We're discussing the great outdoors and sharing some top tips and advice to make your next camping trip as stress-free as possible.

Our experts explain the confusing jargon, and discuss the gear you really need for a hassle free and enjoyable night's sleep beneath the stars.

We also discuss how we test tents, the best walks in the UK and the equipment you should consider before your next trip outdoors.

Read our latest tent reviews (subscription needed) & check our our ultimate camping essentials checklist.

Unknown Speaker 0:02

Hello, and welcome. I'm Harry kind, and I'm Grace Forell, and this is Get Answers for living your best consumer life.

Unknown Speaker 0:09

When life gives you questions, which get answers.

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Spring is finally here. And the great outdoors is calling. Camping holidays might seem budget friendly, but if you're new to it, there's a lot of equipment you need to buy and cost concern. stackup. So how can you bring the comforts of home to the great outdoors without spending a fortune? Where should you land between the bare necessities and Bear Grylls and ultimately, how do you avoid waking up in a puddle? We'll be answering all of these questions in today's episode. If you're a fan of the show, it would help us hugely if you could leave us a rating and a review. It won't take long, I promise and it helps us reach new audiences. Right grace? Are you much of a camper?

Unknown Speaker 0:50

Do you know I do actually really like camping. I think my first camping experiences have been festivals. I go to festivals every year. I can't sometimes I glamp. I've been camping with my children. It is something I really enjoy, actually, and this year where we're supposed to be going camping with our school or the parents and kids from school. So that'll be interesting. It

Unknown Speaker 1:09

sounds like a massive, great big social experiment. What could possibly go wrong?

Unknown Speaker 1:14

Yeah. Sounds like a movie. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:16

I have never been to a festival. Never come. No, it's terrible, isn't it. But we used to go camping in a place called New Gale right by the sea, which was just like surfing camping. So you'd go and everyone would just spend the day on the beach and then beyond that campsite, and I like it. I like a bit of getting outdoors. I like cooking outdoors. I am always slightly put off a by tents getting wet, and be by campsite always being a little bit of a weird place. Lots of people around, I would quite happily get out and go a little bit wild. Well, I'm really excited that we're joined today by Sian Lewis. Sian is an award winning travel journalist, the creator of the hugely popular the girl outdoors blog and author of The Girl outdoors book. So hello, and welcome, Sian.

Unknown Speaker 2:03

Hi, thanks for having me.

Unknown Speaker 2:03

Thank you for joining us. And we're also joined by Joel Bates, who is the go to guy for tent testing here at which because we also test tents, who knew? And he's gonna be telling us exactly what he does to test tents. First of all, though, you've got a challenge for grace. Am I right in saying that? Yes,

Unknown Speaker 2:20

you are. Yes, I've got a tent down here. Which you'd like to pitch it in the studio grace.

Unknown Speaker 2:27

So you want me you want me to pitch a tent in the studio? Yes.

Unknown Speaker 2:30

You won't have to pick it out. Because we can't stick pegs into the carpet. But yeah, let's give it a little go. Okay, I see I get on. Oh, I'll

Unknown Speaker 2:37

give it a go. What kind of tent is it?

Unknown Speaker 2:39

It's a backpacking tent. So it's really small, quite compact. I chose it for that reason. So hopefully it will fit in the studio and won't sort of drown China's all out. But yeah, it also goes up in quite a unique way compared to most tents that you might come across. So that's why I picked it see I get on with it.

Unknown Speaker 2:53

You will have to tell me how what it is then I can't stop putting it off if it's a unique way of sampling it that I've never done. Well,

Unknown Speaker 2:59

there's instructions. Oh, okay.

Unknown Speaker 3:04

Well, I guess you should get on with that then. And while we do that, we are going to be talking about camping. All right,

Unknown Speaker 3:10

let's see if I can pitch the tent in the time it takes to record the podcast.

Unknown Speaker 3:16

Okay, so they are unpacking that tent very much not a natural camping environment is this basement studio. But Shawn Right, camping. I feel like it's something that like a lot of people do as kids. It's something that can feel like a little bit ridiculous, almost a little bit masochistic. But give us the pitch, right? Why should we be out camping?

Unknown Speaker 3:38

Camping is a funny one. Because I think a lot of us have memories. As kids, I can clearly remember the slightly moldy smell of my dad's canvas tent. But I still think I really enjoyed those trips that might just be nostalgia. Camping has come a long way and a lot of us camp, maybe just in the middle of summer or we go to festivals. But a lot of people are also a bit scared of camping. They're not sure if it's for them. I'm obviously a big fan of camping. I think it is a really, really wonderful way to get outside sleep under the stars. Maybe put your phone away for a bit and kind of relax into outdoor living. But I can see why it's not for everyone and you've got to deal with the weather you've got to deal with learning to use new kit. I really do think it's worth giving it a go though if you've never tried camping because it's really relaxing. If you do get a rare Sunny, lovely balmy day in Britain is pretty magical. It's also really affordable way to get out and go on holiday. And there are some surprisingly gorgeous campsite in the UK as well. So it is it's well worth giving it a go. And

Unknown Speaker 4:34

you're all about that kind of giving it a go mentality that those bite size adventures. How can we all fit that into our daily lives do you think

Unknown Speaker 4:42

definitely so I think you also see pictures of really gnarly wild campers mountain side with the wind blowing the tents away. I personally don't enjoy that very much I quite enjoy it being camping being good fun. Yeah. So I think there's nothing wrong with going camping for just a day or two in the nice in this weather and probably enjoying yourself and also working up to those maybe those more adventurous camps that you might have seen on telly or something. Yeah, see Bear Grylls off doing. You can start in your local campsite and make it really fun, go away with your mates or with your family. That doesn't need to be tough. It doesn't need to be a challenge. And

Unknown Speaker 5:14

I suppose if you're doing it, like, I just did a weekend fairly last minute, then you can check the weather. Like you could just go, oh, it's nice weather this weekend. Let's go camping.

Unknown Speaker 5:23

Absolutely, I think people are intimidated that it might be cold and wet. And that is that can be really miserable if you get it a bit wrong. So I would always say, leave it last minute, check the weather, go to a nice campsite, maybe go to a campsite with things you want, like hot shower, or some nice lose and enjoy yourself. And yeah, you'll you'll learn to love it.

Unknown Speaker 5:39

So those things that kind of put people off, maybe the moldy canvas, maybe the lack of a hot shower, or people right in thinking that that's what camping is like, how can people avoid those pitfalls really on a camping trip.

Unknown Speaker 5:52

So you don't actually need loads of kit for camping, but you do need the basics, and they need to be half decent if you might encounter some dodgy weather. So you need to be warm and dry. seems obvious, but that is how you're gonna have a nice time. So I think getting the basics right is important. But it doesn't have to be expensive. You can get those bits you could borrow them from friends and family or once you've invested in some Okay, camping equipment that does the job, you've got that forever if you look after it, so it's not it doesn't have to be a stumbling block. After that, I always take a few luxuries like a pillow, bottle of wine. Just make it make it fun. It doesn't have to be a hardship. And I would also say pick a campsite that is friendly and relaxed, maybe has a nice view in the morning. Some campsites are pretty posh, actually, and have things like you can have a barbecue or firepit. Some of them even have I don't know they're in gorgeous places, we can go to the beach now after you've woken up in your tent, which is pretty special. So make it easy for yourself.

Unknown Speaker 6:46

So someone without a view currently, you can't go to the beach from the Web Studio. We've got actually what looks like half a tent in the studio right now. That was very quick. I mean, we're talking like three minutes maybe? How's it going? Guys?

Unknown Speaker 6:59

I'd say it's going pretty well. Joe, you're very calm influence when it comes to putting up tents. It's almost like we're kind of just reading each other's minds. It's very intuitive.

Unknown Speaker 7:08

That's because it's not raining right now. Yeah, studio.

Unknown Speaker 7:10

It's not raining, it is not dark, you're not against like a massive gale force wind. But that's a really interesting looking tent with odd poles, just to describe, I can see the inside bit due to technical term. And then there's very kind of like arcing poles over the edge, which kind of like, divide at the bottom, it looks a bit like a biosphere almost. Yeah. So

Unknown Speaker 7:33

the reason why this tent is quite unique compared to other tents you might find is that it's actually all one pole. So rather than having to kind of fiddle around with lots of different sized poles that you know, might be color coded and might need to be fed through the canvas. This is all one pole. And it doesn't need to be fed through the fly sheet at all, you actually just put the frame together. And then you just clip the ends of the pole into little loops that are in the corners of the tent. And then there's little hooks that are on the the inner in the bedroom bet that you just kind of hook on to the pole. And then that's it. And you just put the flashlight off the top and peg it

Unknown Speaker 8:07

like that technically looking at that tent looks different than what I remember, as much changed in in camping, would you say in the last few years? Yeah, there's

Unknown Speaker 8:14

quite a modern example of a tent. It's a two man that you could take into quite tough conditions because it's fully waterproof. And what the guys have done is pitch the inner tent, which isn't waterproof, that's an inner shell, which has a built in ground sheet. So that goes on wherever you're pitching your tent, and now they're putting on the outer fly, which is waterproof, and will withstand the wind and rain. So this is a quite an expensive one. But it's a really nice two man tent if you were going into slightly more adventurous terrain,

Unknown Speaker 8:44

because I feel like a lot of things over the last even in the time that I can remember the last 20 years have made camping so much easier. So like a pop up tent, for example, on the real basic end of things, this kind of development, even an LED torch is so much better than the massive Maglites that you used to have. Is that something that you find, especially with those little luxuries moments that you can have camping,

Unknown Speaker 9:08

definitely, it's changed so much. There's some really quite technologically advanced kit out there. What I've noticed a lot as well as being more reliably weatherproof is things are a lot lighter, you can stick them in your backpack, they're a lot less bulky to store when you're not camping. And also the more affordable end of the market is pretty decent these days. So I think the days of moldy Canvas are gone. And

Unknown Speaker 9:29

when you're finding those places to camp, whether it's wild, whether it's a site, how do you go about finding a good place to camp? Yeah, so

Unknown Speaker 9:37

just in case anyone doesn't know wild camping essentially means that you're away from a traditional campsite so you're not paying for a pitch. You are heading off into the mountains say and you are pitching your tent where you fancy and it's not actually legal everywhere in the UK, so it's legal in Scotland. If you follow certain rules, it is legal in parts of Dartmoor National Park, you can do it in other parts of the world. So that's what wild camping thing is it's a little bit more adventurous, traditional camping, which I also absolutely love. You're rocking up at a campsite, you pay, usually not very much for a pitch for a night and you set up your tent. And both are absolutely brilliant. And there's loads of really gorgeous campsites in the UK, that has also changed. I think, I think when I was a child campsites were pretty bog standard. And now they're really gorgeous. And you can have Yeah, they're really quite exciting. And as I said, they're pretty affordable. So it's a more affordable way to go on a lovely, you know, adventure. And with your tent, you can also find glamping sites, which, as the name suggests, are push camping. So you might get there and there's a safari tent or a beautiful yard, and they're a bit more expensive. But if you're not sure if Rough and Ready camping is for you, they can also be a nice way to get started with camping.

Just looking over at 10 corner. It looks kind of finished. Am I right in saying that's finished?

I think it's as finished as it's going to be because we can't peg the outer skin into the floor. But it's I would say it's it's assembled, isn't it?

Yeah. As you said, it's about as assembled as it can be because we can't pick out the fly sheet and moderately

painless.

Oh, yeah, totally. I mean, I'm not I'm definitely not an expert and putting up tents. And that was actually really easy. These kinds of unique poles are much easier. It was almost like they were made of magnets. That way they just kind of clipped together. Yeah, very, very painless. I would

say Fantastic. Well, Shawn, how would someone find a good campsite is there like an Airbnb or booking.com for the camping world?

There's loads of ways to look for lovely campsites. So for example, there's a website called hipcamp, which lists really cute campsites. So you can look by region if you're going on holiday to say Cornwall, you can have a quick quick look on there. There's also lots of lovely books so a book that springs to mind is tiny campsite, which does what it says on the tin lots of cute little campsites and really beautiful pockets of Britain.

And if you're say someone who's a city slicker, maybe you don't have a car, are there ways of going camping? That's quite easy. Other campsites then like places that you you would really recommend for people who can't necessarily fill up a pickup truck with gear. Absolutely.

So there are actually a surprising amount of campsites that you can reach by train or on a bus. If you have a quick look around this and lovely guides online to those and although it's tempting, you don't need to fill a big car boot with kit you can go light especially if it's just for a couple of days. Even if you're going to a festival festivals quite often now offer discounts if you go by bus or on your bike even so if you can load up a bike or or sling it all in a backpack, you can still go camping, and

where are the very best places in the UK that you've been camping?

Oh, that's a hard one. I think I probably have to say Scotland because firstly, you can wild camp if you follow certain rules so you can set up your tent in some truly spectacular places. I've camped on beaches in the Outer Hebrides which is it really is a real adventure and as long as you dodge the rain and also the established campsites that are there to are really lovely, really relaxed. You can get up in the morning and have some haggis for breakfast is pretty special camping in Scotland. At the other end of the country. I'd say Cornwall is amazing too. I can think of a campsite right down in the south of Cornwall where you can wake up and walk to a beautiful beach and it feels like could be the Caribbean until you put your feet in the water

well honor that no of the best places in the UK. The which travel team asked a similar question to nearly 2000 which members which is where's your favorite countryside walk? Grace you've got the results were came out on top for that. Yes,

well they rated walks around the UK on lots of different things wildlife facilities and scenery that kind of thing. And the top three were I'm probably going to pronounce this wrong malham Cove and Gordale scar in Yorkshire bottle like mine walk in Cornwall and lizard Peninsula circuit which is also in Cornwall. The top rated walk in Wales is rasili headlands in Gower and in Scotland it and structure to Corail in Fife, I think I'm pronouncing that right I did look up the pronunciation of it

shone out those anything stand out as like any camping sites near those. And if you're looking to go on a walk, maybe a longer walk, what should people be looking for when it comes to camping and combining that with a big long walk.

So a camping a walk is a fantastic combination, I think for a long weekend. And you could look for campsites that were not too far from the beginning of any of these walks, set the tent up and then the next morning, get up, get yourself to the beginning of the walk. And that's just for me. That's an amazing day. I have camped on lizard Peninsula. I think I've camped near a couple of these actually, I know Yorkshire has some gorgeous little kind of semi secret campsites on farms. So if you can seek those out, it's easier than you think to find these campsites. If you just have a look online, or search on a map, sort of near a walk you want to do, you can find some really special places. Camping

on farms is one of those things I really love the idea of from the Famous Five growing up where they would go and they'd camp on some angry farmers farm and buy eggs in the morning. And there's something so lovely about that idea, and I wasn't actually very disappointed growing up just how like few smugglers I encountered because of the the like the unrealistic expectations of the Famous Five books.

Do you know what I've never met a smuggler that I know of. But I have camped at quite a few farms where they have a little shop or even an honesty box and you can get bacon fresh eggs. Sometimes they'll even make you a coffee in the summer, you can find some some good little pop ups in campsites, and campsites are getting a bit bougie now so they even do things like a little supper club that springs up. There's some quite cool stuff out there. So yeah, if you go to the slightly posher end of the market, and some really gorgeous sites out there on farms, if

we've got time for it, I should talk about my really bougie camping experience last week. So last Thursday, I was in the Sahara Desert, camping in a fairly bougie tent in that it had a double bed in it. And also, then we were all fed a massive, great big meal and cooks bread and the traditional Berber style on a campfire, two and a half miles from anywhere. And the thing that really got me was that you could just see the stars and so many stars that you just don't get and probably camping is one of the only ways you can really get out and see stars now. I

actually think glamping I'd call that glamping. Yeah. All right. Oh, completely. I think glamping gets a bit of a bad rap as being a bit too posh for those hardcore campers. But I actually think glamping is lovely. Because it's comfortable, you can have a good night's sleep on a decent double bed, your back's not gonna hurt in the morning, get up have a hot shower, you're still in nature. And I definitely have friends who would not be seen dead camping with me. But I could probably convince him to go camping with me. So it's like a gateway drug into proper camp. But

you know what I've noticed recently, because we've done a lot of festivals, and we've camped, and we've clamped, and when we went to recently, we got the glamping option. And honestly, this year, we're gonna go to the same place and we're going to camp because the facilities they just weren't very good. And I think for the price that you're paying to glamp you may as well just camp if you've already got the gear, well

on the subject of gear. After the break, we're going to look at what the very best stuff is to make it feel like you're glamping even if you bring your own stuff. And I will be talking to Joel about how to choose that very best tent on the market. So don't go away.

Welcome back. Before we press on, our next episode is going to be all about how to get the best night's sleep indoors. So I'll explain more at the end of the show. But we'd love you to get in touch with your questions about mattresses, sleep aids, and the general art of sleeping. Right, Joel, thank you for setting up the tent guiding us through that. We're going to talk about buying stuff. Before we do what are your credentials in the world of camping. You're in the witch testing team, but you're also a camper in your own right.

Yes. So I'm a senior researcher which and I look after all things tents, or things camping, so I look after sleeping bags, torches, stuff like that. I would say I'm a big camper. I'm not a Bear Grylls type. I like to camp in relative comfort. I'm not too far the other way either. I've never really understood the whole like bringing your whole house with you. Camping. I think a big part of the appeal is the simplicity. You know, you've got a place to sleep, you've got a place to cook and that's all you need. I feel like the point is to just kind of enjoy being outside appreciate good food, good company. I love outdoor cooking as well. Cooking with fire is just a joy. So yeah, I tried to get out and camp every year, mostly around the UK Lake District I think get a shout out for the Lake District because it's one of one of my favorite places. Some of the lakeside campsites are fantastic. And yeah, I'll agree with Sean as well that Cornwall is a wonderful place to camp similar seaside campsites. As long as you're not bearing the brunt of the wind from the sea too much. Somewhere slightly sheltered is probably a good spot to go. Shawn

Joel, what's the shopping list? What are the essential things that you're going to need when you're camping? I'm assuming on the top of the list is a tent. What else is there on that list?

A sleeping bag.

Definitely a sleeping bag. A good mat,

a torch, good torch. Usually a head torch could also be a handheld torch depending on your preference.

I would say a little pillow. You can even bring your pillow from home but just a little camping pillow does make all the difference. I do that you

know if I can I always take my pillow from home because it just brings a little bit of extra comfort.

What about an air bed because some people swear by them, but do you reckon you need one? Ah,

it depends on what your requirements are for weight and how much space you have. It is a personal preference thing. I used to use air beds but now I'm really into those self inflating mats. So there's like little nozzles on the end where you kind of open it and then just leave it and there's kind of like a foam layer on the inside that kind of inflates slightly you get about sort of 10 centimeters worth of kind of padding underneath you. I much prefer those I find them much more reliable beds. There's just been too many times where you try and pump it up. You bring one of those little battery powered pumps to try and like get it onto the air beds pump it up and it always just keeps coming. You end up having So I finish inflating it with your mouth. And you wake up in the morning and your your backs on the floor.

So kit shouldn't be something holding people back top of that list really was a tent. Joe, how are you finding a good tent. And what does which do to make sure that people do find a good tent.

So which tests hence, every year from kind of compact to person tents, like the one that we've just set up in the studio, right up to kind of massive inflatable air tents. The aim is to always cover a kind of broad range of shapes and sizes and types. It really depends on your purpose, like what kind of camping you want to do. And because of that, there's so much variety. When we're testing tents, there are so many out there, that it's impossible for us to test every single one. So the way we do it is we kind of keep track of the most popular brands and retailers see what they're putting out each year. And then we kind of put together a varied selection of tents to kind of suit different campers. We also look for new trends. I mentioned air tents before they're becoming really really popular. What are tents?

These tents whose house are they? Yeah, so what are air tents.

So with an air tent, there are no polls, you basically need to pump up the frame of the tent. It's almost like a kind of hybrid bouncy castle, but the floor is not bouncy. But I think people are drawn to them because they're much easier to put up. And that way, you're not having to fiddle around with the polls and try and feed through the canvass or anything like that. But they can still be quite challenging to put away. When you kind of take the little nozzle off and all the air kind of flies out. Most of the time, the air doesn't come out fully. So it's a little bit like an air bed where you're going to have to sort of you know, roll around on it and push it and try and get all the air out. Because if you don't, then they can be a nightmare to pack away back into the bag.

But are they as hard as those tents where you have to like, you know, it's like a circle. And you have to like fold it in on itself. Pop up tent. Yes. heading away a pop up tent. Yeah, it's got to be one of the hardest things in life.

Yeah, they can be really difficult to put away and there are fewer and fewer pop up tents around. Now, because of the popularity of air tents. They're kind of replacing the pop up tents. So we have tested pop up tents before. But I don't think we've lined up any pop up tents to test for this year because there aren't any new ones.

What about size? How do people pick up a tent? that's right for them.

A good rule of thumb when you're picking a tent is to always go one size up from the number of campers in your group. So if it's a two person tent, buy one for three people. I'm not sure why. But when manufacturers list tent sizes in the numbers of people that they say can can sleep in it. They seem to imagine the campers kind of packed in like sardines. If you want a comfortable amount of room and somewhere to put a bag or anything like that go one size up. That is

the traditional camping experience is that you go to man 10 Or six man tent and then you try and fit a whole group of people and it's like no, there really isn't room in that I've had tents in the past that have like a living room. Is that something that useful? Is that something that you're you know, looking out for when you're testing and chan that you use in your your time.

So you can get tents that have separate living rooms even have kind of porticoes and anti chambers, you get really fancy. Those are great I think for family camping because you can have separate bedrooms, maybe one for the kids. You can have a living room for all your stuff. You can have a kind of covered porch where you could store cooking kit, things like that muddy wellies, so if you don't mind a bit more weight and room and again yeah, the faff of putting them up those big heavy tents do take a bit longer to put up but if you're going on a week long family holiday, they would be well worth it for the space to relax in. And if it pauses rain you can sit and have a beer and watch the rain from your lovely living room. So definitely yes for bigger longer trips,

and I feel like we should have the public service announcement here. Do not cook in the living room of your tent. Do not cook in a tent you

absolutely do not want to cook inside a tent or an enclosed space because you can give yourself carbon monoxide poisoning. So you always want to cook outside Alfresco. Even if it's pouring with rain, I'm afraid.

Thank you very much. What else are you testing tents based on John?

So principally resistance to weather. Every year the tents go through a week's testing in a campsite in Surrey called Everly farm. Wonderful farm campsite. As you were saying before, there's a there's a little farm shop on there, they sell all of the farms produce and if you're barbecuing really, really good. Hang on.

So you kind of get to go on a camping trip for work and just camp for a week at a farm.

It's not quite as glamorous as that, mostly because when we do our tests, we test when the campsite is closed for the winter, so there's no barbecuing, then the winter weather is very much in full flow. So all the tents are pitched at the start of the week taken down at the end. And they basically just have to experience everything that the British weather can throw at them. Over the years we've had gale force winds, we've had thunderstorms, we've had snow. Yeah, and when we arrive at the campsite, it's usually a bit of a muddy quagmire. So we just have to get our wellies on and get stuck here. And so it's the ideal conditions for pushing the tents to their limits. With waterproofing, you might be familiar with hydrostatic head. So when you're shopping for tents, there'll be a rating that will be called a hydrostatic head, which you might think is the sorts of amounts of rainfall that the tent will be able to deal with before the Canvas gives way. But it's all to do with how they're tested. And it's really strange. And the same test is done for waterproof coats and anything like that. Essentially, you get a really big tall column, and you place it on top of the canvas, and you slowly fill it up with water, kind of like a transparent drain pipe, and however tall the column of water gets, that's the hydrostatic head rating. So if it fills up to 2000 millimeters tall, then the hydrostatic head rating is 2000 millimeters. So it's like the water pressure. It can withstand exactly, but it can be quite confusing when you're shopping because you can't quite understand what that means in real terms. So when we're testing, the hydrostatic head rating is something that we will sort of sense check. But we often find that regardless of how kind of high or low up to a point, the hydrostatic head rating is, most of the time the canvas is fine. When tents leak, they always seem to leak around the seams and around the zips. So when we're setting up the tents for a week's long testing, get put through the weather conditions. That's much more of a kind of real real life test. And if that makes sense, because if you're doing this, if you're just doing this hydrostatic head test on the canvas, and it doesn't leak, that doesn't really tell you the whole picture.

I actually find it really frustrating that there's quite a lot of techie jargon around tents because I think it can be confusing I find hydrostatic head quite confusing. As a really ruffle you get the higher the hydrostatic head, which is often written as H H, the better the tent, but as Joe says is not really true when you're testing definitely, I think all tents will eventually leak if you take them into the most insane monsoon ever, they will eventually get some water in because they are made of fabric. But a decent tent will hold up for much longer, they do tend to seem to leak on me in the corners, and yet puddles in the corners, and even really great tents that I've tested have sometimes given up the ghost. So I do think with tents is a good idea to spend money on something that is decent quality, and that does have a high hydrostatic head, you're more likely to keep going without flooding.

Joel, would you agree with that? Do you think you need to spend a lot of money to get a good 10

well defined a lot of money. I think that if you go super, super cheap, and it's a really kind of low hydrostatic head rating, it's unlikely to put up with much more than like a light rain shower. I think that there's a certain point at which you will need to spend a bit of money for something that's going to last as long as you look after it as Sean says, Every time is going to give up the ghost eventually, if you're kind of battering it around and sort of you know knocking into it and not treating it particularly well then then yeah, the waterproofing will give up a little bit sooner. Well, I

would just add on that is that if you were going to a festival on a July weekend, and you didn't want to spend loads of money, no problem, pick something cheap and cheerful, it will be absolutely fine. It will withstand like rainfall, you will have a great time if you are going to camp on the side of Snowdonia, I would say look at investing something in something that will protect you effectively from the rain. So

the 10 that you guys have just put up, how much are we talking about there? how much that cost?

So that 10 is between four or 500 pounds. It's kind of high end for tents. But as you said at the beginning that this is more for backpacking, so it's much more for your kind of more Bear Grylls esque sort of serious camper. But tents can really, really vary in price and price doesn't necessarily scale with the hydrostatic head rating. As a baseline. I would say if you're going for about 3000 millimeters, you're going to be fine in most British weather, unless you're you know, going somewhere a little bit more extreme or the weather is particularly bad. Anything around that point or higher. You're good.

Yeah. So you were paying for that tiny package that it came in really, really lightweight. That must cost a little bit of money as well. Yes,

tents that are particularly light packed down particularly small. The poles on this tent, I think they're made of carbon fiber as well. So they're also a lot lighter than your sort of standard metal poles. So yeah, all of these things are kind of, they'll contribute towards the price of the tent, along with the brand, obviously. So

I know you're going to HATE me for saying this. But what really should people be looking at spending if they're just starting out in camping? Maybe they're going to a campsite. Maybe it's April? They are looking for say a three man 10 Where's the price point where you're thinking you're better off spending a bit more money here do you think really

for me it is about what you can afford because I would rather people got out and went camping and had a good time then felt put off by price. If you said I've got a bit of a budget and I would like something that will last me for you know a couple of summers of holidays with two people. Yep, I would see a three man tent and I would probably be spending about 200 quid.

That's good to know and and are there ways of saving money on this a bit of a broad question, but can you buy the second hand,

I certainly know people who've tried camping and haven't loved it and have put their tents on, you know, Facebook marketplace, that kind of thing. So I would imagine there's good secondhand market for tents and camping equipment.

The other thing I'd say is I have a canvas belt. And I really love which wasn't cheap, it was about 500 quid, but I've used it loads and loads of summers, it's gotten a bit moldy. And I had it professionally cleaned for 100 quid, which is quite a lot, but it means that it looks brand new, and it's in really good condition. So it can now keep coming along with me for festivals and holidays for hopefully for years to come.

It's good to know that stuff can last, if it's built to last, it can last any final things that you love to bring when you go camping that people wouldn't necessarily expect.

This is going to be a bit of a boring answer. I always take a multi tool, like a Swiss army knife, something like that super handy if something breaks and needs repairing, or if you've forgotten your bottle opener. Yeah, I never go camping without mine. Most multi tools have a little kind of multipurpose hook as well, which is really handy for getting 10 pegs out of the ground. If they're kind of stuck in and you know your spit cold or wet or whatever you don't use your fingers. I also love to take a quick drying towel. You can get ones that are made of like microfiber cloth. They packed down like really small, really light and super quick drying. So they're very handy, especially if it's kind of damp conditions because normal towels as comfortable and lovely and fluffy as they are they can take forever to dry very

Hitchhiker's Guide any more boozy items there.

So for camping in a campsite, I would bring a small portable fire pit because it's such a treat to have a little fire, you can bring some marshmallows, you've got yourself a fun evening. And for wild camping, I would probably bring a book because sometimes it gets dark quite early and you're like, oh, okay, book or podcast to keep going

this podcast. Yeah, exactly.

If you are listening to this on a campsite, please do let us know. Thanks both of you for joining us, Shawn. Where can people find you online? Where is your blog?

So my blog is the girl outdoors.com. And you can find me on Instagram. It's Sean Anna Lewis.

Fantastic job. Shawn, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks so much.

If you do want to know which tents do best in our tests, head to the witch website and take out a subscription. We also test kayaks, paddle boards, honestly, the list goes on.

And I will genuinely say this is like one of the best reasons to get a witch subscription is making those kind of big purchases like that. Where things are tested in an actual human being environment and not using ADS Joe's talking about hydrostatic heads. Absolutely. Next time we're talking about sleep is mattresses, sleeping aids, lifestyle habits, everything that can affect the quality of your sleep. So we'll be getting answers from the experts to help you sleep better. It's

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And as we mentioned earlier, if you aren't able to leave us a rating and a review, it would really help us grow and we will be forever grateful. Today's Get Answers was presented by me, Harry kind alongside Grace Forell, produced by Rob Lilley Jones and Adrian Bradley, recorded by Adrian and edited by Erik Bria. And thanks again to our wonderful guests, Sian Lewis and Joel Bates. We'll see you next time. Bye bye bye