Sleeping in the sky

Sleep under the stars, off the ground and out of reach of animals: we look at the best rooftop tents

NEVER before has the demand for outdoor and camping equipment been so high as it is right now. The UK has gone camping crazy. I chat to advertisers and contacts, they have containers full of hundreds of rooftop tents on their way to Europe and the UK. When they arrive, they are all sold within hours or days. What will happen to all of those poor roof tents once we are allowed to fly all over the world again? Facebook market place or ebay I suppose?

As we find ourselves in the midst of a rooftop tent explosion I have decided to do a buying guide for those who are about to wade through the vast and ever-expanding roof top tent marketplace.

Some like to sleep in hotels, others prefer ground tents, while a third group prefer a tent on the roof of their Land Rover. One of the main bugbears of those who don’t like a rooftop tent is that once it is up, you cannot drive anywhere unless you pack it away. Some tents only take seconds to pack away, while others take several minutes.

The first thing to remember is that not all rooftop tents were created equal. You can easily get something for under £1000 like the Front Runner roof top tent. I’ve been using one of these for a few years now and can’t fault it. It does the job in snow, rain and strong winds. These type of tents with their zip-able, heavy-duty covers take a bit of time to pack away and can be labour intensive however, not great for the old and infirm. There is also the option of getting a tent with gas struts that self erects once you unlatch the clips, examples of this type are the Alu-cab Gen 3.1 or the ADV Aero Luxury. Or you can get something like the tent that opens and closes itself with the push of a button like the Bundutec Bundutop tent thanks to the winch in the roof of it. For those with no budget restrictions there is the £10k Alu Cab Icarus conversion, as carried out a few months ago by a journalist in that other Land Rover magazine. This turns your Defender into pop-top camper but you will have to say goodbye to your original roof and brace yourself for having a slightly higher replacement. Read on to find out which ten tents made our feature.