I don’t know if you’d call us new to camping or old hands. I used to camp very regularly both with my parents and then as a scout leader for many years but there has been a long break in my camping (decades rather than years!) and camping gear has really changed in that time. Towards the end of last summer we started to look at tents and in the end we ordered our tent as soon as Vango announced their new 2017 models. Having previously camped in both canvas and polyester tents I knew I preferred the more breathable fabrics and we liked the layout of the Illusion so the new polycotton version was the tent for us.

The Illusion TC 800XL is a large family tent suitable for up to 8 people. Being an airbeam tent it is very easy and quick to pitch and the tent is made from Vango’s technical cotton which gives the tent a lovely feel inside. It has three double bedroom pods across the back of the tent and two of these can be opened up to make a four berth bedroom. The fourth double bedroom is a completely separate pod that you can clip up in the large living area. The living area itself is split into two sections. The first section has a sewn in groundsheet and this is the section where the bedrooms are. There is then a front awning section with a peg in groundsheet which is large enough to set up your kitchen in if you wish.

We recently took our tent to Jersey in the Channel Islands for our first camping trip, having had just one opportunity for a quick test pitch to check we knew how to put it up. When we arrived in Jersey there was a severe weather warning – Force seven gales were expected imminently! I don’t think I have ever pitched a tent so fast in my life! We had watched videos on how to pitch the tent online and having had our trial run it all went smoothly and the tent was up and pegged out in well under 30 minutes. We then added extra guys all around the tent in preparation for the gales. The bad weather duly arrived and the tent was absolutely fine. There was very little movement (we did use the TBS straps that Vango tents have to help stabilise it) and although we hadn’t had a chance to “weather” the tent before our trip not a single drop of rain came through. The gales lasted two days and when the wind finally dropped the heatwave arrived. Once again the tent performed really well. The outside temperature was a little over 30c and although it was also warm inside the tent it wasn’t anything like being inside a polyester tent! We had added the sun canopy to the front of the tent once the wind dropped and this is a great addition to the tent. It provided a lovely shady outside space along with having the front awning doors fully open. Being waterproof, the sun canopy also shelters the sloping front doors of the tent and helps to prevent rain coming in. (We didn’t have any rain after the first two days but during our first two days it was certainly better to use the side door which has a built in rain canopy as we hadn’t yet put up the sun canopy.)

So, the main plus points about this tent for me were:

  • The size – it gave us lots of room! We unzipped the divider between two of the bedroom pods so we could fit in our huge camping bed and the large living areas gave us plenty of room for our furniture and gear.

  • The speed with which it can be pitched - it’s also easy to take down and pack away.

  • Its resilience to whatever the weather throws at it! – Gale force winds or heatwaves!

  • The fabric – it’s breathable so we had no condensation problems and it was far cooler in the heat.

  • The durability – being polycotton it’s not as susceptible to UV damage so longer lasting than polyester.

  • The quality of manufacturing – this was very evident. The stitching, zips, etc, were all high quality.

Any negatives? Well, there are only a couple of things I would change if I could and they are really only minor niggles:

  • The tent is heavy and the pack size is big. It really needs two adults to lift it into and out of the car. A big polycotton tent by nature just is heavy and you need to have room for the big pack size when you’re transporting it.

  • The side doors have a fly screen which zips all the way around but the outside door doesn’t zip across the bottom – it just zips up round the top and side. This was only a problem for us as our dogs soon worked out that this was an ideal escape route if we didn’t have the flyscreen zipped up!

  • The bedroom pods are a bit small if you want to use large/raised campbeds. We turned our two vango xl campbeds sideways across two of the pods which was ideal for us but obviously wouldn’t be possible if you needed the bedrooms for other people.

 

So our verdict on the Vango Illusion TC 800Xl is that we are absolutely delighted with it! It was a big decision for us to spend that much money on a tent but it has proved to be worth every cent. It made our camping holiday into a luxury “glamping” trip and we can’t wait to go again.

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