3-Room Instant Cabin Tent

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’m a huge fan of the Ozark Trails tents. They are easy to put together, decently priced and reliable. Highly recommend.

Oh and the 12 person cabin tent is $200 right now. It can fit 4 queen mattresses.

A 10 person tent is my fav. Actually, the Walmart brand Ozark Trails has a 12 person tent with enough room for 4 queen size beds, it’s under $200 right now. I’d go that route. That way everyone has space and room for gear. As others have suggested, a tent for big kids is fun too. Depending on your budget I’d still go with the big tent and a 4 person smaller tent.

I can recommend their tents too, have an older cabin style from atleast 8 years ago. That handled southern arizona heat and monsoons with no issue. Used it very roughly for 6-7 years, then one of the telescoping poles got stuck and ive had it sitting in my garage since. Almost certainly a quick fix but by the time it happened I had other tents as back ups. They're big and heavy but the absolute ease and quickness of setting one up is great. I could do it alone in less than 2 minutes if I didnt stake it down. Always felt like a power move, watching my friends setting theirs up and asking if they needed help.

I'd also recommend an ozark trail instant tent, They're the new coleman from decades past. The average mans tent, for whoever is just getting into the hobby and doesnt want to break the bank. Great for familys who may go camping a handful of times a year in mostly fair weather. They'll last some rough handling for minimum a few years to a decade, plenty of time to get use out of it and upgrade. Any from the instant tent line will be big, bulky, and heavy but quick and easy to set up even if its just one person going it. Ive personally set up a 10 person myself in less than 5 minutes. I've also used mine during souther arizona monsoon storms, high winds and sideways rain and I stayed nice and cozy with room to sit around to relax in unlike a dome tent.

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.

We use the Ozark instant up cabin tent, not the popup. We have used it through many rainstorms and many, many scouts putting it up and down. They aren't gentle handling jt. And it has lasted so far through the years. I am 5'2" as well and can put them up easily by myself. We have almost all of the size options of the tent. Pretty easy to pack up as well.