A drive away awning or a tent ?

[Califoznia]

Hi all I've had my Cali for just under a year now & we are all loving it very much we've done some of the festivals & had a quick trip to Europe.
For extra room we've been managing with a vw camper tent put up at the side of the Cali (looks good) but this is not always suitable.we have a 2 week trip to Italy booked for April & there will be 4 people going so I'm after some help as we will be moving on after 2 days at each site so the question is do I buy a drive away awning or a bigger tent with nice size living space?

 

[T5WOB]

still think kyham is the best out there .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TbXT2N1l9c

 

[bvddobb]

Going on a trekking trip to Italy with 4 we wouldn't bring our big camper tent: too much hassle setting it up and bringing it down every other day. We then bring a simple pop-up tent to sleep two. We only bring the 'big' tent when we plan to stay longer in certain places, never when trekking.

April in Italy, living under the awning is nearly always possible! We would just bring a side and perhaps front panel, for when the weather is not completely behaving, or when one is a windy spot. Extra sleepers still in the small pop-up tent.

 

[briwy]

Agree with the above re the Khyam but we have a Quechua Base Seconds as well.

If we are on a site for a while then it's the Khyam otherwise for one/two nights it's the Quechua pop up. The Khyam is great but does take up quite a bit of space in the back whereas the Quechua is about 3ft diameter and 4ins thick packed up and fits easily under the rear shelf along with other stuff.
Together with the roll out awning with a side on the Quechua works well for touring.

 

[SimplyDubs]

We're in a similar situation as many of the replies.

Had a Kyham for many years, stopped using it about 3 years ago. Cracking bit of kit but does take up a lot of valuable space.

Also got a Base 2nds XL... stunning, big pop up.

But in reality we haven't used anything but CaiforniaCamping.de side panels in the past 3 years.

Big, big space under the awning (due to the sloping front panel), packs up incredibly small, go on in 5 minutes (with a little practice) off in less.

We had ours custom made about 4 years ago, now a standard product. (Matches the grey of the van)

Lot's of different options... take a look and see what suits how you want to use it.

Here's a picture without the end panels on to give you an idea of space:-

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Rgds
Mark

 

[calikev]

I agree with mark awning side panels for me every time 3 minutes to put up and take down
I'm never in one place long enough to bother with a full awning.