Best tent to buy

1perriwinkle

Hi, we've owned 2 tents in the last few yrs; the first one I really liked but we loaned it to friends and it blew away! The one we have now I'm not so keen on :-/
Anyway, we're looking to upgrade but are fairly amateur campers - a few visits to friends, an annual festival etc, always with a car, but I'm looking for your (collective) opinion on what is a good brand of tent to buy? I know Vango tents are good but what other brands are worth spending the money on? Going to spend the next few months searching ebay etc for a bargain!
We're a family of 2+2, thanks!

Tabnabs

What's your budget?

I'd skip ebay and buy off this site if I were you http://www.outdoormegastore.co.uk/tents/tents-by-type/family-tents.html (No connection, satisfied customer etc. etc. )

1perriwinkle

I don't really have one but nothing too pricey as we don't go camping all that often. I've looked on a good few websites (ebay, amazon, gooutdoors etc) but the selection of manufacturers is massive!
Maybe I should ask what brand NOT to buy, people usually have stronger opinions about the stuff they are unhappy with

Tabnabs

€300 on a Vango tent and you can't go wrong. Like buying a Japanese car; reliable and practical.

OS119

i'd go with Tanabs, but add that a decent Vango will last you at least 5 years - you might want to give some consideration as to what your needs will be in a few years.

will your kids still want to share a tent with you - or you them?

will your kids - or you - want to do more adventurous camping if you're spending 'proper' money on a tent?

if you, for instance, bought an Alpkit Zhotahttp://www.alpkit.com/shop/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16655&category_id=253, a 4 man, 5 season, mountain-capable basecamp tent, would you, as a family want to use it in the winter, in exposed conditions?

tent buying has 3 rules - you can two out of the following three attributes: cheap, strong, light. carbon fibre poles split, and you usually get what you pay for, but you almost never get what you don't pay for.

Vango/Force10 tents are pretty good, as are Alpkit, WildCountry, Mountain Hardwear, Mountain Equipment, Marmot, Terra Nova and North Face. personally, i'd go for a UK/Irish/European brand, as i've found that US branded tents temd not to be designed to cope with horizontal rain. 6 feet of snow, yes - 6 inches of rain, no.

1perriwinkle

Thanks OS119. As you mentioned, I fully anticipate that in a few yrs our children won't want to be sleeping with us! So I'd be going for one with two bedrooms. We already have a 1 man quick pitch pop up which we currently use for letting the children play/read in while we erect the main tent (keeps them out from under our feet) so we can also use that if they don't even want to be under the same canvas ;-)

No, we won't ever be doing more adventurous camping!

Thanks for the other brand names; some of them I've never heard of so I'll keep an eye out for those along with the others