Credit:
Reviewed / Janelle Randazza
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Credit:
Reviewed / Janelle Randazza
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This excellent tent with well thought-out features will give you the gift of time on your family camping trips. Read More
A straightforward and simple tent that will make for a stress-free camp setup. Read More
A roomy tent that doesn't skimp on the extras and comes in sizes to accommodate groups as large as 12-people. Read More
While not quite an "instant tent," still a great lightweight family tent that has excellent ventilation and easier setup than most standard tents. Read More
A one-handed set-up, this tent pops open for an instant camp setup in seconds. Read More
The best family camping tents aren't only spacious, they are super-sturdy and they have kid-friendly features like easy ventilation and smart storage pockets—plus they should be easy to pop up in minutes. No parent has the time to wrangle with unruly kids and complicated tent poles.
That's why our winner for the best family tent of the year is the Coleman Skylodge Instant Tent (available at Amazon for $239.99) . An instant tent like the Coleman Skylodge is not only easy to set up, it's sturdy and it boasts a ton of great features that make it the perfect tent for family campouts. Coming in as the best value buy is the Coleman Instant Cabin (available at Amazon).
Both tents were rigorously tested through numerous weekend campouts that took them through 90° heats and monsoon-level rainfall. Plus they had roomy footprints that allow you to roll out your sleeping bags with space to spare.
These family-style instant tents will transform your family campouts. Whether you're a group of weekend warriors that are short on time, or you're a family that wants to simplify your camp set up, these winning tents will make camping with kids a whole lot more satisfying.
The Coleman Skylodge had all of the simplicity of an Instant tent with lots of great design features.
The Coleman Instant Cabin family tent has a cult following.
Lots of storage options
High center height
Good ventilation
No back window or door
Sticky door zipper
Lightweight
Cool LED-light feature
Comes in sizes up to 8-person
None that we could find
10-second setup
Easy rain fly
No lantern hooks
A tight fit for a family of 4
Lightweight
Great cross ventilation
Roomy
Flimsy construction
Awkward layout makes tough to fit families bigger than three
10-second setup
Two doors
Smart design
Cheap components
Flimsy construction
Lightweight
Compact
Suffocating design with poor ventilation
Can't fit queen air mattress
Flimsy construction
I’m Janelle Randazza, the parenting writer at Reviewed. I’m also an avid outdoorswoman with nearly 30 years of camping experience: I’m also a total gear nut and my husband and I own a somewhat embarrassingly large collection of tents for camping. Some are from our backpacking days, some are from when we switched to family car camping.
In short, we have a lot of experience with tents. Surprisingly, it took this article to push us to acquire our first instant tent, and now one will be a permanent part of our family camping gear arsenal.
One of the reasons it took us so long to take the plunge is we are pretty picky about our tents. It was going to take a special instant tent to convert us. After trying eight tents—seven instant and one not—we consider ourselves official converts.
We pitched each of the tents in our yard to test for durability, comfort, space, and water resistance.
We didn't set out to almost exclusively review instant tents. But when we started our search to find the best family camping tent, we knew that ease and speed of setup were the most important features to look for. No one wants to deal with a complicated camp setup when you have kids to watch after.
While there are lots of excellent family tents on the market, instant camping tents have been gaining popularity, so we decided to focus our testing exclusively on tents that claimed to be set up in 5 minutes or less.
While many of these tents claim they can be assembled in 60 seconds, that doesn’t include laying down a tarp, putting in tent stakes, securing guylines, or putting on a rain fly. For our testing, we allowed a 5-minute start-to-finish setup time, to be completed by one person, with all of the additional steps. Any tent that took longer than 5 minutes to fully set up was docked half a point. Each tent was assembled by yours truly, and some were additionally tested by family friends.
After setup, we assessed the size of each tent by inflating two camping pads that, when pushed together, create a queen-sized mattress. Most car campers want comfort, so if we couldn’t fit a queen-size mattress in the tent, it lost a point. If it wasn’t able to fit four sleeping bags side-by-side, it was docked further.
When you're backpacking you want a tent that's lightweight and can withstand high winds. When you're camping with kids you tend to need something different. A good family tent should not only be a refuge from both rain and blazing sun, and it should be a comfortable place for kids to take a nap or steal some quiet time. Since most families camp in milder weather and during summer vacation, we tested for air ventilation and for water resistance against a summer storm.
Each tent was loaned out and reviewed by seasoned campers. Upon return each was then set up in our yard for four days and two sprinkler cycles (again, with kids running in and out of them). Five of the eight tents made it through an unexpected rain and a hailstorm! The remaining three tents were doused with a garden hose on full blast.
The best family camping tents are a breeze to set up and break down, but that’s not the only thing you should consider when purchasing one. Here are some other things to think about.
The Core Instant Tent comes in sizes all the way from 4-person to 12-person.
Before you even start your search for a family tent, know this: Choose a bigger tent than you think you need. If a tent is sized as a four-person tent, it will have interior space to accommodate four sleeping bags with each family member packed in like sardines.
A four-person tent is best for a three-person family. If you want room to move around or space for a dog or your backpacks, size up. A large vestibule can be a nice addition, giving you even more space to store your things—or just sit and relax.
The instant tents we tested were easy, but they weren't entirely intuitive for some of our testers. We highly recommend that before you pitch any tent at a campsite, you watch online videos to familiarize yourself with their setup and breakdown processes. For instant tents, this is just as important as any other tent.
Since we tested a lot of instant tents in this roundup, we want you to know that they can be heavier than you might expect. While instant tents are getting lighter, they’re still heavier than standard tents and are not a good choice as a carry-along when you hit the trails. They are best as car camping tents, and for backyard campouts and staycations.
When testing, we read a fair number of reviews where the expectations of tents may be more than is typically reasonable for the product. Many tents—especially the more affordable ones—tend to require that you waterproof them before their first use and again at regular intervals depending on the use.
Don't expect any tent to be waterproof right out of the bag. It’s always advised to waterproof a new tent before the first use to keep out heavy rains.
Ventilation and ease of setup were two key things we tested for.
Some tents skimp on ventilation. This can be problematic with all family camping tents, but we noticed in testing that this was a major issue with many instant tents. Many lacked windows on four sides of the tent, which can be stifling in warmer weather if you haven't positioned your tent in the right direction for a cross breeze—something we found frustrating.
You should also be aware that tents with integrated rain flies can often be problematic. As far as ventilation is concerned, the only tent we recommend that has an integrated rain fly is the Coleman Instant Tent. The Night Cat came close to getting our endorsement, but cheap components prevented it from being an editor's choice.
Janelle Randazza is a writer/mother hybrid and taco enthusiast based out of Los Angeles, California.
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