18-Person Cabin Tent, with 3 Covered Entrances

Full on gear junkie here. My parents bought what I refer to as the Taj Mahal from Walmart to start camping again. They ended up buying an rv instead and gave it to me. I’d never buy this 12x18 3 room tent. It was probably $100. It was f’n amazing when we brought our kid camping when they were months old. There was room for the pack n play, a changing station, a blow up bed. We ultra light backpacked for years with the bare minimum, that thing was a whole new world. Couldn’t recommended it enough and available for borrow to my friend group. I think I own 7 tents from a bivy type to a canvas to the Taj. They all have their place.

I think I have the same Taj Mahal Walmart tent. It has like “three rooms”. I can fit like four queen mattresses in it all together and touching though. We absolutely love it. We bring two inflatable mattresses and leave one room as a “storage room” for supplies. You don’t need a stool to put it together. The put up and tear down is easy. I’ve done it alone but it’s obviously easier to do with another person. I second what someone has said above. We went camping with our huge tent and the tent sites were extremely small and we couldn’t fit. We had to upgrade to an RV site at the same campground. Which honestly was great, because it had a long paved “driveway” we kind of positioned it at the end and my kids could drive their bikes on a long flat surface that wasn’t an actual roadway. The only issue you might run into booking an RV site instead of a tent camp site is that you can’t “stake” into a paved area so it has to be a site that has enough green space around it to set up. Highly depends on where you are.

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!

Their fabric is damn thin. Do not use this tent in rain. You will regret it, I promise.