The Best Canopy Tent for Camping and Picnics Reviews by Wirecutter

There’s also a mesh pocket behind the backrest, to hold things you don’t need to access quickly. This chair comes with a sturdy carrying case, with an over-the-shoulder strap, and it’s simple to expand and fold up accordion-style. In fall 2023, we asked a panel of paid testers with a wide range of body types, dexterities, and mobilities to examine our picks and other camping chairs and to share their perspectives. During the winter and early spring of 2017, we added four more canopy tents to our testing lineup. In addition to the models from REI and L.L.Bean, which became our new top picks, we tested the Coleman 15 × 13 Instant Screenhouse and the Wenzel Sun Valley Screen House.

Another said it’s been an essential chair in their life and that it is still going strong after countless soccer games, birthday parties, beach trips, and school events. If you’re looking for highly specialized or ultra-lightweight chairs for backpacking, our recommendations are probably not for you. We also don’t have suggestions for couch-style or loveseat chairs (we’d like to look at those someday, though). Several REI reviewers who bought both the tent and the fly for rain protection note that the fly has only two walls, leaving much of the tent exposed. The add-on fly for our runner-up pick, the L.L.Bean Woodlands Screen House, offers four-walled protection, though it’s also more than twice as expensive.

It’s currently low in stock, but REI tells us this chair will be widely available again over the summer. If you’re planning a car-camping trip, you’ll ozark trail camping chair probably want to bring camping chairs. They’re also ideal for sporting events, field trips, outdoor concerts and movies, and picnics in the park.

ozark trail canopy

The thicker, darker netting also makes the whole structure shadier, even without the optional side panels. Like the REI model, the L.L.Bean tent has ample interior pockets, a lantern hook, and a roomy carrying bag, though the bag is of the typical drawstring-sack variety. In between trips, we turned a neighbor’s large, flat yard into an ad hoc camping-gazebo testing ground. We erected our shelters just in advance of a 24-hour rain and checked for leaking and rainy-day ambience midstorm. We also timed setup and breakdown times for each shelter, and we repeatedly zipped and unzipped doors and windows, looking for annoying snags.

Overall, we think the Ozark Trail canopy serves its intended purpose – a value brand 10×10 instant shelter that caters to price conscious consumers looking for an affordable shade option. And compared to some of the tents in the EZ-Up lineup, it sells for almost a 70% discount. One could, in theory, purchase a new Ozark canopy every year (which they might need to!) and still come out ahead over the years vs. purchasing a more expensive alternative. After years of intermittently using the Renetto chair, one staffer said it has held up great.

The Renetto Original Canopy Chair is the best chair with a built-in canopy. Escape to the beautiful sunny days and gentle warmth found at all our sunbelt resorts. With our resort-style amenities and variety of activities, you’ll want to stay all winter long.

Our favorite of the eight canopy tents we tested, the REI Co-op Screen House Shelter ticks all those boxes. However, it isn’t meant as a place to sleep; for that you ozark trail chair should choose a regular car-camping tent. Many testers found other chairs more comfortable and easier to put together than the Nemo Moonlite Reclining Camp Chair.