Camping Coleman Galileo 5

We went camping for the first time at Camp Bestival earlier on in the summer. We loved it in a way that I truly thought we never would. I think we are probably fair weather campers as I can’t see us enjoying sitting in a tent come thunder and lightening with an almighty down pour but as long as the sun is shining we are more than happy to be at one with nature and not wash probably as much as we would ordinarily like!

Camp Bestival was a little bit different to regular camping I’ll give you that and when there was an massive bout of rain one morning we still had plenty to do if we wanted but at the same time it was a pretty intense atmosphere to cope with for our first foray. We absolutely, all of us, thought sleeping in the tent was brilliant and as a family it is one of the loveliest things we’ve done. No mobiles, no TV and just us! Perfect!

Jonny went a bit camping crazy prior to our trip and bought collapsible versions of just about everything; in fact his collapsible bucket came in very handy! He also went a bit mad and bought a tent package without much knowledge of tents or what we wanted. It turned out that the 4 man tent was fine. Not great but fine and it did us for the weekend nicely. It was, however, small and compared to our friends pitches we had hardly any room. It was also a bit badly designed and the rain came in quite a lot despite being put up correctly (not by us but friends) and having the double layer, we still got rather damp and it also sheeted in through the closed doorway somehow? So our first camping trip was successful but with one holiday under canvas under our belts we now knew what we needed to do to improve.

1) Collapsible cups are rubbish and not worth it!

2) We definitely needed a hanging thing to put shoes and bits in. Our friend’s tent came with one.

3) We needed a different tent with more room and a better lay out as well as being dryer!

So, we were lucky and got the chance to review the Galileo 5 by Coleman and having used this new tent we can now see how it is really a far superior tent to the one we had. This tent, like our friend’s, has a huge entrance and the bedrooms are at the back. It is bigger as it can sleep 5 people and all in all it is easier and quicker to put up as well as being dryer. To boot it is not as heavy and smaller when in its bag.

The Galileo 5!

Take a look at this YouTube video of the tent, we watched it and it helped us know what was coming and all the extras we can get for it like a carpet that fits the whole tent Jonny now has his eye on!

I’d like to say I helped put the tent up but honestly that would be a lie. my Mum and Jonny did it together and it took around 45 minutes which isn’t bad. Neither of them have put up a tent for some time and found the instructions easy to follow. Taking it down was super quick and it was easy to fold and roll back into its bag.

When up we liked loads of features, firstly the size is perfect for a family. Two bedrooms at the back can be opened up into one big one and this is how we had it because it’s easier with our children being so little. The main living room is also rather large and instead of looking messy with our things in it like our previous tent which had a small area in the middle with a bedroom each side, it seemed like we could spread out and not be untidy.

We loved the size and room inside the tent!

The doorway closed and did not let the rain in when it inevitable came (this is Britain after all) and we liked that rolling up the front of the doorway made it feel big and open.

A real sense of open space came with this tent just by rolling up the door way!

This is a great family tent that isn’t huge but is certainly bigger than our last one and big enough for another family member to join us. It didn’t come with an extra hanging tidy away like some tents do and this would be my only down fall. We can’t wait to use t again and feel like there is absolutely no need for us to have another tent when this one is so good! Wish we’d gone Coleman from the beginning!