ALPS Mountaineering - Taurus 6-Person

Alps 6 person with vestibule. Holds up to wind and rain.

All the tents from Alps mountaineering have treated me very well in wind and rain. Colemans not so much.

Third on the ALPS Mountaineering tents. My family has used a 6P for car camping for several years. We use an orange plastic tarp for a groundsheet. It has aluminum poles.

Troop scoutmaster here. If you are in a troop (11-17 year olds). I strongly recommend getting two tents. One for you and one for your scouts. The scouting program wants to encourage SYT best practices and youth independence by having adults and youth tent separately if at all possible. The challenge is finding a tent that is big enough to be comfortable but small enough to pack and travel well. In general, a 3 person tent will be big enough for two people plus their gear. A two person tent will be big enough for one person and their gear. You can go smaller or larger but that’s a good starting point. If you’re just starting out, I might recommend looking at more car camping style tents which will be bigger, heavier but more durable and comfortable than more compact backpacking style tents. Depending on your area and typical weather patterns, you might want to look for something with a full rain fly that goes all the way to the ground and has covered vestibules. These will keep you the driest in rainy weather. As for specific recommendations, I strongly encourage you to create a free account/profile on www.hikerdirect.com. It is an unpublished website owned by Alps Mountaineering that is intended for scouts to purchase good quality gear at nearly 50% off retail prices. I have used their products almost exclusively in my 8 years of scouting with my kids and everything has been great quality. My favorite tents are the Lynx, Taurus, glacier 4 and Ranger 1. (I currently own over 7 tents)

My Scout troop uses ALPS Mountaineering Taurus tents with aluminum poles. They're great and do not break the bank. We used to use Eurekas with fiberglass poles and were constantly replacing poles or complete tents when the poles eventually split. I think I've only replaced 2 or 3 poles since we switched.

I love my Alps tent and they’re not too expensive.

Personally I have two Gazelle knock offs that are just absolute chefs kiss. Unfortunately that company sucks and they don’t make them anymore. I would be hesitant to buy an Ozark Trail tent, but I do have a $30 tent from Academy that I use for outdoor storage and it stays surprisingly dry. I love my Alps tent, and I think it was Eric on YouTube that did a budget trip and the Featherstone tent he really liked.

The kingdom tents from REI are great. the tubeshape and features are quite nice so are the extras.... but if you want easy to put up an down the instant tents from Ozark Trail I used with my family when kids were young in cub scouts for 5+ years. I the integrated poles made for putting it up and down very quick and easy even by myself, and I could stand up and had 4 cots in them. The may be cheaper than others but there are a few brands that make the instant tents with integrated poles. I was surprised how well my ozark held up. also check out the alps brands, they are built well, but heavy.

Anything by Alps mountaineering. Really good warrantee, great quality, good pricing.

Look into Coleman for decent and affordable. I've been happy with Alps Mountaineering on Amazon. Best suggestions I can offer.

Yeah the marketing is so bad. There are 3 season tents that are better suited for colder climates but they aren't advertised like that. So weird. In the south, I recommend Kelty tents a lot because their 2 layer tents have almost-full mesh bodies. I notice that people in the northern US swear by Alps Mountaineering tents... their bodies happen to have a lot less mesh in the body. They're like 3.5 season tents, lol (but they'd be bad in the south).

The alps mountaineering tents are a solid option.