Best Backpacking Tents: Our Top 12 Picks 

Want to make your camping trips in the backcountry as safe, comfortable, and convenient as can be? If so, it’s time to ditch your regular car-camping tent and invest in something that’s custom-made for the rigors and specific demands of life on the open trail.

In this post, we’ll introduce you to 12 awesome tents that fit that description to a ‘T’. We’ll also provide you with all the info you need to choose the best backpacking tent for your future adventures and point out the ideal picks for different types of backpackers.

Whether it’s an ultralight tent for the gram-counting minimalist or a four-season bomb shelter for all-weather warriors, our list has it all!

Top Choices by Category

Budget: REI Passage 2, REI Trail Hut 4, REI Half Dome SL 2+
Ultralight: ZPacks Duplex & Triplex, NEMO Hornet 2, REI Quarter Dome, Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2
Livability: REI Trail Hut 4, REI Half Dome SL 2+, Nemo Dagger

Best Backpacking Tents: Reviews of Our Top 12 Picks 

Critical Considerations When Choosing a Backpacking Tent

Weight & Packed Size

As a self-reliant backpacker, you’re going to be carrying your shelter on your back wherever you go. While modern designs are getting lighter and lighter, you shouldn’t instantly opt for the lightest tent within your budget. The reduction in weight often comes at a cost to overall livability, durability, and/or weather resistance, not to mention a higher price tag. 

While we’re all for lightweight tents, you should pick one that matches your own needs, expectations, and preferences. We are backpackers, after all, primarily because we enjoy the experience of backpacking. The bottom line: finding the right balance between weight savings and functionality is critical.

For the majority of backpackers, the best balance between livability and weight tends to be in the 3 to 4.5-pound window. Some of our favorite tents such as our top pick, the Big Agnes Copper Spur, as well as the MSR Hubba Hubba 2, and the Sea to Summit Telos TR2 all sit in this range.

Above 4.5 pounds you have budget backpacking tents like the REI Passage, the heaviest 2-person tent in our review at 5 lbs. 10 oz., or the REI Half Dome (which is only just above this threshold). These tents are best suited for car campers who also head out on the occasional short backpacking trip.

RELATED: Best Backpacking Sleeping Bag

Above the 4.5 pound mark, there is also a second category, which is the 3.5 to four-season tents like the Nemo Kunai that are designed for tougher weather conditions. These tents are best suited for colder fall or winter weather outings, or trips above the treeline.

Tents under 3 pounds tend to use lighter, less durable fabrics and make compromises on interior space. These tents also tend to be semi- or non-freestanding, making them more of a challenge to pitch. 

We’d highly recommend that first-time backpackers avoid using an ultralight backpacking tent on their first few outings. Once you’ve cut your teeth, however, then choosing an ultralight backpacking tent is one of the largest weight savings you can make.

Packaged Weight Vs. Minimum Trail Weight

A quick word on packaged weight vs minimum trail weight. Manufacturers like to show both and often boast about the minimum trail weight. 

The minimum weight is defined as the weight of the tent body, rainfly, and poles (no stakes, guylines, or stuff sacks). The packed weight is everything the tent comes with (which may or may not include a tent footprint) or the entire tent package.

While you can switch out the stakes, guylines, and stuff sacks for lighter aftermarket ones, you’re unlikely to go backpacking without all of them so we always list the packaged weight where appropriate.

Interior Space

Tents for backpacking are not known for being spacious and will sacrifice a lot of interior space and liveability to reduce weight, particularly in comparison to heavier car camping tents. 

However, that doesn’t mean you need to be sandwiched in like a sardine with all your gear. How much room you will need will depend on:

• Whether you’re camping solo or with a partner
• How much gear you have
• Your physical stature
• Whether you can handle coffin-like confines or you’d prefer a little room to sit up and move around

Floor Dimensions & Floor Space

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that tents are often tighter-fitting than their marketed capacity rating, but how much space does the average backpacker need? 

Knowing that a regular-size backpacking sleeping pad is normally 72″ x 20″ (L x W) equates to around 10 square feet of space helps. However, this doesn’t account for things like the gear you’d want to bring into the tent and little room for some tossing and turning or stretching of your arms.

We personally find anything below 14.5-15 square feet per person things begin to get too cramped. This is particularly true if you intend or need to hunker down in your shelter for hours due to passing rainstorms.

However, we don’t discount tents below this figure – if you travel fast and light with little gear, or only intend to use your shelter for sleep, then the extra “comfort” space may seem an unnecessary luxury.

The bulk of the tents we reviewed fall between the Sea to Summit Alto TR at 27 sq. ft. and the REI Half Dome SL with its ‘palatial’ 33.75 sq. ft. Our top pick, the Big Agnes Copper Spur sits in the middle with a tight, but comfortable 14.5 sq. ft. per person (for the 2-person version of the tent). The main exception is the 4-person REI Trail Hut (55 sq. ft.).

Don’t forget to look at the actual length and width of the structure. Many tents like the NEMO Hornet or the BA Tiger Wall shave off weight by tapering down to 42-43″ wide towards the foot end. For many, this may not be a problem, but if you intend to use one (or more) wide sleeping pads you may find they won’t fit next to each other.

Peak Height and Wall Slope

Also affecting interior space and general liveability are the peak height and the slope of the tent walls. A tent with a smaller floor space may “feel” bigger than a larger option if it is taller and its walls are near-vertical.

Peak height is simply the tallest point or apex of the structure, typically where the poles cross in the middle. There is no “right” peak height, but taller campers may want to opt for a taller structure if they intend to spend time sitting upright. 

A peak height of 39 – 43″ is pretty typical for most backpacking tents, although the Zpacks Duplex is an outlier thanks to the use of two trekking poles to create its frame, and is the tallest in our review at 48″ (just remember and A-frame design loses height away from center). 

Peak height only tells us one part of the story, if the walls of the tent body slope significantly, then much of the floor space is unusable if you want to sit upright. Many premium designs like the MSR Hubba Hubba NX or the Big Agnes Copper Spur stretch the walls outward and make them near-vertical by using more advanced design features like pre-bent poles and ridge poles.

Ultralight backpacking tents like the Zpacks Duplex, and budget tents like the REI Passage, will often use simplified pole structures that result in a sharper slope and less interior space.

Doors

Often overlooked is the number of doors a tent has. If you’re traveling solo this isn’t much of an issue. However, if you’ve ever partnered up in a two-person tent with only a single door, those nighttime pee breaks can be a pain as you clamber over your sleeping companion and your gear.

If you’re traveling in pairs, then we strongly recommend finding a tent with two doors. The only tent in our review that has a single door is the Nemo Kunai 2. However, this option gets some slack as the door is located at the head of the tent meaning no crawling over your fellow campers to get out.

Weather Protection

Whenever bad weather strikes your rainfly is your first defense, protecting you from precipitation, wind, and cold air. All the rainflys in our backpacking tent reviews have a DWR waterproof coating, are seam-sealed, and can hold up for hours without leaking.

The water resistance of a rainfly is measured in millimeters of hydrostatic head – basically, the amount of water that can sit on the fabric before the downward pressure forces liquid through. Unless you plan to backpack in very arid conditions we’d never recommend a rainfly with less than a 1000mm rating – the higher the rating the more resistant it’ll be to the wet stuff.

If wet weather is on the cards, we’d always recommend a full-coverage rainfly. Partial rainflys, while great for ventilation, may also allow rain to enter your shelter when the wind happens to be blowing in the right direction. Tents with deeper bathtub tent floors (less mesh), and extra guy-out points are great for wetter or more exposed trips.

A tent’s shape, structure, and pole materials will all greatly influence its capabilities in windy and stormy conditions. Dome-shaped tents like the Hubba Hubba have fewer flat surfaces, making them more aerodynamic. This aerodynamic shape assists in pushing the wind around the structure, helping them handle stronger winds over A-frame tents like the Zpacks Duplex.

When it comes to tent poles, most backpacking tents opt for aluminum poles due to their strength and low weight compared to fiberglass or steel. As most tents use similar types and thickness of aluminum poles, the pole structure will mostly determine the level of weather resistance, with non-freestanding options being less able to weather a storm.

RELATED: Best Backpacking Sleeping Pad

Lastly, to a lesser extent, the number of guy-out points and the quality of the tent pegs will play a role – although, we find that buying aftermarket tent stakes for your tent is usually a good (and cheap) investment.

Wall Construction & Ventilation

Ventilation plays a key role in keeping you comfortable in both warm and cold conditions. How well your tent ventilates will depend on whether it’s a single- or double-wall tent, the rainfly design and waterproofing, and the efficiency of its vents. 

In wet and cold conditions, interior condensation is an eternal struggle, particularly when using single-wall tents. While many backpacking tents are double-walled, some budget shelters only use a single-wall design – we’d recommend using double-wall tents unless you backpack in arid, dry climates.

With double-wall tents, the inner body will be composed of a combination of solid nylon and mesh. As a general rule of thumb, the more mesh there is, the better the inner tent will breathe.

The waterproof coatings on a tent rainfly will restrict ventilation, meaning moisture and warm air get trapped inside. To help with air circulation, roof vents in the rainfly will allow warm, moist air to escape. The placement and design of the vent will determine how efficient it is at achieving this.

Tents like the Sea to Summit Telos also feature a low vent to provide better air circulation. Cooler fresh air will be introduced through the ground vent and push the warmer air up and out of the roof vents. 

There is also a case to be made here for tents that have a partial (or cut-away) rainfly – the reduction in coverage should aid with airflow, although be aware that this will also reduce your protection from the weather.

On particularly warm days, removing the rainfly will provide the best airflow. Some models such as the REI Passage are designed to allow you to roll back and tie off the rainfly rather than completely removing it. This small design feature will help you to quickly get the fly back on again if a sudden shower strikes.

Durability

When it comes to tent fabrics, the “denier” often listed by the manufacturer is a measurement of the yarn’s weight. While construction and material quality come into play, generally the lower the denier, the thinner the fabric is, and the more susceptible it is to tears and punctures.

Most tents will list the thickness of the tent floor, canopy, and rainfly. Of these, the tent’s floor is the most vulnerable to punctures or tears, which is why we would always recommend checking your campsite for rocks or sharp sticks before you start your pitch. A tent footprint will also provide additional protection.

Some of the higher-end tents like the Big Agnes Copper Spur have a silicone coating applied to the fabric to add extra strength but without significant weight increase. However, as you may suspect, these treatments do come with a higher price tag.

Overall, the lighter the tent, the less durable or tear-resistant the materials will be. However, with proper care and attention, all of the tents we have reviewed should last for thousands of miles out on the trail.

Ease of Setup

With the evolution of backpacking tents, most modern tents can be assembled in a matter of minutes. Improved design features such as using clips to attach the tent body to the pole structure, color-coded poles, and pole hubs at the apex have resulted in faster (and less frustrating) pitches.

Freestanding tents that will hold their shape once the poles are attached to the tent body are the easiest to set up. Layout your footprint/tent floor, stake out the corners, connect the poles, and fasten the tent body. With freestanding tents, attaching the rainfly is often the trickiest part.

With fewer pole sections, in order to create a rigid frame, semi-freestanding or non-freestanding tents need to be staked out. This does mean they can be more difficult to set up, requiring some practice to become proficient. Hilleberg tents’ unique designs can make for several frustrating first attempts at pitching.

While a freestanding tent is easier to set up and can be moved once you’ve attached the tent body to the poles, they are heavier compared to non-freestanding or semi-freestanding models.

Whether you choose a non-freestanding or freestanding model, it is always wise to practice setting up the tent at home first. This allows you to not only check you have all the parts but also means you won’t be consulting the manual in a rainstorm during your first pitch in the backcountry.

Gear Storage: Vestibules and Interior Pockets

For most backpackers, storage isn’t a priority when choosing a tent, but it can help sway a tight decision between two similarly matched models. When it comes to storing your gear there are two main types of storage: interior and exterior. 

Interior storage will take the form of either mesh pockets or a gear loft, which are useful for stowing small but useful bits of kit like maps, headlamps, and extra clothing.

Exterior storage takes the form of either entry door vestibules or gear closets. Without a vestibule, you’re left with the decision to either bring your dirty gear inside with you or leave it outside exposed to the elements. Thankfully, all the tents in our review have vestibules, but the amount of vestibule space can vary significantly. 

The smallest vestibules in our review belong to the NEMO Kunai, which at 6.8 square feet had just enough space for a couple of backpacks and hiking footwear. The Nemo Dagger, REI Half Dome, and Zpacks tents all have over 20 square feet, giving you plenty of room for all that extra gear.

Best Tent for Backpacking: The Verdict

Ready for a quick roundup of our top picks? Let’s do it.

Our favorite backpacking on the market is the Big Agnes Copper Spur, though the MSR Hubba Hubba provided stiff competition. Both are great backpacking tents and perform well across the board, but the Copper Spur just edged it on account of its lower weight. 

If you’re on a tighter budget, you can’t go wrong with the REI Passage 2. While a little heavier than the competition, the Passage 2 ticks every other box and is a steal at the price.

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