Cabanon Barbados

(Sleeping Capacity 6 persons)

The Tent

The Cabanon Barbados is the bigger 6 berth version of it’s smaller sister the Cabonon Guadeloupe (see 365campingcaravanning review of the Guadeloupe)  Both tents are a pyramide-style tent and are made of top quality 100% cotton, is very simple to erect has a strong PVC Sewn-In-Groundsheet (SIG) and an integral 1m sun canopy. This style of tent is quite popular in the rest of Europe and is a breath of fresh air on a UK campsite with reminiscence of camping days in the old Ridge tents the Cabanon Barbados oozes nostalgia with a mix of modern comfort.

Cabanon are renowned for the quality of their tents and the purchaser of these gems of the camping world will be quite confident that the tent is of the highest quality. As is the usual case with a lot of Cabanon tents once past the disappointing packaging then all doubts are cast aside as the look and feel of the quality Canvas and Groundsheet leaps out at you. This really is a high quality tent.
 

Size / Berth

Height - 240 cm (at centre)

Weight - 32kg

Ground area - 350cm X 520cm

Living area - 350cm X 190cm

Doors - 1

Packed size - All in 1 bag

 Erection / Pitching

As with it’s smaller sister (the Guadeloupe) the Barbados is by far one of the simplest and quickest to erect in it’s size group.Poles and pegs are packed in there own bags and rolled up with the tent. The quality of these bags are more of what I would have expected from the tent bag itself. Instructions are by way of  an A4 piece of paper (English and French versions) but you really don’t need more as they are short, clear and concise.The tent only has 3 main poles (+ 2 to keep the canopy propped up) and is designed for a quick erection as follows:- Peg 4 corners of the tent to make it ‘square’. Open door and insert main pole (the one with the rubber end) into the roof of the tent (special re-inforced patch in roof), raising the tent as you do so. Insert 2 poles in door way section. Peg rest of tent and guys. Insert 2 poles into canopy and guy out.
Job Done. Total time around 20 minutes.  Ah, but what they neglected to say is that on the first erection you have to tie ALL the guylines onto the tent first  and as there's quite a few then it took a lot longer than 20 minutes, but hey, at least you only have to it once, unless you like to take your guylines off to dry them separately. The 1 metre integral Sun Canopy is a useful little feature but  it’s only 1 metre at the roof  and actually tapers to 48cm at the ground , not quite what I expected. The optional Side Panel compensates for this somewhat. Very simple to attach, fix top of side panel to canopy pole, velcro at side of Sun Canopy, tie the ribbon near base to the Sun Canopy and guy out (2 minutes max). What’s clever about the optional Side Panel is that it can be used on either side on the Sun Canopy (or buy two and use them on each side).

The interior of the tent echos quality but lacks storage pockets and hanging points for lighting.  The Barbados differs from it’s smaller sister (the Guadeloupe) in that the Barbados  has a hanging inner bedroom (with two doors and divider curtain that can be rolled up). The inner bedroom is simple to affix via toggle points at the floor and hanging points on the side walls and lastly two hooks to hang high onto the centre vertical pole and clip at the bottom of the pole.  The bedroom can be left in place if you so wish by just unhooking the two hooks and the clip on the centre pole.

The sloping walls don't seem to make it feel claustrophobic as the tent centre is 8ft high but the bedroom inner tends to droop at the roof due to too much fabric of the bedroom inner. The tent does feel a little darker than some synthetic tents as it only has 2 front windows but all of one side of the front wall can be rolled away to the side to open the tent up on those hot summer days.
 

The Verdict

If you're used to a large dome/tunnel synthetic type tent then this tent will take some getting used to as it is smaller and has less of that light airy feeling BUT the wow factor of the shape, simplicity & speed of pitch plus the quality of manufacture and materials is definitely a strong pulling point….and at 32 kg it’s a lot lighter than some of the other more cumbersome tents on the market.  

The Cost

Around the £500 mark which may be on the expensive side but these tents are built to last.

Information and Links

For further information on Cabanon and their products visit Cabanon

Reviewed by Camper Pete