Regatta Bell Tent

Was just thinking this. With the size requirement they are obviously not backpacking and canvas may be the way to go. I'm partial to White Duck tents. They seem pricey, but if taken care of they may be the last tent you buy. https://whiteduckoutdoors.com/

I’ve got a 16’ White Duck regatta bell tent and it’s great. We’ve used it at deer camp the last few years (less maintenance than a camper) and it’ll sleep 6 pretty comfortably. Running a Camp Chef Alpine stove- have to stoke it 1-2 times through the night depending on wood quality and whatnot. With the stove running, you could get away with a fleece blanket through the night. Downside: it’s heavy. Unless you’re putting it on a sled and snowshoeing the thing somewhere, you’re not getting far from the truck with it. It’s a basecamp. There are some lighter options out there which I haven’t played with, but if you wanna wander with a hot tent you could check out Argali or Seek Outside. Springbar makes some cool products too- but they’re another heavy option. Would totally recommend a hot tent. It’s a fun way to get out camping regardless of the weather.

Even a nylon tent should get aired out and packed when fully dry. Pack a spray bottle with a vinegar and water solution and a scrub brush. That will kill/neutralize any spots that show up. Also, while you are at the rental properties, you could set the tent up in the driveway to air it out properly, if it is damp. Use the driveway or deck rather than their yard. I have a Regatta Bell tent and have never had an issue with mold or mildew. I have cleaned mold off of fabric with the water/vinegar and it works great.

We have the Nemo Aurora Highrise 6 and like it quite a bit. There is good headroom and plenty of space for two cots, a couple of chairs and our gear. It goes up and comes down fairly quickly and easily. We also have the footprint and the straps are color-coded (yellow and blue) so it's pretty foolproof. I like having a vestibule on both doors. Shoes get left in front and maybe TMI, but we use the back vestibule as our nightime bathroom, keeping a bucket with toilet seat lid filled with horse bedding pellets in there. It's very convenient to not have to get even semi-dressed to wander about a dark campground. Something you would not like is going in and out of the tent. You have to stoop to fit under the vestibule and at the same time lift your legs about 5 inches to step over the door frame. My husband is about 5'11" and he usually cusses a bit while entering and exiting. Also, as with many tents, the bag it comes with is too dang small to fit everything back in easily. We bought a big canvas bag to carry it all in. We're in Colorado and like camping up in the mountains, in the spring and fall also. It's gotten crowded and hard to get into the national parks here in the summer. After going through a snowstorm on our last trip, we ordered a canvas White Duck Regatta Bell 13' tent to use on colder trips. (We'll still use our Nemo in summer; the bell tent won't be breezy enough.) You might look into a canvas tent that can take a stove jack if you have any interest in the shoulder seasons. The Springjack 140 looks big but pretty good as an all-around, do everything tent IMO. Canvas tents are heavy but that's not a deal-breaker when car camping.

We recently bought a White Duck 13' Regatta Bell. We already have a Nemo 6 person tent that's perfectly good for warm weather camping, but we were looking for something that with a stove jack that would hold up well for a spring/fall snowstorm or two in the mountains. It's not yet the season for it, but we had it up in the backyard for seasoning and we were impressed with the quality of the materials, stitching, zippers, guy lines, etc. IMO it goes up easily. There was plenty of room inside for a stove and our two cots and it has good height. We are going to replace some of the stakes. Half of them are heavy duty, but the other half are the typical cheap, crappy, easily bent stakes. It fits well in the bag, but be warned, it's darned heavy and bulky. My husband loves the entrance pole that gives us something to hang onto while we're taking off our shoes at the doorway. It's much harder getting in and out of our Nemo. The White Duck is such a pleasure in comparison.

Our White Duck Regatta Bell tent does great in wind and snow. It's high, but it's got steeply slanted sides that direct the weather around and the pole is inside where it's protected. You want to stake it out well all around.

My husband and I love our White Duck 13' Regatta Bell with water and fireproofed canvas. We use a Green Stove Hori 5 pellet stove. Unlike a wood stove which needs tending during the night, you can fill the hopper before bed, damp it down, and it will burn till morning. It sits on a large iron grill on top of a fire mat for safety. For 3 adults, I might look at a 16.5' tent. In the 13' tent, the stove takes the space that a third cot would want. It can be tough to find a large enough tent site; you're never going to fit into one of those groomed 8x8 - 10x10 spots delineated with landscape timbers. Man, I hate seeing those! The steep slope of the roof shrugs off snow, rain and wind. The bell tent is easy to set up IMO. You've got one tall pole in the middle, another pole in the door and it needs to be guyed out all around. It can take a little while, but it's so simple. My son and his girlfriend have been borrowing our tent and stove over the winter. They're camping out for many days at a time on Colorado's eastern plains while helping friends with their homestead. They're younger than we are, but they've been fine through some storms and cold. We always line the inside floor with old moving blankets for padding and warmth and we have high R value 4.5" inflatable air & foam sleeping pads on top of our cots. Sleeping pads with good insulation are really important IMO. We also both have winter sleeping bags.

We originally had a Marmot 4 person dome tent. It was a good tent, but my husband and I are getting older and it was too hard to climb in and out of. We replaced the Marmot with a 6 person Nemo Aurora Highrise. We loved being able to stand up inside and having two vestibules. We use the back vestibule for our nighttime pee bucket--very convenient. It's still a bit difficult to enter and leave the tent. The door has a bathtub lip that wants to trip you up and there isn't really anything to grab to steady yourself for the step over. Once we decided we wanted to do more late fall and early spring camping, we added a White Duck 13' Regatta Bell and a Green Stove Hori 5 pellet stove. This combo is awesome, but it's going to be a LOT more than a beginner camper needs. The bell tent has a great entryway that unzips to the ground and there's a nice center pole to steady yourself when stepping in or out. It's very friendly for an older couple who only need to carry a heavy tent a few feet from the car. Plenty of headroom, easy to set up, comfortable as all get out, the only problem is finding a tent site large enough to handle the 4 meter diameter.

My husband and I have a White Duck 13' Regatta Bell canvas tent. It's heavy and expensive, but awesome and the highly sloped sides make it stand up to wind, snow and rain like a champ. At 70+ lbs carrying it from the car to the site is a bear, but setup is dead simple: put up the center pole, the door pole and guy it out all around. My son and his gf are currently using it out on the eastern Colorado plains over the winter. (We may have to purchase a second one for ourselves.) We also have a Nemo Aurora Highrise 6p tent that we had used for summer camping. It goes up fairly easily, with lots of headroom and has vestibules in front and back. Vestibules are wonderful! I second the idea of looking at 6 person tents for your family. Four man tents are roomy for 2 people, but cramped for more IMO and your child is just going to get bigger.

I would consider a 6 person to give them plenty of room. Since they're older, I would look for tents with 1) room to stand up inside and 2) no need to step up over the bottom of the door -or- to duck under the edge of the door to go inside. My husband and I like our 6 person Nemo Aurora Highrise BUT it doesn't follow rule 2. We have to step over the bottom of the door frame and duck when entering. It gives my husband a lot of grief. Our new White Duck 13' canvas bell tent lets us just walk in which is awesome. However, canvas takes some extra care and it was pricey so I wouldn't recommend that for their new boat target. :-D

Wow! Your White Duck tent weighs a ton!

Since you mentioned Kodiak Canvas, I’ll throw another canvas option out there. We’re a canvas tent and camping gear brand called White Duck Outdoors. Something like our Avalon or Regatta bell tents are nice for longer trips because you get way more living space and bell shaped tents handle wind and weather really well. We actually have people who refer to our tents as a second home since they can stay up for months (or years) without needing to be taken down so just what you're looking for with the "home" idea. With the budget you mentioned our two person Prota Springbar tent or our two person Rover Wall Cabin style tent would also be perfect and easy to set up and take down for a two person cross country journey! Some of our tents are at REI stores, however if you're strict with your budget, we do occasionally sell our Prota tents used exclusively on our website (usually from a photoshoot so only set up for pictures) for under $500. They’re not "instant" tents, but once you set them up two times, it gets pretty quick, especially if you’re mostly car camping. I would love to try and help with any questions, set-up ideas, or recommendations!

Hey! Saw the bell tents and our name mentioned so thought we would join in! If wind is a big conversation topic when camping, I would HIGHLY consider looking into a bell tent. I would consider our regatta bell tent line cause as mentioned, wall tents are not gonna be your friend when trying to set up or take down in windy environments. We have videos of our Regatta taking 65+ mph winds like a champ on our socials so if you would love to see the proof for yourself I would check it out! For the amount of people you have, two adults, one baby, one dog and possibly just running solo occasionally, I would recommend the 10' regatta. It's large enough for your group and the biggest size that is easy enough to set up solo if needed. If you have anymore info about set up like cots or amount of gear you plan on bringing I would love to try and answer more questions or narrow down options!

If you're a Costco member, you can buy white duck tents through Costco. I got the 13' bell tent for like 20% off msrp.