Camping Travel Store Blog

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 admit it works fantastically for us. We also manage t

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