Skydome™ 12-Person Camping Tent XL

Hot take, but one big tent is the right choice. The tent I grew up camping with was a 10 person dome tent from Cabela's. It was huge, a pain to set up and tear down, and indestructible. Fond memories of putting that tent up with my dad from a very young age, and it was very novel to sleep in one giant space with my parents, brother, dog, and whichever friends came along. It definitely taught me how to set up basically any tent without instructions and with an abundance of patience. Pick a dome tent without pole sleeves, only clips. The hardest part of large tents is getting the poles through any sleeves at the top of then tent, then making sure nothing snags as you're lifting it. Clip pole attachments don't have that problem, and you can lift the bulk of the tent in stages, which is convenient if you're setting up alone or with a tiny helper. The Coleman Skydome 12 person tent is currently available at Sierra for a good price and only has clips.

Honestly, my backpacking tent is only for backpacking. The #1 criteria for backpacking tents for me is lightweight. I have a 1- person REI brand lightweight backpacking tent that works just fine for me and my large dog. I'll never use it for car camping at campgrounds. For non backpacking - i have a 2 person Sierra designs tent, a 4- person made by Taurus, and a new 12- person made by Coleman. They are all for different types of excursions. I wouldn't use any of them backpacking unless my spouse were going with me, in which case we would share the weight. Or if I were just going out for one night and back the next day. A 25-50 mile backpack trip is no joke. Having a pack that's too heavy isn't great. Good luck!

I have the non lighted version I got on sale from Walmart for $70 four years ago and never had an issue. But I set the tent up under a 10x10 pop up canopy so really the tent has never seen rain.

I'd get a Coleman Skydome for $100. I go camping all the time and that's what I use

All I know is I've had the same Coleman for 4 years and has never leaked nor collapsed. If something happened to it I wouldn't feel bad and get another. If something happened to a $200-$300 tent I would feel bad.

Sundome is much lower quality than the other options. If you're looking at Coleman, step up to at least the Skydome. Funny enough I was going to recommend the Basecamp. Ventilation isn't great with the fly on but that's very common with cheap tents. I like wooded campsites anyway where you can angle the mesh portions of the tent into the trees and keep the non-mesh facing the walkway for privacy. Kelty kinda owns the cheap-but-mostly-quality space. The Discovery Trail 3P is very meshy which helps with ventilation but still a lack of fly vents. If you can stretch the budget or find a good sale, the Kelty Rumpus 4 is a killer deal. Lots of ventilation, vented fly, and a great vestibule that you can keep wide open to help with ventilation. The Teton looks fine. I like the look of the higher denier fabric and vented fly. Teton has historically been a cheap crap brand but they've really made some improvements in the last few years. I don't love that their "lifetime warranty" explicitly mentions that things like bent poles are considered normal wear. The marmot is an excellent option if you can get it at a good price and you're genuinely okay with a 2p.

Skydome is a worthy upgrade over the sundome and flatwoods. Several different variations of skydome so you should be able to find one on sale somewhere. 6 person is usually the minimum person size to get standing height.

I am also in a family of 4 and have always appreciated a larger tent. This was especially the case when the kids were young. You might even want to consider 8-person tent. Plenty of room for the family and gear. Skydome is good but, IMO, not as durable as I would like. The Wawona is good. I have an REI Base Camp 6. It is easy to set up between two people very wind resistant.