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. The North Face’s color-coded poles make this process easy to navigate. (We were stubborn and didn’t look at the instructions.) Once you identify the front and back, the process is straightforward.
Two large vestibules add nearly 40 square feet combined—that is, 18.75 square feet on either side. Temperatures ranged from the 50s at night to the 80s during the day. The Kelty Wireless 6 fits two adults, two kids, and two dogs comfortably inside, and the dual vestibules allow for even more storage and organization. Add in the ease of setup, a nice carry bag, and wonderful star-gazing capabilities, and you have a solid tent. And given the bargain price of the Wireless 6, it’s hard to pass it up. The Coleman 4-Person Cabin with Instant Setup scored the highest here.
Canopy tents and screen houses are great ways to create food preparation areas as well, so consider taking one with you on your next camping trip. Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time). It is also important to consider the way in which the tent poles attach to the tent. Many of our picks use grommet attachments, which are more secure and simple to repair than key attachments if anything should break.
Just remember not to ask your kids to take the fly off, as the locking mechanism requires some serious force to get out. It begs the question, how useful is the tent for a small group? Will it fit two dogs and a friend or three and still be comfortable? ozark trail shower tent Though some of these aspects fall under other categories, we felt it was important to our readers to look at them again but with this viewpoint in mind. Several other tents scored among the best in the weather resistance category.
The T4 Hub is our favorite instant shelter because it’s stable, weatherproof, and full of conveniences. The best thing about this shelter is that it’s completely self-contained so that you can say goodbye to bundles of bungee-connected aluminum poles — no more assembling, crisscrossing, bending, or clipping. Instead, to set up the T4, plop it on the ground, pull on each of the four sidewall handles until the wall pops into place, and then lock in the rooftop with a push.
This tent comfortably fits two queen airbeds or up to 6 campers in sleeping bags on the floor. Keep yourself organized and connected with the included mesh storage pockets and electrical cord access. The ambient LED-lighted hub allows for amazing light throughout the tent and can be adjusted with the low . This Ozark Trail 6-Person Instant Cabin Tent with LED Lighted Hub is perfect for your next family camping adventure.
Case in point, the Kelty Tallboy 4 will save you money but it also scores lower in every test. Adults as tall as 6-foot-3 can move about this tent standing upright. ozark trail instant cabin With a 44-square-foot vestibule, and 86 square feet of interior living space, the tent has plenty of room to house beds, cribs, gear, pets, and camping furniture.
We love this tent’s removable floor, two large doors, eight massive windows, and seven humongous storage pouches. It packs tons of space and features into a functional, good-looking design. Most instant tents are so easy to set up that you don’t need an instruction manual. They have pre-attached ozark trail instant cabin poles, an integrated pole system, or at least poles that are easy to install. Most rainflys, if they aren’t already attached, should also be fairly simple to install. If you can’t put your instant tent up in a few minutes, its design is flawed—or you didn’t buy an instant tent.
We were skeptical about the vestibule’s ability to handle wind, since it’s big and supported by a single pole, but it stood fast in 30 mph oceanside gusts and 15 mph hilltop winds. That mesh also keeps the tent feeling airy and cool in hot climates. Measuring 10 by 10 feet, the Sundome covers an area larger than that of our family-tent top pick though its lower roof leaves it with less headroom. But it’s one of the least expensive tents we found that had no significant drawbacks and will truly cover your bases for three-season camping. The tent also comes with its own footprint, a groundsheet that protects the tent from abrasion, which we recommend that you have.