42 | THE LOCAL TOURIST


www.nitravelnews.com


March 2025 Are TentBox Worth


Our Editor-in-Chief Kirsty Johnston sets up camp with one of the hottest local tourism trends right now… TentBox, to find out if they really are worth the hype.


CAMPING and caravanning holidays are just as popular now as they were in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Indeed, having grown up in a seaside village, which is still to this day hugely popular with ‘caravaners’ as they are fondly known and enjoying many a spring and summer weekend camping with my own family, I thought I was well acquainted with all aspects of open air living.


adventure has


But the desire for an old-fashioned outdoor seen


a boom in recent


years (*ahem* post-Covid), with people rediscovering a beloved way to holiday at home. One of the ways people are re- embracing the outdoors is with a roof tent. I’m sure you’ve seen them passing by on the road; cars, jeeps and vans up and down the country are sporting roof tents with the instantly recognisable white and orange logo. With prices ranging from £995 for the new TentBox Go, to £2,595 for the TentBox Cargo 2.0, TentBox are the new trend in camping. But just who are TentBox? A TentBox is essentially a roof top tent, giving the convenience of a camper van without the hefty price tag (or mechanic bills). You can sleep wherever you park your car, including on hard surfaces like carparks and driveways, eliminating the need for a grassy area to pitch up. Having your ‘tent’ on top of your car has numerous benefits. Being elevated not only provides stunning views, but it also keeps you safely away from the cold, damp ground and pesky insects. The natural air barrier between the Tentbox and your car roof offers insulation, helping you stay warm. You can also keep your TentBox on your


car year-round, allowing for spontaneous adventures at a moments notice. Whether it’s a weekend getaway at a campsite after a busy week or pulling up beside a scenic beach - after the initial purchase, a TentBox becomes a highly


cost-


effective travel option. There are numerous free spots to park for the night, and campsites are significantly more affordable than hotels - meaning you can explore more for less!


Purchase and Initial Setup


After weighing up the different roof tent options on the website, we opted for the super-sized TentBox Lite XL. Recommended for families, people with pets, or those who like extra space it has a super-king


mattress that sleeps 4 adults comfortably. We are 2 adults and a 2-year-old so the Lite XL provided that little bit of extra space we needed. The Tentbox Lite XL comes in three colours


- Slate, Sunset and Forest. We opted for the Forest colour, which along with the Slate is completely blackout - great for getting an unruly toddler to sleep. After the initial set up, this roof tent only takes 5 minutes to set up and creates an awesome basecamp for any adventure. We were very excited about setting off on our


first TentBox adventure (we had reserved a pitch at Meelmore Lodge in Newcastle for the following weekend). As soon as the TentBox was secured on top of our car we unfolded it and went through the set-up process for the first time.


Where it All Went Wrong


After unfolding the base and securing the ladder we noticed that the central rail wasn’t lining up with the channel. At first we didn’t panic thinking we must be doing something wrong or that there was an extra step we were missing. We sent off messages to TentBox (unfortunately you are unable to call TentBox, you have to either email or WhatsApp message the helpline and wait for a response). After a few hours with no response, I messaged the WhatsApp help line again.


By


the next day we still hadn’t heard anything


from TentBox and we were getting quite concerned. Finally, my husband received a reply


from TentBox and he managed to chat to a customer rep who advised him to pull on the ladder while pushing up the centre join in the TentBox to help it ‘pop’ into place in the channel. A two man job… meaning we wouldn’t be doing any solo camping trip in the TentBox which was disappointing. Anyway, we gave it a go and the rail did seem to move a little more into the channel, although there was still a gap, which TentBox assured us was normal.


A second issue that we noticed… the


cover


didn’t come with the velcro straps to secure it out of the way. After raising this with TentBox, they told us that they had stopped putting the velcro straps on them. The two main options now were to either just let the cover hang loose (blocking access to the car) or rolling it up and trying to stuff it in the gap between the car roof and the bottom of the TentBox. TentBox did send us out bungee cords to help with this problem…


but even after watching a few


videos on how to attach them, they weren’t much help - or very neat. This was another disappointing thing. Anyway, shaking off our inital issues, we


packed up the car the next weekend and headed off on our first camping adventure - an overnight stay at Meelmore Lodge. We had a fantastic time! We set up the TentBox in 5 minutes, flipped up the camping chairs and had a BBQ going and a beer open while the other campers struggled with poles and ground sheets. That night we slept like babies (including the actual baby). The TentBox was


warm and completely blackout and had plenty of space to store our shoes and other bits and bobs beside the door.


A second camping trip two weeks later seen us set up camp in Millstone in Newcastle. Another great wee campsite with fantastic views out over the Irish Sea. Worth a note though, is that you can’t use a fire pit or charcoal BBQ on this site - it’s strictly gas or electric only.


Another Investment After two successful camping trips under


our belt, we were now firm TentBox fans. So much so that we decided to expand our setup with the Lite XL Living Pod. At £395 it wasn’t a cheap addition, but so convinced were we that the TentBox life was for us that we were willing to emake the ivestment. The Living Pod is designed to create a living area underneath the fold-out part of the Lite XL. Perfect for hunkering down when it’s raining, or creating a shaded area when the sun’s out. It also creates a covered area to store your camping chairs, BBQ, cooler etc.


A couple of weekends


later, with the new Living Pod loaded in the car, we set off again - this time to The Meadows in Omagh. A gorgeous little campsite near the Ulster American Folk Park. To say the set- up of the Living Pod was a struggle would be putting it lightly. 2 hours. It took 2 hours, and we discovered that the ground sheet did


not attach to the bottom of the side panels. This meant the side panels flapped noisily in the wind no matter how tightly they were pinned down. One of the hooks also snapped off while we tried to tighten them, grazing


my husbands ear (lucky it didn’t take out his eye!). After one night listening to the constant flapping, we woke up to find the campsite’s resident cats sleeping in the pod. They had got in under the side panels. The Living Pod was down and hastily packed up before the tea kettle had even come to a boil. I sent off another WhatsApp message to TentBox complaining about the Living Pod and explaining our difficulties. I knew it would be a while before we received a reply (this was a weekend) so we went about trying to enjoy the rest of our stay. Our initial issue with the centre rail not connecting properly had also become more of an issue on this third camping trip. Every morning (and evening) after getting in and out of the TentBox we were also having to pop the connecting rail into the channel. As soon as one of us put any weight (including the 2 year old) on the centre of the TentBox the rail popped out. This was getting extremely tedious and we could now visibly see the rail bending under the TentBox when it popped out. I was convinced that the tent was axctually too small for the base and was stopping it from properly unfolding.


As we packed up and headed


home, we were fast becoming disillusioned with TentBox.


Revolutionary TentBox say they are


“revolutionising adventure by making camping easier and comfier, whilst


building a worldwide


community of TentBoxers”. As we were trying to find solutions for our TentBox issues via the TentBox WhatsApp, we also decided to turn to TentBox’ online community to see if they could provide any insight into this.


We wondered if anyone else had had similar issues with their TentBox, or whether our was a one-off and we just got unlucky. The TentBox community has an official TentBox Facebook group called ‘TheTentBox


THE LOCAL TOURIST


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