The Easy Camp Palmdale 500 Lux is a spacious family-friendly tent that sleeps five people. It packs tightly, doesn’t weigh too much and is quick to set up and take down.
These aspects of the design make it ideal for festivals or short camping trips, where you don’t want to be hauling around more bulk than necessary or spending too long pitching. But it lacks the luxury features that would make it more comfortable for longer camping trips.
LFTOwww.easycamp.com
Pros
- Quick to set up and take down
- Compact for an XL tent
- Handy front wet zone area
- Plenty of internal space
Cons
- Felt slightly cheaply made
- Poor ventilation
- Uninspiring colour and design
| Type - Tunnel | Tunnel |
| Weight | 18.4kg |
| Packed size | 71 x 36 cm |
| Doors | 3 |
| Inner | 100 per cent polyester |
| Fly | WeatherGuard 3000, 185T polyester PU coated, fire retardant |
| Groundsheet | Polyethylene |
| Poles | EnduraFlex, fibreglass 12.7 mm |
Design and features
We tested the Easy Camp Palmdale 500 Lux over four nights camping in a field at a family festival. It was the perfect size for our family of four. There’s a spacious living room area with standing height and a separate tented space for bedrooms. There’s a curtain you can attach with toggles to divide this space into two bedrooms for privacy. The large front and side doors have mesh doors to keep insects out, there are hanging points for lanterns, and the flysheet features a zip opening for an electric hook-up cable.
Organiser pockets in the living area made it easy to put my hand on sunscreen, hand sanitiser and wet wipes, and saved me having to root through bags looking for these essentials every time we headed back into the festival ground. The sheltered wet zone to the front of the tent was perfect for storing our folded trolley and camping chairs, muddy footwear and damp and dirty clothing.
But my main issue with this tent was the amount of condensation - more than I’ve experienced using other tents. I was surprised by this as it felt like there was a lot of air moving through the tent, to the point where it was very cold at night. We were camping during summer, when we bedded down after hot days, and were packed tightly in amongst other tents to shield against any wind. But at night, I found myself layering up with clothing.
On mornings and during the day, the tent was uncomfortably hot. Luckily, we were out and about at the festival, so we weren’t spending a lot of time sat in the sweltering heat. Otherwise, it would have been very uncomfortable. In the living area there were mesh windows. On other tents we’ve used there were removable curtains on toggles alongside the mesh, which helped to keep the tent cosier at night. The bedrooms in the Palmdale 500 Lux are darkened but not blackout. Being on a cramped festival ground, this didn’t really matter as we were woken early anyhow, but if you were somewhere more peaceful and looking to have a lie in, the early morning brightness through the tent might bother you.
Style wise, we weren’t too keen on the blue and grey colour of our tent and felt quite envious of the surrounding tents with luminous coloured guy ropes that might have helped prevent other festival goers tripping over in the night.
Pitching
My husband and I put the tent up together to save time. But I can see it being possible to pitch it by yourself. The tent has a sewn in groundsheet and colour-coded fibreglass poles and pole sleeves to make it fast and easy to pitch. You simply spread the attached groundsheet out on your pitch, work the poles through their corresponding sleeves and fix the pole clips. Once you’ve got the main structure up, you peg out the tent and use the adjustable guy lines to create the required tension.
It was a wet and miserable day when we arrived at the festival campsite. The kids were tired and hungry after the long drive from London to Dorset. The hill sloping down into campsite was thick with mud. So, our footwear was filthy and then my nine-year-old son slipped and was wet, muddy and miserable as we set the tent up. So, it was a relief to be able to get the tent up so quickly, get showered and be able to bag-up and store the filthy wet clothing in the sheltered wet zone at the front of the tent.
It was also great being able to take the tent down quickly when we were tired after a few busy days with little sleep. Most kids aren’t blessed with patience. So, having a tent that’s quick and easy to set up and take down is a bit of a godsend when on a family camping trip.
Living and comfort
We found the Easy Camp Palmdale 500 Lux to be spacious with plenty of headroom in the living area. We had lots of room for our bags of clothes, camping chairs, large cooler box etc, and the front porch area was great for storing the bin and mucky festival trolley. It’s a comfortable space for a family of four but might be a bit tight for five. We partitioned the bedroom area and put a queen size air bed in one section and a double air bed in the other. Again, my only issues were around condensation and ventilation.
Durability and weather resistance
Putting it through its paces over the course of the festival, the tent appeared to have a high level of durability. It was well stitched, and I feel that it would hold up well to harsh weather conditions. We had young boys bouncing around inside and at night, drunken festival goers falling into the tent. But it survived intact. The Palmdale 500 Lux is highly rated in terms of water resistance so rain will not be a problem. I will add that wind resistance seemed lacking, and through the night if there was any wind at all, it felt at times, like you were out in the elements without shelter.
Price and competition
The retail price of the Easy Camp Palmdale 500 Lux is £468.99 but we found it available from some outlets for under £300, which is great value for money and a good option for those on a budget. Previously, we’ve used the Vango Lismore Air 450 tent, which is just as quick or quicker to put up than the Easy Camp Palmdale 500 Lux. It’s a bit bulkier to carry, but the features feel far more luxurious, the ventilation is better, and the rooms are blackout.
It is significantly more expensive at a retail price of £825. But we found it available for £499, which is just £30 more than the retail price of the Easy Camp Palmdale 500 Lux. If you’re going to camp regularly and want to ensure maximum comfort, then you might want to find a sale deal on a tent such as the Vango Lismore Air 450 tent. But if you’re looking for a tent for a festival or for the occasional outing, the Easy Camp at sale price will most certainly do the job.
Verdict
There are lots of reasons to like the Easy Camp Palmdale 500 Lux. It’s relatively light and compact, given it’s a spacious five-person tent. It’s also super easy to pitch, and you can’t grumble at the price. If you purchase this at the sale price we’ve found of under £300, then you’ve got yourself a bargain! For a night or two camping with the kids, it’ll be all you need. But if you’re planning to camp a lot, or for more than a couple of nights, and you have a budget of around £500, then we’d suggest looking out for tents with more luxurious features, which have been reduced to around the £500 price mark in sale.
How we tested
We tested the easy camp Palmdale 500 Lux over four nights in a family festival environment, with one day of rain and plenty of mud, and three days of sunshine. This review was written by Laura Riddell, a content editor for Take a Break magazine, who covers all the family days out and family short breaks content for Take a Break online and has been on several camping trips with her husband and two young sons.