Darche Safari 260

awsum tent – this review is for the darche 350 great tent , yes it weighs a bit but worth the quality , fits a double stretcher bed , luggage and our dog with ease, this will last forever, if you have never slept in a canvas tent you dont know what your missing, keeps out so much light in the morning and lots of noise unlike all the thin wispy tents, and if… Read more ·  1

its raining its only 4 pegs and one pole and its up enuff to throw your gear in, no fly needed , ok the one and only downside , the poles , the first time i put it up they all failed, the front awning poles twist to lock and they failed first go and no i wasnt reefing on them, and the center pole goes down with little down pressure , so i drilled and pinned the center pole which solved that one, and by the way if the center pole puts you off trust me it wont once you put the tent up , its like the tardis inside , and for the front awning poles im just going to buy sum new ones , the tent is that good its not a deal breaker , but it would be great if they could just get a better design pole , great tent, would never go back to wispy material tents, and for weight its not heavy its awkward, so dont use the straps to pick it up , grab it down low its way easier to carry , and seperate the poles and front awning from the bag :) happy camping people

Darche poles – The only thing darche need to improve on is the poles with the snap lock as after a while they start slidinding down. We replaced ours with screw poles from another company. Show details

Good tent but a few words of caution for the uninitiated – We bought this tent recently as a quick to erect shelter for 2 people. There were few reviews online but perhaps this overview will help others by filling in a few gaps we wish we had known about. Firstly the positives: This is a very well made, high quality canvas tent that represents exceptional value for money. List price is $495 and we… Read more

paid $439 on special. Heavy duty rip stop canvas and high quality guy ropes and floor. At this price it is well less that half the cost of other canvas touring tents of so called "30 second" tents.

Basic pitching is very fast, 4 corner pegs and a centre pole with a trigger lock. Like all tents pegging out windows, flaps, awnings and vents takes longer so in reality around 10 to 20 mins fo a complete pitch (if needed).

It's roomy. 2600mm x 2600mm floor space with full head height. Much better that the 30 second tents that really only allow standing right at the doorway. We easily fit 2 full size stretcher beds with room in the middle even with the centre pole (which isn't such an encumbrance as I thought it would be)

Now the "wish we had known(s)"

Our tent was missing guy ropes and only included 14 pegs for 24 tie down points - bit rude for a $500 tent.

It's heavy!. And more than that, awkward. Perhaps we were naive but we didn't realise that touring tents need to be folded into a square because they have a metal frame that supports the top. This means you have a 1000mmx 1000mm x 200mm square package weighing about 25kg that needs a space in the vehicle. We have a dual cab ute but with the fridge and drawers in the back this tent simply doesn't fit. It needs to go in a trailer or on a pack rack (a heavy awkward package to like up that high). And a big heavy square is usually going to be the fist thing packed and the last thing unpacked meaning everything else has to be unloaded before you can put the tent up. Not ideal in lousy weather.

Other than that it is a really high quality tent which offers peace of mind if the weather turns nasty. Very easy to put up and very easy to pack away into its high quality cordura carry bag.

So as long as you have space in the vehicle and you don't mind hefting a large and heavy cumbersome bit of kit I would hight recommend as a good quality, value for money tent which should last many, many years.