Camping in the UK in winter? You must be mad…or…

Something my dad has always said that sticks with me is:

“There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing”

Well, the same applies to camping. Yes, it’s cold in the UK in winter. Yes, if you’re sleeping outside in that cold you are going to be cold. However, if you have the right kit you can be super cosy, as I found out when I camped in my Tentbox in December.

When I purchased my new Tentbox Lite 2.0 in November, I knew I’d want to use it soon so I added the thermal liner to my basket too. Does it make a difference? Well, read on to find out…

What on earth is the thermal liner?

The thermal liner sits inside the tent lining and adds extra insulation to keep you warm. But does it work?

Well, I put it to the test back in December when I went for a local camping trip on a pretty cold (and sadly damp) evening. I really wasn’t sure it would do much but the other reviews said it helped so I tried to remain open-minded (but also packed lots of extra blankets just in case, and didn’t travel too far in case I needed to go home!).

Camping in winter - it’s pitch black even when you pitch up at 6pm! Good job the Tentbox is so easy to put up!

Fitting the thermal liner

The liner has a number of clips to attach it to the Tentbox, and it’s specially shaped to fit so it also has window and skylight zippers so that you can open it to fresh air (this will become important later!). It has to be put in and taken down each time you use it as you can’t leave it inside the Tentbox (it puts too much pressure on the hinges).

It’s fairly straight forward to get the liner in the right place, though I’ll be honest the clips are a little fiddly to both put on and take off (my thumbs and fingers were hurting after doing so many!). It’s certainly secure though - there’s no way it’s going to accidentally fall off!

It was really useful to have the specific fit as you can still open the skylights (slightly less relevant in December in the UK when it’s dark by 4pm but useful in the morning!). This does involve a hell of a lot of zips and fastenings but is very handy!

Snug once we’d fitted the thermal liner (we had coats on because we’d been outside, we certainly didn’t need them once the thermal liner had been fitted!)

So… does it keep you warm?

I can confidently say it’s a HELL YES on this front! I was absolutely amazed. Although we started the evening with our coats on (because we wore them when putting the tent up because it was cold outside), I soon had to take the coat off as I was getting too warm.

And then during the night it got so hot in the tent that we had to open the skylight every now and again to cool it down! Bearing in mind it was probably less than 5°C outside I was really shocked how warm it got. I definitely didn’t need to use my extra blankets!

I didn’t take a thermometer with me but I know others have and it really does show just how much warmer the tent gets with the liner in.

It’s definitely given me the confidence that I can camp in my Tentbox in cold weather, and has opened up lots of opportunities for winter camping. Imagine waking up to the views of snowy mountains? 😍

If you’ve been wondering about getting a Tentbox but the cold weather puts you off, honestly this product is a game changer - you won’t notice the temperature (until you need to go out of the tent, that’s a bit of a shocker and I was glad I had my cosy Oodie as you can see in this video - I didn’t need it in the tent but did when I went to the loo!!!).

Tentbox recently had a flash sale on thermal liners in a bundle with tentboxes but that’s sadly ended now. However, if you use my referral code (see below) you can get £50 off your Tentbox purchase at any time which massively helps towards a thermal liner if you want one too. And you can spread the cost interest free over 10 months too.

Tentbox referral code - use this to get £50 off any purchase of a Tentbox on the Tentbox website

What are you waiting for? Get yourself a Tentbox and a thermal liner and you can go camping anytime you want and even take it abroad to the snowy mountains in Europe!