Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Tent Advice Needed

The big plan for the summer is to go camping. We have booked three weeks off. We're not sure if we will end up going to Ontario (Nerdfest 2010?!) or up north (Alaska panhandle, here we come!!) but our family is going camping. For sure.
We would love something like this or this from MEC but wonder if a cheaper version from Costco or something would work just as well. It's hard because I'm assuming that we will use it for `car camping' for now but would we take a tent of that size on a backpacking trip when the boys are bigger or would they want to be in their own 2 or 3 man tent (we already have two great MEC tents..a 2 man and a 3 man)? Anyone have a tent that they would recommend? We just love our MEC 3 and 4 season tents because you know rain or shine, that you are fine!
Oh ya, one thing, the tent needs to fit a playpen in it right now because we must contain our monkey, Koen.
So, invest in a good one?
Oh man, I'm getting so excited!! We have only taken Kai camping once and he was just 7 months old. It's time!!

7 comments:

  1. Lou, if you're car camping we have some big tents you can borrow, but I'd need to go to vernon first (timeline?).
    If it were me I'd try to borrow one. Once they are a year or two older, there's nothing more exciting than the boys having their "own" small tent/fort etc... then the big one would be overkill, plus as you said it's no good for backcountry.
    My 2c.

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  2. There is a store on Vedder rd in Sardis on the left hand side across from the Base that sells tents that have been used or rented out once or twice. They are VERY cheap. We got our 6 person tent from there and it has worked great! I forget the name though... maybe Vedder Mountain coop?

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  3. Ontario is the bomb dot see aye. It's not BC, but it'll sure make Manitoba cry.

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  4. I vote go MEC--their tents last forever and quality is KEY with tents! That's my vote

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  5. we have a MEC tent we used up until last year, only because it was too small for us. we went super big and bought at WalMart, i think. i believe Costco and Canadian Tire were both selling it, but it was cheapest at WalMart - it's a Coleman, so definitely a car-camping tent, but we LOVE it. when we get back into 'real' camping, neither kid will be in a playpen, or they won't be with us, or they will have their own.
    but for less than half the price, we love our new big tent that would give us sufficient room to play should be be stuck in a rainy day situation while camping :)
    have fun choosing!

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  6. hi louise

    i have a MEC tent and i LOVE it. it was definitely worth the investment. i've camped with many kinds of tents and it's by far the best one i've used. we were stuck in the pouring rain without any tarps and did not get ANY water inside whatsoever. but i did invest in the footprint (like a bottom sheet) and an extra vestibule to go with the fly that already comes with it. either way though, the tents themselves are great quality!

    kristin (heinen)

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  7. No comment on the tent - just wanted to brag that we just bought a Trillium trailer circa 1974. We'll be the coolest site in the campground:)

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