Coleman - Skydome Dark Room Tent

These are what I use the most: \- Tent: Coleman SkyDome Darkroom Tech 8-man cabin tent. Very sturdy tent and stands up to elements well. Darkroom tech, rain fly means it stays nice and dark in there, even during daylight hours so if you're the type that likes to sleep in, not a ton of light gets into the tent (just through the lower vents through the mesh, so makes for a nice dim light in the mornings. It's also room and I, as a 6'2" guy, can easily stand up in it with room to spare. \- Cot: Cabela's Alaskan Guide camp cot. I opted for a HEST foamy pad to go on top of it, and the cot organizer that attaches to the cot with velcro. The cot is sturdy and the HEST pad makes a perfect combo on it. I just bring some regular bed sheets, a blanket, and my regular pillow and sleep like a baby on there. \- Camp chair: Cabela's Outdoorsman XL camp chair. It's comfortable, folds up easily, and doesn't weigh a ton

I love mine. It's my best tent for longer weekends/trips at campgrounds. My other go-to is a Coleman SkyDome Darkroom 8-man tent for shorter trips, since it's lighter and easier to setup/tear down. But it's not nearly as sturdy/strong as the Cabela's tent. I also have an REI SL3+ half-dome for backpacking, and a Columbia Mammoth Creek 8-man 2-room cabin tent I've been meaning to try out but haven't had a chance to set it up yet.

I second this but say go for the "skydome" version which has extra headroom that's clutch for changing and mid-night bathroom trips.

I actually have the Coleman Skydome Dark Room model. I'm not sure if it's comparable but I'm conflicted on it as the performance in the rain was fine, but it retained heat and a section of the fly tore on the first hour. I cannot rule out if it was human error or if my expectations of remaining cool should not be placed on the tent but rather on my equipment to keep me cool (fans, portable ac units, water).

I think I had the Aussie version - looks like the same tent but it’s called the coleman quickdome darkroom. See my other comment for why it’s the worst tent I’ve ever used.

I have owned one blackout tent in my life, a coleman quickdome darkroom. Worst tent I’ve ever had. Tore open on the 3rd day of a 2 week camp. The dark did not make it cooler. If anything it was hotter in there than a beige or grey tent. I hated needing a damn torch just to find something in the tent in the middle of the day. In 20km/h winds you could hear the fabric screaming as it slowly broke apart, and many small holes were visible in the fly by day 4. On day 7 the door zip separated from the main tent, meaning the tent could not be zipped fully. I’d already used all my patches and hand sewn several running tears in the tent walls where stray threads had just unravelled. At this point we went into town to a different outlet of the store we purchased from, with a timeline of photos of the clusterfuck, and asked for a refund. Unfortunately to do that, we had to hand the tent over before they could give us the store credit to buy something else. So we had to go back to camp, pack it all down, go get the refund and new tent, and then setup again midway through the trip. Really soured my opinion of coleman tents.

personally i would buy 2 10x10 coleman dome tents.

I stayed in a 8 person Skydome last week in absolutely torrential rain. We stayed dry, other than were the tent fabric "cupped" as a result of not being pulled taut.

We bought a Coleman Dark room 6 person tent from Costco about 5-6 years ago and it is still going strong. It’s super easy to put up. My man and I can assemble it in under 5 minutes without any bickering. A single person could probably assemble it if they practiced and weren’t in a rush. I love that we can stand up in the center, it’s dark so we’re not woken up super early in the morning by the sun. It has screens on 2 panels that don’t zip up but when you put the rain cover over it covers the windows so privacy and retaining inside tent temperature isn’t an issue. We’ve camped in the rain with it (put an extra tarp over top) but it didn’t have any leaking on the sides or bottom. It’s was fairly cheap in price as well. Most likely under $100. I’m sure there’s a newer version now but we would definitely look into this same model again once our current one screw the pooch. As for our set up, my man and I like to sleep on 2 separate twin pads against the walls with room in the middle for standing and moving around. We each put our bags at our feet with plenty of spare room. We’re very comfortable in it. But for 3-4 people you’d be nice and cozy. For 3-4 people I’d actually look for an 8+ person tent to make sure there’s enough room.

I got one of the Coleman tents with dark room technology 2 years ago and when I tell you it’s so worth the investment! Stays cool/dark enough to sleep in once the sun comes up if you want to.

You’ll definitely want a canopy, I’ve always had my dark room tent partially under one to help protect from the sun even more. You can probably place a pickup order for a canopy at a Walmart in Indio.

Coleman dark room. Blocks a good amount of light and heat, durable, simple, decently cheap, tall enough to stand. Cons - it's pretty big at 9x7 and it's kind of hard to set up solo.

Buy Coleman with the Dark Room tech, or a brand with similar like Logos. Don’t buy the cheap shit people are telling about. They will get insanely hot and keeping out the sun is the only way they are useful.