The Best Camping Tents of 2025

How We Tested the Best Camping Tents

All of our outdoor addicts know that not only do you need something sturdy and reliable, but it also needs to be set up easily and packed well. I went online for a deep dive into the research. After hours of research, I narrowed it down to the top tents for a head-to-head test. This involved extensive camping and various testers, and to date, our estimated time spent testing numbers are in the hundreds of hours.

1. Field testing: Our camping tent testing relies most on real-world field testing, where we spend the nights and examine everything from setup to tear-down and storage.
2. Instruction-less setup challenge: We begin our tent testing with a timed setup, in which our testers go in completely blind — no instructions are allowed. We’ve found this to be the ideal challenge of how intuitive a tent’s structure is.
3. Waterproofing hose test: Each tent is left up in a simulated rain shower for 30 minutes at a time and inspected for leaks or wicking water. We use a rotating sprinkler system to ensure that no odd corner of a tent goes untouched, and we pay close attention to window openings and how the rainfly covers the shelter. Rain ingress can be a trip-killer, and we identify weak spots in tent construction to address them.
4. Our camping tent rating system:
   • Livability: 30% weighted. We consider both the internal floor space and overhead height, as well as the amount of space or protection the vestibules provide. Livability also considers thoughtful elements, such as well-placed internal pockets or tabs for hanging your lantern.
   • Weather Protection: 30% weighted. The design of the rain fly is the most significant factor in determining a tent’s weather protection. We also consider the design and placement of windows, the height of bathtub floors, and how well the pole structure protects the tent in the wind.
   • Durability: 20% weighted. We test camping tents for at least an entire summer to determine their durability. We inspect for material wear, the effectiveness of any original DWR finishes, the ease of use of zipper pulls, and whether the poles and stakes are still in good working order.
   • Ease of Set Up: 20% weighted. To achieve a good rating in this metric, we look for a straightforward pole structure (color-coded ends are particularly helpful), rain flies that are easily set up, doors that open and store well, and a storage bag that organizes the tent away.

Our Expert Testers

Guide author Mallory Paige has spent hundreds of nights sleeping under the stars, and she knows firsthand the importance of a good shelter. She kicked off our search for the most worthy camping shelters in 2021 with an initial 12 tents, and set out a detailed testing regimen that included tests against the elements, timing how quickly we could erect each tent, and the classic garden hose rain shower test.

Since then, our testing team has added contributor Ryan Baker, who started backpacking and car camping as a child. He has also lived in tents ranging from lightweight tarps for extended thru-hikes to heavy-duty base camps to withstand extreme conditions. He is intimately experienced in the joys and pitfalls of only having a thin piece of synthetic fabric between the elements and a dry night’s sleep.

Finally, I, Senior Editor Nick Belcaster, have enjoyed more than my fair share of evenings staring up at the canopy of a tent, waiting out a rainstorm. As a veteran of the Pacific Crest Trail, I have perfected the setup and tear-down of my tents to mere minutes, and now travel the West, testing camping tents for this guide on a rolling basis.

Buyer’s Guide: How to Choose a Camping Tent

To help you decide what tent is best for you, I considered five categories: weather resistance, comfort, ease of setup, extra features, and value. Each of these is more important to certain campers than others. Consider when, where, and with whom you plan to use your tent.

We have another guide for the Best Backpacking Tents that focuses on lighter and less bulky tents for your backcountry adventures, as well as a primer article on the Basics of Camping and Backpacking Tents. Here, I focus more on car and family camping tents for adventures where the car is within reach and the weight of a tent is less important. If you like the appeal of leaving your tent pre-rigged wherever you may roam, the ease of a Rooftop Tent might be up your alley.

Camping Tent Breakdown

Ready to set up camp? Here’s the lowdown on what makes a good camping tent, and what I think are important features you shouldn’t miss out on.

Tent Body

Think of the tent body as your four walls at home. Most frequently, the tent body works in tandem with a rainfly to protect campers from adverse weather (although we often tuck it away for some stargazing). Tent bodies, on the other hand, provide protection from both the ground below and from flying insects through a mix of windows and mesh panels.

Of course, tents that incorporate a larger amount of mesh will be more ventilated and better suited to summertime camping when conditions are fair and breezes are frequent. Alternatively, designs with solid panels block cold breezes better and can be camped in further into the shoulder seasons. Zippered windows can be a great compromise and can be opened or closed based on conditions.

The bathtub floor of your tent is the ground floor of your setup. It will sport raised sides to protect your living space from creeping water. These floors are frequently made of a tougher material than the rest of the tent to safeguard against wear and tear. If you’re camping frequently (or camp where spiny plants thrive), using a tent groundsheet or tarp can extend the life of your investment.

Rainfly

The next step in getting your camping tent up and rolling is securing the rainfly. This topside cover stretches over the mesh canopy of your tent and provides weather protection and some warmth — a hot tip for hedging your bets against a chilly night.

Rainflies on many camping tents provide coverage for your average rainstorm, preventing top-down rain from ruining your night. The NEMO Aurora Highrise is a prime example of this, with a rainfly that extends out over the two side windows but doesn’t fully encapsulate them. At the far end of the spectrum is the Kelty Discovery Basecamp tent, which sports a rainfly that just covers the door of the tent. This makes for easier use and access but lower overall weatherproofing.

On the protective end of the equation, tents like the REI Co-op Base Camp borrow from the world of mountaineering-style tents and drop the rainfly all the way to the ground, ensuring that sneaky breezes or sideways rain have no way of entering. If you live in a place where surprise storms are common or want to camp further into the shoulder seasons, invest in a tent like this.

Doors and Vestibules

Of course, you’ll need a way to get into and out of your tent. We prefer two-door designs for camping tents simply because tumbling over your tentmate in the middle of the night is no fun. Tents like the REI Co-op Base Camp and NEMO Aurora Highrise boast full-size second doors, while more budget-minded tents like the Kelty Discovery Basecamp make do with one door.

A final mention here for specialty doors, such as those found on The North Face Wawona, where a half-size door at the rear of the tent adds a unique spot for loading gear or catching a cross breeze.

Vestibules are the garages of tents, and make excellent spots to stash kit that you want to keep close — coolers, chairs, shoes — but likely don’t want to share sleeping space with. Some tents sport an ample vestibule or two that will wrangle an average amount of kit, while others are built around the vestibule experience and become full-on second rooms.

Poles and Stakes

Here’s the backbone of your tent. Tent poles are most often segmented aluminum affairs that snap together and slide through pole sleeves or clip to the tent body to support it.

Pole structures can take several different forms. Dome-style tents like the REI Co-op Base Camp or Half Dome 2 Plus are classic and easy to erect. They provide more weather protection in exchange for overall headroom.

Cabin-style tents like the Eureka Copper Canyon LX raise the roof and bump the walls out to be more vertical, but they struggle more in stiff winds. A final type of structure, tunnel tents, falls between the two styles.

Tent stakes are your anchors, and even if you don’t expect overnight wind, it’s wise to plant a few to keep your wilderness home from becoming mobile. Most tents will include basic stakes in a number that will keep your tent from flying away, but if you’re going to be using guylines (or expect high winds), it’s wise to invest in a few more stakes, or even stronger versions. A stake hammer can be a useful tool in getting your pegs in place, and I think that the MSR Stake Hammer is tough to beat.

Storage and Organization

Keeping your camping kit organized is essential for maintaining your sanity, and built-in organizing solutions, such as pockets, sleeves, and gear lofts, can help you organize your loose items. Some, like the NEMO Aurora Highrise 4P, place a handful of high pockets along the ceiling for stashing items such as headlamps or phones, while others, like the North Face Wawona 4, integrate large mesh panels that can store bulkier kit.

Your tent can also benefit from some organization. It will come packed away in a stuff sack that should carry all of the essentials to get you set up. Thankfully, many tent manufacturers have moved away from the traditional ‘stuff sack’ style storage bag and now offer zippered or wide-mouth-style bags that open wide to accommodate packing the tent inside. The wide bag that the Wawona packs into is easy to fill, but some aren’t as nice to use, and even my top pick, the REI Base Camp, had points deducted for its old-school stuff sack style bags.

Weather Resistance and Ventilation

If you plan to camp during storms, it’s worth it to save up and buy a sturdier tent. Premium tents have stronger poles, full rain covers, and sealed seams. It’s things like this that seem less important — until you find yourself riding out an epic storm from the confines of your tent.

While testing, we experienced a major thunderstorm complete with high winds and heavy rain. Each of the tents had been properly staked out, but many of them experienced damage. The Marmot Limestone 4P performed incredibly well, with no leaking or broken poles. The REI Co-op Base Camp 6 is also well equipped for inclement weather thanks to its rainfly and many tie-down points.

Ventilation is also key to camping livability, and windows are your best friend here. I place a high value on windows that can be opened from the interior of the tent, such as those on the NEMO Aurora Highrise. Some rainflys will also incorporate rigid stays, such as seen in the North Face Wawona, which holds open a ventilation port when the weather is good, and can be closed when storms brew.

Seasonality Ratings

Often, manufacturers refer to its tents with a season rating, which helps convey the types of conditions for which they’ve been designed. While not a hard and fast rule, knowing where you are planning on camping, the weather you may encounter, and what your tent is rated for can greatly hedge your bets against spending a night in a flattened tent.

• 3-Season Tents: 3-season tents (meaning spring, summer, and fall) are your lightest-duty tents, and will employ lightweight materials in order to keep overall bulk down, as well as improve ventilation. Typically, the tent body will be nearly or entirely mesh and mated to a bathtub floor. These designs are less aerodynamic and more prone to bending under gusts of wind. Finally, most 3-season tents will use a rainfly that isn’t full coverage, and may only extend over windows and doors, instead of all the way to the ground.
• 3/4-Season Tents: Bulking up on weather resistance, 3/4 or 3.5-season tents are similar to 3-season tents material-wise, but in design, they often are more weather-ready, usually employing dome shapes. Rain flies will also go all the way to the ground, forming vestibules where you might store your backpacks during an overnight rain.
• 4-Season Tents: This is the realm of winter, mountaineering, and hunting tents, where weather resistance is in high demand and a tough structure is needed. Four-season tents are almost exclusively double-wall designs, and often shaped in domes or tunnels to better survive the wind. They will also sport many guylines to adequately support the tent, and thicker tent poles and materials to resist wind-driven rain and snow.

Capacity and Floor Area

Every tent worth its salt today will provide a capacity number for the number of campers it was designed to sleep. Many tent models are also available in multiple versions, with 4, 6, and 8-person capacities being the most common for camping tents. This number is derived from the number of regular sleeping mattresses that can be laid side-by-side in the sleeping area, but take note: this often only accommodates 20-inch sleeping pads.

The floor area number will also give you a good idea of the sleeping area space in any one tent, and is generally given in square feet. For 4-person tents, this typically comes in at around 60 sq. ft. For example, the Marmot Limestone 4-Person Tent slides in squarely at 60, while the more comfort-minded Mountain Hardwear Bridger 4 squeezes in a bit more at 62.5.

When it comes to 6-person models, the number jumps up to around 85 square feet, with the REI Co-op Base Camp 6 being the standard-bearer at 84 square feet, and the budget Kelty Discovery Element 6 surprisingly besting it at 89! It’s important to note here that the Kelty tent has less steep walls, and thus floor area isn’t the end-all when it comes to understanding overall livability.

Construction Materials

The weather resistance of a tent depends largely on the materials from which it is constructed. Nylon and polyester are very common materials used in car camping tents.

Nylon is stronger, more resistant to abrasion, and can stretch considerably. Unfortunately, it absorbs water, causing your tent to sag in storms or high humidity.

Polyester has less stretch than nylon, so it is more likely to tear. This rigidity is a benefit in wet conditions because it will sag less and absorb less water, but it also makes polyester more fragile.

Other Considerations and Taking Care of Your Tent

First and foremost, never put your tent away wet. Remember when I mentioned hydrolysis earlier regarding PU coatings? Water is a major culprit in speeding up that process. Fungi, molds, and mildews love to grow in your dark closet, on your wet tent, at room temperature. These organisms destroy the fibers of your tent and make it smell terrible.

When you get home, set your tent back up and let it air out. This simple chore will pay off later when you are still able to use your tent. If you have no yard or nowhere dry to set it up, your living room makes a great space for this. Check all the seams, especially the floor and fly, before packing it away.

Price & Value

A good camping tent can be one of the bigger purchases when putting together a good summer kit, so it’s important to know what you’re getting for those dollar signs. With a range from just north of a hundo to more than a grand, there’s a lot of territory to cover, and most of it will come down to three important metrics: the number of people the tent will sleep, the weather protection it provides, and the amount of accessories tucked away inside.

Budget

Camping is for everyone, and if you’ve only got a few frontcountry forays on the books for the summer, going to something with a little lower overhead can make a lot of sense. Budget camping tents are generally offered beginning at the $100 mark, and head up to around $200 from there.

A tent like the Kelty Discovery Basecamp 4 ($120) is a fine example. It’s not uncommon for tents in this realm to offer rain flies with less coverage over the body of the tent and often only incorporate a single door as an entrance into the tent. The REI Co-op Campwell 4 ($229) is another spend-wise tent I’d recommend to those looking to get further outdoors, but with an eye on the weather, as the tent shines best when the sun does.

Mid-Tier

Understanding the limitations of budget tents will safeguard against overextending them in harsh conditions, but for fair-weather campground camping, many do an admirable job. Beyond the $200 to about $500 mark, camping tents begin to feature hardier materials, full-coverage rainflies, and vestibules, with added niceties like internal storage options and windows. 

You’ll also notice a price difference when looking at tents of different occupancies. For example, the REI Co-op Base Camp 4 is $489, while the 6-person version will run you $569. This nearly $100 difference between a 4-person and a 6-person tent isn’t uncommon, and many other manufacturers replicate this.

Premium

Beyond about $600 are high-end tents, which jam in the features to offer true frontcountry luxury. The $770 White Duck Bell Regatta is a chunk of change, but the premium build and material quality make up for it. This is a tent you’ll have for a decade plus if you take care of it well.

Frequently Asked Questions

The best family camping tent depends on your outdoor goals. In general, most families appreciate having more room and the ability to stand comfortably.

The REI Co-op Base Camp 6 has earned high marks from our family camping testers. If you regularly camp in adverse weather (hello, spring in Colorado), it’s worth considering a slightly smaller and more durable tent.

The best camping tent brand depends largely on your personal needs and budget.

For a premium tent that can withstand the weather, the REI Co-op consistently delivers. If you’re looking for maximum space and flexibility, the Eureka Copper Canyon is a favorite with families. And for a budget-friendly option that is built to last, check out Kelty.

If you plan to camp regularly, it is worth it to invest in a higher-quality tent. The extra expense means sturdier poles, waterproof seams, and generally an easier setup. If budget is a major concern, don’t let that stop you from getting outside.

We’ve consistently been impressed with the budget-friendly options from Kelty. The Kelty Discovery Basecamp 4 costs just $120 and offers plenty of room.

Quality tents are waterproof. But if you find yourself camping in an absolute downpour, hanging a tarp can provide extra protection and comfort.

It’s important to tie it up well so the wind isn’t a concern and to be sure that it isn’t touching the tent. In addition to creating an extra tent porch, a tarp is great for protecting your camp kitchen.

While there are many different styles of tents available today, each has a better use profile and ideal adventure to use them on. When it comes to camping tents, the most popular shape is a dome-style tent. This is because of ease of use, as well as the trade-off in canopy headroom to the overall complexity.

Other tents still, like the Eureka Copper Canyon 4 Tent or Decathlon Quechua 2 Second Tent, employ a collapsible style of integrated poles that forms a rigid structure once assembled. These tents are often among the easiest to use, but also the weakest overall, as any strong force against their poles could collapse them.