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!

Second the Nemo worth the money

Meh we have survived plenty of torrential rains in our cheap old eureka tent as well as our giant Walmart pop up tent. Sure they weigh much much more than our Nemo tent but for most camping they’re just fine.

I have a eureka apex 2 that I got 14 years ago. It has been all over the country. They were like $120 new, are pretty well made, and decent pack down size and weight, especially for the price. We replaced it a couple years ago with a Nemo backpacking tent that weighs probably half as much, but cost about 4x as much. Our kid still uses the eureka. Don’t get a big tarp for underneath it. They make footprints specifically made for that. You can get fancy expensive ones but Walmart sells cheap plastic ones that work great and pack down much smaller than a normal tarp. We have used ours the entire time we’ve had the tent and still no holes even after lots of gravel camp pads.

Nemo Aurora 2p, it actually fits two 65cm pads and the vestibules are large enough for a backpack.

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.

Tried the Gazelle, liked it until I put it away on the first trip and 2 out of 4 metal sheath ends for the rain fly poles went loose into the dirt. Terrible quality for the price, went back to REI and got the Nemo Aurora.

Nemo is doing great. Obviously not as thick of a material as the Gazelle but it’s a similar size that has “standing room.” Allows me to use other vehicles for camping too since the Gazelle only fit in my truck.

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