Our first family camping trip with the Vango Anteus 600 6 Person Family Tent

It’s been 2 weeks since our first camping trip, definitely time to share our adventure with you. My children have been part of our local District Scouts for the past 3 years. Both of them have camped out at our local Scout Hut and my son has been away camping. When we received an invitation to a Family Camp at Phasels Wood we jumped at the chance to experience camping together.

Now I haven’t camped since school but we were excited to try camping as a family. We were camping at Phasels Wood Scout Campsite and Activity Centre about 30 minutes from where we live. We were cooking and eating with our Scout group which meant all we needed was our own tent and sleeping stuff.

Our first family camping trip with the Vango Anteus 600 Family Tent

Some friends advised us to try out Go Outdoors so we went to check out their line of tents. Many of their tents were on display which really helped us decide on the Vango Anteus 600 Family Tent which slept 6. My son was sleeping with the Cubs but we thought this would offer us plenty of room when we camped as a family another time.

The children had sleeping bags and ground mats from their previous camping trips, so as well as our Vango Anteus 600 Family Tent we bought a double air bed and double sleeping bag. We already had folding chairs for each of us and picnic blankets. My husband makes us go to a lot of Air shows so these are essential for siting and watching planes. We used the picnic blankets inside our tent and also invested in an Airgo Compac 1 Stand. We thought we would use this as a table for playing games but we actually kept it outside in the porch area of the tent. It was perfect for holding drinks, snacks and our plates and cutlery.

The Vango Anteus 600 was so easy to put up that it didn’t take us long to set up at all. We arrived super early at the camp so we could set up and the children could run around with their friends. The weekend was all organised for us so we were able to relax and enjoy ourselves. The kids took part in loads of activities but these were all staffed by Phasels Wood so we were able to help prepare and serve the food, and of course do the washing up for the hundreds of Beavers, Cubs and Scouts who were there.

You can see some of the activities we got up to at Phasels Wood in this short video:

The Vango Anteus 600 Family Tent

So how did we sleep in the Vango Anteus 600? I hadn’t been camping for a long time so found it pretty strange to be honest. The tent was large and roomy with a canopy area to give you some outside space. I thought it was huge and the sleeping compartment had a dividing wall, although we removed this and all slept together. The sleeping compartment also had a inner tent which kept it a little darker. It also kept the rain off which made it easier to sleep when it rained one night. I felt a little cold in the night but it wasn’t too bad.

We had a great weekend. Being part of an organised camping trip meant we could just enjoy ourselves. The kids got to try loads of new activities and enjoyed the communal living and eating. There was even a sing song around the campfire.

Our Vango Anteus 600 was perfect for us. We noticed it was quite a popular tent and lots of other families had it. We also found the Airgo Compac 1 Stand really useful. For our next trip I would bin the plates, bowls and cutlery set we bought from Go Outdoors. It was cheap and cheerful and flimsy. I would also love to get the Airgo Gear Buggy to transport our equipment from the car to the campsite. Some of our friends used a wheelbarrow but I think we would use the buggy at Air Shows and other days out too.

I would also want to get some kind of hanging storage for our next trip. The Vango Anteus 600 had inner tent pockets and a place to hang up a lantern. Some people had hanging wash bags which could be hung up in the communal bathrooms and I would definitely buy something like this for toiletries but also for inside the tent. I think that was the only thing which annoyed me, living out of a bag and never being able to find anything!

I’m really pleased that the weather was good and the whole family enjoyed our first family camping trip. We all enjoyed it enough to want to go again over the Summer holidays. We were packed in quite tightly so I would like to try a smaller campsite where you don’t have to hear everyone’s conversations! We would also like to try cooking for ourselves. I can’t wait to start planning 🙂