The Eurohike Sendero 4 family tent is the smallest member of the Eurohike Sendero tents. Eurohike, the brand, might sound familiar as they are becoming a household name for low cost outdoor equipment, tents and inflatable tents.

But the name Sendero might sound familiar too: a few years back they were sold under the brand ‘Freedom Trail’. The Eurohike Sendero 4 is very similar to it’s predecessor in many respect, however the Eurohike Sendero 4 is slightly bigger. I happened to own a Freedom Trail Sendero 6 a few years back (sold a couple of years ago), so I am curious to find out in this Eurohike Sendero 4 review, what the Eurohike badge means.

The Eurohike Sendero 6 is very similar to the Sendero 4 bar its size, while the Eurohike Sendero 8XL is a vis a vis tent (the bedrooms face each other), so it is basically two Sendero 4’s facing each other. Hence I though I include them in this Eurohike Sendero 4 review.

Eurohike Sendero 4 Review

The Eurohike Sendero 4 is a small family tent with good water protection, that is easy to pitch and carry around. It has loads of room, however it might be a bit tight for four adults, but could make a great tent for a family of four. 

 

Where to buy the Eurohike Sendero 4

Although you can buy the Eurohike Sendero 4 at almost every major outdoors retailer, they often run out of stock.

The most reliable source is probably Amazon this time – Eurohike’s Amazon store to be precise – not just for the tent but for the accessories (carpet, footprint etc.) too.

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Eurohike Sendero 4 Features

Size

Size-wise the Eurohike Sendero 4 is average, almost identical in size to Eurohike’s probably most famous air tent, the Eurohike Genus 400 or the lesser know Eurohike Air 400.

The entire tent is 435 cms long and 260 cms wide, which equals to a 10.5 sqm large footprint. The external height of the tent is 190 cms, which you can enjoy almost everywhere within the tent, except for the back of the bedrooms where the headroom is reduced slightly.

There is one main entrance to the Eurohike Sendero 4 at the front. There are two windows (one mesh, one PVC), and one bedroom at the back of the tent.

Weight

The Eurohike Sendero 6 weighs 9 kgs, which is, again, average for a tent if this size. It is relatively easy to carry, not too big and bulky. What’s most important, it rolls up and fits into the bag when you are packing away.

Pitching

The Eurohike Sendero 4 has 3 fibreglass poles that need setting. Pitching is easy even for those who are less experienced in camping. With some practice, one person can pitch the Eurohike Sendero 4 in 15 minutes or so.

Bedroom

The bedroom is pre-attached but can be removed if you’d like to. It is 240 cms wide and 210 cms long, suitable for 4 persons, but you might find it a bit cramped for 4 unless they sleep in sleeping bags. 60 cms per head is not a lot. I must add that in theory, you can fit 2 narrow double mattresses into the bedroom, or have 4 camping beds side-by-side.

On the other hand, it is big enough for 2 adults and 2 children, even if only with some clever space-saver bunk bed.

It is most recommended for couples though, leaving plenty of space for belongings by the side of a normal double mattress.

The bedroom is not darkened, and there is no divider at the middle.

Porch

The porch is just big enough to have 4 camping chairs, or a 2 chairs 1 table setup with an organiser. Mind you, there’s only one way in and out, so you don’t want too many things blocking the way.

The size of the porch is 225 * 260 cm, but the useful space is slightly less. You can enjoy around 5 and a half square metres.

The frond door has zippers on both sides but it does not have at the bottom. This is a design thing and there’s a gap between the groundsheet and the front door on almost every tunnel tent.

The front profile is slightly angled. This helps wind reducing wind load on one hand, but makes the front ‘vulnerable’ when it rains: you must close the front door when it rains otherwise the rain will just fall in.

Canopy

The front door can be set up as a sun canopy on the other hand (and it may also protect from light rain soaking your gear stored on the porch, see the issue above with the sloping front). The poles for the awning are not included in the Sendero 4 package, so you’ll need to get your hands on a decent pair of telescopic poles if you’d like to enjoy this feature.

Weather Protection

Eurohike Sendero 4 in Rain and Wind

The Sendero 4 has great water-protection: the polyester flysheet received a 2,000 mm HH waterproof coating, the seams are taped. The groundsheet is sewn-in (!!) which is not at all common at this price-range. The air-beamed sibling, the Eurohike Genus 400 for example does not have a sewn-in groundsheet.

The sewn-in groundsheet makes the Sendero 4 more prone to condensation, that builds up on the inside of the flysheet. Polyester does not have great thermal properties, so condensation is very typical of all polyester tents. What you can do is make good use of the air vents – there are plenty of them. If you’d like more, especially if you plan to camp in cooler weather, this Kampa camping heater is more than recommended to fight cold and condensation, or you can find the best camping heaters in this collection:

Top 10 Best Tent Heaters for Camping | Safest Camping Heaters

The experience with wind resistance however is mixed, to put it nicely.  I already mentioned the replacement poles as your insurance policy for adverse weather, and there are more than one reports of snapping poles. In terms of all-round weather protection the fibreglass poles seem to be the weakest link. Although, there are ways to reduce the impact of strong winds on your tent, it is also true that pole tents, compared with air tents, are less able to withstand strong winds.

Related post: Air Tents vs Pole Tents

Related post: Best Air Tents in Wind

Don’ forget, that the front door must be closed when it rains, otherwise rainwater will fall into the tent. Also, there’s a small gap between the front door (when closed) and the groundsheet. Lastly, the mesh window curtains are on the outside, so if you are surprised by a thunderstorm one of you will get wet to keep the rain out of the tent by closing the curtain.

Groundsheet

The groundsheet of the Eurohike Sendero 4 is sewn-in, however it is worth protecting your groundsheet with a carpet and/or a footprint that goes under the tent.

Eurohike Sendero 4 Accessories

Footprint

At the time of writing this post I could not find a bespoke footprint for the Eurohike Sendero 4, but the Eurohike Air 400 footprint is compatible with the Sendero 4 too – get the Eurohike Air 400 footprint here.

It is a PE footprint with 10,000mm HH waterproof rating to keep the bottom of your tent protected from the damp and muddy ground, the pegs are included.

Replacement poles

I haven’t come across any replacement poles for the Eurohike Sendero 4 so far. Luckily, if you search for Freedom Trail Sendero 4 poles, there are plenty of buying options.

You can get a full set, or you can buy the poles one-by-one. If you are not a risk taker, I’d recommend bagging the full set. The fibreglass poles were the weakest point of the Freedom Trail Sendero 4, so I am guessing that it is similar on the rebadged Eurohike Sendero 4 too.

Carpet

Getting your hands on a Eurohike Sendero 4 carpet is a bit less difficult.

The Eurohike universal tent carpets come in 3 sizes – small, medium, large. The Sendero 4 will need a small one straight from the Eurohike store.

Eurohike Sendero 6

The funniest thing I’ve ever seen, but just tells you about supply and demand: at the time of writing this, the Eurohike Sendero 6 is actually cheaper than the Sendero 4.

 

Check Price Here

 

Its normal price is of course, higher than the 4-berth version’s but only by £30 or so.

So what do you need to know about the Sendero 6? Well, all the features are the same as I detailed above. The Eurohike Sendero 6 is slightly larger than the Sendero 4, obviously, but not much larger.

The bedroom is 310cms wide, so the space per head is actually less at full occupancy (50-odd cms, as opposed to the 60 cms of the Sendero 4). So it is not a comfortable 6-person tent, where you just chuck in 3 double mattresses, but it can work with sleeping bags, it can work with 2 adults and 4 children, or it can work with one double mattress and 2 space saver bunk beds. Plenty of options.

There is no divider inside the room though.

The living area is slightly larger too, it is still a bit tight for 4 active children if you know what I mean, but can be life-saver if the weather turns miserable.

With or without the anomaly with the pricing of the Sendero 6, it is a great family tent.

Eurohike Sendero 8XL

The Eurohike Sendero 8XL is another vis-a-vis tent, this time without airbeams. I looked at the inflatable ones not so long ago (review here), and I said that the biggest advantage of the airbeams were the ease of pitching.

The Sendero 8XL has 5 fibreglass poles, so you spend a considerable amount of time figuring out which goes where, so pitching time is not the Sendero 8XL’s strength.

But once you tick that box, you have a large tent with two good-sized 4-person bedrooms and a moderate size living area. Due to the design, the usefulness (and size) of this enclosed living area is somewhat limited, despite the 7 metres length of the tent.

It is not the most convenient to carry either, given the 20 kgs weight, but the packed size is compact and relatively easy to handle considering that we are talking about an 8-person tent here.

Check Price Here

 

Verdict

The Eurohike Sendero 4 is a decent family tent that is compact, has good weather protection, it is easy to pitch and carry around. It has loads of room, however it might be a bit tight for four adults, but could make a great tent for a family of four. 

My only problem is that the Eurohike Sendero 6 is actually a better tent if you consider value for money. If I had the budget that can be stretched a bit I’d go for the Eurohike Sendero 6, no question.

Whichever you choose, the Sendero 4 to keep it to the minimum, or the Sendero 6 for a little bit of extra room and comfort, you can’t really go wrong. Just make sure you put some money aside for the replacement poles in case you need one.

You might want to have a look at the 5-person family tents too, as these are slightly roomier than a standard 4-berth tent, and most of them have a divider between the two bedrooms. Interestingly, the Eurohike Rydal 500 is one that I can recommend as it is not at all worse than the Sendero 4, and it’s slightly cheaper too.

If you need further inspiration, I recommend this: Best 4-Person Tents or this: Best 6 Man Tents, or even the budget air tents here: Entry level small family air tents. You’ll be surprised that some of them are actually cheaper than the Sendero 4…