Aurora 2

I got this tent on special a few years ago and it’s great: https://www.paddypallin.com.au/nemo-equipment-aurora-2person-tent.html (I don’t work for Paddy Palin by the way!). It’s small and light enough to take hiking, which I do once or twice a year. And it’s also sizeable enough to take on a 4wd trip. It’s more pricey than an Aldi tent (I like the sound of the Aldi tent I must say), but it’s quite good quality. It costs between $400-500 so it’s not ridiculously expensive but it’s more than a nice meal at the pub!

So basically you're now doing car camping (which is a lot of fun btw) and want to aim more towards shorter trips with friends or alone? It's quite difficult to give specific recommendations, but there's kinda a rule of thumb. You have the big three: sleep system, shelter and backpack. These give you either a great camping experience, or a miserable one. Of course smaller things like cook kit, a good flashlight etc is important, but smaller and not as easy to do wrong. For shelter I'd pick a tent personally. If you want to go alone: aim for a 2P backpacking tent to give some extra room for your stuff and to pack. For 2 persons, pick a 3P tent for the same reason. I can highly recommend Naturehike as a brand to start with and test the waters. Depending on your climate maybe the Mongar 2 or Star River 2. I started with this brand and it's well regarded, lightweight, easy to use and not expensive. If you want to go all the way I'd recommend Durston (X-Dome 2 or X-Mid 2), Big Agnes (Copper spur UL2) and Nemo (Dagger Osmo 2p, Aurora 2p or hornet 2P) For sleep system this gets personal. But a few things are important. Comfort, warmth, weight and packability. Again you have so many options and everyone has different needs. Make sure your sleeping pad is R rated to about 3 or 4 at least for late spring until early fall. Also make sure your sleeping bag has a COMFORT rating that's lower than your expected temperature. In practice it's mostly colder than you expect. For a pillow you can either go very comfortable, or more lightweight. Again brands like Nemo and Big Agnes are good. Therm a rest, sea to Summit, and others also offer good sleeping pads and bags, though expensive. Backpack, again choose if you want more ultralight or more feature packed. Having less weight makes a huge difference on long trails, but will be neglectable when doing car camping. The comfort of a pack is also very personal. I'd suggest trying out a few at an outdoor store close to you. I did test some gear, from cheap to a bit more expensive and been down the same route. Starting out as you, and doing it more and more often, upgrading the gear along the way. If you have any questions or want some suggestions, feel free to send me a DM or just respond to this text :)

Hey! You're welcome of course 😁. And yes I actually thought you meant that. Although the term car camping is indeed people sleeping in their car. I did a similar trip last summer where we took the car to bring everything we needed but then proceeded backpacking. The car was more like a central supply station hahaha. Indeed separating the big three gives a bit more direction in what you need and a segmentation as well. That tent actually melted?? That's insane hahaha. Again if you need some advice on models, or experience, I did quite the research on a lot of items including smaller things. Just hit me up if you want to know more 👌🏼

Z-Paks makes a beautiful kind of blush pink/orange tent…:) not sure if they still make that model as I got mine two years ago, but it’s so so pretty! I also have a Nemo in a pretty aqua blue.

My Nemo Aurora I've only gotten wet in it once in heavy rain and that was due to me not tightening down the fly at my feet. I haven't used an MSR but I can't imagine they intentionally designed it to not keep you dry

Nemo had some issues with their tents, specifically tub and seams, that was about 4-5 years ago. They’ve fixed those problems and they’ve been fantastic for me. Specifically their aurora and dagger tents. They have the best customer service in the industry. On 2 sleeping pads I’ve had of theirs they sent one on 2 day shipping and one on overnight to the middle of no where dakotas.

The Big Agnes Bunk House is solid ime. I've used the 4 person version and it's got great headroom, easy setup, and packs down smaller than the Gazelle. The Nemo Aurora is similarly nice, slightly different design but same idea.

REI brand tents are actually great. The base camp 6 is my favorite car camping tent, hands down. First one I owned I knew NOTHING about tent maintenance and never once cleaned or treated it and it lasted 15 years through tons of use and some crazy storms. Replaced it with the 2021 model and was very happy with it. The Nemo aurora would probably be my second pick but it lacks a full rainfly and the windows are poorly designed. The North Face wawona is fine. Also for the record I worked at REI for 3 years in the camp department, but we call it hardgoods (started after I purchased my second base camp)