Walking through the front door leads into an expansive lounge area – this is your main living space, with a head height of over 2m – perfect for taller folk. The lounge measure 270 x 300cm and has two side doors to the outside, one with a neat little shelter (or ‘brow’) above it to get your shoes on without getting soaked. It also stops water coming in when the door is open – nice!

The times have been changin’ in the world of tents in recent years. The old ‘bendy pole technology’ which could sometimes be fiddly to set up for large family tents (not to mention the risk of pole-snapping) is slowly getting superseded by tents using easy-to-inflate air pipes instead. In this article we outline the main considerations to look for when choosing the best inflatable tent to cater for your particular needs. Advantages and Disadvantages of Inflatable TentsThe tents are essentially the same (same footprint etc), but the 8.1 has the darker bedrooms. I have therefore linked to the Berghaus Air 8.1 nightfall in this post. Where to buy the Berghaus Air 8 inflatable tent This was the first time putting up the tent (in the rain) and it took us around 30 minutes to put up the main tent and porch. It took us a bit longer as a few rookie errors were made along the way. Mostly with the porch. Getting it to lean into the tent correctly so no rain got in was a challenge. We did the best we could but properly remedied this the next day when the rain had stopped by pulling it over the main tent a little tighter with the guide ropes. It took a while figuring out how to put it up due to the air escaping rapidly, because the instructions were vague.

Assembly is a breeze as you would expect using the supplied manual pump. Weight of the 6L is 29kG which is actually pretty good for a 6-person tent. The XL increases this slightly to 30.5kg. Each of the three bedroom areas of the tent measure 140 x 210cm, and for the rear compartment there is a really useful access hatch to the outside world. This enables an electric hookup cable to be passed through into the tent. In hot climates, this hatch can also promote airflow through the tent which is essential for remaining cool. All the bedroom pods also have mosquito/insect netting. The air pressure for the Berghaus Air 8 inflatable family tent should be between 4psi and 7psi. How easy is it to take down the Berghaus Air 8 tent? Actually we should give a shoutout to the windows on the Joro – they are excellent. The plastic ‘glass’ needs to be seen to be believed and the Diamond Clear name they have chosen is very apt. These are up there with the best windows on the tent scene at the moment. Lounge and Sleeping AreaWeighing in at a fairly hefty 33.4kg (50kg for the polycotton version!) makes it almost certainly a two person job to carry any great distance. If you’re just transferring from a car boot to the ground then you can probably manage it on your own. As its name suggests, the 6XL is a 6 person tent, but there is substantial room inside – for once a tent has been designed to comfortably support the number of people it claims!

The Air 8 tent from Berghaus is one of their largest models, with a floor space that measures 750 x 300 cm, and a 215 cm height for easy maneuver. Weighing 30 kgs, its tunnel-designed with a centralized living area and 2, 210 x 280 cm bedrooms on each end. There are five airbeams in total which take a fair bit of pumping because of the height of the overall structure. There’s a lot of air in them there beams! The blue colour with yellow stripes takes some getting used to, but after a while it becomes likable. Main lounge area (360cm x 2800cm) having large side and front doors, each with windows offering great visibility – Kampa use their ‘crystal clear’ tech for this and it works well.Clear windows which you can actually see a nice view through – it’s unbelievable that some tent manufacturers scrimp on the windows. Surely it’s one of the main enjoyments of camping! Recommended tent pressure: between 4psi and 7psi – temperature and outdoor pressure can affect the pressure within the tube. Please note over inflation can cause the tubes to burst.

Additional light streams in through ceiling skylight panels, and the shelter meets European safety standards when it comes to fire-resistance. Weighing slightly over 11 kg, this is a great addition for your camping adventures, and it comes with its own pump and its own 75 x 35 x 34 cm storage case.The total ‘footprint area’ of the two competing tents are about the same, which makes choosing between them difficult. You need to ask yourself – do you prefer girth or length? Actually, it’s probably best not to answer that…. One huge noticeable timesaver was not having to fix an inner tent via loops and hooks to an external shell. The tent is a single unified component – the bedrooms and living space are pre-attached to the framework so there is no additional connecting or construction needed once you’ve blown up the tent. The tent is protected from the top and the bottom by way of a flysheet that has been seam sealed and fully taped, with a heavy duty groundsheet beneath (which our youngest tripped over without fail every time she entered or left the tent). It’s generously ventilated with high and low-level vents and meshed doors for improved airflow and condensation control, which can be easily sealed in the event of bad weather. Something was bugging me whilst I was writing this post. I realised that athe images being used to sell this tent don’t actually do it justice. They do not show the actual size of the middle/living section. I know from experience that we comfortably seat 5/6 people on large folding chairs in that area. The top image shows the middle section as being smaller than the bedrooms. This isn’t correct, so I created a new drawing that is more to scale. The bottom image is more accurate because that middle section is a nice large 300x330cm, which is larger than the bedrooms and gives is plenty of room for spending time together comfortably in the evenings. The drive to recycle old plastic is an excellent initiative because it helps reduce the amount of plastic going to landfill and harming the environment for future generations. I’m not particularly “green”, but for me it’s a no-brainer to choose a product which can make a difference in this way – especially when you consider that the Joro 600XL is made with the equivalent of 261 plastic bottles! Dimensions and Layout