Vango Odyssey Air 800 Tent, Epsom

This is a high quality tent that is well thought out and has a nice convenient design. It is basically two four-man tents connected by a vestibule which is great for large or multiple groups. The large footprint gives a great sense of security and it's tall for people to stand up in.This is a big tent (nearly 22 feet long) and special consideration must be taken if you are looking to embark on this style of camping. This tent is again ideal for large groups and for multiple days of camping at one site. Setup and takedown/pack up is not easy and takes two people at a bare minimum. Two people can setup this tent in about 15 minutes or 10 minutes with experience. The airbeam design is clever and pumping them up with the included hand pump is not terribly difficult. However, ensuring they are all completely deflated when packing up can be a chore. The pump has a deflate nozzle option, but I noticed the airbeams still take on some air when the pump is disconnected and time comes to roll the tent up. The tent includes all necessary stakes. However, there are so many that I normally don't stake down all of the guy lines since they increase the setup/takedown time and are a trip hazard. Weighing nearly 50 pounds, you may consider a rolling cart or wagon if you have to transport this tent more than 20 yards or so. Before you go camping, plan where and how you will hang this tent for when you need to dry it out afterwards. It's a good idea to take photos or make a video of when you unroll the tent for the first time so you know the best way to roll it back up. The instructions are not detailed.The center area does not have a sewn-in groundsheet, but comes with a loose plastic tarp that you can place down. Special consideration would have to be taken if you are looking to have campers sleep in this area since it is a place where bugs and moisture can collect. For me, the biggest negative of this tent is that the center vestibule area does not have good airflow. If the tent is receiving sunlight, this area can get hot making it not a good area to congregate, eat, or relax as intended. I think this is due to the vinyl windows which are not even nice to see through. I would have much preferred screen mesh zippered windows here.I bought this tent for when it was listed at $270. I'm a very happy camper at this price point and I think it was well worth it. For a price over $400...I would look elsewhere. I think you could find something else that sleeps as many, is cheaper, quicker to setup, transport, and more comfortable to relax in. Happy Camping!

I bought this tent in February 2018 for around $300 when it had just shown up on Amazon. I thought I got an excellent deal, especially since the price soared soon after to mid $500s and is now over $700. I will say that I have been an avid camper for many years. We had a 2-person EMS tent that we still have and is still great, 15 years later. When we started having children, we moved up to a 4-person LL Bean that we've had for about 8 years, no problems ever. We outgrew that, and really liked the layout of the tunnel tents, especially this Vango, where children could be on one side of the tent with my wife and I on the other side, and some space in between. That is definitely a positive for this tent. Unfortunately, it is about the only positive.After just our second camping trip this summer, we noticed that there were several tears in the fabric where the air beams meet the floor and the stake webbing. It seems like a design flaw - the air beams expand so much that it puts a lot of extra stress on the fabric there. We had a lot of rain that trip too, and since there were several tears, we had several puddles inside the tent living space. We did stay dry in the sleeping areas, so that was at least positive. While I was packing up the tent at the end of that trip, very annoyed that the fabric tore, I was pulling a stake out and saw that the webbing connecting one of the sleeping pods to the tent shell had also torn completely out, leaving holes in the bottom of the sleeping pod. I started inspecting things further and came to find an additional hole in the fabric, not on a seam or any stress point, just a hole that looked as if an ember from a fire had landed on the tent (not ours, because we never had the tent remotely close to any fire). I've uploaded pictures of all these issues.We tried to patch all the numerous holes and went on a third camping trip. It rained heavily and I began to feel water splashing through the tent into the open space in the middle. I never had ANY moisture in either our EMS or LL Bean tents, ever, and we've camped through extremely hard rain storms.On top of all that, I contacted customer support through Vango's webpage, since I was beyond the Amazon return window, and all I got was a computerized, automatic response that said to contact my supplier first. That was two weeks ago and I've still not heard from anyone from Vango. They clearly do not care about their reputation with United States customers.In the end I returned the tent to Amazon for 80% of the cost, according to their return policy. If I had known all this was possible going into purchasing the tent, and had still bought it anyway, I think I could have really babied the tent and kept the fabric from tearing, but that would have required me to not inflate the air beams as much as the directions recommend, not stake things out tight, and therefore everything would be really flabby and just leak more. I certainly would not want to pay anything more than $300 for a tent that has such a propensity to tear and leak so easily.A few other, smaller issues:- The corner stakes bend very easily- The main door doesn't have any screen in it, so it is either open or closed (no ventilation)- The door on the other side has the screen in it, but they zip completely separate, so you have to unzip two doors in order to use the door- The ground sheet is not fully sewn in, so bugs and water can get into the living section (even IF there aren't a bunch of holes in the fabric)I cannot recommend this tent, or Vango as a company, to anyone. The layout and concept is great, but the execution and materials are extremely disappointing. Hopefully some of the better, American tent makers will take notice of the European tunnel tent designs and start making their own. Please do not waste your money on this tent.