Test/Review: Vango Capri 500XL AirBeam Tent
A quick preamble
As we draw to the end of the fair-weather camping season, it’s time to reflect on the tent which my family and I have used for each of this year’s week-long (and weekend) magazine feature trips – the Vango Capri 500XL AirBeam.
This is a relatively spacious model in its most basic form, but we chose to add on the separately-available side awning with the following dimensions – Length: 155cm, Width: 345cm, Height: 212cm.
The picture above shows the awning in situ.
Weather-wise, this setup has had to contend with a lot. Everything from baking-hot days and muggy evenings to afternoon downpours and thunder & lightning storms raging throughout the night.
Our pitches were not always perfect. Some were ideally level and sheltered; others were on a slope by necessity and rather more exposed than we would have liked.
But at the end of the day, you have to make the best of what you’re presented with and trust in the equipment.
The basics
The first thing to say is that convenience is one of this tent’s biggest selling points. In many ways, it can be thought of as a no-fuss, practical shelter suitable for 5 people (as designated by ‘500’ in the name), with enough space for comfortable camping without compromise.
Those of you familiar with Vango’s AirBeam technology will appreciate that it makes a huge difference to the start and end of any camping trip. Gone are the frustrations of lengthy setup/pull-down times and having to wrangle multiple poles through flapping canvas sleeves; in practice, each of the four inflatable tubes of the Capri 500XL took less than a minute to reach its suggested pressure. Such a delight! This is thanks, in part, to the excellent double-action pump supplied with the tent.
Access is granted via two doors – one at the front (a covered entrance with bug-stopping mesh) and one at the side (which does not feature mesh, sadly). These lead to a single living area with the bedroom area at the far end.
There’s plenty of space in the sleeping area itself, which comes with a removable toggled inner divider – perfect for partitioning the space for privacy. There are also plenty of pockets all around, which come in handy for storing things like books, torches, teddy bears(!) and more besides.
About that awning…
In principle, adding a bespoke extension onto the side or front of a tent is a great idea – it gives you more storage space in which to organise things which, in turn, ultimately adds to your comfort.
The Capri 500XL is not vast, so we decided to add the awning for a little extra space – specifically in order to house our food-prep table, stove (when not in use), cool box and kitchenware.
Our first outing in this tent proved to be something of a baptism of fire; on the second night, we were presented with a severe weather warning (wind and rain) and the promise of truly testing conditions. With the awning securely in place, however, we were confident that our cooking equipment would be just fine…
It was the crash of the stove hitting the ground which initially woke me; it was the sound of the wind howling around which got me out of my sleeping bag to check everything was ok.
The Capri 500XL’s extension butts up against the tent and, aside from pegging, is held in place by stretching a panel of fabric over the top of the tent and securing this with guy ropes on the other side. Its positioning also meant that one of the tent’s windows was partially obscured.
Turns out that, because the awning is of a design which doesn’t create a complete seal against the tent (unlike it would, for example, if it was secured in place by a zip system), the wind and rain were quite easily able to make their way into that space.
On the downside, I found myself mopping up small pools of water in the morning and the stove was left needing some TLC and repairs including a new handle and catches. On the plus side, the awning stayed routed to the ground, despite the gales.
It’s worth mentioning that everything inside the tent itself remained absolutely dry and undamaged through this and all of our trips.
Taking the balanced view, then, it’s fair to say the advantage offered by the awning was minimal. At a push, we could have made do with the tent on its own.
Certainly, my recommendation would be that camping gear should only be stored in the extension if you have fine weather conditions. Also, because there are no blinds built in (as with the tent), there’s no privacy – so something worth bearing in mind when deciding what to leave in there.
Key features
Ventilation within the Capri 500XL is generally good and whilst there’s perhaps not as much on offer as with other similar tents in the range (notably in the bedroom area), not once did we suffer with condensation. For the record, this has thankfully been the case in all Vango the tents I’ve ever used.
One of the things, as a parent, which I’m always keen to see is how the bedroom area in a tent is equipped for dealing with children’s bedtimes. If you have little ones, you’ll know how difficult it can be to get them to sleep in the summer if their sleep space is still bright!
Thankfully the inner tent, featuring darker material, did a great job of blocking a good deal of light out both at night and in the early mornings.
More likely than not, many users will not find themselves in a situation where Vango’s Tension Band System (TBS) has to be employed. However, we were very glad of it during those gale force winds; it did a great job of preventing sideways movement of the tent, keeping everything nice and taut.
Space can often be at a premium when family camping, so Vango’s SkyTrack hanging system is a welcome addition. We used it for all manner of things, from suspending lights at night to attaching a washing line when it wasn’t practical to do so outside.
Conclusion
Make no mistake, the Capri 500XL AirBeam is a fantastic tent, more than capable of keeping a small party of folks with minimal gear comfortable for an extended period of time. The interior is bright, practical and well constructed – as you would expect from Vango.
At the time of writing, a front porch door is also available. It’s not something that we tried out but all things considered, I think it might perhaps offer a more viable alternative to the side awning with regards to adding space and privacy.
Vango’s range of family-sized tents is ever expanding and it’ll be interesting to see how future versions of this model evolve. For now though, and purely in the interests of comparison, I would say you might also like to take a look at something like the Illusion 500XL AirBeam.
Why? Well, I can tell you from personal experience that I think it has a slight edge – offering a number of advantages in those areas where you might find the Capri a tad limiting.
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For behind-the-scenes pictures of this rucksack in action, take a look at my Instagram feed.
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Category: Camping, Family activity, Microadventure, Test/Review
