A camping trip wouldn’t be a camping trip if you didn’t have a tent. Over the years we’ve been on trips with professional campers and amateurs alike, and one of the main things that amateur campers struggle with is pitching a tent.

There are a lot of tent shapes out there, but the set up will always remain the same — you’ll need a minimum of one pole to be in charge of keeping your tent upright. The first thing that you’ll want to do is to separate the pieces of your tent kit.

Most commonly, these pieces will be extendable/ connectable poles and the tent itself, but sometimes a kit will include separate fly nets, detachable windows and more. Ignore the extra pieces for now and start by setting your pole/s up. They’ll be the framework of your tent so be sure to connect them properly. It’s always an idea to set your tent up out of the wind so that everything stays where it should.

Once your frame is up, start to attach your tent. Some tents need poles to be threaded through the tent’s sleeves, so if you have a tent like this thread each pole until you’re finished. If you have a tent that can be slipped and fastened to your poles, then you’ll need to set the poles up first. Once your tent is fully constructed you can add your sleeping bags or equipment, or extra accessories like detachable fly mesh.