Best Family Tents: Our Top 9 Picks 

The REI Co-Op Base Camp 6 does everything camping families need a tent to do. It’s spacious, easy to pitch, performs well in hot and wet weather, and has plenty of storage options that help to optimize livability.

While the Base Camp’s geodesic, dome-style design means it has a little less headroom than tunnel or cabin tents, it also gives it more stability in windy conditions. Its peak height of 74 inches is also impressive for a dome-style tent – just bear in mind that this will decrease the further you get from the center of the tent.

The Base Camp is made with among the burliest materials on our list. That includes a 75D rainfly and body fabric, and 150D floor, all of which are waterproof enough for 3- or even 4-season use.

The Base Camp is also full of value-adding features. It has two large air vents in the roof to boost airflow, 14 pockets for gear storage, hang loops, two large vestibules, and two huge doors.

While a fraction pricier than the REI Grand Hut 6, the Base Camp has an extra 10 square feet of vestibule room and performs better in wet and windy weather. And while it’s not as roomy as the TNF Wawona, its superior weather protection and bountiful features will make it a better tent for some.

If the 6-person version of this tent is overkill for your needs, be sure to check out the Base Camp 4.

The NF Wawona 6 is among the most livable shelters out there and the perfect tent for families who require a little extra space for gear or R&R.

The Wawona has a whopping 86 sq. ft. of interior space, 44.7 sq. ft. of vestibule space, a peak height of 80”, and a ton of storage pockets to help you keep your gear organized and the tent floor free of clutter.

But there’s a lot more to love than living space alone…

Unlike many dome-style tents, the Wawona has particularly steep walls, more like those on a tunnel tent. This means that it boasts the structural solidity of dome tents but maximizes headroom by reducing the degree of curvature either side of center. This allows you to move around inside without having to hunch, which is a huge boon for livability.

The Wawona sleeps 6, but its huge front vestibule could easily accommodate another 2 or 3 sleepers, or simply serve as an oversize gear garage or hangout space for evening games and dining.

The previous version of the Wawona’s main shortcoming was its use of a partial-coverage rainfly. While the fly in the new version doesn’t cover the whole tent, it covers enough to ensure you’ll stay dry even in heavy downpours. The only other potential downside to this tent is that it has only one door (one, however, that’s big enough to drive a small vehicle through).

While a solid performer in wet weather, the Wawona comes into its own in hot weather. That huge vestibule means you can leave the door open to boost airflow without letting in bugs, while the large ceiling vents and mesh canopy keep stuffiness and condensation at bay when temps and humidity are high.

The REI Wonderland is the new, updated, and improved version of REI’s hugely popular Kingdom tent.

Like its predecessor, the Wonderland uses a tunnel-style design with near-vertical walls that maximize headroom from end to end and side to side. It also has strategic color-coding on the fly, poles, and footprint to make setup a cinch, and combines a “scalloped” fly with extensive mesh panels and windows to provide 360° views, even with the fly on.

On the face of it, the Wonderland’s 69.4 square feet of floor space make it a roomy 4-person tent. However, unlike every other family tent on our list barring the Big Agnes Big House, it has no vestibule area, only a duo of small awnings that provide a sliver of cover over the doorways.

Like most REI shelters, this tent features are on the nail. You get a ton of interior pockets for gear storage, vents at top and bottom to stave off stuffiness and condensation, hanging hooks for a lantern or headlamp, and two extra-large doors that extend from top to bottom and wall to wall.

The Grand Hut is the perfect choice for buyers who want a high-performing, high-quality tent for six people without paying through the nose for it.

As with all things REI, this family tent is impressively well made. It uses 75D fabric in the rainfly and body, and 150D fabric in the flooring, which makes it one of the toughest on our list. The rainfly’s 1,500mm hydrostatic head rating, along with the body’s mesh panels and the double-doored design, moreover, make it a solid performer in both wet and warm conditions.

In terms of livability, this tent is a winner. It has plenty of interior storage options, steep walls to maximize headroom, a 78” peak height, 83.3 sq. ft. of interior space, and a 36 sq. ft. vestibule. This means there’s not only plenty of room for 6 sleepers but also ample space for all of your gear.

In wild weather, this tent is a little less reliable than its close cousin, the REI Co-Op Base Camp, mainly because its vertical walls and 4-pole design make it more susceptible to billowing and/or buckling in strong winds. It also boasts fewer storage options than the Base Camp and a little less vestibule room, but has a lot more headroom and retails at a much friendlier price.

The Big Agnes Big House ain’t the cheapest 6-person tent out there, but if you’re looking for a family-friendly tent that combines reliability with a wealth of fancy frills, this is the tent for you.

This cabin-style tent boasts 83 square feet of floor space and a peak height of 81 inches. Despite the generosity of these dimensions, it weighs a mere 16 lbs. 7 oz., so could feasibly be used as a backpacking tent if the components were split between two or three carriers.

The Big House is a standout in two metrics: weather protection and livability. Its 1,500 mm rain fly and flooring ensures robust protection in all 3-season conditions. And although it lacks a vestibule, its steep walls and “high-volume architecture” make it feel extra-spacious inside. Four large wall pockets and corner bin pockets also partially make up for the lack of external storage.

What about those fancy frills? Well, we’re not often the types to be swayed by non-essential bells and whistles, but there’s no denying that the extra-large welcome mat, a duo of huge doors, backpack-style carry bag, huge gear loft (sold separately), and unique “shelter mode” (lets you pitch the fly without the tent body on balmy, bug-free nights) are well worth having.

Fuss-free camping, anyone? This, in short, is what the Coleman Instant Cabin Tent is all about.

If you’re not a fan of messing around with poles and sleeves and guy lines and all that jazz, this one’s a winner.

At first impression, we thought this was a very quirky-looking tent. Where, after all, is the rainfly? And those poles kinda make it look like an overgrown arachnid, right? But on closer inspection, we were soon obliged to repent of our skepticism.

The pole structure of the Coleman Instant Cabin is indeed a touch unique – instead of supporting the rainfly from the inside, it suspends the tent fabric from above. And therein lies the Instant Cabin’s genius.

Not only do the poles have a telescoping design and pop into place around a central pole hub lickety-split, its use of an integrated rainfly means that the whole pitching process takes around one minute. For campers keen to maximize downtime (and minimize the usual pre-sleep struggle and stress), it doesn’t get much better than this!

The only grumble we have with this design is that the integrated fly isn’t removable, meaning there’s no option to ditch it on hot and humid nights. This shortcoming is partially compensated for by the large vents/windows in the fly, but we’re always fans of having the option to shed weight and optimize airflow by leaving the fly at home when the forecast calls for clear skies.

If you and your family need a little more legroom, the Eureka Copper Canyon LX is one of the best car-camping tents your money can buy.

This 8-person tent is all about livability. While there’s no vestibule, it has 130 square feet of floor space, an 84-inch peak height, and steep walls that maximize headroom throughout the tent. This means it can comfortably accommodate a family of eight and is tall enough to let everyone walk around inside without having to hunch.

The Copper Canyon isn’t a standout in rainy weather due to its use of a partial-coverage rain fly. On the plus side, however, the minimalist fly means there’s plenty of airflow when camping in warm weather.

The Copper Canyon’s feature set is also impressive given its (relatively) low cost. It has a large extended awning for drying clothes or kicking back in your camp chair, pockets galore, adjustable vents to prevent condensation, and two canopy storage shelves.

If you’re looking for something a little larger or a little smaller, the Copper Canyon is also available in 4-person, 6-person, and 12-person models.

If you and your family like to stray a little further from the beaten path, there’s no better tent to take along for the ride than the Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL.

Let’s start with the most important spec of all: weight. The Copper Spur HV UL weighs a piddly 5 lbs. 11 oz., making it the lightest family tent on our list by a large margin. Even if you don’t split the weight between two carriers, that makes for a very comfortable carry, whether you’re hiking 2 miles before setting up camp or 20.

As you might expect, all those weight savings result in a trade-off with spaciousness. The Copper Spur is the least roomy of all the tents on our list, offering just 57 square feet of floor space and a peak height of 50 inches. In better news, this spatial shortfall is partially offset by the 14-square-foot vestibule, which at least means you won’t have to store gear inside.

It’s also worth mentioning that, while the Copper Spur’s proportions seem stingy in comparison to the family car-camping tents on our list, they’re around average for a backpacking tent.

In every other metric, the Copper Spur is a solid performer.

The fly and floor are made with silicone-treated, double-ripstop, mixed-denier nylon with a 1,200mm waterproof polyurethane coating. In layman’s terms, this means it’s extra tough for the weight and waterproof enough for 3-season adventuring. For ventilation, there are high and low vents that help to circulate air inside the tent.

You also get a wealth of features not typically found on backpacking tents, including an abundance of pockets, gear loft loops, easy-grip zipper pulls, and quick-clip guy line attachment points. And if you feel like kicking back outside the tent, the door extends into a large awning to give you shelter from the sun or rain.

The words “great,” “cheap,” and “family tent” are rarely seen in close proximity but, thanks to the Coleman Sundome 6, we have one notable exception to the rule.

The Sundome has long been recognized as one of the best tents out there for  large groups. The reason for this is simple: it offers simply superb value for money. While not a standout in terms of waterproofing, the Sundome is extra-roomy, tall enough to walk around in, easy to pitch, lightweight, and, importantly, very fairly priced.

With a budget tent like this, of course, a few compromises are to be expected. With the Sundome, these take the form of a partial-coverage rainfly, fiberglass poles, a lack of vestibule room, and one door fewer than is ideal for convenience.