Coleman - Skydome™ 2-Person

Annoyingly, they are holding back on the useful spec. Which might be concerning. Anyway. For its price, it's a great starter tent. We all start with a starter tent, learn what it lacks and then upgrade at some point. It's not designed for storms, and most people are not like me and purposefully camp during a storm. If I were you, I'd buy it. Hey, when you have your first camp, post pictures and I hope you have an amazing time.

You won’t get “totally wet” The fly does a great job of sloughed the main water onto the sides, and the rest of the fabric is waterproof anyways. Seams have held for me in downpours, and the bottom is tarp so you won’t get wet through it. Just make sure like always that you don’t have sleeping bags touching the inside walls and you’ll stay dry!

I'm sorry that you were let down! I have had great luck with Colemans. High end companies need full flys because they have more mesh to be lighter, and they are able to withstand harsher conditions longer. No, I wouldn't take this tent backpacking for weeks on end. But it does the job on overnights.

I haven't ran into this problem with the 2-person model.

A few of our scouts use Coleman tents; one has a two-person, and one has a 4-person. They lack a vestibule for storing gear to keep it out of the rain, but they are quick to set up and they aren't horrible quality. Our scouts have been using theirs for a couple years now. You probably already know, but a 2-person tent will only sleep two tiny people, and 4-person MIGHT fit three.

For a kid I'd get a Coleman 2-person.

My parents got me a two-person Coleman tent when I was 10 and I used it for 18 years until I outgrew it, still have it in the garage!

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.

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.

Several recommendations for the Coleman tents. Of the two models mentioned, Sundome and Skydome, the Skydome is the far better tent in my opinion. The Skydome has an all clip suspension, while the Sundome has partial pole sleeves. An all clip suspension tent is much easier to pitch solo than a tent that uses sleeves. Stake the corners, assemble the poles, insert poles in the corners. Unzip the door, take off your shoes, step into middle of tent, clip the top clip over both poles. Attach the rest of the clips and add the fly. The Sundome, you'll have to raise the tent body as you insert the poles in the corners. That adds weight and resistance. Lastly, the Skydome has a full coverage rainfly, while the Sundome only comes down halfway. Spend a little more and get the superior tent.

Look and see if there is an Ollie's discount warehouse near you. You can get a Coleman Skydome for half that price.

Well Coleman Skydome is a tried and true tent you should have no trouble with.

Check out the coleman site, think they still have a sale and with a 15% email coupon you can save like 30%. I'm 6'3 and found the skydome to be great.