For most family campers, a tent is the shelter of choice.
You can get a decent tent for less than a hundred bucks. I still have the first tent I purchased and it’s still serviceable. I’ve since upgraded to a larger tent with multiple rooms, but my first 4-man tent still sees use as a loaner tent when friends and family members who don’t have gear decide they want to tag along.
At a bare minimum, you’re going to want a tent that shields you from the weather and wind and keeps the insects outside where they belong. It should be durable enough to where it won’t rip when you look at it wrong.
Camping Tent Features
The type of tent you need depends on what kind of camping you’re planning on doing. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of different kinds of tents out there, and they all fit some sort of need. From budget tents for frugal campers to tents that put some houses to shame, there’s a tent for everyone. Just remember… The more complicated a tent is and the more features it has, the harder it’s going to be to set up.
The best tent I ever owned was one with the poles built into it. All I had to do was set it on the ground and pull the middle up and the tent basically erected itself. I used to love that tent. I’d pull it out of the bag, wait until no one was looking and pull it up, and then I’d sit around and give everyone else a hard time about how long they were taking to set up their tents.
Karma finally caught up to me when one day I went to pull the tent into position and the easy-up apparatus inside fell apart. I struggled to repair it for hours while my friends laughed and cracked jokes about how slow I was. I finally had to give up and drive 40 miles to the nearest Wal-Mart, where I bought a normal tent. While it was a bit embarrassing when my tent melted down, I still miss those days of assembling a tent in mere minutes.
Size of a Tent
When choosing your first tent, bigger isn’t always better. Once you’ve assembled a smaller tent a few times, assembling a larger tent becomes easier because most tents assemble in a similar manner. Buy a giant multiple-room tent from the get-go and you’re setting yourself up for hours of struggling to read barely passable directions while you and your husband bicker about which pole is pole A and whether or not you’re inserting it into hole D or hole E.
Buy the smallest tent that will accommodate your needs to get started and you’ll have a much easier time setting it up.
The multiple room tents are nice, but they tend to be pricey. If you have young kids you want sleeping in the same tent, they’ll get the job done, but you better make sure your site can accommodate a monster-sized tent. Now that my kids are older, I prefer having two separate tents, so my husband and I are afforded at least a modicum of privacy. Tents are thin and as long as we set the kids’ tent up nearby we can hear everything they’re up to.
There are a number of features you’re going to have to know about before you go shopping for a tent. Here they are, in no particular order.
Tent Capacity Ratings
All tents come with a capacity rating that tells you how many people can fit in the tent. I’ve found this capacity rating will leave you stacked like cordwood if you try to fit the maximum amount of people the tent is rated for into it. A tent that’s rated for 4 people can indeed fit 4 people, but it had better be 4 people that really like one another. You’re much better off cutting the maximum capacity in half. 2 people are going to be much more comfortable in a tent rated for 4.
Weather
If you’re planning on camping in hot weather, you’re going to want a tent with plenty of ventilation. Look for tents with screened windows and doors, so you’ll be able to ventilate your tent without inviting every insect in the campsite inside.
Lighter colored tents reflect the rays of the sun and will be cooler than darker tents. Darker colored tents are preferable in cool weather. Because they absorb the rays of the sun and will keep the tent warmer inside.
You’re going to have to consider the type of weather you’re likely to face when purchasing a tent.
Some tents are only able to to withstand 20 MPH winds. That is fine if you’re in an area that doesn’t see much wind. Take the same tent to a windy desert campsite and you might find yourself sleeping in the car when the tent blows over in the middle of the night.
As far as rain-proofing your tent goes, most tents come with a rain fly that can be placed over the tent to keep water out. You can remove this piece to gain valuable ventilation when the weather is nice. Get caught without one in a rain storm and you’re liable to end up soaked.
Types of Tent Flooring
You’re going to want tub flooring, which is essentially a tarp that’s in the floor of the tent. This type of flooring has no seams and usually extends half a foot up the side of the tent all the way around. This will keep ground water out and will make for a much more comfortable experience in wet conditions.
Even with tub flooring, you’re going to want a tarp to place under your tent to keep it from coming in direct contact with the ground. The tarp provides an extra layer of protection against rips and tears. And it keeps ground water from evaporating up into your tent. If you’re expecting rain, be sure to fold the edges of the tarp up under the tent. Or, you can create a pool of water that’ll sit below your tent at the lowest point of the tarp.
Ripstop Nylon Fabric
Spend a little extra and go with ripstop nylon fabric if you can afford it. This type of fabric is much more durable than the thin nylon the cheapest tents are made of. I’ve seen cheaper tents rip the first time someone falls into or leans against them. You aren’t going to save money by replacing your tent every time someone is a little rough with it. The ripstop nylon will withstand the rigors of camping and is the better deal over the long run.
Keep your poles in the same bag as your tent or figure out a way to attach the pole bag to your tent bag. Keeping them together helps ensure you don’t forget the poles, rendering your expensive tent useless. It never fails that the trip you forget the poles on will be the one where you’re hundreds of miles away from the nearest store.
The same thing goes for tent stakes. I keep an extra set of stakes in the box I have my camp stove in. That way I’ll always have extra stakes on-hand. A bent or broken stake can make setting up your tent very difficult.
Tent Types
The first time I went tent shopping, the sheer number of tent varieties I found on store shelves was really surprising. I didn’t know a ridge tent from a dome tent. And I had no clue what type of tent would best fit my needs. Luckily, I came across a nice gentleman at a local big box retailer. He was more than happy to explain the various types of tents to me. Had I not run into this helpful man, I might still be trying to figure out what tent to buy.
Here’s a quick primer on the various tents you may come across:
Dome tent
Dome tents are a popular tent type. They have bendable poles that are usually attached to the outside of the tent. As the poles are inserted and bent, the tent forms into a dome shape. Smaller dome tents don’t use a lot of poles and are relatively stable. Larger dome tents require more poles to stay stable and can be a hassle to set up.
Family tents
Huge tents designed to fit the whole family are family tents. They run the gamut from heavy-duty, sturdy tents to flimsy inexpensive tents that fall apart if you stand outside and blow on them. Expect to pay through the nose for a good family tent. Also expect to have to search far and wide for campsites into which you can squeeze one of these behemoths.
Frame tents
While dome tents use bendable poles, frame tents use poles that are rigid and sturdy. Frame tend to be roomy and stable, but they’re tougher to set up than their lightweight counterparts.
Geodesic tent
These tents are able to withstand seriously bad weather conditions. They tend to be expensive and are overkill for family camping trips—unless you plan on taking your family on a trip to scale Mount Everest.
Instant-up tents
Also known as quick-pitch tents, instant-up tents are the easiest tents of all to set up. All you have to do is push or pull them in the right direction. And they pretty much set themselves up. They’re decent tents for fair-weather camping, but don’t hold up well in inclement weather.
Ridge tent
This is the classic tent. It’s a triangle-shaped tent that usually has a cross-pole for added support. They come in a number of sizes and are easy to set up and take down. The biggest downside to ridge tents is their height.
They work great if you don’t mind having to hunch over while walking around inside of one. They’re great for sleeping in. But they aren’t a good choice if you plan on spending a lot of time in your tent.