TENTS | Meet This Summer’s Best New Tent – The L.O.M Luna Weekender Bell Tent From Boutique Camping

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Luna lom weekender bell tent
The Luna LOM Weekender Bell Tent at sunset

What is it?

4m Luna Weekender L.O.M Bell Tent £329.00

Stockists

Features

  • Exclusive collaboration with L.O.M Fashion featuring their awesome Femina Magicae print
  • Premium quality made lightweight polyester 4m Luna bell tent
  • Entrance door height: 180cm with secondary zipped mosquito door
  • Total weight: 17.5KG Packed downsize (95cm x 28cm x 28cm)
  • Hydrostatic head rating of 3000, meaning this tent can withhold heavy rainstorms
  • Zipped in durable lightweight groundsheet 180 PE
  • Wall height: 180cmSturdy aluminium centre pole
  • Heavy Duty Pegs; 6mm groundsheet pegs and 8mm ridged robust groundsheet pegs
  • Reinforced double stitched seams
  • Branded metal guy rope sliders, zips and customised bag with length-way zipper and double handle
  • Purple reflective guy ropes which are easier to see during the night
  • Waterproof carry bag so your Luna bell tent won’t soak through (if it’s wet)
  • 4 zipped Large windows for airflow and ventilation with mesh cover to keep insects away
  • Free rubber mallet to secure pegs into the ground
  • Can sleep up to 4 adults on airbeds comfortably with space for luggage, furniture or a walkway.
  • Easy to assemble – one person can assemble in under 15min
  • Comes with 12 months manufacturers warranty
Boutique Camping
Luna LOM Weekender Bell Tent

Putting the tent up

Initially this tent goes up just like an ordinary bell tent. We started by laying it flat and pulling the groundsheet out before pegging it down.

Next, I went inside with the centre pole, then fitted the doorway poles before venturing back inside to fit in the poles which behave like ribs, giving the tent its distinctive shape and holding everything in place.

Finally it was a matter of pulling out the guy ropes and pegging those in place. We’ve pitched the tent twice so far and both times it’s taken around 20 minutes. There are double the number of guy ropes (compared to a 4m bell tent) and there are flexible poles that need to be slotted into place inside the tent too, as well as the small flexible canopy pole, so it does take a little longer than a regular bell tent to put up, but is still pretty quick and it can be done easily by one person too.

Initially the sides looked quite straight, until we figured out we simply needed to pull out the lower guy ropes to create more tension to create the rounded, bowed out look.

Luna LOM Weekender Bell Tent

Looks and styling

On the outside at least, you can’t help but notice how similar the Luna bell tent looks to the Lotus Belle tent which has been around for a good few years now. However, there are some huge differences.

Luna LOM Weekender Bell Tent

The Luna has been designed for practicality, and the Weekender version in particular which is lighter than the canvas version, is much easier to handle and significantly quicker to put up than similarly designed tents.

Not only that, the price is much, much lower too, with the 4m Weekender version that we’ve got coming in at just £329 whilst the canvas version costs £839 compared to an eye-watering £1,390 for a Lotus Belle.

The Weekender version of this tent features a selection of bright and funky patterns, none more so than the L.O.M design which we adore. If you like to stand out at the campsite or at a festival, then this is certainly the one to go for and whilst the bright psycadelic print did divide opinions, we love it. On a side note, if this print isn’t for you, there are plenty of other options available including sandstone.

Space and practicality

We’ve owned 5m and 6m bell tents and have plenty of experience with 4m bell tents as a few friends have them and we find a 5m bell is generally ideal for our needs. However thanks to the design of the Luna bell tent, you get heaps more usable space than you do in a regular bell tent with sloping sides, which means that even the diminutive 4m Luna provided plenty of space for us.

We take a lot of stuff camping with us, including a double Outwell SIM, bedside tables, camp loo (and privacy screen), large camp kitchen unit, huge Coleman ice box and our bags. All of this fitted inside the tent easily with room to spare, much to our surprise.

The 4m we feel is the ideal size for a couple, particularly if you have camp furniture, or, for a family of 4 who just want to use the tent for sleeping in.

Luna LOM Weekender Bell Tent
The centre pole which we hang our LUMi solar powered light and pompom chandelier from

Carrying and transporting the tent

The big difference with the lightweight Luna Weekender tent is that it’s ridiculously light compared to its canvas counterpart.

The 4m Luna Weekender weighs in at just 17.5kg compared to 34kg for the polycotton version, which means I have no problem getting it into the boot of my car or carrying it around on my own.

Windows

The tent has 4 big windows which I absolutely love. One of the reasons I resisted buying a bell tent for so long is down to the fact they typically don’t have windows, so once you’re zipped in at night, you lose that connection to the outside world, so it’s really nice to have windows in the Luna.

Luna LOM Weekender Bell Tent
Our huge kitchen unit inside the Luna tent
Luna LOM Weekender Bell Tent
One of the 4 large windows in the Luna Weekender Bell Tent

The round windows have mesh covers to keep the bugs out whilst allowing air to circulate, though you do need to be outside of the tent however to open the windows, meaning should it start raining (as I write this it has rained solidly for the best part of 2 weeks and I’m actually wondering if the rain will ever stop), you’ll need to dash outside to close the windows to ensure the tent remains water tight, which leads me nicely on to discussing the waterproofing of this tent.

Waterproofing

Here in the UK it rains a lot, and even fair weather campers need a tent that can stand up to a sustained torrential downpour.

Thankfully, when the tent arrived, before we had our first proper camping trip in it, we put it up in the garden and left it there for a couple of days. During that time it rained. A lot. The tent performed well, with no leaks whatsoever.

Luna LOM Weekender Bell Tent
The tent viewed from the side

Door height

The doorway is advertised as being 1.8m high, but at 5.6″ I found it wasn’t tall enough to allow me to walk in and out of without bending a little. The door however was large enough to get all of our camp furniture in and out with ease and we liked the secondary bug mesh on the door and the little built-in canopy, ideal for protecting whatever’s inside your tent if it’s raining.

Luna LOM Weekender Bell Tent
The doorway and view from our tent

Pros

  • Much lighter weight and smaller pack size than a similarly sized canvas tent
  • Loads more usable space than in similarly size bell tent
  • We found the built-in canopy really useful for providing a shaded area and protection from the rain
  • The price point of £329 represents good value for money compared to cotton canvas version of the tent, and indeed cotton canvas bell tents
  • The usual high-quality Boutique Camping zips, guy rope sliders and heavy-duty steel pegs
  • Beautiful, funky eye-catching print that we loved
  • No leaks during a heavy rain downpour and it’s waterproof from the outset
  • 4 large windows protected by bug mesh which allow for greater airflow inside the tent and mean you can admire the views from inside the tent
  • Fast and easy to put up, though it does take a little longer than a standard bell tent

Cons

  • It’s quite light inside the tent, so it probably wouldn’t be ideal for families with young kids likely to wake up at dawn
  • The windows help a lot with ventilation, but canvas remains better at regulating the internal temperature
  • It takes a little longer to put up compared to a bell tent as there are flexible poles that need to be fitted all around the tent to give it it’s distinctive shape and we found it took a fair bit of effort to achieve the bowed-out rounded sides

Final Say

Our Rating
Quality 4/5
Practicality 4.5/5
Styling 5/5
Value 5/5

Overall Rating 5 out of 5 stars (5 / 5)

This is a ridiculously funky looking tent that makes a great alternative to a traditional bell tent, particularly if you don’t want the added weight or expense of canvas.

The Weekender is much lighter than the canvas version and as such, it’s significantly cheaper which makes it a more practical choice for weekend camping trips and even festivals.

Luna LOM Weekender Bell Tent

There’s ample space inside, though family campers may want to go for the 5m instead of the 4m. At 198cm long, we found it tight trying to fit our Outwell Dreamboat double camp SIM inside the tent and it would only fit sideways on, so if you’re going for the 4m, you might want to forgo nocturnal snuggles and instead, opt for single camp beds or mattresses.

The main real downside of the Luna Weekender is that you don’t get the natural look/feel and breathability of canvas and the 4m does require a slight bend when walking in and out of the tent, but with such a funky pattern and at this price point, I’d say the benefits definitely outweigh the downsides!

A few people did comment on the pattern, some liked it, some didn’t but we can’t abide beige or bland and absolutely adore this tent! We can’t wait to use it again, and have been amazed by the space as we’re so used to bell tents and their sloping sides. We’re true Luna bell tent converts and love it to bits.

Stockists

DISCLOSURE | Thank you to Boutique Camping who supplied the featured product. We were not paid to write this review.

Where to next?

Shell Robshaw-Bryan
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