Vaude Taurus Ultralight

This isn't the roomiest, strongest or lightest two-man backpacking tent around, but it does represent a very good balance of these qualities, and at a reasonable price. The tent comes in a neat stuffsack and is easy to pack, carry and unpack. It pitches very easily as one unit, just requiring the fitting through sleeves of two external poles and a bit of pegging out, which can be done in just a couple of minutes. The pegs aren't super lightweight titanium jobs, just aluminium, but are still pretty light, have good holding power and don't cut your hands. Inside, there is enough space in the body of the tent for two 6ft blokes to lie down in reasonable comfort, although there isn't much space to spare and sitting out a prolonged spell of bad weather could be a trial. One person can sit up at the front of the tent. There is enough room in the single porch to store packs or cook food, but not really to do both. Unused gear is best left outside in a bin liner. The zip arrangement means the outer door can be opened in a variety of ways, which is a very useful feature. The materials appear pretty flimsy, which is not surprising in a tent weighing about 1.9kg, but mine is still in excellent condition, with no rips or leaks, after a couple of years of pretty regular use. It's even come out unscathed after being pitched in winds of about 45mph, but being inside it under those conditions is not very pleasant, because the polls flex a lot, bringing the inner and outer into contact with your feet. However, as a two-man or even luxurious one-man backpacking tent it is very good under most conditions, and I haven't seen anything much better for the money.

(Written by: GuyHurst)

I bought the older version of this tent in a sale in 2006.It's very easy to erect and tension, though if you don't get the pegging right at the back, the rear end can curl over to one side. This has only happened once and on that occasion i managed to sort it out before it became a problem,say with bad weather.The only other niggle i have with the tent,is the inner is connected to the fly by s-shaped connectors at the front. The s-shaped connector is part of the pole tensioner and the inner can only be unhooked from the s- connector by pulling and tugging at it, which would be difficult in bad weather.The rear of the inner tent is also connected to the fly by a velcro fitment sleeve and again this is not easy to remove.Apart from those niggles, the rest of the inner can simply be unpegged along the inside of the fly.I have however rectified the problem by removing the inner from the s-connector and fitting clips to the inner to be fastened to the s-connector, this works fine! The porch is plenty big enough for two rucksacks and the door opens with two zips from the top, so you can vent the tent.I use it as a one man tent and this gives me plenty of room inside and though i think it would be cramped with two,the tent would manage it, but both would have to have their heads at the door end, as the rear of the tent slopes down and when i have slept at that end, i find the fabric blows in your face, keeping you awake.It light enough to be a good backpacking tent though and packs down well.