Camping holidays are booming, increasing in popularity as travellers face the prospect of ongoing travel disruption and costs rising as the pound weakens. Suddenly, staying at home looks both easier and cheaper, but what’s the best way for the inexperienced to enjoy the great outdoors, especially if comfort and convenience are high on the list of requirements?
Armed with the latest words of wisdom from seasoned camper and campervan aficionado Martin Dorey, in the form of The Campervan Bible Glovebox Edition
and Off The Beaten Track England & Wales, to guide us, we started southward with two campervans — the Ford Transit Custom Nugget and the Toyota Proace Matino 2 — and a Robens Chinook Ursa Polycotton tent.
The plan was to compare and contrast the campervan and the humble tent, so we headed to Dorset to spend a few days with the lovely people at Burnbake Campsite, just outside Corfe Castle, to put everything through its paces, starting with the Robens Chinook Ursa tent.
When we describe the tent as humble, that might be a bit of a misnomer; the Robens Chinook Ursa tent is more glamping than camping. It’s arguably closer to a hotel room than a tent.
This eight-person, tipi-style tent, constructed using HydroTex polycotton, had more than enough room for our needs. While two of us left acres of space inside the tent, the manufacturer’s claim that it was eight-person accommodation would be a stretch and feel very crowded. Four-up would still feel spacious, though.
There are two different configurations for the front of the tent. When in the “closed” setup, a metal A-frame creates the zip-close double door entrance, although this is reasonably low and narrow, so check your head and shoulders as you go in. There’s enough space for a small porch, so arriving home in wet clothes won’t see you traipsing water and mud through the living area.
Where the Chinook Ursa comes into its own, though, is when it is reconfigured into a Bedouin-style tent with an open front. Conversion is straightforward; simply undo the hidden zips on each side of the tent, break down the A-frame into three individual poles, lift the front section and slide the pole tops into the appointed holes. Once tethered into position with guy ropes, the space opens up, creating a large, usable, shaded area. This was perfect for the evening, as the temperature dropped slightly, giving shelter but not feeling claustrophobic as it can do with multiple people inside a tent.
At a push, it could even be used as a pop-up event space for a summer fete or shelter for a garden party or barbecue, such is the versatility.
For a little more luxury and a homely vibe, we added the Chinook Ursa fleece carpet, designed to fit inside the ground sheet perfectly, with elasticated loops sewn in to hold it down securely. This was much more pleasant under bare feet than the standard ground sheet and provided another layer of insulation against the slightly damp ground.
If you are a year-round camper and want to retain an element of luxury on the campsite, the Chinook Ursa has a stovepipe port fitted into the top, so you can use any solid fuel chimney stove designed for use in a tent and stay warm and cosy, whatever the weather outside. While a British summer might not provide the weather we always want, our trip to the south coast was pleasant enough that we didn’t need any extra warmth, but that would transform trips in cooler climates or seasons.
What did let the Chinook Ursa down a little was the pitching instructions. The instructions list five steps, which are handily printed on a material flap inside the tent bag — that means you can’t possibly lose them — but they’re not particularly clear, leading to plenty of grown-up words being thrown around. For example, there are several webbing straps which pass under the groundsheet, but even after a week under canvas, I’m still not entirely sure how they should be attached and whether it’s particularly important. Perhaps we got it right, if only by accident. There are also three silicone feet included, and nowhere in the instructions does it tell you where they go. With at least five ends of poles, we simply guessed. Nothing broke, there were no leaks, and it didn’t collapse, so it felt right.
We were hit by a severe thunderstorm one night at Burnbake, and the Chinook Ursa was both stable and completely watertight. There’s little you can do to reduce the noise of what felt like the entirety of the English Channel being unloaded onto the tent from above, but not a single drop made it into the Chinook Ursa. The zipped-in groundsheet did an excellent job
, while adding the polyethene footprint under the groundsheet and the fleece carpet over it kept everything dry, warm and cosy inside.
It’s not the kind of tent you see UK families traditionally gravitating towards, but we fell in love with the Robens Chinook Ursa over the week. My partner, a man who would rather be ensconced in a Fairmont hotel than a field, even started talking about where else we could travel with it. It’s big, bold and, if not quite beautiful, stylish enough to feel like the king of the campsite.
How does it compare to a campervan? We pitched it alongside a Ford Transit Custom Nugget and a Toyota Proace Campervan to see which works best for those needing a little more luxury. The investment required to sleep under canvas is, obviously, significantly lower, with the Robens asking price just 1/50th of the Ford’s price tag. None would be particularly suitable for wild or adventure camping, but for a more relaxed, social experience, there are plus points to them all.
The Chinook Ursa surprisingly offers more usable space than either van, with enough headroom to be able to stand and do something as simple as getting changed in comfort — something that’s surprisingly difficult in either of the vans. Yes, you miss out on a fitted kitchen, but then there’s room for a stove and plenty of space to keep a grill. Crucially, it’ll all fit in the back of an average car, so you can still get out and about once you’ve pitched the tent. In the vans, you need to spend time packing and securing everything before lowering the roof and driving off, which isn’t always that easy and never quick. With a bit of practice, it’ll only take 15 minutes to assemble the Chinook Ursa, and that leaves the campervans with little advantage.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Lots of space and headroom | Height only in the centre |
| Excellent waterproofing and draft exclusion | Instructions are unclear |
| Can accommodate a stove | Optional inner tent blocks stove use |
| Surprisingly lightweight | Can feel dark due to no windows |
| Compact when packed |
What: Robens Chinook Ursa
How much: RRP £1,390
Where: Robens.de, Amazon.co.uk and others
- Canal Toys Mini Speaker: Tiny triumph or massive miss? - 23 July 2026
- Blue Turaco coffee: A morning cuppa with a conscience - 17 July 2026
-
P&O Cruises Keel & Cow menu gets a makeover - 16 July 2026