£14.99
from Amazon.co.uk

The ultimate chill-out room for father and child

Tell yourself that this is a man shelter to protect you and your family from the sun in the best possible style.

Tell your wife that for £15 you can’t go wrong.

There are two problems with taking your kids to the beach – sunburn and…

Avoid such unpleasantries by taking the Coleman Sundome Beach Shelter with you. Not only will it shield you and your children from the sun’s harmful rays, but it will also provide a pretty sizeable ground sheet so your little man can romp around without his little man getting covered in sand.

As ever with my Dadgets, I did plenty of research on beach tents and even though there were much more expensive possibilities out there, I stuck with this cheap, effective and manly model from Coleman.

Pain-free erection

While some of the pricier models are pop-up, the Coleman actually requires a little construction like any ordinary tent. Now I must admit that I’ve only been camping once in my life, and it was only made tolerable by a large bottle of Good Times whisky and the lack of a bowel movement, but even to my inexperienced hands the assembly of the Sundome was completely pain-free. All of the poles snapped quickly into place and then slid effortlessly through the guides on the tent itself. It took a little bit of brute force to bend the poles into their final position, (locked by little rubber holders), but the whole process took only a few minutes.

Moderate wind

Once constructed, the tent has that sizeable groundsheet as well as a zip-up window at the back if you want to let the breeze through. The groundsheet can also zip up to provide a fully sealed tent for a quick clothes change, or perhaps to hide your valuables when you head down to the sea. The Sundome can be anchored to grass by the supplied tent pegs using the two attached guide ropes and other fixing points. There are also a few sand bags scattered around so, for use at the beach, you can quickly slide in some sand to provide stability against moderate winds without having to use any pegs.

Nice package

The tent is really well proportioned and can easily seat two adults and a couple of small children. When folded down, however, the whole package falls down to a very reasonable size that packs away neatly into the supplied carry bag that will barely take any space in your car boot. It is also light enough to carry around if necessary.  In a stroke of pure genius the carry bag also has the assembly instructions sewn inside it.

Overall, the Coleman Sundome Beach Shelter looks the part, does the business, and should be as essential as slip, slop, slap this summer.

Dadgets.info says that the Coleman Sundome Beach Shelter is cracking value and a must-have item for a long hot summer.

Grin like a child at the Sundome’s manly attractiveness, its spacious dimensions and its amazing price.

Cry like a baby at the fact that it isn’t self-erecting.

Dadgets.info rating: 9 out of 10

Before you had a child, a cosy little beach shelter would have been just the thing for a bit of summer nookie with your mistress. But now you’re a father, and your mistress has left you for a man without vomit on his clothing, you’ll be needing a beach shelter to house your gorgeous wife and child on those hot summer days.

Beach Shelta Family UV Beach Tent (£53.99 from Travelling With Children)

Shelta are an Aussie company and should therefore know a thing or two about sun protection. Their UV Beach Tent is self-erecting (snigger, snigger) and takes only seconds to construct. It has sand pockets to keep it firmly rooted to the beach, and also comes with a handy groundsheet so you don’t need to lay towels inside. Unfortunately it costs quite a bit of wonga – much too much when you consider what else is on the market.

Nivea Family Cabana Sun Tent (£39.95 from Jacksons Camping)

A little more reasonably priced is the Family Cabana Sun Tent from Nivea, who are better known for producing sun cream than sun shelters. Their sun-tent is also ‘pop-up’ which means that it will be erect quicker than a teenager in a brothel. Sadly, it doesn’t have an integrated ground sheet so you’ll have to use towels to avoid your little boy getting sandy balls while he crawls around the tent.

Coleman Sundome (£14.99 from Amazon.co.uk)

Can the winner of my sun shelter buying guide really cost only £15? Yes siree Bob! The Coleman Sundome really is a top-notch beach shelter for very little moola. It has the all-important sand pockets for stability, and impressively it has a huge groundsheet that extends far beyond the tent. This provides a really sizeable area to frolic around in, and has the added feature that it can fully zip up to close the dome while you are changing, or perhaps to hide your huge Dadget collection while you’re out at sea. The only downside is that it is not self-erecting – like a married man, it will require a few minutes of careful attention before it is fully erect.

Henry and I have bought a Coleman Sundome and we’ll give you our full review very soon! (Full review now here)