She covers outdoor gear for Wirecutter and worked on the most recent update of this guide, testing couples’ tents and family tents. Unfortunately, the steel pole in the back of the tent did not lock into position, so this tent is defective. I did not continue to set up the screen porch (which has no floor) or put the rainfly on. I did go inside the tent to stand up and not hunched over and noticed the mesh ceiling with lots of ventilation.
Gear up for your next outdoor adventure with the Ozark Trail 11-Person Instant Cabin with Private Room. This tent sets up in under two minutes with the innovative instant frame design for easy and fun camping. It also features a large front awning for protected entry and has a 76″ ceiling height for ample headroom. Use the family camping tent’s included room divider and back room door to create three separate living spaces. It features six large windows and mesh ceiling for comfortable ventilation. This tent comfortably fits two queen airbeds or up to 11 campers (eight in main cabin plus three in private room) in sleeping bags on the floor.
The continuous curve of the dome shape allows for wind to pass over and around it. You can also get a nice cross breeze going by leaving the vestibules open. On sunny days and clear nights, take off the fly and enjoy the sky through the tent’s clear mesh canopy. Some testers, though, thought the tent was stuffy when the fly was fully closed and the sun was out. The Wireless 6 goes up easily, using the same kind of intuitive pole and clip method as our couples’ pick. The fly is equally simple to attach and orient with color-coded clips.
The Wawona 6 is more complex to set up than a classic dome-style tent like the Wireless 6, but not by much. We recommend doing it with two people, but one person can manage in about 15 minutes. As with any free-standing tent, with this one you stake out the four corners, and then you feed the two main tent poles through the Wawona’s fabric sleeves, which go halfway down the tent’s body.
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. Finding a small, light tent is the logical approach when you’re backpacking. But with car camping—the industry term for what most people consider just camping—you’ll likely be parking next to your campsite and unloading. If you won’t be carrying your tent more than a couple hundred feet, more space means more comfort (as well as more room for your stuff).
Use a beach tent for a bit of shade when visiting the shore, or use a pop-up tent to quickly set up a kiosk at a company function. Canopy tents and screen houses are great ways to create ozark trail canopy tent food preparation areas as well, so consider taking one with you on your next camping trip. Even though the pole was bent, I finished setting up the tent and got the rainfly over the top.
The Wawona doesn’t come with a footprint—few tents this size do—but it’s otherwise all-inclusive, and it is compact considering how much livable space you get. The price also reflects the high quality of the materials, such as the four reinforced aluminum poles, which weigh little yet result in a remarkably strong tent. Car campers who plan to brave miserable weather will appreciate the extra strength and protection of the REI Co-op Base Camp 4 Tent. 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 rain fly.
And I typically find that color coding the poles and the connection points and sleeves is the easiest way to communicate what goes where. This is great for avoiding potential exposure to hazardous chemicals, but you should pitch the tent well away from any open flames. The 2 room dividers turn it into a 3-room tent – one divider is even made with silver-coated fabric so it works as a movie screen. There are also two strings of LED lights hanging inside the tent, an E-port to power your tech goods, and a mud mat.
This tent is a little heavy because of the steel poles pre-attached to the tent, so I recommend having a partner to help pop up and lock in the poles. Unfortunately, this tent was one of three that leaked during testing. While they did seal up from the inside, water was still able to sneak in through the seams, and the tarp over the top of it didn’t provide enough coverage to protect it.
Most of the tents we tested came with basic L-shaped stakes, which tended to spin around in the soil and slip a line. A full rain cover, two vestibules, and an extra-sturdy pole structure make this the best choice for families who want to get outside in any weather. In this camping tent guide by Academy Sports + Outdoors, you’ll learn how to choose your next tent. You can easily fit two queen-sized air mattresses inside of a 10-person tent, or six twin-sized camping mattresses. Plan to bring along the directions if this is your first time setting one up. Beyond this breakage, however, the Skydome ended up being a pretty serviceable tent.