Hooligan tents offer three-season use, meaning they’re primed and ready to keep you warm from spring through fall. Best of all – the Hooligan offers lightweight poles and other parts, meaning it’s easy to transport to your campsite. The Mineral King 3’s fly attaches intuitively with plastic buckles and has well-placed guy tabs for you to secure it with extra lines and stakes.
That gives you a lot of room to maneuver both inside and around the tent. After our longtime top-pick tent for two people ran into some stock issues in 2021, we decided it was a good time for an update to this guide. We researched new models and redesigns, and we assembled a new batch of small tents for testing in March 2022, this time on Oahu. During this period, winds rose up to 35 to 40 knots, and we experienced passing showers as well as direct sunlight and 80-degree temperatures. To mimic heavier rain and to test the tent’s ability to withstand soggy ground conditions, we also soaked our tents with a garden hose.
Camping tents can be a hefty investment — with most ranging anywhere from $100 to upwards of $2,500 — and choosing a high-quality tent can help you avoid having to repurchase one every few years. The best camping tent for you depends on your adventuring, as well as the tent’s features, size and fabric. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) still warns against nonessential travel for unvaccinated individuals, a camping trip can be a socially distanced and responsible way to get outdoors for a weekend. Warmer weather sometimes brings with it rainier days, which means sheltering from the elements with the right tent can be crucial for a stress-free trip. Taking all the above features into account, we found that the Coleman Skydome 4 was the best Coleman tent overall.
Literally anyone can have this tent out of the bag and fully pitched in about 10 seconds. That’s because Coleman uses a flexible fiberglass frame that packs down flat for storage, but then “pops” up instantly into its fully pitched form the second you unfold it. You can literally just toss it into the air and watch it expand before your eyes (you won’t be the first or last camper to do so). If you’re gonna give your tent a name like “WeatherMaster” it better deliver on the goods. Luckily for us, the folks at Coleman hit the WeatherMaster with the full gamut of their current weatherproofing technologies, and this big ol’ 10 person shelter lives up to its name pretty darn well.
It’s well known that Coleman’s shelters aren’t the lightest or most compact by any stretch, so we recommend just leaning into it and getting the largest tent you can transport and carry. We love the simplicity of the instant tent design with its pre-attached poles, which allow you to get this tent set up in well under five minutes with or without a helping hand. Add to that the fact that the Coleman Instant Family Tent uses the same integrated rainfly technology as the classic Coleman Instant Cabin above, and you’ve got one of the easiest pitching large tents on the market.
The windows and doors had both mesh and waterproof panels that can be unzipped to increase circulation. From stoves to lanterns, Coleman produces a lot of camping gear at fairly competitive prices. Coleman is a trusted brand for all kinds of outdoor supplies, including camping tents that will keep you sheltered through three seasons. coleman tents fit from 4 all the way up to 10 people and offer affordable options for family adventures. Shop Coleman tents online or in-store at your local Sportsman’s Warehouse. A tent is one of the most important pieces of gear in any camper’s arsenal.
For any tent you buy, if it doesn’t come with a footprint (though two of our recommended tents, the Mountain Hardwear Mineral King 3 and the Marmot Tungsten 4, do), we recommend also purchasing a companion footprint, if one is available. A footprint doesn’t take up much space, is relatively inexpensive, and is much easier to repair or replace than a tent bottom if it tears. If you’re looking to get into car camping for the first time or if you’re an experienced camper but your tent has seen better days, embracing your new reality and investing in a shelter made for car camping can make sense. With nearly 60 square feet of floor space and two large vestibules, the Tungsten 4 is an even roomier tent for two people who want to outfit their tent more or who anticipate spending more time inside. Easy to set up and pack away, the Mineral King 3 is a lightweight, two-door tent with a generous footprint and a sturdy dome shape. The Weathertec system combines five specific features for the most reliable weather protection in the Coleman range.
We found that company representatives are reluctant to estimate the lifespan of their tents. When pushed, most of those we talked to estimated five to 10 years, though the actual lifespan will vary widely depending on care and frequency of use (for more advice, read REI’s excellent tips). In conducting research for this guide, we heard multiple tales of careful campers who had been using the same tent for 15 years or more.
We timed the one-person setup for each tent, and we later clocked the time one person took to break down the tent and get it back in its bag. We also repeatedly zipped and unzipped doors and windows, looking for annoying snags. In spring 2017, we put up our three new contenders in the same neighbor’s coleman cabin tent yard and left them there for a couple of weeks, during which time we had the chance to see how they responded to two smaller rainstorms. In 2020, we tested the updated version of the Eureka Copper Canyon 6—renamed the Copper Canyon LX 6—to make sure we still thought it was the best.