N.B. It seems difficult to find the green colourway online. I believe the next model year has been released in a less-than-stealthy red, with the same feature list as the green one here. Stand-Out Features The sleeping area is well-ventilated and has darkened fabric in this section to reduce incoming light. It can split into two separate bedrooms and is comfortably-sized for a family of four. Four Airbeams Actually we should give a shoutout to the windows on the Antrim – they are excellent. The ‘glass’ needs to be seen to be believed and the Diamond Clear name they have chosen is very apt. These are up there with the best windows on the tent scene at the moment. Lounge and Sleeping Area The Air Seconds 6.3 is a 6-person tent and uses four air beams to supply support to the structure. Pumping up is simple but beware that this tent is the the only one in our list which does not come with its own pump. Instead, you are recommended to separately buy the 7PSI hand pump from Decathlon.

The main difference between the 6L and 6XL is the dimensions. The 6L measures 820cm (L) x 300cm (W) x 200cm (H). The 6XL switches this around a bit by being 740cm (L) x 440cm (W) x 215cm (H). As a family, we found the 6XL to be the better layout for the way we like to live in a tent. In Use 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 compartmentsThey claim to provide an easy way for you to plan where you're going to place your tent without having to pitch it fully, and provide an extra layer of waterproofing and insulation from the ground below. The Kielder range comes with all the features we recommend for tents – they have an access flap for an electric hookup cable and exceedingly good waterprooofness – the hydrostatic head is 6000mm for the main tent and 10000mm for the groundsheet. You won’t be getting wet! If you’re looking to go on a family camping adventure, you’ll first need the right tent. We’ve put together 15 family tents that our camping experts recommend for 2024. We’ve also included everything you should look for in a family tent before purchasing one. What to look for when buying a new family tent The Antrim is slightly shorter than the Coleman however (600cm vs 665cm) and less wide (380cm vs 450cm) which needs to be borne in mind – do you need the extra real estate? Height is ample at 210cm in both. In the initial test of this tent, the winds were very high. 30mph sustained, 50mph gusts kind of high. But the Berghaus Cairngorm 3 matched the performance I’ve witnessed tents costing 4 times as much. Short of a slightly bent pole and many a snapped guy line (more on that later), the tent held up well to the wind and even better against the rain. Which is more than can be said of our ability to sleep that night.

All the poles are obviously colour coded and easy to feed into the meshed pole sleeves and locate in each of the ‘lugs’ nice and secure, with individual tensioning straps available all the way around. Once up, it’s just a case of pegging down all the guy lines and it’s game on. For my wife and I, this is a little too close for comfort, and we feel slightly more comfortable in the Coleman which has 140cm per bedroom. Definitely bear this in mind when choosing. Of course if there are only 4 of you to sleep then you can unzip one of the bedrooms to make a much bigger master bedroom. Assembly is a breeze as you would expect using the supplied manual pump. Weight of the 6L is 29kG which is actually pretty good for a 6-person tent. The XL increases this slightly to 30.5kg.

Our favourite family tents

As its name suggests, the 6XL is a 6 person tent, but there is substantial room inside – for once a tent has been designed to comfortably support the number of people it claims! The Vango comes with a decent pump as standard and there are four airbeams to pump up in total, taking around 15 minutes for full inflation if you’re being relaxed about it. Decathlon make a great marketing pitch about the resilience of the Air Seconds tent against rain and wind. They quote 4 hours of hammering with water at 200 litres per hour per square metre with no leakage. Similarly, they test each design in a wind tunnel on a turntable to ensure that the tent can survive wind battering from any direction, even at 60km/h. Sadly we did not have the opportunity to confirm these numbers. There is an access hatch for the electric hookup cable to be passed through, which seems like an easy feature to include, but is missed by many manufacturers – we need our mod cons! Maybe not for the tallest campers Despite its large size, the Coleman Mosedale 5 is surprisingly easy to pitch due to its simple tunnel construction. With two bedrooms and a spacious living area, the Mosedale can comfortably house a family of up to 5 people.

So, now the scope is set, I introduce the Berghaus Cairngorm 3. This 3 man tent is Semi-Geodesic in shape, supposedly better at providing ‘useable’ space, and to the more discerning eye, makes it look pretty damn cool. The drive to recycle old plastic is an excellent initiative because it helps reduce the amount of plastic going to landfill and harming the environment for future generations. I’m not particularly “green”, but for me it’s a no-brainer to choose a product which can make a difference in this way – especially when you consider that the Joro 600XL is made with the equivalent of 261 plastic bottles! Dimensions and Layout It’s probably better to think of the Antrim as more of a 4 person tent with oodles of space, rather than a 6 person tent with cramped quarters. The Air 6XL is exceptionally well designed, irrespective of the material choice you make. It’s spacious and feels a quality choice – this is a tent to last a lifetime. The high price-tag therefore needs to be looked at as an investment in your family’s future and a potential creator of amazing memories. We believe it makes sense to spend a little extra to help facilitate this. You may not have heard of polycotton before – it is essentially a 65%/35% mixture of polyester (modern waterproof modern tent fabric) and cotton (traditional breathable canvas). By combining the two you get improved breathability but with similar waterproofing ability, as well as a natural feel.I was slightly surprised to find out that the Vango Ringstead only has 3000mm of hydrostatic head waterproofing. As I say, there was no sign of any leaking, and so either Vango are underplaying it or other manufacturers are over-exaggerating their numbers (more likely). I counted 3 air vents in total in the tent which allowed great air flow, and there was no condensation build-up even when the weather was humid.