Solitaire AL 1-Person Backpacking Tent

I’ve had the [Eureka Solitaire](https://sectionhiker.com/eureka-solitaire-aluminum-tent-review/) for years, and it is a nice 1-person tent. Basically a glorified bivy sack with a couple of hoops to keep the netting & rainfly off you. Mine has been through some pretty nasty storms and has held up well. The new version with aluminum poles is probably a bit nicer; my fiberglass poles are fairly brittle.

We have one tent, Eureka 3 season but the winner is the enclosed shelter or screen house. We spent 4 nights last winter up north with snow and the shelter kept us warm during the day. Of course we used the Buddy heater. In the tent however we were cold, sleeping bags to 15F and lots of layers we ended up covering the tent with a large tarp and it helped. I think tents are important but more so the screen room with walls.

I was going to suggest eureka but they stopped production last year. My first backpacking tent. Very affordable, weight was fine split between 2 people. And my goodness, it lasted waterproof and zippers a very long time. Like most, I have bought and resold a few tents over the years but the eureka one remained in my loaner gear through it all. If you see a 2 person eureka, used, for a very low price, grab it and try it out for your first couple of trips

It depends on if you want to sleep closely to them. I would buy the tent I want for solo, then a cheap second tent just for the friend. I actually kept my first backpacking tent, a eureka!, just for friends.

I didn’t know tents still came with fibreglass poles, I haven’t had one with them since the 80s. The three I’ve bought since then (North Face, MEC, Eureka) have all been aluminum. You could probably just replace the poles of your current tent if you like the tent enough.