Instant Cabin Tent with Dark Room

Core has a darkroom tent. I’m a fan of core tents.

IMO Buy a Big Box weekend warrior 10-12 person tent with the main feature being set up time with a close second being ventilation. Nothing worse than waking up to it raining inside your tent. lol Look at the CORE Equipment Instant 12 Person Cabin Tent. I have the 6 Person version for my wife and I. We fit two cots, the dog bed and cooler with room to stand and dress. I have owned dozens of tents and this one is on the short list of favorites for car camping. I have had it for two years and it takes us less than 5 mins to set up. The set up is the selling point for me when it comes to camping with the family. I used youtube review vids to see how tents worked before settling in on this one. Super helpful. My son is now 22 and its been my experience that Maximizing the living area for family car camping is the best bang for your buck. Especially on a rainy weekend. Doing it in a way that doesn’t take all weekend to set up is the best bang for your sanity and marriage. I love to car camp with friends and family,and have done so for decades. But I also I hunt and fish deep in the wilderness so I have little more hardcore knowledge and use a lot of different gear for those things. With that, the more expensive tents are not automatically better than the cheaper versions. IMO they are more specialized and usually those differences cost more to make due to the specialized materials etc. The super expensive small hiking tents are all about weight over everything else, including comfort and durability. As someone that sets up in a State Park 10ft from the SUV those extra dollars are mostly waisted. Big canvas tents are designed for all seasons durability and long term set up. They are heavy duty in every which way and their setup is more complicated because they can withstand a foot of snow, 60mph winds all while you stay cozy next to the woodstove. I feel, If you are a fair weather weekend car camping the extra money is not worth putting into a specialized tent. But it really depends on your personal preferences and means. Nothing wrong driving to your plane in a bentley if you can do it. For me comfort items like a solar generator to run fans, air pumps, lights etc added to the quality of our stay way more than features on a tent that don’t match your need. I also like using cots and self pumping sleeping mats. As far as sleeping bags go, they are just like tents. Money is for the specialization and buying a real expensive on can lead to disappointment cause some tear so easy. I just use walmart specials and thru some (prob too much) money at a weighted blanket. Wont trade it for anything. Also Nice comfortable camping chairs, high end coolers or even a fridge go along way. You can even think bigger and look at maybe a canoe of you want to up your game. Not sure what you drive but car topping a canoe for a car camping trip really opens up a lot of cool adventures including river and island camping. Anyway, $3k can go a long way. Take your time and figure out what will make things more comfortable so tour family will want to do it more/longer.

Do you already have the air mattresses? If not, consider getting cots instead! We have a CORE 12-person instant cabin tent, it’s got plenty of room and is super easy to setup! It’s not the nicest tent on the market, but we are casual car campers and it works great for our family.

We have the Core 12-person instant cabin (~$400 on Amazon) and love it. Three rooms with dividers gives us a kids room/play area, adult room with a queen mattress, and a "family" area for games, movies or hiding from the rain. Goes up in minutes with two people and a few more with one.

Love our 12 man core tent. We’ve had it since 2019 and it’s gone on a bunch of trips with kids and dogs. Simple and affordable without all the gimmicks. We do put down a tarp before setup to protect it though. Just fyi tents are like bike frames - most are made in the same factory with different logos slapped on them and then different distribution companies selling them… just make sure they have a good warranty policy.

The instant tent options from Core are SO excellent. The ease of setting up and pitting away is worth its weight in gold. I have a Core instant cabin style tent for 12 or 13 (?can’t remember, but it’s a huge 2-room style tent). It fits 2 adults, 1 child, 2 large dogs, and bags / shoes / etc. I’m a 5’5” human and have 0 issues doing the tent alone. On group camping trips I’m the fist ready. Everyone who sees my tent ends up getting one themselves!

Core makes an AMAZING 12 person instant tent that is legitimately up in under 2 minutes... and it has built-in LED lights that can be turned on at 3 different brightness levels.