Kelty - Vortex 2

I’m cheap and like to backpack and camp. Kelty has stuff that works for me. I have a 2 person standalone tent that weighs about 5 lbs. I’ve had it for almost ten years with moderate use and few complaints. I am about to upgrade though as it can produce some condensation and it could be a little lighter. I’ve also got a Kelty 20 degree mummy style sleeping bag that works well for me. It’s light weight and compresses down to a little bit bigger than a softball. Hope this helps.

We have a kelty two person backpacking tent and two single backpacking mats that click together if you want to sleep side by side. we typically use our own sleeping bags but we do have a two person one that can also zip off into two individuals. She carries the tent and I carry all the food/water and cooking supplies to even up the weight.

I have a kelty 2 person with doors and rainfly vestibules to the ground on both sides. You can each stow your pack outside your respective doors. Easier for nighttime pee trips too.

I also have a very similar kelty 2p tent. It has been my backpacking tent for probably 15 years now. In 2007 it was pretty light and I was constantly being teased for my tiny little tent. It’s a good tent, it’s even a good backpacking tent, it’s just not up to par with modern ultralight but that can be ok. I’m willing to bet that tent is like $100. So for the price I think it has its place. I actually bought myself a Nemo hornet to replace it this year. My son will be inheriting this one until he saves up his own $500 to get something more fashionable.

My Kelty 2p is barely big enough for 2 people. My partner and I were pressing up against the edges of the tent, causing the tent to push up against the rain fly and transfer all the condensation inside ☹️. It's now my solo / backpacking tent and we use a 4 person for car camping lol.

Same. I carried a Kelty 2P tent and we had a joke about it that it was a portable mansion in the forest. It really wasn't THAT big or THAT heavy. It's very close to OP's choice in terms of size and weight. I'm a tall guy with long limbs and I very much appreciated the extra room it gave me even if it was on the heavier side.

Haha it's funny how that works. I guess back then everyone was carrying something similar to a Coleman 2P which are "dome" tents. I love my Kelty, it's certainly not lightweight but it's a damn good tent that I never had issues with.

Kelty has a great 2 person backpacking tent and it isn’t crazy expensive. Years ago my scout troop stumbled on cheap Walmart backpacking tents (probably ozark brand?) and they were great as an entry level tent and around $20 at the time - if you can find a Coleman exponent backpacking tent they are great too. I’m not they even make them anymore- the “exponent” was Coleman’s high end stuff and they had much better sleeping bags and tents under that brand

I have a kelty 2 person and it’s more than enough for myself and a dog or two

I use a kelty 3 man for car camping- it’s light and plenty of room for gear and myself and enough room for the get times my wife came camping. and I like it enough that I got the 2p backpack version. It also probably way und your budget number

I’ve had a kelty two man tent for nearly 25 years. Use it a couple times every year with one being in sub zero winter weather. Only thing that has failed on it is the stuff sack

Survived in a Kelty 2p for years with a spouse , but the day I upgraded to a big Agnes copper spur hvUL3....there is no going back. About 6? Or 8? Years in. Pricey, so make sure it's a hobby you will stick with . But with the hotel fly, man there is room for packs and to take the near 5yo on his first bigger trip soon. Dog, whatever! Big Agnes has an awesome shape even in their 2p, more height with the square shape so it feels a lot less crowded. The weight/size difference between most 2 and 3p is negligible.

I do have the green one. I prefer that more than the red white & blue version. I didn’t have any issues with the Kelty tent. I upgraded the stakes to the red ones you get at REI. I did a 5 1/2 week trip over 10 years ago visiting national parks & monuments throughout Colorado, Arizona & Utah. It rained in Flagstaff after setting up the tent & it kept me dry. I didn’t have problems with the fiberglass poles but I haven’t used that tent since 2019. My ex had a 4p Colman tent and I realized like having the space since I decided to upgrade to a cot & better pad. The last time I used the Kelty tent, I was using a double klymit pad & it had a few inches of floor space left. Ozark was iffy. I got a 10 or 12 person one for spray painting a diy projects. It kept things dry but not clean so I gave up & went back to rolling paint inside. Sold the tent right away on our local fb swap pages. I looked at marmots tents over 10 years ago when I first looking for a 2p one. I ended up with the Kelty one since it was new at a gear consignment store, cheaper than the REI ones & they were thrown in the footprint for free. Marmots were so expensive & there was one at a REI garage sale but since I didn’t know how to put a tent up, I passed the on buying it. Just happen to see the Limestone was a decent price on Campsaver. I still haven’t had a chance to set it up in the backyard or even open up the bag. I’ll be doing that next weekend to make sure all the parts are there since I have 2 weekends of camping next month.

I own Kelty, North Face and Marmot backpacking tents, and can attest to their durability, ease of use and agreeable weight. I've used them both in the backcountry as well as when going car camping.

This depends upon your specific requirements: If your intention is portable 2-person tent that doesn't take up much room and weight isn't much of a concern, get a Kelty. They're nice budget friendly backpacking tents. Big Agnes is good if you want to save weight. But they are expensive and only worth it if you plan to backpack as a hobby. Backpacking and prepping are completely separate topics. You're not hiking your way out of a disaster. First, with most disasters, you will never leave your house. Or even if you do have to evacuate, you will go from your house to another house or apartment. You are not camping in the woods. You are definitely not hiking far. Hiking 10 miles a day would put you in the top 10%. And that's on a good trail, with good weather, and without worrying about being tracked. And more important, you know that every week you will be able to get re-supplied. If you want to be prepared to live on the road after a disaster so that you are not dependent upon a government shelter, then prepare your vehicle instead. My current favorite setup would be a compact SUV pulling a teardrop camping trailer. This provides plenty of room for 1-2 people including all of the supplies you need. You can put solar panels on top of the SUV and teardrop so that you will have plenty of off-grid power. And you will sleep a lot more comfortably.

I've had my Kelty for about 12 years now and it has never failed to perform to my highest expectations. I highly recommend them.

We loved our Ozark Trail tent! Set out on a cross country camping trip with a brand new Kelty that we spent a pretty penny on. A week in, a pole broke in the wind and we got SOAKED through the thin floor. Went to a Walmart, picked up an Ozark Trail, and left the Kelty in a dumpster. Never looked back on that decision.

Go with the Kelty version of this same tent instead, better quality and price difference right now isn't much at all with the sales they are running

I used the same Kelty tent for 30 years. Replaced many components in that time. 6 or 7 years ago a pole broke so I emailed Kelty about a replacement. Slow response, no offer of help. They couldn't even tell me the length I should buy. Far cry from my previous experiences with them. Then I found out they had been bought out by exxel outdoors, LLC . So read into this what you want buy it was another buy out where service tanked. exxel has a bunch of other brands they've bought; Kelty, KB Tactical, UD, Sierra Designs, HEX, Slumberjack, Wenzel & SJK. Not sure how service/quality with the other brands has fared. ANNND, I'm also a side sleeper and bought a DeepSleep SOLO MAT SELF-INFLATING CAMPING BED $179.99 to use on my cot. It's 5" thick and has air + foam. Totally love this mat.

Kelty is always a solid bet. Good quality many choices Helleberg tents will last forever. But the price is high. Many other quality suggestions are listed from others too. Good luck and have fun!

Get a Kelty, way higher quality and will keep you dry

Seconding this comment. My first tent was an ozark lasted me almost a decade, upgraded to a nicer Kelty eventually but still have the ozark pop up. Great stuff for the price highly reccomend

Completely disagreeing with this. This is a well known influencer site and list. So, it is merely a sales pitch. Lets check out the list: North Face Stormbreak. 200$ for a polyester tent in 2025! Half of the amazon junk would be more resistant to weather, and weighs half. It is an amazing tent, but only if we are in 2000s. Kelty, is it half covered in mesh, it is horrible in summer and it cannot stand winter. Then there is Hilleberg. Top of the top winter tent. If the list contains a Hilleberg I dont think there would even be a place for MSR in the list. The list then should be dominated by other Hillebergs. Also, where is the Zpacks, or Xmids? Where is mongar, or lanshan? Those are amazing <1 kilo tents .. some of which are on amazon. I agree, Amazon has a lot of junk. But also a lot of very high quality products not paying influencers. There are many better tent makers outside of this list and for many of the items in the list, they are indeed amazing products. However, for many I dont think their brand name justifies their price in 2025 anymore.

Ok let me pitch on the list then: This is an incoherent list: contains tents with different sizes and persons count, so it is creating more confusion than being helpful. Apart from that several of the tents there have well known problems: \- Hilleberg is a winter tent; if you rely on this list and buy it for a summer holiday you will die. \- Elixir does not use seam sealing and instead use a sealing technique mostly seen in cotton fabric tents, and it is known that it leaks. So late autumn it is a dangerous tent. \- North Face Stormbreak is a very old, reliable tent, but uses polyester, so it weighs around 3 kilos. You can easily find a tent with the same specs, much better material for half the price and would weigh around 2 kilos. \- Rei and Nemo tents in the list are all dome tents, which are literally replicas of each other (i would even say knock offs of Big Agnes there with inferior build quality). Many of them are half covered with fabric instead of mesh in their inners, which is terrible for summer. Always go for as much mesh as possible for summer. For early autumn, late spring they are probably good. But definitely master of none. I dont know how they are in a "best" list \- Kelty again is an old reliable tent, but has pole sleeves, so setting it up is a chore. It is covered with fabric again, so not so good for summer, would be good for mountain weather in the summer though. Still, material is outdated and setting it up is much slower than current lines of tents. \- Hillebergs are top of the top, and big agnes clearly earns its place in the list. \- MSR tents there are both very light options, but nothing special there. Personally i would carry 500 grams more instead of paying premium to a tent design that is so common. It is a very good alternative for ultralighters. \- There are other tent types, such as inflatables, such as popup tents, such as summer tents. The list contains none. So, if you are trying to find a tent to buy .. ditch this list and check out other sources. It is incoherent, it misses out a lot of different alternatives and it doesnt factor in criteria such as who? how? where? when? how many people? duration? conditions? It is basically the sunday paper of tent recommendations. A potpourri of cool images.

I just bought a Kelty on sale and it's a remarkably solid tent for the price. They occasionally go up on Sierra (formerly sierra trading post) for steep discounts, so it's worth it to look there as well.

Buy once - cry once Don't skimp on shelter. A good tent (like the big Agnes) will last you a lifetime. Kelty is a decent second option (but usually heavier) and Coleman is more likely to tear or break a pole (I have one for family car camping and it broke a pote...repaired the pole but still swapped for TNF Wawona 4) It only takes one failure to make you wish you'd just spent the extra $. Buy the Big Agnes and move on.

Kelty or Coleman are my recommendations. The Big Agnes tents are certainly nice but but I recommend you go with the cheaper options to make sure you enjoy yourself, then go more expensive later. Kelty and Coleman are budget friendly without being trash for car camping and you can keep it in your closet as a backup if you ever need it again.

Idk why manufacturers keep selling 1 man+some stuff tents as "2 man tents". Even with my vestibule on my Kelty there is barely enough room for me and all my unpacked hiking stuff. I couldn't even share that tent with a dog.

Yeah, I’ve done Shasta with a good 3-season tent and it held up fine — as long as you pitch it well and use proper anchors. A full 4-season feels a bit overkill unless you’re expecting heavy snow or crazy winds. I’ve seen that Kelty model on Ubuy before, and it’s honestly solid enough for trips like this.

I'll start by saying that we camp in the Catskills in a remote area with zero amenities or other campers around. My son started staying in his own tent around age 5 or 6, my aunt had given him an Ozark Trail, probably 2-3 person. His tent was reasonably close to ours, and the dogs slept with him, and I would give him the key fob to my truck, if he were scared or needed us in some way he knew how to use the "panic" button on the remote. He used that tent till the wheels fell off, until I bought him a small Kelty when he was like 17 I think. My daughter started sleeping on her own a little later, probably 7-8, but would switch between our tent and her big brother's for a couple years before that. But same for her, she got the dogs and the key fob and an inexpensive, well reviewed Amazon tent that got replaced in a year or two with a Kelty since since her first tent had gotten damaged, not by her.

Kelty and North Face have the most reps among my son's scout troop. They set up easily and are durable. You can get replacement and repair parts and are comfortable for everything down to below freezing. When things get that low, we tend to move the boys to a canvas tent with a stove.