To tent or two tent

[The Family Cyclist]

We have a well used and loves family tent. I lent it to my brother last year and it leaked badly in a  it storm, I do wonder if the fact I treated it with fabsil spray caused this or if it was just the sheer volume of rain

I'll get it out when I have time and check it with a hose but we may be in the market for a new tent or maybe two

I'm wondering if getting two smaller tents might work better as we have a cycle camping trip planned in 2022 and I'm sure as they get bigger they might not want to share with mum and dad

We do often camp for over a week so our current tent has reasonable space for cooking etc if the weather is grim

[drossall]

It depends how you've used it before, and the range of things you might want tents for in future. True family tents are large and heavy for cycle camping, unless you're driving to a base and cycling out on day rides from there. True lightweight tents can be expensive and quite specialist. So I suspect that people here would want more information about these points and your budget, whether you're really buying for one trip, and so on.

[Speshact]

We swapped a family tent for two cycle touring tents and an awning. It worked very well - I'd cycle tour to a destination, Mrs and Miss Speshact would join me via train with the second tent and awning. One thing to be wary of though: some campsites charge per tent rather than per pitch, so it's worthwhile checking in advance that they'll accept two 'pup' tents under an awning as a family tent. I preferred to have the argument in advance rather than having arrived on site!

[Joe.B]

We have a large family tent but also use a pair of small tents and a tarp from time-to-time.  In one of the photo’s below we’re using two of our own tents, in the other a Terra Nova Laser Space 3.
We borrowed the Laser Space from a friend for a trip through Germany and the Netherlands when Mrs B decided that her back wasn’t up to spending 3 weeks our regular tent.  It turned out to be the best tent we’ve ever used for a family tour but sadly it has been out of production for a while now so we’ve been unable to find one of our own.  After giving up on finding a Laser Space I bought a Luxe Mega Horn pointy tent instead. It isn’t as light as the Terra Nova but it does provide plenty of space, used with a single 2 person inner there is plenty of space left over for other uses.

IMG_20170429_190442264 by Joe B, on Flickr

IMG_20170805_195421425 by Joe B, on Flickr

IMG_20200824_192113427_HDR by Joe B, on Flickr