Sunday, July 01, 2007

Tenting for Two

Choosing your home away from home

If you're thinking of buying a new tent for your romantic camping excursions, you'll soon realise that there are an awful lot of them to chose from! Trying to narrow down your options can be a challenge, but if you're looking for a two-person tent to share with your partner there are certain features that are worth having. These are what I consider to be pluses for a couple's tent:

1. Double doors: if a tent only has one entrance, you're going to be climbing over each other if someone has to go out to pee at night. Lots of tents have a door on each side so you can slip in and out without disturbing your mate.

2. Roomy vestibule(s): If your tent is going to be a successful love den, you need to have a bit of elbow room in there. That means leaving your packs and other gear outside of the tent. Keeping your gear dry is much easier if there's a good vestibule area under the fly, and if your tent has two doors it may also have two vestibules.

3. Ventilation: Things can get pretty steamy inside your tent when you get intimate in there. Just think about what happens to car windows when you make out in the back seat! (If you remember those days.) Most tents have windows or vents, but check it out to make sure moisture can escape well enough when you're getting hot and heavy.

4. Quick setup: One of the top activities for starting a fight between a couple is pitching the tent. The longer this takes and more complicated it is, the higher the odds of getting into a tiff. Make sure you will be able to put your tent up easily in the rain, or the dark, to put yourselves under as little pressure as possible. And while you're at it, make sure you have lots of extra pegs and rope, just in case.

5. Pockets: Different tents have different configurations of pockets inside for holding your necessities. For a couple, you need a lot of stuff at arm's reach to make your lives easier. Not just your flashlight - but all of the things you use if you're having sex. That could mean condoms and lubricant, a towel to protect your sleeping bags, and any other goodies you like to have at hand. Plus anything you'll be needing right after to tidy up and get ready for sleeping, like tissues or baby wipes and a trash bag.

As you can see, there's more to consider when you're tent shopping than price and weight. In a sense you're buying a vacation home for yourselves, so take your time and really check out all of your options. If you choose well, you'll get more out of your camping trips than ever before!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you missed off an important point here with all this talk of the fabric love shack.
That they are not sound proof!
So please, please recommend that unless silent that the couple in their tent on a campsite refrain from getting physical, as the whole campsite will hear them.

Maple Kiwi said...

That's true, but since there are no soundproof options to choose from there's not much to consider about it while shopping.

Ideally, getting passionate in the tent is reserved for more secluded locations. Otherwise, it's important to be subtle - this is not the place for recreating your favourite porn movie soundtrack!

Determinist said...

Michelle, this is the first time I've seen you get into the nitty-gritty of the sexual outing! "condoms and lubricant"! Hahaha...

For that romantic couple, I'm sure that this is greatly appreciated. It's like the teacher in school doing the sex education talk! ;-)

Maple Kiwi said...

Oh, just wait until you see the book! I'm the wilderness Sue Johanson ;o)

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