We bought our Vendome third-hand in June and have been away in it five times this year. It has a few niggles but in general we love it.

It looks like a big trailer to tow (it's about the same size as our car) but because it's relatively low (you can easily see over it in the rear view mirror) and it's not that heavy towing it is not a stressful experience. Because it's bigger its a lot easier to reverse than the small camping trailer we used to use. We have an AL-KO stabilizing towbar which caused us a few issues until we had the towball on the car replaced with an AL-KO one to match.

Maneuvering the trailer off the car is relatively easy and it's possible to position it on site single handed although it's easier with two.

I was a bit unsure about a canvas tent after having a modern poly tent, it seemed old fashioned and not as good but I was completely wrong. It's a better insulator of both heat and light, so no more stuffy, bright early mornings and fewer cold nights. It's totally waterproof, ours has withstood a couple of torrential downpours this summer. You do need to make sure that if you pack it away wet you dry it out as soon as possible but that's true of a modern poly tent too. It also has a wonderful smell and feel. The quality of both the canvas and the stitching is very good. The zips are all big solid affairs that make that wonderfully classic camping noise when you open and close them.

I love the flexibility of the trailer tent, the main trailer section with the double beds forms and lovely cosy nest that you can completely close down at night. We also have both awnings so for a weekend in summer we can use the smaller awning, for a longer stay or if we're likely to want to sit inside more we use the bigger one and for a week long camp we use both giving us an inside to sit in and a big porch to sit under. This flexibility is increased by the ability to zip out the front sections, this is brilliant on warm summer days as it means the inside of the tent is still usable and not hot and stuffy.

Our tunnel tent had a sewn-in groundsheet which the trailer tent awning doesn't. I wondered if that would be a problem but in fact I prefer the trailer tent's arrangement. Rather than a thin ground sheet throughout we have a proper raised off the ground solid floor in the trailer itself and bare ground with odd ground sheets in the awning. This means that we don't need to nag the kids to take their shoes off when they go into the tent, and if you spill a drink or dribble a teabag it doesn't matter. So rather than having a large space that's all the same we have two different types of space. The central seat section is brilliant for getting dressed and for the kids to play in on wet afternoons and it's easy to keep clean. The awning is more like outdoors and we don't need to worry so much about wet feet, spills or drips.

There are 2 double beds in the main compartment which are obviously off the ground. I really can't stress how much of a difference this makes. They are warmer, and more comfortable than any camp beds, airbeds or self-inflating mats I've tried. In the morning you can sit on the edge of them rather than crawl out.

It's possible to put two additional sleeping pods under the double beds, one on either side. These are like an inner tent that is attached to the underside of the bed. My 13 year old sleeps in one of these when she comes with us and loves it.

While not being any faster than our large tunnel tent to put up it feels like a less arduous task as the main section is up and usable in less than 15 minutes. The awning which is like a frame tent takes a little longer to assemble but you feel like you've already made camp by that stage and you are just making things comfy.

It takes two people to put it up but only at strategic moments. The kitchen is heavy and would be pretty near impossible to lift off on your own. Opening up the beds on the trailer is probably manageable single handed but is a lot easier with two. Zipping the awning on is also a lot easier with two. Apart from that the rest can be done single handed pretty much. Newer models we've seen have a different system which makes them faster to erect and they look like a better solution.

The kitchen is great because you can pack it with essentials and then forget about it. In fact this is true of the trailer in general. All summer it stayed packed up with cutlery, crockery, pots, pans, kettle, sleeping bags, duvets, pillows, torches and so on. So that when we went away we just needed to get the food supplies and clothes together and then off we went.

Back to the kitchen the stove is very powerful, much better than our camping chef, the grill actually works and actually produces toast. All the storage for crockery, cutlery, pots, pans and basic food supplies is brilliant.

There is a sink in the kitchen but we've not used it yet. It is a bit annoying because it doesn't come with the necessary pump and tubing to make the tap and sink usable. I know we can buy them and fit them (something I hope to do for next year) but it would have been nice for them to be there. Also the way the outlet from the sink and the hole in the back of the kitchen where the outlet pipe is obviously supposed to come out are positioned is a bit awkward.

The trailer has two other extras that are great. Firstly it comes with a really solid, stable large table that will fit in the trailer so you can sit around it on the seats but is also a great table in it's own right. We set it up in the awning next to the kitchen and use it for food preparation. The other extra is a storage box on the drawbar that is HUGE. We keep all the pegs, guys, bats, balls, picnic rugs, tools, kites and so on in it. It would easily fit a 30l coolbox with room to spare.

So all in all it's a very well put together and cleverly thought out trailer tent made from high quality materials finished to a high standard. It's a perfect size for our family of five. As I said it has a few niggles but we love it and I think we'll be camping in it for several years to come.