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This year was due to be my first holiday aboard in 10 years and the first time ever for the kids but obviously that was slightly interrupted.
So thinking about getting a few bits to go camping which I haven't done for a few years. Assuming as usual there will be some knowledgeable people here that can point me in the right direction for a family of 4.
I have a tent but it's a bit crap, 2 bedrooms and bit in the middle you can't stand up in. So thinking about upgrading the something a bit bigger.
I already have things like sleeping bags and a small stove, folding table etc. But my airbeds are crap and always seem flat by half way through the night (I'm about 18st)
So tent for 4 people and some decent beds are required really. Budget about £250 for a tent been looking at the decathlon ones with the blackout bedroom. But they aren't that big and only have one big bedroom unless anyone else can suggest something? Maybe buy a "day tent" as more living space I'd I feel the need further down the line.
Any suggestions of decent bed?
Not sure if getting a fridge/powered coolbox and electrical hookup is worth it as probably only be going a few days at the time to start with.
If you're in central Scotland I can give you an old, well used, but working Vaude which is same as yours, but you can stand up in it...
South Wales is a bit far from central Scotland, appreciate the offer though.
decathon tent is the default go to. I got the big 6 person airbeam version for me and my kids, I can put up/take down myself while they play in the park etc
Fit a towbar and use a trailer.
The more you can bring the comfier it will be 😀
How about a camping oven for example.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acclaim-Outdoor-Garden-Camping-Portable-BBQ-Cooker-Twin-Hob-Stove-Shelf-Oven/283653057077?epid=1966669485&hash=item420b0a2a35:g:bWIAAOSwXj5XGjSl
( Just as example, not endorsing anything 🙂 )
Have a decent size hatchback and access to a trailer so size isn't much of a concern. Usually only cook breakfast and just find a pub for dinner!
The decathlon tents do look one of the best options, but the other option is to get one a bit bigger from somewhere else that does 0% over a few months. The air tents are certainly appealing Instead of all the poles etc
My usual advice is to buy a job lot on Ebay for not very much at all but I fear that this year the prices will have skyrocketed.
I always recommend Quechua 4 ma (vis a vis style)
Had one for over a decade and everyone likes it (family and friends) and it has a table setup in middle. Lots of storage.
Don’t skip on sleeping mat. Get a rectangular self-inflating double (or two singles and a fitted sheet). 5cm thick mininum. 7.5 pref.
Got last one from ebay (used) for £25. They’re about £100 new. ie ‘Vango Comfort’ etc. The difference between that and an air mattress is massive. You can top up/expel air with a few puffs and fine tune it to perfection.
I was gonna put a job lot up on eBay at some point.
Outwell Montana with carpet and cooker. Used two or three times.
Drop me a line if that might do the job, would be about your budget looking at sold prices on eBay.
I had a look cha****ng and while it looks like a great tent the pole design doesn't look that easy to put up by yourself which is more than likely what would be happening based on the amount of arguments I've had when my Mrs tries to 'help' putting together ikea furniture 😂
No, probably not the one for you then.
🙂
That decathlon one above is what I have. Surveys us well for the past few years and was about £100 when we bought it. The air beams are nice but more expensive for what you get so it's a question of how important it is to you.
The Montana can be erected fine single-handedly, even in high winds. Just don't follow Outwells instructions!
I've just purchased a 2nd hand Montana off a mate. Out of interest what's the method for erecting it single handedly? Only if I get my missus to help it will achieve little other than providing a large dose of slapstick comedy for the other patrons of the campsite..
What about one of the teepee types ?. They actually look really big inside, and the camp beds arrange around the sides, leaving a central area. Very very easy to put up. I remember my mate and I used the double ended coleman and had a few touchy moments putting it up 😆
What we ended up doing with the coleman like the one pictures is remove one of the sleeping pods, and use the area to cook, leaving the middle as a dining, sitting viewing , and drinking area. I just used a mk2 vango for myself, mate used the other pod with his dogs.
IIRC the Outwell way is to install all of the poles then try to pull them all up at once. This is doomed to failure. Even with two folk it's a real struggle.
Install one pole set, straigthen it up, Guy it in place. Now do the one at the other end. Then do the centre pole last
Like this
Perfect! Thanks for that, had a different Outwell (can't remember the name but three sleeping pods arranged around a central space), and it was a right bastard to put up properly. Differnt pole widths and lengths, all colour coded and whatnot. Hard enough in normal circumstances, but rock up in the dark cause the missus has forgotten her straighteners and a turn back has been required, and the resulting fiasco nearly caused a catastrophic breakdown in relations. In the light of day it looked like it had been put up by a herd of tripping elephants who'd subsequently held a rave in it. Near the loos too, so no end of wits happy to share a cheery quip on their way to lighten the load
I'm having a little look around what I can find local 2nd hand before I buy new to see if there's any bargains.
Going to get some comfortable beds and maybe have a trial run in the tent I already have if nothing comes up cheap before I blow money on something new.
https://www.winfieldsoutdoors.co.uk/outdoor-revolution-cruiz-4-0-air-tent-snugrug/
Winfield’s have some good deals, this one is an air tent ( no poles) and is a good deal with an internal rug.
Happy camping
Was chatting to a work mate this week who had sold his camping kit.
He was saying that their monster 10 man tent (a decent brand, I forget which) had sold for a disproportionately small amount of money because it was so big that the market for it was small. With access to a trailer it might be worth looking that way.
We've got a massive 8 berth thing for 4 of us because we want to be able to spread out even if the weather stinks but then we're planning two week trips with kayaks and bikes.
If your kids are old enough then you could book two pitches and put them in a smaller 2-3 person tent together, which might open up options.
Seriously @wiggles - stuff your air beds. They *never* last.
https://alpkit.com/products/dozer
I moved into a doer-upper with the missus just before lockdown. We only bothered buying a bed a couple of weeks ago.
How long is the holiday for op and is it somewhere that will likely see some "sporting" winds? Cornwall etc? Self inflating airbeds are the way to go long term, no question but they are dear.
My advice is to go for the standard blow up ones initially. This is based on budget,pure and simple. Cheap and should be readily available even in these times. Buy a couple of spares if you have to, keep the receipt and take them back if not used upon return home.
The trouble with camping is that you refine it over time and stuff you think you must have doesn't get used and stuff that seems pointless cones in real handy. Main thing is to keep everyone warm and dry over night otherwise you can awake to a rebellion.😉
Get the best tent you can, practice pitching at home/local field. That's bloody crucial. Apart from anything, I've had faulty brand new tents before.
After the tent, it's warmth and comfort. So sleeping bags/duvets etc and ideally SIMs....but they cost as I said.
You going electrical hook up mate? It can limit your camping options and ups the prices but can be a life saver with kids during a week of crap weather particularly.
I've got a few Quechuas from decathlon and they are great but the sort of size you want might be out of your price range, air beam ones anyway? Not checked on current prices as I have way too many as it is.
The Montana 6 is a sound tent though, extremely popular on campsites and for good reason. If you can get your hands on a well looked after one id be sorely tempted if I were you. You really want the footprint ground sheet with it too, same for most tents as it makes packing away easier/cleaner. You can make them out of tarp if need be.
This might seem mad but if you get a second hand tent that comes with a carpet that's a real bonus. They insulate and just make a tent feel much more homely if you are in it for a week or 2 with family.
You'll get loads of conflicting advice on all the above though as camping is like bike choice on here everyone has an opinion! 😁😉
Thanks for the detailed responses guys.
I've already got sleeping bags from previous trips, folding table, small stove few air mattresses which have been my main discomfort in the past.
I am considering getting an a electric hookup, mainly just being able to keep cold milk (and beer!) But that might need to be a further down the line thing.
I've got a decent size lawn that's long but only about 3m wide so for practice/cleaning purposes something that would fit at home would be a bonus.
Annoyingly the rules in Wales currently don't permit toilet blocks at campsites so will be off to England rather than sharing a bucket with a 7 & 9 year old boy that get more piss around than in the toilet
Just to say communal facilities are closed, so no toilets or shower blocks at the moment. That's going to make camping in a tent less than ideal this season (Scotland)
if you can stretch your tent budget a little, i'd definitely recommend and air beam tent of some form. so much quicker and easier to put up in the inevitable hammering rain, sturdier than most pole tents and stand up to the crap weather, and most importantly taking them down is a doddle - no more trying to feed poles out a wet soggy lump of tent. after 30 years of camping in all types of tent, i definitely wouldn't use anything else for car / family camping
My experience is that air beds are always a pain. They allow cold air under you and as they get colder they lose a bit of air pressure so they sag. Plus they take up loads of room. These days we just use a double self-inflating mat, which is much more compact and doesn't suffer the same issues.
More importantly, for glamping, we use the Vango Ambience Double sleeping bag which is chuffing awesome.
It's 2-3 season (7-10 tog), but the genius design is the top is in two layers and has a zip down the middle of the top layer
So if you run hot and the missus runs cold you can zip off your section so you are single layered and she is double layered.
Wouldn't want to hike in with it. But for car-based camping it is perfect.
That double sleeping bag looks like a good idea, we have a double but my Mrs is always colder than me generally. I've never been camping with her yet though... Only my ex who really didn't like it so hopefully have more success this time!
So my budget kind of went out the window and I ordered a big s****y inflatable tent with a footprint and carpet...
Managed to pick up a small fridge on Facebook market place for £20 as I can borrow my dad's trailer to go camping I figure I might as well take as many luxuries as I can!
Really just need a nice mattress and a cooking table/kitchen unit to get me started now as I have a few small gas stoves.
Still waiting for my new tent to arrive but made a reservation for 3 cliffs bay in the Gower in a few weeks. Went there 10 years ago so it's been a while!
Still looking for a sleeping mat, tried a 7.5cm and 10cm today and found the 7.5cm better suited to be honest as I found the 10cm too soft but the shop I went to didn't have many in doubles and didn't seem very interested in helping me find what I wanted.
We just use a normal duvet car camping to be honest. Take fleece blanket extra if cold, fitted sheet over the mattress.
Some good deals at Haven sites, especially for NHS workers with a discount that ends tonight, we've just booked a 2-bed (can sleep 6) caravan at the Burnham-[s]Upon-Covid[/s]On-Sea site for mid September 7 nights for ~£250.
Train station not too far away from site too and there were some Advance tickets we bought earlier.
~13 miles from Draycott Steep infamous climb summit on Mendips. 😈
Second the Outwell tents if you can get hold of a good 2nd hand one. We had a Sun Valley 6 for 15 years on many happy holidays but didn't pay any attention to maintenance of the seams and we had loads of water in last year after a heavy downpour. Invested in a new Vango Airbeam a few weeks ago in anticipation of them selling out soon! Just waiting to use it now in Wales 🙂
As one of the other posters said - get the basics sorted and the rest is a bit of trial and error.
Also it helps if your family like camping too and have good senses of humour 🙂 Good luck
Still looking for a sleeping mat, tried a 7.5cm and 10cm today and found the 7.5cm better suited to be honest as I found the 10cm too soft but the shop I went to didn’t have many in doubles and didn’t seem very interested in helping me find what I wanted.
Any self-inflating mattress can have additional air blown into it to get just the right level of ‘hardness’ you require. I’ve got two, a single and a double, both 10cm, and all they require is a bit of extra puff into one valve once they’ve largely inflated themselves. Doesn’t take long to get them exactly how you want them, and they’re infinitely superior to those ghastly blue flock air bed things! I have an abiding memory of camping at the IoW Festival a few years back and all you could hear at night was the sound of air beds being continually blown up, and the sight of deflated ones dumped outside of tents the next morning.
They’re horrible cold, too, as I found to my cost one weekend in June when the weather suddenly turned cold and wet; it was a recommendation on here that pointed me towards self-inflating mattresses.
today and found the 7.5cm better suited to be honest as I found the 10cm too soft
Always found 7.5cm to be just right. I tend to like a firm mattress so I top up with a good few lungfuls until can’t get any more breath in it.
10cm would take longer to top-off/inflate and anyway the size of them packed is...massive
I've ordered a zempire 7.5cm, as above I prefer a firm mattress when I comes to beds so seems to suit me better. Even inflated the 10cm was too "squishy".
This spiraled out of control quickly and I have a lot off stuff on the way now 😂
Plan is that it's going be our main holiday for this year, but then we have it all here ready for short notice weekends away and shorter cheap breaks away in future.
As haven't really been away much the last few years one holiday every year or two, want to go and explore some places I've never been.
maybe too late and no good, but there is a sale on at Mounting Wharehouse with 70% off rucksacks and cheap tents etc, so maybe worth a look, especially if anyone here recommends any of their own brand gear
I've never been to Mounting Wharehouse, but have to say it sounds great. I'm assuming they throw in some form of protective rubber sheath to protect your pole prior to insertion..fnaar fear, yip yip etc etc
I think you'll find its call mounting whorehouse
The term self inflating mattress is misleading. They all need considerable topping uP to get to pressure but just self inflate that first bit to give a basic shape.
nothing new to add except that we went camping this weekend gone, first trip in nearly a year, and it was ace
I'm really looking forward to it now the campsite is posting regular updates on Facebook of how everything is looking getting ready to open (for tents)
Although I'm slightly nervous of the fact I have ordered 90% of the stuff we need online and nothing has arrived yet... Have 2 weeks until I go but there very little margin for error!