11 Best Family Tents [Top Camping Tents for Family Camping]

Short on time? Our pick for the best family tent is the REI Co-op Wonderland 6 with the Mudroom.

This article is your guide to the best family tents for a camping trip with the whole crew!

Camping is a classic American tradition based on our enormous national parks system. Some of my family’s most treasured stories came from camping trips, and I’m excited to help you find the best family tent. 

After all, a successful family camping trip won’t happen by luck. When it comes to picking the right tent, I recommend choosing carefully. 

A lot of planning goes into a good trip, and whether or not you have a reliable tent shouldn’t be a cause for concern. 

A tent is, after all, your primary shelter on camping trips for years to come. A quality family tent can be pricey, so you should be ready to make a good investment if you want it to last.

Lucky for you, I’ve been camping for years, so I know what I’m looking for in good family tents. 

Below I’ve found the best family tents, regardless of your family size or camping style. Not only have I listed the best car camping, backpacking, beach, and cold weather tents on the market. Read on to find the best family tent for you.

Note: this post contains affiliate links, which help run this site at no extra cost to you so I can keep providing free travel advice and tips.

#1 NEMO Aurora 2P Tent with Footprint

Best Family Tent for Two

Our Rating: 5/5
Floor Area: 31.8 sq. ft
Packed Weight: 5lbs 7oz
Peak Height: 44″
Doors: 2
Seasons: 3

There are three reasons why the Nemo Aurora 2P Tent with Footprint is my choice for the best family tent for two. 

First, the interior space is generous. Camping with the family means you need space for gear and bodies, and although this is just a two-person model, it’s a very spacious tent with almost 32 square feet of floor space and nearly vertical walls.

Second, I love how lightweight this tent is. It’s perfect for a car camping adventure or a backcountry foray, making this an all-purpose tent for your little family. 

Third, there is a unique “Pawprint” liner for this tent. The liner snaps onto the tent floor and is soft and durable to protect the tent floor from dog claws (or toddler shenanigans). 

Note that the Pawprint is sold separately but it comes with a standard groundsheet footprint. 

One minor drawback (and I mean tiny) of the Aurora is that the zipper on the door is one-way rather than two-way, and some folks find this annoying.

#2 NEMO Aurora Highrise 4P Tent

Best 4-Person Family Tent

Our Rating: 4.9/5
Floor Area: 62.5
Packed Weight: 15lbs 14oz
Peak Height: 75″
Doors: 2
Seasons: 3

Like its smaller cousin, the Nemo Aurora Highrighe 4P Tent is a great family tent for four. 

Like the Aurora 2P, the Highrise comes with light-diffusing pockets that limit blue light (which helps you sleep). Similarly, both tents offer excellent weather protection in the form of high-quality tent materials without flame retardants.  

First, to address the name, it’s called the Highrise because of its immense peak height. This feature is a luxury for parents with back issues. 

Tents are notoriously tricky to get back into their original storage bags, but the Highrise solves this problem with an extra-large tent bag. 

Not only does it have lots of vestibule space outside each door (19.5 sq. ft each), but the tent walls are almost vertical, which increases the sense of interior space. 

If this tent has a downside, the high profile can catch the wind. As with all tents, how you tie it down makes a huge difference.

#3 REI Co-op Base Camp 6

Best Tent for Family of 6

Our Rating: 4.9/5
Floor Area: 84 sq. ft
Packed Weight: 20lbs 10oz
Peak Height: 74″
Doors: 2
Seasons: 3

The REI Base-Camp 6 is the perfect family tent for five or six people. First, it’s spacious inside and beneath the vestibule and will comfortably sleep 6. 

At 20 pounds, this tent is lightweight. That said, it’s still heavy enough that its best for car campers. 

This family car camping tent has many features that suit it for a family outing. First, It has lots of storage pockets around the interior–plenty for each person to have a cubby. 

Second, the REI Co-op Base Camp sets up super fast with color-coded poles. 

Finally, the large doors make it easy to enter and exit without stumbling over someone, and a breeze to get big sleeping mats inside.  

One complaint about the REI Base-camp tent is that the velcro that holds the vents at the top closed can sometimes fail and may blow open in the wind.

#4 REI Co-op Wonderland 6 Tent with Mudroom

Best Large Family Tent

Our Rating: 4.8/5
Floor Area: 83.3 sq. ft (tent) 56 sq. ft (mudroom)
Packed Weight: 22lbs 15 oz (tent) 3 lbs 14oz (mudroom)
Peak Height: 78″
Doors: 2
Seasons: 3

The REI Co-op Wonderland 6 (with a Mudroom) is the best tent for a large family. Without the mudroom, this is a six-person tent, but with the mudroom attachment, you could sleep three more. 

To begin with, the Wonderland is a well-rated car camping tent. It has an enormous peak height, tons of floor space, and a durable 150-denier polyester floor. 

The mudroom attachment makes this tent spectacular, as it acts as the rain fly and adds a stunning 56 square feet of usable space to the tent. 

All this extra space is great for sleeping out or having a game table setup. The only downside to the mudroom is that you have to purchase it separately.

#5 Kelty Discovery Basecamp 6

Best Tent for Families with Toddlers

Our Rating: 4.7/5
Floor Area: 88 sq. ft
Packed Weight: 13lbs 14oz
Peak Height: 68″
Doors: 1
Seasons: 3

The Kelty Discovery Basecamp 6 as one of the best family tents for those with a toddler because it’s big enough to fit a portable crib, and it works with a new family’s budget.

Since this is a six-person tent, you should have ample room for two adults and two kids (plus toddler accessories). Plus, as your toddler grows, you’ll still have plenty of space for everyone. 

As a more affordable tent, it’s best suited for warm weather. Additionally, it only has one door. These details aren’t deal-breakers, especially in such a large tent, but it can be nice to have two entries for easy access. 

Kelty is not a budget brand, but this tent is undoubtedly one of the cheapest tents on my list. Ultimately, the Kelty is an excellent bang for your buck and won’t break your toddler-strained budget.

#6 Gazelle T4 Hub Tent

Easiest Family Tent to Setup

Our Rating:
Floor Area: 61 sq. ft
Packed Weight: 30lbs
Peak Height: 78″
Doors: 2
Seasons: 3

The Gazelle T4 Hub Tent is one of the best family camping tents for fast setup because of the hubbed pole design. 

Hubbed poles are ones that connect to a central connector piece, like the legs on a spider’s body. 

In addition to the fast setup, the material for this cabin tent is highly durable. The body and floor are 210 and 300-denier oxford polyester with a 2,000mm waterproof rating. 

The rain fly is made of 210-denier polyester as well. These materials should keep your family snug and dry in all types of rainy weather.

I love to see lots of storage options on family tents, so I was pleased to see a removable gear loft and six gear pockets on the walls. 

Two issues to note with this cabin-style tent: one, it has fiberglass poles, which are not known to be the highest quality, and two, cabin-style tents are notorious for instability in windy conditions.

#7 The North Face Wawona 4

Best Tent for Beach Camping

Our Rating: 4.7/5
Floor Area: 58.13 sq. ft
Packed Weight: 13lbs
Peak Height: 68″
Doors: 2
Seasons: 3

When I’m looking for a beach tent, I look for tents with minimal mesh on the body. Sure– you want a tent that ventilates well, but when the wind kicks up, you’re just inviting sand into your sleeping bags. 

The Wawona is one of North Face’s most popular tent styles, and I chose it as the best beach tent for families because of the limited mesh on the body. 

The Wawona (named after an area in Yosemite, btw) just went through a redesign to make the poles stronger, which I love because they will stand up against beach wind well.

Did I mention the poles are color-coded? Even the kids should be able to set this puppy up. 

Finally, I’m impressed by the denier ratings on it. The canopy, floor, and fly have 75, 150, and 75-denier ratings respectively, each with 1,200mm of polyurethane weatherproofing. 

At 13 pounds, this tent isn’t terribly heavy, but not suited for backpacking. It’s one of the best car camping tents for the beach. 

That said, every tent has drawbacks. The limited mesh on the body may make the tent stuffy (if you have the door closed). 

Additionally, getting the tent back in the original stuff sack takes a lot of work.

#8 Snow Peak Alpha Breeze

Best Waterproof Family Tent

Our Rating: 5/5
Floor Area: 77.4 sq. ft
Packed Weight: 24lbs 3.2oz
Peak Height: 73″
Doors: 4
Seasons: 3

Nothing ruins a family camping trip like inclement weather, but it can surprise you all year round, so you shouldn’t mess around with tents that can’t stand up to rain.

All the tents on my list are excellent, but the Snow Peak Alpha Breeze stands out when it comes to customer ratings and waterproof quality. 

The Alpha Breeze is a four-person tent from the famous Japanese tent-maker Snow Peak. The canopy, floor, and fly are 68, 300, and 75-denier polyester taffeta, respectively. 

While you’ll typically see me disparaging polyester as a tent material, I must come clean and confess that my personal tent has the same materials and has been serving me fine for years. 

I’m not alone, as people universally love this tent and brag about how well it does in the rain. 

If I had to find one downside to the Alpha Breeze, it’s that it has flame retardants on the fabric, which the tent industry is moving away from.

#9 Whiteduck Regatta Canvas Bell Tent 10′

Best Cold-Weather Family Tent

Our Rating: 4.7/5
Floor Area: 78.5 sq. ft
Packed Weight: 51 lbs
Peak Height: 7’5″
Doors:1
Seasons: 4

The Whiteduck Regatta Canvas Bell Tent is my pick for the best family tent for bad weather because it’s a canvas tent with a stove jack. 

A canvas tent is an excellent choice in cold weather; it’s durable but naturally breathable and can support infrastructure like a portable stove. Even without the stove, your family will stay warm on cold nights. 

The Regatta is a four-person tent (although it comes in larger sizes) with a sewn-in polyethylene tent floor and double doors (one mesh, one canvas). 

This four-season family tent for rain and wind has an enormous peak height and makes a perfect glamping tent too. 

The downside of canvas tents is that they aren’t self-standing tents. They’re heavy, expensive, and harder to set up than synthetic tents.

If you’re unfamiliar with the wonders of canvas tents for cold weather, check out our article on the best tents with a stove jack.

#10 Coleman Skydome Darkroom 4-Person

Best Budget Family Tent

Our Rating: 4.6/5
Floor Area: 56 sq. ft
Packed Weight: 11 lbs
Peak Height: 55″
Doors: 1
Seasons: 3

Coleman is usually my go-to pick for the best family tents on a budget, and the Coleman Skydome Darkroom 4 fits this bill perfectly. 

This four-person tent is cheaper than some one-person tents I’ve seen, yet the reviews are still excellent. 

I like that this tent is so lightweight. At 11 pounds, the Skydome Darkroom won’t strain anyone’s back. It’s also one of the only family tents I’ve seen with black fabric for the tent’s body.

Coleman says their Darkroom Technology blocks 90% of sunlight, which is terrific for summer camping. You forget how early the sun comes up in the summer until you’re sleeping outside, and I, for one, love to sleep in. 

The downside of the Coleman Darkroom is that it’s a bit on the small side for a four-person tent, and it doesn’t list any fabric specs, which is usually a sign of a lower-quality product.

#11 Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL4 Tent

Best Backpacking Family Tent

Our Rating: 4.9/5
Floor Area: 57 sq. ft
Packed Weight: 5lbs 4oz
Peak Height: 50″
Doors: 2
Seasons: 3

While most tents on my list are for car camping, there are superhumans among us who endeavor to take their children backpacking. Hats off to you!

The Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL4 Tent is the best family-size tent for the backcountry because it’s a four-person tent and weighs just over five pounds. 

The Copper Spur is an award-winning tent design because of how huge the tent is while still being lightweight. Honestly, this thing is lighter than my two-person tent. 

The peak height is exceptionally generous–a foot taller than other tents for backpacking. There is an impressive amount of storage space with 12 interior pockets, including four media pockets.

Another thing to enjoy about the Copper Spur is that it’s freestanding, making it more stable than non-freestanding tents. 

If I had to complain about anything with this tent, it’s the price. You may have to sell your firstborn to purchase this tent (but it will be sooo worth it).

Buying Guide: How to Choose the Best Family Camping Tent

What to Look for in Family Tents for Camping

Number of Sleepers

You need to ensure that you have enough space to fit your whole fam. Tent sleeping numbers are notoriously tight. If the tent says it sleeps four, it probably does, but it might be a cramped fit. 

I recommend sizing up when it comes to family tents. Not only will you ensure enough room for now, but you’ll still have room when your kids grow up (or you add more to the team). 

Floor Area

It can be tricky to gauge floor space on a camping tent, especially when it’s listed as the length times the width. If this is the case, grab your phone and calculate the total floor area. Then, mark it out with tape in your living room. 

The total floor space needed per person while camping is 14-20 square feet. I would treat little kids like adults for this number, especially if they’re in a playpen. 

Peak Height

The peak height is the highest point on the interior of the tent. 

Some families want to be able to stand inside their tents. For others, this isn’t an issue. Take note of your tallest family member to find the best camping tent for your tribe. 

Weight

Most families are car camping, meaning they’re pitching their tent right outside their vehicle. For this reason, weight isn’t usually a huge issue for family tents. 

If you’re planning to backpack with your family, however, you’ll want to pay close attention to your tent weight.

Porch or Screen Room

When it comes to family camping, having a porch (called a vestibule in camp speak) or a screen room attached to the tent is primo. 

This feature gives you more space to spread out or find shelter from the sun and bugs. Plus– they’re just cute and fun. 

Freestanding

The best camping tent for a family should be freestanding. Once the poles are locked in place, the tent holds itself up. 

Freestanding tents are less susceptible to collapse and are easier to set up. 

Seasons

A 4-season family tent will keep families camping in winter warm and cozy. However, a three-season tent will suffice if you prefer summer camping, as most of us do. 

Quality Materials

The best tents for camping use quality materials. Look for tents made of nylon or canvas and avoid polyester, which is a cheaper material. 

Regarding tent poles, look for aluminum or carbon fiber over fiberglass. 

Storage Pockets

If you’re anything like me, lots of storage pockets will enhance your camping experience. 

Most family tents come with *some* storage, but the best ones will have storage galore, including a gear loft on the ceiling. 

Electrical Outlet

While most people go camping to enjoy the outdoors, many modern campers are finding ways to bring technology into their camping experience. Some tents now have electrical outlet ports built into the tent body.

To be totally honest, I mostly see this feature on cheaper tents, but be aware it’s out there, and it might be a feature that comes in handy for you.

Types of Family Tents

Car Camping Tents

What distinguishes a car camping tent is its weight and size. 

Tents for car camping are any that are too big to carry while hiking into the backcountry. Family car camping tents aren’t necessarily backbreakers, but even a 15-pound tent would be considered too large for a backcountry adventure. 

The nice thing about tents for car camping is that you can easily fit creature comforts inside them. 

Backpacking Tents

If your next camping trip is further than a mile into the woods by foot, consider a backpacking tent. 

Most backpacking tents can fit about three people, but if your family is larger, you can take two tents. 

A multi-person backpacking tent should weigh six pounds or less and will have thin, lightweight material. 

Synthetic Tents

Synthetic tents include almost every tent you’ve seen in a campground recently. They’re made of nylon or polyester and usually weigh less than 30 pounds. 

Synthetic materials are excellent on family tents because they’re affordable and easy to set up. 

Canvas Tents

Canvas tents are great family tents because they’re often large, durable, and highly waterproof. 

The drawbacks of canvas tents is that they’re more expensive and challenging to set up than synthetic tents, but the tradeoff may be worth it if you enjoy winter camping. 

Dome Tents

Dome tents and tunnel tents are exactly what they sound like. Both are popular styles for tents, and they almost exclusively have synthetic materials.

The benefit of dome and tunnel styles for family tents is that they shed wind and rain well. The drawback of sloped walls is that they eat into your livable space. 

Cabin Tents

Cabin-style tents look like square cabins, and I’ve seen them in synthetic and canvas varieties. The benefit of a cabin tent is that the near-vertical walls give you more interior space to enjoy. You usually find a taller peak height in a cabin tent.

One drawback of cabin tents is that they can easily catch the wind when not anchored down correctly. 

Tents with Screen Rooms or Porches

The final type of family-friendly tent on my list is a tent with a screen room or porch. 

A separate floorless screen room provides a space for the family to leave wet and muddy gear and space to shelter from rain, sun, or bugs (or all three!).

FAQs About Family Tents

What makes a good family tent?

The best tent for families should have around 14 square feet per person, children included. 

If the peak height is tall enough to fit your tallest family member standing, you should have plenty of space. Finally, always pick a freestanding tent for an easier camping trip.

What size tent should I get for a family of four? How about five or six?

The tent you purchase depends on your family members’ size, age, and camping style. If you are using large air mattresses for each family member, I recommend a family of four sizes up to a six-person tent. 

If your family likes to camp with the bare necessities, a four-person tent will be just fine for a family of four. 

If you are camping with five or six people, I recommend a minimum of a six-person tent. 

Should we share one tent or use multiple tents for family camping?

If your family members are comfortable sleeping in their own tents, having private tents for each family member can make the trip more enjoyable. If you have young kids who would be scared to sleep by themselves, everyone should use one tent. 

Some campsites have a limit on the number of tents allowed per site. Always check to make sure your campsite will fit separate tents. 

Are expensive family tents worth it?

While price doesn’t always translate into quality, an expensive family tent is worth it if it’s made from high-quality materials and comes with a generous return policy. 

Sometimes, a more expensive tent may have luxe features that make your trip more enjoyable. 

What should I think about before camping with young kids?

Consider these tips before camping with young kids. 

1. Practice camping at home by setting up your tent in the backyard or living room. 
2. Pack familiar foods and lots of snacks. If you have a picky eater, plan the meals they’ll eat. 
3. Stay close to home. Find a campsite within driving distance of your home if you need to bail. 
4. Pick a campground with amenities. Showers, playgrounds, and junior ranger programs may make all the difference to your trip. 
5. Bring favorite toys. 
6. Create a cozy sleeping space. Getting kids excited to sleep in a new environment will be easier if everyone is comfortable. 
7. Bring wet and cold weather layers, even in summer. 
8. Plan activities. Whether it’s a hike, s’mores, swimming, or crafts, have some structure in the day so kids can know what to expect. 
9. Organize all the camping gear in tubs (clear plastic works great) so that setup and take down are easier. 
10. Make a safety plan. Ensure your kids know what to do if they get lost or see a new animal. 

You could also check out the REI Kids Adventure Journal:

Which company makes the best family tents?

The companies that make the best family tent options are the same companies that make good tents across the board. 

Big Agnes, Marmot, The North Face, REI Co-op, and Mountain Hardwear are great companies. 

Conclusion: Our Pick for the Best Family Tent

All the tents on this list are excellent. However, if I had to choose one, I would pick the REI Co-op Wonderland 6 with the Mudroom. 

My current camping setup has a very warm, well-protected shelter. I love, love, love, love this feature because I’m a baby in mildly lousy weather, and I know nothing makes little kids grumpier faster than being uncomfortable.  

For this reason, the mudroom attachment appeals to me, and I know it will be a game-changer for families who need to chill away from the elements. 

I also like that the Mudroom is compatible with the REI Co-op Wonderland 4.

REI allows customers to return their purchases, even if they’re used, open, torn, etc., up to a year after purchase with no questions asked. 

Their generous return policy will be excellent for families who decide they need a different product after the maiden voyage.

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