We love camping so we were thrilled to be sent a Coleman Pinto Mountain 5 Plus XL in exchange for an honest review. We tested it with a weekend camping in North Wales, somewhere we love visiting. If you love camping with kids, read on to find out how we got on with this family tent.
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Disclosure – We were gifted this family tent in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts, opinions and photos are my own.
Until now we’ve been using a 4 man tunnel tent with front awning. When I looked at the Coleman Pinto mountain 5 plus XL, I realised how much bigger the living space was. I’d say it’s about twice the size of our previous tent. See it now on * Go Outdoors.
The first thing we noticed when the tent arrived, is that packed up it is no bigger than our current much smaller tent. The next thing I noticed was how much heavier it was. I left the putting it in and out of the car to my husband who managed easily.
Pitching the Coleman pinto mountain 5 plus XL
It took us around 40 minutes to pitch the tent. It’s very similar to our previous 2 tunnel tents but due to it’s larger size there is one extra pole. If you’re new to camping it may take you a little longer the first couple of times but tunnel tents are very straight forward to pitch and follow a similar pitching process.
Start by laying out the tent, then feed the poles through the sleeves starting at one end, raise the tent poles, position the tent in it’s final position and peg the four corners down, finally put the rest of the pegs in and then position the guy lines.
This tent has 5 poles; four identical in size and one slightly shorter one for the back. Very helpfully the back, shorter pole has one section that is red so you can quickly identify the shorter pole.
Inside the Coleman pinto mountain 5 plus XL
There are three sections to this tent and all are full height. All the windows in the tent are large making the living spaces feel bright and very spacious.
The very back section is the bedroom pod which like all Coleman tents is blackout lined. These blackout lined bedrooms block out 99% of the daylight which is amazing. No more waking at dawn! Coleman also says it keeps this section up to 5 degrees cooler in the day and 1 degree warmer at night. Obviously, I have no way of testing that but I can confirm it was dark in this section even during bright sunlight.
This sleeping section can be split in two with a section of blackout fabric which is easy to remove as it attaches by the same toggle and loop system as all the curtains. We chose to remove this divider as with young children we find it easiest to sleep in one area together.
The middle section of the tent is the living space which is twice the size of our previous tents. There are lots of storage pockets between the bedroom doors which are very handy for organising essentials like torches. I photographed this space as we were packing up which is why it looks a little empty. Due to space restrictions in our car, we don’t have any storage furniture and spend our weekends living out of bags for life which looks a little chaotic, to say the least, so I thought I’d spare you that.
From the living space, there is a side door with a separate insect screen. There’s also a large front door again with a fly screen, both of these can be fully rolled up. This front door opens to an awning area with another large door to the outside which can be rolled completely up again. The main living space and bedroom pod have a built in groundsheet. The front awning section has a separate, optional groundsheet which attaches with toggles and loops but we didn’t bother with the ground sheet. We like this space for storing the cooler box, boots and shoes as well as our table so we can eat here or pull the table out in front of the tent if we choose.
The tent has all the usual features like curtains on all windows that can be fastened down with toggles or fully rolled up in the day.
Taking down the Coleman pinto mountain 5 plus XL
It didn’t take very long at all for the two of us to take down this tent. We removed the guy lines and tied them back up, pulled out the pegs and folded it back into it’s bag in about 20 minutes. Of all the tents we’ve had, this one seemed to fit back into the bag the easiest of all. A huge bonus when you have young kids and you want to pack up in the minimum amount of time.
Key features
- 4500 mm hydrostatic head
- UVGuard with SPF50
- Fire retardant tent fabric
- Blackout bedrooms
- Zipper stoppers so that the Zip on all doors is always halfway up the tent
- This tent is very well ventilated with a rear vent, side vent and mesh windows between the middle living area and the awning.
- Pack size: 71 x 36 x 36 cm
- Weight: 24.1 kg
- Height: 185 cm
- Fiberglass poles
Our verdict
We love this tent already after just one short trip. I love all the space which was particularly useful when we had a morning of rain so the kids had plenty of space to play. We love that it doesn’t take up any extra space in the car too. It takes a little longer to put up and take down than our smaller tent but not loads. It’s a great tent for camping with toddlers.
It has all the features we have come to expect from a tent as well as a few bonus ones like the blackout bedroom pod and more vents than we are used to. We definitely noticed a difference as we had no condensation problems. I can see us having many happy adventures in this tent for years to come. Available to * buy now here (amazon) or here on * Go outdoors.
More camping posts
- Worry no more, What do I need for camping with a toddler? Click through to find out.
- Find my top tips for camping with toddlers here.
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Love the way it packs up for such a big tent and the blackout fabric is a great addition.
We love both features. I was a little worried before it arrived that it would be a lot bigger than our current ten. Space is very limited in our car!
This tent looks pretty amazing! Iām hoping to start taking the kids camping soon so have been looking out for a good family sized tent.
I’m sure your kids will love camping as much as mine. This is a great family tent.
That’s a nice looking tent and great that it folds into the bag so nicely. I bet you’ll get a lot of use out of it.
I’m sure we will. It’s definitely the best family tent we’ve had so far (and we’ve loved all our tents).
Wow! That’s really nice and spacious, not how I imagined camping at all. I’ve never been camping before (ever) but with a tent like this I could maybe persuaded.
I didn’t go camping until I was over 30 and took a lot of convincing! I love it now.
Wow Claire, that’s a palace of a tent. It looks amazing.
The extra living space is much appreciated
Iām desperate for black out bedrooms so will check this out when the time comes to replace ours!
They make such a difference!
Now that’s a tent! It’s huge! I love how it packs down so small considering its size.
Me too, space is at a premium in our car!
This looks amazing! We totally need to get a new family tent, so we’ll defo look into this! Great review x
Thank you. It’s a great family tent.
How amazing that such a huge tent fits in to an easy to carry bag
I know! We are very pleased
My husband has gone camping this weekend with his friends and now my girls are desperate to go. We would need something like this!
Definitely. I’m sure your girls would love it!
That tent is huge! Perfect for a family. I thought it would have taken longer than 40 minutes to put up.
It might some people but we have a lot of practice at tunnel tents. Once you get used to it, it’s easy.
Wow – this looks like an amazing tent! So much space š
We loved the extra space. I can’t wait to use it again.
That looks like a brilliant tent for a family. Everything you need for a good camping trip.