Best Beach Tent for the UK
- Dark Shelter Technology: Coated with Dark Shelter coating, this Instant Shader not only effectively blocks 97.5% of UVA and UVB rays (UPF 50+) but also eliminates 90% of direct sunlight for maximum sun protection. It creates an oasis on the beach for your whole family.
- FAMILY SIZE: Take shade and comfort wherever you go. With a super-spacious interior of 99" W x 53" D x 57" H and 53” front porch, even 4 adults can sit and lay down comfortably inside. Enjoy as long as you like, and when it’s time to go, the Instant Shader packs down to 41" x 8.5" x 8.5". Toss it over your shoulder and easily load it into the trunk of your car without discomfort.
- PATENT-PENDING OPENING MECHANISM: End the frustration of putting up and taking down large beach tents. The Instant Shader’s patent-pending opening mechanism allows to set up and disassemble with smooth movements. Create your family’s beach oasis in less time, with less strain. Winning!
- GREAT AIRFLOW: Some outdoor tents can get stuffy and humid on hot days. Not the Instant Shader. Large mesh windows and double guyout points let you enjoy great ventilation and breezes, while staying shaded from the sun.
- VERSATILE & CONVENIENT: It’s inevitable, long days at the beach will have surprise pop-ups. The Instant Shader’s versatile design can handle them all. Zip up the front to change into dry clothes in privacy. Protect your tent from high winds with guylines. Store valuables in the overhead mesh pocket.
Easthills Outdoors Instant Shader Dark Shelter Deluxe XL
Pros:
- Very portable and lightweight
- Strong and Sturdy
- Sandbag option is a nice touch
- Very quick to erect
- It’s not small
- Getting it back in the bag takes a while to learn
- Take a small brush to remove the sand
- It’s not small
Is It Worth It?
A beach tent is a big purchase. It’s expensive (£120 at time of writing – May 2021). But is it worth it?
It’s quite large to heft about.
It’s not particularly heavy but it still doesn’t fit comfortably into the beach buggy.
So, you will have to end up carry it.
BUT, all that being said, do I regret buying this? Should I have spent more or less on a different version? In short, no. No, I don’t regret buying this at all, and here’s why…
It turns your beach camp setup into something semi-permanent almost instantly. Sure, a wind break does similar, but a tent offers real protection from the elements.
It blocks the wind and gives you somewhere to store stuff in relative safety. Plus, you now have a mobile changing room with you at all times.
Quick and Easy
The reason I went looking for a tent was due to the amount of time we were spending down the beaches during the 2020 lockdown.
I’d seen a couple of other families using them and it seemed like a really good way of offering protection from strong sunlight (effectively blocking 97.5% of UVA and UVB rays (UPF 50+)) and privacy when you wanted to get changed into a wetsuit or swimwear.
It also gave you somewhere to store your possessions out of the view of prying eyes, as the whole thing zips up at the front.
Measuring 99″ W x 53″ D x 57″ H and 53” it’s nearly big enough to stand up in (I’m 6ft). But even with the door zipped shut it’s easy to get in and out of a wetsuit and back into clothes again.
- Dark Shelter Technology: Coated with Dark Shelter coating, this Instant Shader not only effectively blocks 97.5% of UVA and UVB rays (UPF 50+) but also eliminates 90% of direct sunlight for maximum sun protection. It creates an oasis on the beach for your whole family.
- FAMILY SIZE: Take shade and comfort wherever you go. With a super-spacious interior of 99" W x 53" D x 57" H and 53” front porch, even 4 adults can sit and lay down comfortably inside. Enjoy as long as you like, and when it’s time to go, the Instant Shader packs down to 41" x 8.5" x 8.5". Toss it over your shoulder and easily load it into the trunk of your car without discomfort.
- PATENT-PENDING OPENING MECHANISM: End the frustration of putting up and taking down large beach tents. The Instant Shader’s patent-pending opening mechanism allows to set up and disassemble with smooth movements. Create your family’s beach oasis in less time, with less strain. Winning!
- GREAT AIRFLOW: Some outdoor tents can get stuffy and humid on hot days. Not the Instant Shader. Large mesh windows and double guyout points let you enjoy great ventilation and breezes, while staying shaded from the sun.
- VERSATILE & CONVENIENT: It’s inevitable, long days at the beach will have surprise pop-ups. The Instant Shader’s versatile design can handle them all. Zip up the front to change into dry clothes in privacy. Protect your tent from high winds with guylines. Store valuables in the overhead mesh pocket.
Build and Construction
It’s well made, the struts are strong and light. The whole thing takes less than 5mins to put up and can easily be done by one person. Once you unpack the beach tent from the bag all you need to do is pull on the orange ropes at the top and the whole thing pops up.
Once expanded, tie off the rope and peg it out. Fill the sandbags for some extra stability and you’re good to go.
The front porch itself can act like a ground sheet and be pegged out to give ample seating area at the front. Then this can be zipped shut (from either inside or out) in order to close up the tent.
There are guy ropes included along with more pegs in case you’re pitching somewhere particularly windy.
Durable and Tough
It’s worth mentioning the build quality on this. I’ve found it to be excellent. After a year of using this tent down the beaches of East Lothian, it’s holding up well.
It’s been thrown into cars, chucked into beach trollies and covered in sand. Still looks as good today as it did when I got it. The tapped seams do a good job of keeping out the wind and rain.
We’ve been caught a couple of times in some pretty horrible weather and having the tent to hide in has meant we’ve been able to tuff it out till the better weather came back.
Previously, we’d have run back to the car along with two thirds of the other people on the beach. It was between the Easthills Outdoors Instant Shader and the Coleman Event Shelter (which I also went on to purchase but for different reasons).
Round Up
This tent just had a bit more going for it. It’s more portable, it’s lighter, it comes with a ground sheet and can be fully zipped up without having to purchase additional doors etc. Everything you need comes in the easy to carry bag.
It’s a great bit of kit. We use it all the time and it’s never let us down. When we take the family down the beach for a whole day, I wouldn’t dream of not taking this with me. It just gives you a really good base to escape the sun when it gets too hot. The kids and dog can relax out of the sun if they want to, and it offers us all great protection. Really glad I bought it.
- Dark Shelter Technology: Coated with Dark Shelter coating, this Instant Shader not only effectively blocks 97.5% of UVA and UVB rays (UPF 50+) but also eliminates 90% of direct sunlight for maximum sun protection. It creates an oasis on the beach for your whole family.
- FAMILY SIZE: Take shade and comfort wherever you go. With a super-spacious interior of 99" W x 53" D x 57" H and 53” front porch, even 4 adults can sit and lay down comfortably inside. Enjoy as long as you like, and when it’s time to go, the Instant Shader packs down to 41" x 8.5" x 8.5". Toss it over your shoulder and easily load it into the trunk of your car without discomfort.
- PATENT-PENDING OPENING MECHANISM: End the frustration of putting up and taking down large beach tents. The Instant Shader’s patent-pending opening mechanism allows to set up and disassemble with smooth movements. Create your family’s beach oasis in less time, with less strain. Winning!
- GREAT AIRFLOW: Some outdoor tents can get stuffy and humid on hot days. Not the Instant Shader. Large mesh windows and double guyout points let you enjoy great ventilation and breezes, while staying shaded from the sun.
- VERSATILE & CONVENIENT: It’s inevitable, long days at the beach will have surprise pop-ups. The Instant Shader’s versatile design can handle them all. Zip up the front to change into dry clothes in privacy. Protect your tent from high winds with guylines. Store valuables in the overhead mesh pocket.