Tips on Choosing the Correct Tent For You

Your choice of tent is critical, so we came up with a few ideas that you should consider when buying. Happy tent hunting!

How much to spend?
This is a tough question. Our advice - if you are on a 'proper' camping trip then buy a brand. Someone like Vango, Coleman or Outwell will give you peace of mind. If you are just camping at a festival then get a cheap tent and consider it a throwaway.

How big a tent should I get?
The old advice remains solid. Buy one 'man' size bigger than you need. A two-man tent will generally be very tight if you try and fit two men in it! A larger tent will allow you to keep things away from the edge at night, reducing condensation and increasing comfort.

Check the height as well
This is a critical measurement. Lower than 1 meter is for backpackers only. Around 140cm is probably ok to sit on the floor and read a book.

You need more than this if you want to sit on a chair and wait out the weather.

Check for fire retardant
If using a lantern or stove, you want to reduce the risk of fire.

Watch out for the hydrostatic head rating (hh)
This rates the 'water-proofness'. 1500hh sensible minimum. 2000hh on better tents. Some tents may be rated higher, but experience says that a well pitched 2000hh is fine for UK weather.

Check the size of the storage bag
If the bag is tight now, then you will never squeeze the tent back in later!

Check the quality of the poles and the zip-pullers
These indicate the level of quality. We have seen 6mm diameter poles and in our opinion this is too thin for fiberglass (they break!). 8mm fiberglass poles are better. Expensive tents will have aluminum poles to save weight.

Seek out flysheet first pitching (or a tent-inner that can be left in place)
You will be very glad when it rains.

Avoid tents that pitch inner first and allow everything to get wet while you wrestle with the flysheet.

Numbers 12 (New International Version) Numbers 12 Miriam and Aaron Oppose Moses 1 Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. 2 "Has the LORD spoken only through Moses?" they asked. "Hasn't he also spoken through us?" And the LORD heard this. 3 (Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.) 4 At once the LORD said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, "Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you." So the three of them came out. 5 Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward, 6 he said, "Listen to my words: "When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. 7 But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" 9 The anger of the LORD burned against them, and he left them. 10 When the cloud lifted from above the Tent, there stood Miriam—leprous, [a] like snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had leprosy; 11 and he said to Moses, "Please, my lord, do not hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed. 12 Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother's womb with its flesh half eaten away." 13 So Moses cried out to ...