Eureka - Suma 3

See if you can find a Eureka Suma 2 or 3 on clearance. Awesome value tents and decent weight for the price.

I have owned several Eurekas over the years. I still have all of them except my first 3 man, which i gave to my sister(she is still using it, its probably 20 years old, if not more). They get my vote for price and quality. To be fair, i haven't used many other tents because i haven't had to. I currently have a lightweight 2 person, apex 3 person, a 3 person with a large vestibule and now a 6 person as my family has grown.

I've got a Eureka 3 man which good for 2 people and gear, nice tent, full fly. And 2 North Faces- a 4 man and an old 2 man. They are awesome but definitely pricey. I like a good nights sleep so I pony up $$. I'm out west and also need to have a solid tent for shoulder season snow, especially the wet stuff and summer wind down bursts from thunderstorms. Strictly aluminum poles is my rule. NC weather is definitely different (I'm from WNC) like harder T. storms, tropical storms and worse but I'm not camping when a hurricane is coming through

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.