Despite losing some headroom in comparison with the Kelty Wireless 6 and The North Face Wawona 6, both of which measure six-foot-four in height, the Base Camp 6 offers a substantial six-foot-two. We don’t often see a 4-person tent score so high in this category, let alone two. The MSR Habitude 4 and REI Co-op Skyward 4 both have just enough room, features, and comforts to rise to the top. The Habitude offers 62.4 square feet of floor space, a perfectly sized vestibule, and seven pockets, making this tent worth a look for those not interested in setups for 6+ people.
Two large vestibules add nearly 40 square feet combined—that is, 18.75 square feet on either side. Temperatures ranged from the 50s at night to the 80s during the day. The Kelty Wireless 6 fits two adults, two kids, and two dogs comfortably inside, and the dual vestibules allow for even more storage and organization. Add in the ease of setup, a nice carry bag, and wonderful star-gazing capabilities, and you have a solid tent. And given the bargain price of the Wireless 6, it’s hard to pass it up. The Coleman 4-Person Cabin with Instant Setup scored the highest here.
Although it earned fairly low scores across the board, we did like one unique feature of the Coleman Camp Burst Dark Room 4. In this metric, we certainly focused on how many people a tent would sleep, but we also considered any special features that made each tent stand out from the rest. And, when ozark trail canopy tent the optional rain fly is affixed, there is almost no light at all. Jason Wanlass, who has spent the last 20 years of his life exploring the outdoors, joins Rob. He is an experienced backpacker who has trekked in Iceland, Nepal, France, Switzerland, Slovenia, Argentina, and Chile’s Patagonia Region.
We love this tent’s removable floor, two large doors, eight massive windows, and seven humongous storage pouches. It packs tons of space and features into a functional, good-looking design. Most instant tents are so easy to set up that you don’t need an instruction manual. They have pre-attached ozark trail canopy tent poles, an integrated pole system, or at least poles that are easy to install. Most rainflys, if they aren’t already attached, should also be fairly simple to install. If you can’t put your instant tent up in a few minutes, its design is flawed—or you didn’t buy an instant tent.
Just remember not to ask your kids to take the fly off, as the locking mechanism requires some serious force to get out. It begs the question, how useful is the tent for a small group? Will it fit two dogs and a friend or three and still be comfortable? Though some of these aspects fall under other categories, we felt it was important to our readers to look at them again but with this viewpoint in mind. Several other tents scored among the best in the weather resistance category.
An avid hiker, camper, and long-haul road-tripper, Claire Wilcox has slept in (and occasionally improvised) tents in 11 states. She covers outdoor gear for Wirecutter and worked on the most recent update of this guide, testing couples’ tents and family tents. The Wawona 6 is a long-standing champ in our review for many reasons, not least of which is how well it has withstood the test of time. The main tent is made out of 150D polyester taffeta, the floor out of 68D polyester, and the poles are DAC MX — strong and light. And, of course, all seams are seam-sealed with a tub-style floor. Memorial Day is just around the corner, but there’s still time to organize a summer kickoff to remember.
In terms of flaws, there aren’t much to speak of with the Wawona 6, apart from the price. The North Face offers a limited lifetime warranty on the tent, and will repair most flaws and damage at its ozark trail canopy tent discretion. Throughout all our testing, we wanted to know how it felt to be inside the tents for long periods of time. If we had to spend a day in the tent during a storm, would it be comfortable?
The interior square footage is small, but dual vestibules help to keep everything you don’t need for sleeping separate. And while very lightweight, you’ll sacrifice headroom in the tradeoff. Overall, this tent is small but mighty and a great addition to any campers toolbox, depending on your needs. The REI Co-op Skyward 4 is the perfect amount of features, space, and ease of use for the money.
The tent itself has just two poles that cross like a dome tent, although it feels more like a cabin tent. It comes with a rainfly that has a bit of an overhang at the entrance to keep rain and bugs out. To tear it down again, you simply remove those stakes, then push the buttons attached to the red pulls.
This instant cabin tent might feel like a spacious home away from home. I also couldn’t believe how easy this huge tent was to set up. The tent body is permanently fixed to the frame, and the six poles are telescoping, which makes the setup a breeze. The Wireless 6 goes up easily, using the same kind of intuitive pole and clip method as our couples’ pick. The fly is equally simple to attach and orient with color-coded clips.