For two people, not two midgets perched on a mountainside in a storm each only capable of carrying the weight of a feather and a matchstick.

Need a tent big enough for two people to go on holliday, to a campsite and not leave more stressed than they arrived. By conventional rateing systems this probably makes it a 20 man tent.

Travelling by car?

Budget? – like everything but perhaps more than many "strong light cheap – pick two"

Just bought a Vango Equinox 450 (four man) which gets 10/10 reviews and was a decent price. They do a smaller 350 that's 3ish man – also very good. Extremely well made and very weatherproof. Also easy to put up!

By small car, the MG! Realisticaly 2 people could probably carry more on their backs.

Something the size of the vango equinox 450 surf-mat suggested, but about £50 or less? Is that possible?

Outwell are the only tents to buy, good range and worth the cash.

i'm also looking for a tent for 2 people, travelling by car, camping in 'nice' conditions.

vango equinox looks a bit small, i think i'd want one with more headroom and myabe put table + chairs inside.

anyone a decathlon tent like one of these?
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/EN/base-seconds-4-1-117139074/#
or
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/EN/t4-2-xl-35289256/#

Something like http://www.outdoormegastore.co.uk/acatalog/Vango_Icarus_300_Family_Tunnel_Tent.html for car camping,
dont see the point of the equinox style tents, too heavy to carry for backpacking, too small too sit out a storm on folding chairs and do a bit of cooking in comfort.

Crikey, didn't realise tents could cost so much!

Does anyone have experience with £50 ish tents, the kind you get form argos and halfords rather than blacks and cotswold?

i've currently got this one
http://www.millets.co.uk/camping/tents/1-2-person-tents/product/090158.html

only used it twice, but its absolutely fine, coped with a couple of night time downpours just fine. bit of a porch to keep some stuff in, suits 2 people fine for a weekend.

Outwell are the only tents to buy, good range and worth the cash.

I've been doing loads of research of late, looking for a mid sized family tent, Outwells don't generally do as well on the reviews as their cheaper competitors, whether that is because they are more expensive and people's expectations are higher, I don't know, seems to be a lot of complaints about their 'rain safe' doors and leaking in general, it's clear that they are not the only tents to buy.

Tent reviews

We've got one of the Decathlon 2-second tents, a 3man I believe and its great, easy to out up (obviously), relatively easy to take down, and actually quite sturdy. With the 3man we can put an inflatable double bed in easy-peasy for 😉 more comfort.

Her indoors and myself started with a '3man' tent from Blacks – dome with a porch on the front. Typical kinda size I guess – couldn't stand in it, but decent sized dome bit & porch that we could both fit in.

But, seeing as the UK weather generally leaves you stuck inside as it pees it down outside we found it a bit cramped and ended up buying a Vango Orchy 600.
It's pretty big for the two of us, but we find it ideal. Plenty of space for all our stuff and you can stretch your legs out nicely. It's about 2m tall & the dome part is the living area, whereas the slopey bit off the back is the sleeping area, which makes good sense.

They do it in 400 & 500 flavours too which are smaller versions and probably just as suitable.

£50? I hope you're only gonna use it when there's no wind or rain 😕

Quechua T4.1 from Decathlon. £100 though. You can stand up in it, put up a table and have your dinner in in, and so on.

Wouldn't mess about with any tent you can't stand up in across a large area of (ie, the £60 big Vango domes Go Outdoors occasionally sell).

Vango force 10

If it ain't broke why try to fix it

Shame about the weight of them though

Dunno about that, spent a night in a storm halfway up an alp a few years back in a 30yr old tent, if that kept me dry i'm sure anything will do the job in nicer weather 😀

Not planning on going out in the rain.

I've got a Vango Equinox 250 and it's utterly excellent. However if you want more space I'd go for the 450. They are superbly made, very quick and easy to put up and bring down, the quality of the materials and construction are very good.

With tents, like many other things, you do get what you pay for. It may be worth looking for a second-hand one on eBay; growing families sometimes sell of perfectly good tents. If you pick one up, clean it thoroughly and get hold of a couple of bottles of Nikwax Solar Proof (I think that's what it's called) – waterproofing and UV-proofing stuff, restores tent materials.

: P

Me and our lass use this…

http://www.buachaille.com/p37-2-21/2-3-Season-Tents/Vango-Storm-300+-Tent.html

Goes up quick, plenty of space. Not too big when packed.

Just get a Vango, any one of them. Fairly sturdy construction, good back-up with parts availability, well priced for what you get.
Specialized of the tent world?

I have a Hydra 200 plus and some Vango Force 10 prototype thing, previously had a Micro 300TBS, but went beyond re-proofing in the end, started off purple, ended up a pale lilac.

we were given an ex demo wynster buzzard from TISO, we used it all over the place for years, standing room and all. its way too heavy to carry anywhere but for extended canoe/car use its great for the money
http://www.wynnster.com/detail.asp?p=559
just seen this,might be a bit big but cheap as chips

Outwell are the only tents to buy, good range and worth the cash.

totally disagree – i find outwell are an overhyped brand, whoes demo tents are just covered in wording to highlight supposed extra. and can fill a camping shop with over priced junk like the 'fitted carpet'

as to the OP – if your after cheap camping for 2. I started out with a little 3 eurohike tent. slept 2 comfortably inside on a double airbed. with a overnight bag besides. Used to go camping by hiking/train journeys too, so the tent was strapped to the bottom of the rucksack, tho the rucksack had to say in the porch area. if there was 2 inside

that was ok, only cost about £30, lasted a few years.

our current smallish tent for normal camping is a Vango Sigma 300+ which we got for £60. packs up fairly small (or first camping trip with it was in our MX5 with the rest of the camping gear + our 2 marshal's hold alls. and bought the tent at a camping shop in a sale on the way to a meeting as the tent we had ordered online hadnt arrived in time. and it was a cheap way of being able to go to the race meeting.
That has a decent bedroom area, that we can get a double lilo inside, with a small bag to one side. plus 2 porches at each end for putting your shoes in.

Good lightweight tent in a small pack size for general camping. semi-geodesic gives ok resisance to battering from winds – but the poles are little on the thin side for the mountaineering stuff of more expensive tents.

otherwise, we normally use a Vango Tornado 300 when going away and its going to be strong winds. which is in a different league. (and with a price to go with it.) very quick to go up – 3 alu poles, strong design, light and packs up small. But it is £200.

but our main workhorse (bearing in mind we are pretty much camping through the motorsport season March to October most weekends) is a Wynnster Curlew 6

our origonal Curlew lasted 3 seasons, being used most weekends. after 3 seasons the poles were getting a bit weak, and the material was looking very bleached from the sun.
Since nothing else comes close to it, we bought an updated version last year. The only difference between the old and new version was the new has a sewn in ground sheet, which cuts out some of the drafts in side in the living area.
Its tall enough to stand up in, we dont put up the seperate 2 person bedroom, prefering the extra room, the 4 person bedroom is massive. and you can pick one up for around £99. but it does pack down a fair bit larger than the others i have mentioned.

Go-outdoors have 20% off all tents this weekend (doesn't inc accessories, footprints, carpets etc)

I just bought a Vango Icarus 500, footprint and extension canopy, for £180 inc an extra 15% discount on everything that they were offering tonight.

Not planning on going out in the rain.

No-one ever does! 😉