I have a few tents of varying quality, and I still say a cheap Walmart tent is hard to beat for the occasional camping/testing the waters family.
If you want easy and have plenty of space in your vehicle when car camping, their 10-person easy-up has gone through it and held up fine for me. Their was slight water pooling in the corners during an intense storm, but I also wasn't using a ground cloth (back yard camping).
I love a large vestibule and just saw a standard 10 person with a screened "porch" there for $120. Saves money and packs much smaller than easy up. I mainly like a vestibule to keep water out when I open the sleeping area door during rain.
That said, for quality, I love my Wawona 6. Tighter fit for 4, but ideally, you're just using it for sleeping, anyway.
Something to be said for a simple freestanding dome tent. I have 5 tents currently, ranging in size, price, and style. I have no complaints with the Coleman sky dome.
I mean… I have complaints about all of them, but still use them all. Even the cheap ozark trail.
If you want an expensive brand, I can recommend a couple, too.
Rather than get something expensive and that's designed only to be used by experts, I'd suggest the Ozark trail l-10 that goes on the outside of an easy up and then using the easy up as covered space.
When you're camping with two or three small kids what you want is a lot of space for them to wiggle around inside the tent. What you don't want is a tent where you can't stand up or sit up and have to slide your way in and then sit inside a mummy bag motionless
Do whatever you want :)
We have a family of 6 and bring like 3 tents the largest of which is a 10 person tent that is ridiculously large inside. We have like a rotation to children in the tent depending on weather and who got scared and well basically don’t really care what anyone thinks?
We got the 10 person Ozark Trails tent from Walmart and that thing can fit like 3 queen size air mattresses so it’s definitely got whatever room you are looking for lol.
I have this one which has been great so far. It’s really heavy though. I suppose it doesn’t take up a ton of car space - if they got the6 person version (if there is one) that would probably work out fine. There’s always space under a cot to store stuff also.
Our family of four use an Ozark Trail 10 person tent. It was like $100 and it’s been great. Held up in two heavy rains, I was impressed. With kids and dogs you will be glad for the extra room. You will need room for bags and shoes, etc. and it fills up quick.
I'm not an expert but IMO your sleep systems are gonna be a lot more important than the tent. I'd save money on the tent and start there. Especially with a family outfitting everyone with outfitting them all with sleeping pads, bags, clothes, etc. is gonna add up. If you're actually planning on a stove then IDK, I've never done that.
I camp on Vancouver Island with a family of 4 and just use a cheap Ozark Trail cabin tent from Walmart, but invested in some decent self-inflating sleeping pads and sleeping bags. It's gonna be chilly in the tent in the morning no matter what. Just get up before them and start a fire for them :D
A large tarp or awning is something you could consider? We have the classic and affordable Ozark/coleman 10ft pop up canopy and it has been amazing for rainy days. It covers the picnic table and gives us a dry place to hang out, cook and keep kitchen stuff without it getting wet. It’s bulky but great for car camping.
Having a way to organize all your items to be grab and go and minimize setup at camp setup will help with getting out more.
I personally view backpacking and car camping as two separate things. Yes you can use backpacking gear for car camping, but usually I don’t want to. If I’m going car camping for a few days I want to be comfy, otherwise I may as well just hike to a remote spot and use the backpacking gear lol.
Backpacking gear is pretty expensive. Not because it’s the best, but because it needs to pack down small and be lightweight. Those two things mean durability suffers and you pay a premium for the better gear.
If you aren’t set on backpacking yet, I would say don’t buy your gear with that in mind. Once you are ready, that is when you should go down the backpacking gear rabbit hole so you can dial in the setup and make sure you have what you need and can actually carry it all.
Of all of the things there perhaps you want to upgrade your tent for more space and weatherproofing? For car camping personally I enjoy tents you can stand up in - much comfortable and it feels way more spacious once you’re with other people. A 4-6 person tent would let you bring people with you no problem and still have room for your personal items in the tent.
The point is, when upgrading, find out what features you want in gear before upgrading! For example we finally upgraded from our cheap and very large Ozark Trail cabin tent (that served us very very well) to a more premium Snow Peak Alpha Breeze tent. We knew for the tent we wanted to downsize to a smaller tent, wanted to stand up, wanted an integrated awning so we aren’t rained on while putting our shoes on/off, a better rain fly, but also has lots of windows with the ability to close them up for privacy inside if needed. For car camping I don’t like the idea of tents that have all this mesh, but once the rain fly is on it becomes a cave with no windows (or maybe a tiny widow). I love being able to lounge in the tent and enjoy the views outside! We haven’t tried the new tent outside yet, but I’m looking forward to getting out once the weather warms up!
Top Camping Tents on Reddit
1
The North Face
Wawona 6
84% positive of 134 users
Spacious vestibule, strong in storms, but rainfly tricky solo.
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