybe getting changed might be a nightmare if you can't stand up (but then maybe we could change in the shower blocks? I just don't know! I suppose the most important thing is how quick it is to put up.

Thanks!

Savvy_Sue

nh wrote:

Can anyone recommend a decent 3-4 man tent with some storage space (just for two people) which doesn't take too long to erect - looking to spend about £50?

Can't make a specific recommendation, but what you want is an igloo shape. They come with bendy carbon fibre poles, in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and the fancier ones have low sleeping compartments round the sides with a stand-up-able space in the middle. Even the big ones are almost possible to put up single-handed, although it's obviously a lot easier if there are two of you.

How much it annoys you if you can't stand up is a matter of personal preference and flexibility. It's a heck of a lot more annoying if the weather's bad. For me it would do my back in if I couldn't stand up straight. OK if it's cold I'll dress before I get out of my sleeping bag, but just the thought of moving around doubled up makes me seize up!

Personally I would ditch the frame tent ASAP, having seen what happens to them in any sort of wind - I was camping over the weekend of the 50th anniversary of VE day, and the ONLY tents left standing and undamaged on Sunday morning were the igloo tents. All frame tents were down, and most were unlikely to see the light of day again! Plus you can't even erect them in any sort of wind, especially not with just two of you. It is very scary to see a large frame tent bowling across a field towards you.

BNU_2

I'm not sure how much they cost now because I have had mine since 1992 (and still going strong!!) but the Khyam Tunnel Tent is great! There is plenty of room for a double airbed, with over a foot of space either side and a 2 feet strip of spare space at the foot end, and although you cannot stand up in it, it is tall enough inside to feel airy. At a push you could probably fit in 2 double airbeds the other way round, but for me one snoring partner is enough!
2 awnings, largest one to front & best of all it can be erected in less than 5 minutes because the poles are already sewn in and the joints just click-lock into place - great if you arrive in bad weather. It is just like putting up a large and slightly more complicated umbrella! Ours has survived manfully in all kinds of rain and wind, and as yet has not even needed the guyropes. Highly recommended.

My sister has the Khyam Igloo - which erects in the same way but is a fair bit smaller and lower down inside - so not for the claustophobic.

Happy Camping

nh

Savvy_Sue wrote:

Personally I would ditch the frame tent ASAP, having seen what happens to them in any sort of wind

Ah, yes, we have already fallen foul of this! When we put it up in the back garden after we first got it, it rained, so we left it up to dry out, and then a few days later we came home one evening to find it had blown half-way over the back fence! Cost us £50 for new poles as they were bent.

Anyway, I am sure it will be great for our two weeks in France every year - like I said, I am looking for a smaller tent for British breaks - thanks for your advice!