Read Our Coleman Lakeside 7 Camping Tent Review

When looking for a camping tent we spent a lot of time online researching what was around. Not being keen campers we were trying to determine what the important factors were to base our decision on. The main concerns had been: Comfort (size of the tent); strength of the tent; the ability of the tent to keep us dry (waterproof level) along with the ease of assembly.

Table of Contents

I went online to ask campers what they thought was important when buying a camping tent and found their suggestions very helpful.

Good ventilation came back as something to look for as it will help when it is very hot and then also overall in preventing mildew.
The size of the tent should be your first concern as this will help narrow down your search and then you can think about the conditions of use and how often you will use it.
The biggest factor everyone highlighted was the water proof level. You should ensure that you get a tent that is water proof and not water resistant and a good tent will have at least a 2000mm waterproof rating. You should also look at the seals around the zips and how they will further help keep the water out.

We decided to purchase the Coleman Lakeside 7 camping tent (a 7 man tent) for a number of reasons.

Firstly it gives you two main sleeping rooms/areas and a middle area. I liked the idea of having the bigger tent as we currently have 2 children (hoping for 3 altogether) and I like the notion of them having their own space in one room and us having our own space in the other. If we are looking to camp for holidays and are thinking of being somewhere for a week, the first thing I want is comfort….to having space to sleep properly is ideal. Then the middle area can house the clothes and toys and be used as a play area. It is also ideal to provide a shaded area when needed and for the unlucky situations when it rains.

Secondly Coleman is a trusted, established Australian camping brand who offers 3000mm water proofing on all their tents. They also have seems which don’t leak due to their special seam seals.

The tent came in a nice carry bag which we were able to fit it back into after our first trip and was easy to assemble (once we got the jist of it). It would’ve been ideal if the tent came with picture assembly instructions, however we got the hang of it by looking at other tents in the campsite that were set up.

I liked the way the fly screen and the main tent door can be opened with two separate zips or one combined zip that opens both. This makes it much easier when the children are sleeping to limit the noise if you want to go in and check on them.