Best Tent for Hot Weather: Stay Cool in the Summer Heat!

Thanks to its awesome ventilation, great features, and extra-roomy interior, the REI Wonderland 4 is the hands-down winner of our award for best tent for hot weather.

This four-person tent boasts a generous 69.4 sq. ft. of floor space and a peak height of 75 inches, so there’s plenty of room to move around and enough interior volume to dissipate the body heat of four sleepers. These dimensions also make it roomy enough to fit two double air mattresses with room to spare.

The Wonderland’s “scalloped” design, which boosts headroom and encourages airflow between the tent body and fly, works wonders in warm weather. This, combined with the dark mesh body, floor and roof vents, and its two huge doorways allow for steady air circulation no matter how stuffy and humid conditions get.

And if conditions turn wet, the Wonderland has you covered. The 1500mm 75D rainfly and 150D bathtub floor are among the most waterproof on our list, not to mention the most durable.

The Wonderland’s only drawbacks are its sizable price tag and lack of vestibule space. In its defense, however, it still offers excellent value for money and there are plenty of interior pockets and ample interior space for gear storage. If storage is a deal-breaker, you can always purchase the REI Mud Room (sold separately), which adds an extra 56 sq. ft. for camping gear storage.

The Core 9-Person Instant is a great pick for families who do most of their camping in the hot summer months.

With 126 square feet of floor space and a peak height of 78 inches, this tent is one of the most livable on our list. And despite its size, it’s a breeze to pitch. The poles are pre-attached, so you just need to unpack, unfold, extend, and you’re good to go!

The Core isn’t waterproof enough for three-season camping but comes into its own in hot weather. In addition to oversized mesh windows, an all-mesh ceiling, and a huge double-door entrance, it features advanced, adjustable vents that draw cool air into the sleeping area to cool down the tent’s occupants while simultaneously forcing hot air out through the ceiling.

As for features, the Core is none too shabby. There’s no vestibule or gear loft, but you do get a room divider for privacy, tons of storage pockets, and an e-port for use at campground hookups.

If you’re in the market for an affordable tent for summer camping, you really can’t go wrong with the hugely popular Coleman Sundome.

The Sundome only has one door, one window, and one vent, which might strike some as a dealbreaker for summer camping. However, its design is such that it’s actually one of the most well-ventilated four-person tents out there.

The Sundome has a partial-coverage fly that sits a good few inches above the all-mesh roof, so all the hot air inside can easily escape. There are also awnings that extend over the window and doors, so there’s a steady flow of fresh air at all times. With the vent open, and fabric covers on the mesh door and window zipped down, we were impressed by how well air circulated inside.

Weighing in at 7.5 pounds, the Sundome is the lightest tent we reviewed and could be used for backpacking if you distribute the weight amongst your camping companions. It is, however, also the smallest, offering just 49 square feet of floor space and a peak height of 4 feet and 4 inches, so one of the poorer scorers in the livability metric.

The Quechua Pop-Up is a good all-rounder that’s best suited to campers who prioritize performance over space.

This pop-up, instant tent sets up in roughly 2 seconds. All you have to do is open the storage case and stand by while it assembles itself before you can say “holy crap that was fast”!

Pop-up tents tend to get a bad name due to early iterations’ inferior construction and poor performance in wet and windy weather. These limitations, however, categorically do not apply to the Quechua, which is surprisingly sturdy, well-made, and also the most waterproof tent on our list.

In hot weather, the Quechua is a solid performer. It has a huge entrance that essentially takes up one entire wall, two large vents, and an awning that lets you sleep with the door open even when it’s raining.

With just 42 square feet of space, the Quechua could be thought of as either a pokey three-person or roomy two-person tent. As explained in our buying advice (below), we recommend a max occupancy of two in hot summer weather as fewer occupants equal less heat.

Coleman is renowned for churning out high-quality tents that don’t break the bank, and the Skydome is no exception. This one, however, comes with a bit of a bonus feature that sets it apart from anything else in the brand’s catalog.

Like the Ozark Trail Dark Rest (review still to come), the Skydome uses Dark Room™ technology that blocks 90% of sunlight. This means the interior stays cooler during the day and you can carry on getting your beauty sleep longer after the sun rises in the morning.

The partial-coverage fly and large interior mesh walls also help to promote airflow when temps are high, while the near-vertical walls add 20% more volume than other tents in the Coleman range, so thermal efficiency is low (a good thing in hot weather!).

Measuring 56 square feet with a peak height of 55 inches, the Skydome is a little on the pokey side for four sleepers but will feel palatial for three. It also weighs a manageable 11 pounds, so could feasibly be used as a backpacking tent if each camper carries a portion of the load.

In short, we wouldn’t recommend the Skydome if spaciousness is high on your list of priorities, but think it’s ideal for camping couples or trios who want a shelter with proper ventilation and dabble in both backpacking and car camping.

Canvas tents are steadily coming back into fashion, and with wonders like the Kodiak Canvas Flex-Bow on the market, it’s easy to see why. This beast of a tent is pricey and far heavier than the others we reviewed, but it’s a standout in every applicable metric, whether you’re camping in summer or the dead of winter. If we were judging on versatility alone, this would be our top pick.

The Flex-Bow’s wall fabric is Kodiak’s proprietary Hydra-Shield canvas, which is highly durable and silicone-treated, making it all but impermeable in wet weather. Canvas tents are also naturally cooler than synthetic ones in hot conditions, as the thick fabric repels heat instead of creating a greenhouse effect.

In terms of ventilation, the Flex-Bow goes the extra mile. There’s a huge, walk-in entrance, mesh windows, and vents in both the base and ceiling, all of which give it a nice, airy feel when temps are high.

Like most tents on our list, the Flex-Bow doesn’t have a vestibule, but this shortcoming is partially offset by the ability to transform the entrance into a large awning. Barring the hefty price tag, this is the only drawback we can see for this tent!

The Ozark Trail Dark Rest scores highly in each of the metrics we use to rate a tent’s merits but its use of dark-room technology is what sets it apart on summer camping trips.

OT’s “dark room” technology effectively blocks out 90% of sunlight, which helps to keep the tent cool inside on hot days and lets you carry on sleeping long after the sun rises. This, combined with its six oversized windows, walk-in mesh doors, all-mesh ceiling, and two ground vents make it a great tent for hot summer days.

The Dark Rest is a breeze to pitch, setting up in around 2 minutes thanks to a central pole hub that opens its pre-attached poles like the spokes on an umbrella.

Inside, you have 140 square feet of space, so there’s plenty of room for eight to ten sleepers. Its 78-inch peak height also means even the tallest campers will be able to walk around inside without hunching. Although the Dark Rest doesn’t have a vestibule, there are a ton of wall pockets for gear storage.

The only real downside of this tent is its lack of weather resistance. While great in warm weather, its partial-coverage rain fly leaves large portions of the inner exposed, which could be an issue in heavier showers.