GEAR: TENT REVIEWS
Lightweight tents reviewed
Ahuge six-berth tent is great for summer holidays with your family. Simply put it in the boot of the car and head to the campsite. But what if you want to try something a little bit more adventurous, like a backpacking or cycle camping trip or a wild camping adventure?
Because you’ll be carrying all your equipment in a rucksack, or in panniers on your bike, you’ll need a completely different type of tent.
For backpacking trips, the size and weight of your tent is vital as it will be on your back for a few hours a day.
While you might not need the sort of ultra-lightweight gear that is available for the real specialists, you will want to keep the weight of your pack down as much as possible, without compromising on comfort during your overnight adventures in the great outdoors.
At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, a good lightweight tent is the most important piece of kit you will need for overnight trips, either on foot or on a bike, and our backpacking experts have gathered together some of the best new lightweight backpacking tents for 2021 as well as some old favourites that are still available.
Most of the tents in our round-up are two-berth and are just about big enough for two campers to share. But, for me, a tent of that size is better for one person and if you want to share a shelter, I’d suggest you upsize to a three-berth.
The ease of pitching, weight and size, makes Vango’s Starav 200 a great entry-level tent for newcomers to backpacking or wild camping, especially at such a decent price.
For around £200, you get a simple, well-made two-man tunnel tent, which takes a few minutes to put up, and packs down easily and quickly into its bag, thanks to the oversized opening. Compression straps let you squash the bag down as much as possible to allow it to fit inside your rucksack.
As with most tunnel-shaped tents, pitching is really easy. Colour-coded short poles at the front and back, along with one large pole in the centre, create the shape. It’s this simplicity that makes the Starav 200 perfect for first-time campers.
However, there is plenty more to the Starav 200 than meets the eye. The fact that the flysheet and inner pitch together means it’s ideal for UK weather conditions and Vango’s exclusive TBS II Tension Band System provides additional strength when the wind really picks up. The 70D polyester flysheet, with 3,000mm hydrostatic head, is highly waterproof and durable, and the lightweight alloy poles combine strength with flexibility.
In warmer conditions, the large, zipped ventilation panels at each end let you create a good airflow, keeping temperatures down and minimising condensation.
The side vestibule is a good-sized storage area and there are handy inner storage pockets for keeping essential items safe but easily accessible.
For a simple tent at a great price, this is a hard one to beat.