Vintage tents: Camping with old-fashioned canvas to innovative space-age tech

The only ding on the windows is that they have no ties or way to secure them once opened, so they are left to simply dangle. At 56 sq ft, you can fit two twin air mattresses coleman cabin tent with about a foot of hallway left or fill the entire tent wall to wall with a full and a twin. The Cabin wasn’t built for four, but you could make it work in a pinch.

We found 40 denier up to 150 denier to be typical for car-camping tents; you can read more about these measurements in gear manufacturer MSR’s blog post and in this Outside article. Great for backyard overnights, this simple dome-style tent is for anyone who doesn’t want to spend more than $150 on a tent but also doesn’t want to buy another one next year. The with Instant Setup is designed to make your camping experience quick, easy, and hassle-free.

An avid hiker, camper, and long-haul road-tripper, Claire Wilcox has slept in (and occasionally improvised) tents in 11 states. She covers outdoor gear for Wirecutter and worked on the most recent update of this guide, testing couples’ tents and family tents. A full rain cover, two vestibules, and an extra-sturdy pole structure make this the best choice for couples who want to get outside in any weather. It’s pricey, though, and unless the other couples’ tents we recommend, it doesn’t include a footprint. Near-instant set-up aside, the Coleman 4-Person Instant Cabin Tent is also a fan-favorite choice because of its sturdy design. For extra protection from the elements, you can buy the Instant Cabin Tent with a rainfly; this bundle is also on major markdown for October Prime Day at 41 percent off.

The aluminum poles are also quite durable; the leg poles are 16mm thick, while the roof poles are 12mm thick. All of these heavy-duty materials add a great deal to the weight—at nearly 25lb, this is the heaviest tent in our 2021 review. However, this was not a bother to us, as this tent really only needs to be transported from the car to the impact pad, and we’d rather heft a few extra pounds than sacrifice durability. There’s no included footprint with this tent, and we’d recommend purchasing either a 9’x9’ or 10’x10’ footprint, which unfortunately is not offered by Coleman.

Or, in mild cool weather, can be partly closed to suit your comfort. The Sky-Vu’s unique controlled air-flow system lets you enjoy the great outdoors indoors. For instance, on warm days and nights, wide-open, 4-way cross ventilation lets tons of fresh air and breezes come in. Around the same time, polyurethane and silicone coatings were introduced to improve the water-resistance of tent fabrics. These fabrics were not only lighter and more compact but also displayed superior resistance to rot and mildew. Nylon, in particular, with its excellent strength-to-weight ratio, became a favorite among outdoor gear manufacturers.

Stay dry all night long with the detachable rainfly and WeatherTec™ system that features a tub-like floor, patented welded corners, and inverted seams. A 4-person tent and tents with enclosed porches are also available. If you’d prefer to pitch your tent in a matter of seconds rather than minutes, the Coleman Instant Tent 6 has you covered. At only $146.99, it’s one of the cheaper 6-person camping tents on the market, and it delivers a foolproof approach to tent-pitching that can easily be accomplished by one person, perhaps even one-handed. Beyond that, it’s really just a budget tent that’s lacking in bells and whistles, along with less flashy inclusions—such as ventilation, better weatherproofing, and a second door—that would definitely boost its value. For those cloudless summer nights, this could make for an attractive option for families in search of low-cost camping, however there are still several competitive options out there at similar price points.

The main bodies of our other picks are structured with two main poles with added support from smaller brow poles. The Base Camp, by contrast, has four full-size aluminum struts woven throughout it, somewhat like a basket, plus an additional brow pole that frames the front entrance and supports the larger of the two vestibules. The Base Camp also offers more privacy compared with our other picks—with or without the coleman camping chair rain fly. Spread out on your next camping trip with ample space to lounge and stretch in the Coleman® 6-Person Cabin Camping Tent with Screen Room. The screened-in porch lets you enjoy the fresh air with friends and family away from the bugs and keeps dirt from getting tracked in. Plus, you’ll have more freedom to stand upright and move around thanks to the cabin frame’s extra-high ceiling and vertical walls.

Whether you’re thinking of hitting the road or staying close to home for your next car-camping adventure, you and your loved ones will need a comfortable place to sleep. I’ve since set it up at home for careful inspection before camping again and noticed zipper teeth were misaligned, stitching was uneven in places, and stitching thread was totally loose in other places. Then the pandemic happened, and I didn’t get to use it or go camping at all for a full 2 years, thus passing the warranty period. I highly recommend this Coleman 10-Person Instant Cabin Tent if you’re expecting high temperatures and hot weather, but not if you’re expecting plenty of rain. You can also leave the tent easily, and get back into the tent easily, through this super, super user-friendly hinged D-door on the left width of the tent. The poles and pole clips of this Coleman 10-Person Instant Tent are all pre-attached, so that was really convenient for putting it up and taking it down.