Camping Travel Store Blog

Cool Camping listed site and one of our personal favourites, Town Farm Camping in Ivinghoe has just invested in a Rental Karsten Inflatable 350 Tent made from Tencate All Season Polyester (WM1) Chosen by the owner Charles for it's durability, resistance to wind, and sheer quality, it is available to rent. Link HERE . This is a great site for all, especially families as there is lots  do to locally. We have already posted a review, so please check out archives. However, the latest upgrade to the site is a fantastic play area for the children. See our video on YouTube - link HERE For other sites offering Rental Karsten's in the UK and Europe, please click HERE

We have stayed at this site recently under recommendations from friends. It's within an hours drive from home and the weather was forecast to be good. The site was  busy on arrival and we parked on the hard standing as the signs depicted. A lady approached and asked how many nights we were staying for and we paid. Quite who she was, hopefully the owner, but who knows? We decided on a pitch about 120ft from the fantastic play area, but on hindsight this was still too close. The site is an open field, well drained, flat and surrounded by a tall hedge. Electric hook-ups are available, But for £10.00 non electric a night it proved good value. The single entrance/exit also gave a touch of security to the site. The next day we ventured to the small market town of St. Neots. This is a great town, situated on the river with a bustling centre with a good choice of pubs and restaurants. There is lots of open space for play and some great parks for the children.  On retu...

Having been rather busy this year and using my annual holiday for tent shows, we have had to make fine use of my weekends off. Now, we are used to taking our trailer, a complete set-up and everything to ensure maximum space and comfort, but in order to cut down on the packing and to ensure we get away as early as possible on Fridays we have been going basic with our packing. i.e. if it does not fit in the boot or on the car then it stays at home. We have been using a Karsten 350 Pod with a direct to tent Rain Awning. This coupled with the Karsten carpet, Human-Comfort self inflating sleeping mats with memory foam toppers and down sleeping bags, ensure we are not only warm and comfortable, but are also completely set up with 20 minutes of arrival on site. A couple of chairs, fold out pic-nic table, side table for our alochol beverages and a portaloo to save the night time trips of the children complete the set up and I must admi...

Our returning trips to Town Farm Campsite set at the base of the Ivinghoe Beacon, but at the same time overlooking the Vale of Aylesbury seem to be enhanced every time. Apart from the stunning 360° panoramic views, the rustic offerings of the working farm mix seemlessly with campers. The friendly and enthuastic owner Charles ensures that your needs are catered for from arrival to offering fire pits of a evening and delivering wood to your pitch. On-site chickens ensure fresh eggs in the morning. This is a relative new site, and as such facilities are always being improved. At first the toilets and showers, spotlessly clean and warm. Currently the older play equipment is being upgraded to ensure the young ones are more than catered for. There is plenty to do in the local area including the Grand Union Cannal , but having a young family - it's great when a site has good play equipment. The site has public footpaths all around. One of the main ones leaves the site and head...

Well, not exactly on the beach, but within 50 yards....is a little gem of a site called Bay View on the edge of Eastbourne From the regimental booking of the site, to arrival and pitching, I knew that this was going to be a good site. You see there are rules, and these were being obeyed in a very relaxed manner. Again, the wardens were staying on-site. We arrived (late) and were greeted with a warm welcome, shown to our marked pitch where we received a very informative welcome pack. The marked pitch was for your tent and vehicle, so if it didn't fit, ours did! Fortunately, with the Karsten being modular, we only took the minimum set up as erecting the combination tent as well would have been a bit of a squeeze. Larger pitches were available. The facilities are good and clean with reception catering for morning papers and milk with some basic supplies available. The small play area is in good repair and shut from 9pm, encouraging children back to their tents. T...

We have just returned from this years Club meet which took place at Hopleys Camping on the outskirts of Bewdley which is situated on the banks of the River Severn. With the weather forecast to be atrocious, we packed the trailer expecting a re-run of the previous meet where all but one tent cancelled. But not this time... We arrived on site to the joyful sight of a grey 350 in all it's glory and a burgundy 350 pitched a little further down. We took our 300 and 220 combination tent and also dragged my parents away with us, so they were staying in our 325 with sleeping extension. It was great so see these all set up. Especially as were were also joined by a 350/350 combination set-up. Not only was this a big set-up it also had provision for a 240 to be added. Friday night saw most of us sending out for take outs. We had fish and chips from Merchants in Bewdley. Absolutely delicious. Friday night was on/off rain, with a reasonably dry start to Saturday morning. Again most ...

Whilst we have recently delivered two fantastic Karsten set-ups, the Club has been made aware of this fabulous Karsten Tent over in Holland - If anyone can match it we'd love to see some photos. Click HERE to see slide show and other residential Karsten's for hire in the UK & Europe!

May has been and gone and our next event will be the Karsten Tent Club - Midsummer Meet 2011! Revisiting May, saw us showing the Karsten Tents at two venues, the first was a follow up show to the British Leisure Show at Newbury - always a favourite site with us and then us travelling up to Delamere to the Fishpools Farm Caravan Park. Needless to say there are a few more Karsten owners amongst us and another trip down to Newbury saw us delivering these two stunning set-ups. With more owners set to join the Club in the coming months, we are really seeing the varying combinations available when specifying options and designing a Karsten Inflatable Tent

This was always going to be a challenge as we have never embarked on such a show. Setting up the Marquee in the gales that were sweeping the race course was really 'good fun'? But once up and staked down with about a dozen ratchet straps holding the thing together and on the ground, we set to trying to fit most of the Karsten's in our collection onto the rest of the stand. With us all set up and ready to greet the public, the weather was forgiving and the crowds started to turn up. There was a great deal of interest in the Inflatable Tents, especially as there was also a new but polyester inflatable tent on display with another Company. All the comments we received with respect to the Karsten Tents were really positive and complimentary. 'Its really good to see a quality tent on display in the UK'. 'Love the colours' 'Cannot believe it's inflatable' 'Great modular design' With people seeing both the different inflatable tents, they coul...

February took the Karsten Tent display to Town Farm Camping in Ivinghoe. This site is run by Charles who has a great attitude towards campers and camping. The working farm has fantastic views in all directions with good facilities that keep on improving. As I had booked this during the half term, I had to engage help from a good friend....for his first time in erecting these, we had all eight Karsten's up in 3 hours. It was a good weekend for us as it was also preparation for the British Leisure Show in March. One of our visitors was Alan Taylor of the Ultima Carp Fishing Team who decieded that the Karsten Carp 240 Tent was the one for him...... Hopefully he should be using it by the end of March.

We will be display a few Karsten Family Tents and combinations at Brookhouse Inn - Castle Cary , Somerset this weekend 28th/29th January. There is camping available to the rear with all the warm trappings and charm of the Inn for the evening. We will be showing: Karsten 300 & 220 Tent Combination Karsten 325 with Sleeping Extension Karsten 350 Standard All with various awning combinations Tents available for viewing from Saturday 10am to Sunday pm (approx. 3pm). Display Link HERE

We are please do announce that the Camping Travel Store will be showing a selection of Karsten Inflatable Tents at the British Leisure Show in March at the Royal Windsor Race Course. For further information from our website please click HERE For further information from the British Leisure Show please click HERE British Leisure Show 11 / 12 / 13th March 2011

After a great Christmas with the family and a busy start to the year; with all the unpacking of the Karsten Tents ordered during the Autumn Discount period, we have nearly finalised our show dates for the coming months. We will endeavour to get around the UK visiting some sites from last year and adding new shows in areas where we have received lots of interest, for example. the Lake District. Newbury Tent Display Video 2010 If you are interested in when and where we will be showing the tents, please either check out our Touring dates HERE or Contact Us to receive regular updates through the camping season. Our display consists of eight Karsten's in the various sizes and colours, with different tent combinations and awning arrangements with tarps and other quality camping accessories.

Well, I have started the year off well by booking a return visit to Clippesby Hall in Norfolk during April for a spot of family camping. We were there last year and it's a great site offering all you need for the adults including pub as well as fantastic play equipment for the children and the larger ones amongst us. The on site facilities just make it perfect for camping and the small cafe is an ideal meeting point. We're taking some friends up with us this time, so a good time shall be had by all (Rain or Shine!)