The North Face - Wawona 4

I use a Wawona 6 for one person. Mostly because my cot was touching the sides of the Wawona 4. It's the perfect amount of room for me and my stuff.

No experience with the BA one, but I own the Wawona 4, got a great deal at it at the outlet and have spent a lot of time camping in it. It’s a great tent. It feels like a palace. I love the huge open screen on the front and the fact that it angles forward. It meant that even if I was in the tent in the rain, I could usually have the fly in front rolled up and still “feel” outside, without any rain getting in. I will say it’s heavy, and I hate the bag it comes in. The ventilation was so great. Never got too warm, never had an issue with condensation. No issues in heavy rain. Did get caught in a bad windstorm on one trip. Tent was very stable but it was pretty cold inside the tent because the rain fly doesn’t go all the way to the ground on three sides. Editing to add: if you’re interested in this tent and have a North Face outlet near you, it’s worth checking out. I got this tent for $70 at one of their locations last year because it was the previous years model

I have the 4- love it.

absolutely love my wawona 4

The wawona 4 is just as tall and more than enough for 2 ppl. Smaller vestibule but still plenty of room for two.

Buy once - cry once Don't skimp on shelter. A good tent (like the big Agnes) will last you a lifetime. Kelty is a decent second option (but usually heavier) and Coleman is more likely to tear or break a pole (I have one for family car camping and it broke a pote...repaired the pole but still swapped for TNF Wawona 4) It only takes one failure to make you wish you'd just spent the extra $. Buy the Big Agnes and move on.

The North Face Wawona 4 has plenty of room and a floorless vestibule in the front. I ditched my coleman cause it leaked at the last scout outing and we were miserable. The wawona was the only tent in this entire shootout(there was a video of like 6 or 8 top brands) that stayed 100% dry through all her tests. I just snagged one. Haven’t tested but I did setup and this thing is solid. Pricey, but man sleeping wet just ruins the whole experience. Any tent is fine for fair weather, if you can guarantee it. I live in Florida, so…. https://youtu.be/G6Y_iXNrJsI?si=O2voTqRF3Jh9pm-4

That Megallan tent is awful. You would be better off sleeping beneath a plastic tarp. The pack weight is like 30lbs. It's an absolute dump truck of a tent. 30lbs and none of the seams are sealed, and the rainfly doesn't cover the sides. You would be better off spending more and getting something like The North Face Wanona 4. Wawona 4 ● 13lbs ● Waterproof seams ● Floor area: 58.13 ft² (5.4 m²) ● Tall / vertical headspace ● Huge vestibule

All of these are car camping tents. The Wanona and Homestead are 13 lbs, and they're absolutely massive when packed. The skydome 6p is enormous and weighs 19 lbs. You wouldn't ever want to hike with these tents. The North Face tents suffer from outdated design philosophies. There are no clips. You have to feed all of the poles through sleeves. The fabric can bunch up, so you have to be mindful while feeding the poles through. Slow to set up, slow to take down. The Wanona 4P performs well in the rain. It's lovely in the rain, but not so terrific to set up or break down in the rain. These taller tents don't do well in high winds. They're like giant sails, and the poles tend to bend. Questions to ask yourself: What type of camping do you envision for yourself? How many people will you be camping with? Do you plan on thru-hiking? Your ideas about camping will evolve as you gain experience with equipment.

Coleman’s are absolute trash tents. 2 season max until something breaks guaranteed. A similar style tent I’d absolutely vouge for is the north face Wawona 4. One of the best tents I’ve ever owned.

I am also partial to Big Agnes, but my current car camp tent is a North Face, and it is built very well. Go to REI and have a look at their various offerings. Nemo, MSR, Big Agnes, the REI brands (half dome series of tents have a great reputation for value) Mountain Hardwear, Marmot, etc... all have great products.

If you want a “good” tent you will need to spend more than $400 unless you get lucky. However if your girlfriend wants a big tent and previously bought an outbound one, she doesn’t seem too concerned about having a really good tent (I don’t mean that in a rude way, but outbound is not considered quality and people looking for “good” would never consider one, and most people looking for something really technical are buying at most a 3 person, it’s just how this works). I’d just get the same one if she was happy with it. That said, as another suggested, if you keep an eye on sales you may be able to get her a slightly fancier tent like the north face Wawona for a good deal, and if she knows about good gear she’ll probably be stoked, because the wawona is just about the only tent people will suggest as a good big tent. Depends on whether you are looking to just replace/make things right, or try to treat her at the same time. Either way is fine.

Gazelle T4, North Face Wawona or Big Agness Big House. Agree the T4 is a bear to.load and carry. We use our Wawona a ton once we learned how to set it up hahaha

Wawona is a great tent. It's my car camping tent. Really well made and the vestibule is awesome.

Will best to get an 8 person tent but maybe you can get by with a 6 person. Consider the size of your mattresses to see if the floor dimensions will work. Something like the Coleman Skydome or Northface Wawona. I think it’s nice to have a vestibule so you can dry/clean the dogs off before getting in the tent. For technique, don’t set up in the lowest spot on your site/depressions in the ground even if that seems the flattest. Get a tarp or a specific tent footprint to go under your tent. If it’s a tarp, fold it up so the edges are just under the tent. That way water will go under the tarp and not between the tarp and your tent.

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)

The kingdom is not a well made or long lasting tent. With a 2 and 5 year old, ours lasted a year and a half. Returned it and got a second one that unstitched itself even quicker. Poles are not great either. Wawona has been solid so far for us

I never buy anything that is trying to be sold to me by an “influencer“.  I’m sure they are pretty neat in the way they go up, probably a lot less so when you are putting them down. I highly doubt they would last as long as a similarly priced normal tent. More moving parts always equates to more problems.   I guess if you have space in your car/truck/trailer for it, the extra cash, and dislike of a regular tent then go ahead.  I will stick with my lightweight REI, or my Wawona for more comfortable car camping. If I wanted a more convenient solution I’d get a rooftop or a teardrop trailer. 

Look at Northface Wawona and Marmot Limestone. Both are solid, seam taped and built like bomb shelters. The Wawona is taller, 6'2 in the middle, so slightly taller than Limestone. But if you want standing room being 6'4, you might have some tough time finding one for 4 person.

That's how we fell in love with the Wawona by watching Liz!

I’ve slept through a few huge rainstorms in my Wawona. It’s a great tent.

I was thinking the tent is 82 inch long. I could sleep in it, but I would be more comfortably laying in a larger tent. I have a North Face tent that I thought was a great find, just to find out it's so tiny inside it annoys me (I think it is only around 80"). I would rather pitch a tarp and sleep in my bivy sack underneath.

Honestly you just need something with a fly. We’ve had a North Face, and Coleman and a McKinley all with fly’s and all have been perfectly fine riding out rainstorms. A ground sheet/tarp tucked under the tent is never a bad idea either as long as it’s not sticking out catching rain. Set the tent up properly with the guy lines out and you should be good. A vestibule has always been something we have too, one with the full fly not just mesh screens.

I’ve owned a lot of tents Eureka, Kelly, North Face, Big Agnes, REI and our last two have been Core (big and cheap) tents. Only one of my tents has ever leaked even with significant rain and thunderstorms.  Make sure things are not pushing on the wall of the tent and properly stake out your tent and fly.   Others have pointed out getting a better tent will help, and it will but if you have stuff pushing on the wall or you don’t stake it out, they will leak too.   Pay attention to how you are storing your tent too.  I had a wonderful North Face tent that got moldy and after that, the waterproofing was shot.  Water literally pouring in the tent as a thunderstorm roared over Lake Superior.  This was the only tent I ever had that leaked and it was an entirely my fault.  

Second what others have said. UL is always a bet that the worst won’t happen and you can ignore discomfort in the name of weight as comfort. The same can’t be said for winter camping where the margins are much tighter. With that being said alpine climbing has been doing UL since before it was cool. There are plenty of 4 season (in reality 1 season) alpine single wall tents like the Rab Latok, Samaya 2.0, MHW AC 2 that are all around 1.7kg and designed to take intense weather. They tend to be designed for snow not rain, so struggle above 0. I got a TNF one on pro deal it’s only useful for mountaineering ascents. But they’re cramped and you get wet every time you run any body part along the wall. I’ll take the extra 1kg of an MSR Fury which is more spacious and more comfortable any day. For ski tours I prefer pyramid tents and dog down using the snow for insulation. One option that balances out fairly well is the SeekOutside hot tents. Tent pole pyramids with the option for titanium stoves. They get super hot, too hot really while you feed the fire. Unfortunately the stoves only accept small bits of wood and require regular feeding. You often go to bed sweating and wake up very cold. You also need the time to gather burnable firewood, which is not always easy in some environments. Without the stove they are lighter than compatible pyramid tents, especially the Dyneema version.

Yes and no. I have a half dozen tents that I bought for less than $100. Most are decent enough and for the casual camper they’ll last quite some time. I also have a $600 North Face tent that I could live in for years.

The easy answer is that it’s a well built solid piece of gear. Color coded tabs so there’s no guesswork with the fly, aluminum poles over fiberglass, good quality screen and the seams are still solid after a decade. It’s just made really well.