The Vango Monaco 500 is an all-in-one tent – so no putting up external and then inner-tents and the ground sheet is also attached – making for a very straight forward pitch.I was genuinely surprised just how quick it could be put up – usually these things sound too good to be true. The tent can be set up in minutes – after your first go to figure things out – it can be put up in well under 10 minutes.I’ll avoid the technical jargon of tent materials as these can be found on the Vango website. To really appreciate how quick and easy it is to put – you have to see it and try it for for yourself.Īfter a couple of practice goes – one person could put up this self-standing tent in 5 minutes and then just peg out the guy linesįor those who have seen my reviews before – you know I like to cut to the chase and give straightforward reviews. I’m recommending this tent to all my friends who are into camping. And after a few goes – I am very much a convert – this tent is great, very quick to put up and robust and I couldn’t go back to more traditional pole tents now. But this summer gave the opportunity to try out the Vango Monaco 500 inflatable tent.

I had seen and heard about the inflatable beam tents before – they seemed like they may be quicker to put up – but to be honest – the idea of inflatable poles just didn’t sit right with me – I guess because things that are inflatable have a tendency to deflate! Not a good thought of your tent coming down in the middle of the night. I’ve had family size / 4-5 man tents before, and as anyone with any experience of putting up these big tents will know – they can take ages and be a bit of a chew on – and so the prospect of using these kind of tents for short camping trips of 1 or 2 nights is a bit off putting to me, and I guess many others. With my daughter now 3, this summer was the perfect time to introduce her to camping and the outdoors (and hopefully set her on the path to joining me on some walking trips in future! We’ll see though eh :-). This gear review blog post takes on a more family orientated twist. Vango Monaco 500 Airbeam family tent review

Airbeam review