Summer Camping ft. Blacks Online #1

I haven't really mentioned this on my blog but growing up, from the ages of around 7 to 13 or so, I went camping every summer with my parents, sister and friends to various places around the UK including Dorset, Llandudno and Oban. I absolutely loved camping, it was a great holiday and it meant that I grew up loving nature, horses and exploring - nothing has changed. I haven't been camping since I was around 15 years old which is ten years ago so a summer camping trip is definitely over due!

*Eurohike Cairns 5 Person Deluxe Tent (£80 - sale)

I was very kindly sent a few camping products from the very generous people over at Blacks Online. They stock a huge range of camping equipment, tents, footwear, accessories, essentials and clothing so you can pick up everything you need for your camping adventure! I was kindly sent the Eurohike Cairns 5 Person Deluxe Tent from Blacks as well as a couple of airbeds which I'll review in a separate post.

I have so many amazing memories of camping with friends and family such as paddling in the waters at the base of Ben Nevis, exploring the Great Orme (it's a Bronze Age copper mine), splashing around in the lido on the Llandudno promenade and almost being swept away by the wind at Fort William but it's not all happy memories as the tent set up and taking it down was extremely boring and sometimes painful experience - trapped fingers, caught skin and the horrendous feeling of boredom as a child/teen.

I didn't do much of the tent set up, the dads did that but it was still very tedious and boring so I wasn't looking forward to setting up this tent but thankfully it was a breeze! The tent we used when I was growing up was definitely bigger than this one and it had a plethora of poles, pegs and guide ropes, the latter was very easy to trip over! Our previous tent seemed to take an age to put up and to pack away; however the Eurohike tent took no longer than 20 minutes to put up and even less time to take down!

Unlike our previous behemoth of a tent, this one is still very spacious but it only has three poles that are needed to set it up which compared to the countless ones for the old tent is fantastic and it means that the set up is much quicker, easier and far less complicated. It really didn't take long to lay down the sheet, thread the poles through the slots of the tent and to hammer down the pegs so the tent is secure. In total it did only take around 20 to 25 minutes to set it up even in this heatwave - I think it was about 27 degrees on the day we put up the tent. You will have seen some of the set up on my instagram stories (@ofbeautyand).

The tent can fit five people which didn't seem possible considering that the tent came in such a relatively small, compact bag but it's like the tardis, it's bigger on the inside. It can easily fit two double airbeds in it (or five sleeping bags) with a little room to spare. There is a lot of space, it's taller and much bigger than I thought it would be. It also has a porch area which would be great to store muddy shoes and coats or chairs.

The tent was so easy to set up and it was very quick and easy to take down as well, thankfully as I was melting in the heat (naturally I was wearing black jeans too, not my best summer outfit choice). The poles fold down and both the tent and sheet are easily to roll up to fit back inside the small holdall style bag that it can be stored and transported in.

Overall, I'm so impressed with the Eurohike tent, the quality is fantastic, it's a great size (our previous tent was massive and very cumbersome) and it's very easy to transport. The set up process is what impressed me the most as it was incredibly quick and fuss free. I cannot recommend this tent enough and you can see some of the set up and inside of the tent in the short video below. Check out Blacks for camping equipment, tents and more!

Have you been camping? Will you be checking out Blacks?