Keeping your Bell Tent cool in the summer

Ventilating your bell tent in hot weather

There are several ways to keep your Bell Tent cool in the summer:

  • Buy a 100% cotton canvas, breathable bell tent.
  • Pitch your tent in an open area away from trees.
  • Open the windows and door for extra airflow.
  • Roll up part or all of the tent walls.
  • Retro-fit a silver blackout cover to keep your tent cool all day (and for a longer sleep).
  • Buy a Bell Tent with mesh walls and a mesh door for ultimate ventilation and bug-free camping.

Firstly, make sure you buy a 100% cotton canvas bell tent that breathes rather than a polyester or poly cotton tent.

Once in the field, think about where you are pitching your tent. Try and place it in the shadow of the midday sun, but not directly under a tree to avoid the risk of falling branches, sap or bird droppings. You will also want to pitch your tent somewhere in the open where it gets any breeze available.

Keeping a bell tent cool in summer

Open the windows for added ventilation whilst the integrated mesh layer keeps the bugs out. The next step is to tie the tent doors open to increase airflow.

Ventilating a bell tent in hot weather with air flow

The Bell Tent really comes into its own with this unique feature of being able to roll part or all of the walls up to let the cooling breeze waft over you (for Bell Tents with pegged-in or zipped-in groundsheets, where the canvas and groundsheet can be separated).

Another method would be to fit a secondary Bell Tent Cover retrospectively. Available in a matching beige to complement your tent or, for maximum cooling effect (and a longer sleep), the Silver/Blackout cover will keep you cool all day. For example, our Protector Cover for 5m Bell Tent – Silver Blackout. Covers are available for 4m, 4.5m and 5m size Bell Tents.

Bell Tent protector covers black out fly sheet

If you want to go the whole hog, consider a PRO MESH Bell Tent, which has a secondary removable mesh wall behind the canvas one, along with a sewn-in mesh door, so you can remain bug-free whilst keeping your tent cool. For example, our 5m Ultimate PRO MESH Bell Tent.

We hope this helped! Get in touch if you have any questions or want to send us your own hacks.

Bell Tent UK

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