Vango Exedra 200 Tent – Review
By Steve Crabtree, September 2026
I love sunshine, and what I love more is that we’ve had a lovely summer this year. Plenty of sun, proper heatwaves, and just really great weather.
And because of this, the wife and I have stayed in Britain for our holidays and breaks away in 2026. And with a spare few days towards the end of summer, we both fancied a camping trip away for a bit of the great outdoors. So, we headed up to the North Yorkshire Moors for a couple of nights under canvas, and we picked up the compact Vango Exedra 200 tent for the experience.
And, as luck would have it or not have it, depending on your angle), our short break gave us two completely different types of weather. We got a cracking, hot sunny day and a warm night, followed straight away by a torrential downpour. It wasn’t exactly what you’d plan for a camping trip, however, it turned out to be the perfect test for the tent…
What’s in the box
- Vango Exedra 200 inner tent
- Protex Eco Ripstop flysheet
- Powerlite alloy poles
- Alloy pegs
- High-visibility guylines
- Fast-pack carry bag
- Repair kit
Packed and ready to travel
We’d actually got our hands on the tent a few weeks before, and the first thing that amazed me about it was the pack size. The full kit and caboodle fits inside a small bag that measures only about 45cm long. At around 2.6kg, it’s light and dead easy to carry around. In fact, it’s so small and light, you could easily lose it!
Its none-cumbersome bag means you could easily jump on the train with this strapped to a bag if you wanted to. Ideal if you just set out one day without an idea where you wanted to go, but had somewhere to stay hanging off your shoulder.
If you go by car, you won’t need to clear any space out in the boot either. It just slots right in alongside your bags and camping chairs without any fuss. How fantastic!
Putting it up
I’ll be honest, I’m a bit of an inexperienced camper. Because of that, the idea of wrestling with poles and guide ropes doesn’t appeal to me very much! Alex is a lot more seasoned on these holidays than me, but either way we were lucky in that pitching this tent was an absolute doddle.
Everything you need is in the bag, and the framework is up in minutes. It’s as easy as slotting the alloy poles together, pegging out the corners, and clipping the inner tent to the frame. A really neat feature is that you can pitch just the inner mesh layer on its own. (On that scorching first day on the moors, having that breezy, bug-free dome to relax in was brilliant).
Putting the outer layer on was a little trickier to line up on our first go. Even so, it still didn’t take long at all. Before we knew it, we had the whole tent up and ready to sleep in.
Space and comfort
Once you get inside, it’s surprisingly roomy for a two-person tent. It’s definitely a sit-inside or sleeping tent rather than somewhere you’d spend all day lounging around in, but you don’t feel squashed. The dome shape gives you decent headroom so you aren’t constantly hunched over.
Having two doors and offset porches also means you get dedicated spots to chuck your muddy boots and bags out of the main sleeping area. And as my wife pointed out, on that muggy first night, the ventilation worked nicely and kept the air moving.
But it’s not just a good shelter from the heat. It does the job in the wet too. In fact, the following morning, we woke up to wet chaos! The rain started early and just kept coming down hard. As we all know, it’s always a gamble when the heavens open. You sit there wondering if the seams will hold or if you’re about to get a cold drip on your forehead.
We decided not to let the weather trap us, so we braved heading out for the day. We took in a lovely breakfast at a little cafe a couple of miles down the road, pottered about, and then found a cosy pub for some lunch, before enjoying some quality time in the countryside and getting back to the campsite around 5pm. Downpours had hit us on and off all day, but the tent had stayed completely watertight. It proved to be an absolute safe haven, staying bone dry and sheltering us from the elements for another night. We woke up dry, warm, and really pleased that this small tent had more than done the job for us.
When it came time to strike camp, packing it down was just as straightforward as putting it up. You unclip the poles, shake off the droplets, and roll up the canvas. Best of all, the oversized fast-pack carry bag means you don’t have to spend twenty minutes squeezing canvas into a tiny sack. It slid straight back into the bag, and we just slung it into the boot ready for home.
What Vango says
“A great adventure tent for up to two people, this new model for 2026 is part of the Trek Pro collection, featuring premium fabric and excellent waterproofing. The dome design maximises living space and height, despite its small, light packsize. Ideal for backpacking, multi- day treks and bikepacking, it weighs just 2.39kg. Offering versatility, it can be pitched inner first, or inner only, which is ideal for warm, dry conditions. The wide mouth carry bag means packing away can be done quickly, as there is no struggling to stuff the tent back into its bag.”
The verdict
The verdict? Very, very good. Because it requires so little effort to pitch and pack away, you can easily accommodate the smaller space however you get to your campsite. If you spend two hours putting a massive family tent up, you want all the extra room because you’re probably camping for a week or more, but with this, you trade that extra lounge space for pure convenience. And it’s great.
It goes up in minutes, packs down tiny, and it kept us dry when the heavens opened. If you want a quick and easy weekend away, or even a solid festival shelter, the Vango Exedra 200 is a cracking bit of kit.
I don’t know when we’ll be using it again, but we will use it again. In the meantime, it’s stored away in our garage….taking up no room whatsoever.
The Vango Exedra 200 Tent is available from outdoorworlddirect.co.uk. RRP: £215.00
Give Steve music, give him food, give him theatre, tech or travel… and he’s a happy man. He’s been writing professionally since 2003, turning to journalism in 2017 when it offered him the chance to enjoy a lot of his existing passions, and learn some new ones at the same time. Steve can be found spending many of his summer nights watching bands at The Piece Hall in his hometown of Halifax, or enjoying a bite to eat and a drink with his wife anywhere in Yorkshire at any time of year. Random fact: He does the best impression of Zippy and George from Rainbow that anyone has ever heard.
