Tents with rigid poles made of stainless steel or aluminium are for building a rigid frame that will keep your tent sturdy in the wind. They can be heavier and more cumbersome to pitch, though. Barrier-free access - the groundsheet sits flat to the ground, preventing any tripping hazards, and making access in and out easier. An accessory worth getting is the carpet for this part of the tent. This will help make your tent feel warmer at night, providing that extra ground insulation. The Built-In Porch

You'll want to ensure your tent footprint is the same size as the tent you're pitching – several manufacturers sell footprints specifically to fit certain tent models. If you like this tent but want a slightly large one, look at the Coleman Castle Pines 4L. Details Attribute A well-ventilated tent will make for a more comfortable, condensation-free camping experience, and well-positioned vent panels and doors with fly screens allow for the free flow of air while keeping bugs out of your sleeping space. 4) Indoor space and flexible sleeping compartments We pitch every tent, taking into account how long it takes, how clear the instructions are, how much physical effort is required, and how convenient the process is. Not all tents have indoor communal spaces that can house all the campers if the weather turns, and even those that do aren't always large enough for everyone to be comfortable.

Customer Area

Some of the major brands you’ll come across in your journey to find the best tent for you include Big Agnes, Vango, Coleman, MSR, Terra Nova, Outwell, Decathlon, Hilleberg and The North Face.There are lots of newcomers entering the (muddy) field, too, with innovative designs coming from brands such as Tentsile, with its sublime floating tree tents, and Cinch, with its nifty pop-up modular tent. What's the best HH rating for a tent? There are also tents with inflatable poles. You'll need to pump up each pole individually, so it can take a bit of effort, but you can avoid trying to feed the poles through the tent canvas. Pitching is with flexible poles that slot together. These are colour-coded and slot into sleeves on the tent that match the colour of the pole. The main door is nice and wide, and the groundsheet folds flat here, so no one trips in and out of the tent.

Front and Side Entry points, offer easier access in adverse weather conditions, and also allow for plenty of ventilation during the daytime.The bedroom doors also come with bug-free mesh, so you can open them up to vent during the day without flies and mosquitos getting in there. The Inner Living Space The bug-mesh inner doors were effective too. On the barmy nights I spent in the Castle Pines 4L, the mosquitoes were out in force, compelling me and the kids to cover up and then seek shelter inside the tent, and the bitey blighters were unable to follow us. The groundsheet is sturdy, and of course it’s sewn in too, so creatures can’t crawl in that way either. I was testing this tent amid a drought, so rain was the least of our worries, but the fly has an impressive hydrostatic head rating of 6000mm, which makes it very waterproof, and I would have no hesitation about using this tent in all kinds of conditions. Like all large family tents, the interior is so large it will never warm up from body heat, like little tents do, so it will be chilly when temperatures drop in autumn, when good sleeping bags will be required. An optional awning or canopy can provide protection from the sun and rain, creating a shaded area from which to enjoy the outdoors without having to stay inside your tent. 10) Extra features

Fully taped polyester flysheet + rising sewn-in PE groundsheet - a taped polyester flysheet will prevent water from penetrating the living space, and the sewn-in groundsheet gives excellent protection from draughts and bugs. This part of the tent can take cable entry from both sides, which gives you more flexibility when pitching. It's very common for manufacturers to be generous about the number of people they say can fit inside their tents. The number they give will be technically true, but it probably won't account for the space needed for campers' belongings, or the space people need for a comfortable night's sleep. If you've ever had trouble finding your tent at a festival, that's not a problem you're likely to run into with the Decathlon Forclaz Trekking Dome Tent. It comes in one colour option – a dazzling white – which should make it easy to find at any time, although the downside is that after a few outings, it's likely to have settled into a grubby grey with hints of grass stains. We inspect the interiors of the tents during and after testing to see how each fares against the elements. Some tents manage to stay firm, but others blow over and even have puddles in the sleeping compartments.That's plenty of space for placing camping storage furniture, which is what we recommend for longer family camping holidays to avoid your tent descending into chaos ;-) Once up, with all the guy ropes pegged out, the Castle Pines 4L feels both spacious and very secure. Tunnel tents are never as bombproof as dome or geodesic designs, but in high winds there are several cords that can be tensioned to provide extra structural stability. We were fortunate enough to get our hands on a Coleman Castle Pines 4L, which lived up to expectations.