Seedhouse SL2

Big Agnes is 100% worth it to me. They’ve replaced 2 tents for me and restrung poles for free. I currently have a Seedhouse 2 (replaced a 1 after delamination), a four season something which replaced a seedhouse 2 and a copper spur 3. Recommend them all the time.  Also the $1000 is an extreme weather tent. If your out in winter or serious elements, you don’t screw around with your shelter. 

Have a Big Agnes Seedhouse 2 but also there is the Seeedhouse 3 tent, great tent good ventilation and 100% waterproof for the occassional summer downpour, but for a group of 3 i'd rather have a 4 persons tent so there is room for lugagge, if you want keep costs low look at Naturhike's tents, excellent copies of famous tents 5x more expensive

Yep. My wife and I have been backpacking with a Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 for 5 years now, and it is great. Before that, I camped and backpacked out of the original Big Agnes Seedhouse SL2 for a decade, and it was light, portable, and stood up to a windstorm or two, and a snowstorm that collapsed several of the other tents in my group. Either tent would work well for OP, I think.

No but Coleman is typically low to mid grade, I'd recommend higher quality brands like Big Agnes, REI, Marmot, etc. which you can probably find for a price pretty close to that (especially if there's a sale). I mostly hammock camp these days, but I also have a fair amount of tent experience in an REI Kingdom (big, decent for car camping) and a Big Agnes Seedhouse (small, light, great 2 person tent).

"1 person" or "solo" are the terms you're looking for when searching. I have two that I use and I choose based on climate - single wall (old Eureka from the 90's) for moderate WX or a Big Agnes Seedhouse is I am expecting anything other than moderate and clear weather. Both are freestanding (most important priority for me) and super small and light.

Big Agnes are exceptional. Buy one secondhand, get the two person, and never look back. My buddy and I both use one, they are light, small, and truly worth every cent. 

For quality camping equipment I tend to wait for a holiday then check out REI outlet online. If you are a member you get a 20 percent off coupon that works for outlet prices. I bought a 2 person Big Agnes tent that retailed for over 3 hundred dollars. My cost was about 120 I think. It was years back but it's a great tent. We would budget 2 big ticket items every year until we had everything we wanted.

When’s the last time you actually set up a modern tent? If you’re picturing threading tent poles through sleeves then I’d get the hesitancy. Modern tents are extremely easy to set up now Takes me <5 minutes to set up my 2P big Agnes tent. Going bivy seems overly aggressive when just getting back into camping

We each have our own hammock... Def my preference! We have a 2 person Big Agnes that we put our packs in or use if the weather is really bad (even tho I have a rain fly for my hammock now!)

I’m so glad this was mentioned. I went colder weather camping with my sons a bit ago. Initially, I bought a big giant tent with an added screen room. This sub pointed us in the right direction. I returned the behemoth and went with my Big Agnes 2p and bought the boys their own 4p to use with their friend. OP, I did buy a propane heater. I would warm up my tent when I was getting ready to go to sleep and then again in the morning g before getting out of my sleeping bag. In the tiny tent, it was hot in there within minutes!