The 5 Best Camping Tents

Whether you choose to travel or stay close to home for your next car-camping experience, you and your loved ones will require a comfortable place to sleep. After researching over 65 tents, speaking with tent designers and tent-pole manufacturers, and sleeping in a total of 27 tents on seven weekend camping trips, we’ve determined that the Mountain Hardwear Mineral King 3 Tent is the best car-camping tent for two people right now, and the Eureka Copper Canyon LX 6 Person Tent is the best choice for most families.

Mountain Hardwear Mineral King 3 Tent

For couples, the Mountain Hardwear Mineral King 3 Tent is the best car-camping tent option. It features everything you need for three-season camping and is light enough to use as a backpacking tent on occasion. Although it’s supposed to seat three people—hence the “3” in its name—we found that at 42.5 square feet, the tent is more suitable for two, plus maybe a dog or heaps of gear. The Mineral King 3 is simple to assemble, with a complete mesh body that clips into a hubbed set of poles. An flexible fly provides rain protection; in fair weather, roll it up and secure it at half-dome, or totally remove it for spectacular nights of stargazing. Two vestibules—the camping term for “mudroom”—each offer 18.75 square feet of usable area, which is useful when you want to store muddy boots or prepare coffee in the rain from the comfort of your tent. It also includes a custom-made anti-abrasion groundsheet to keep the tent in good condition.

Eureka Copper Canyon LX 6 Person Tent

The Eureka Copper Canyon LX 6 Person Tent provides the ideal combination of a spacious interior, ease of setup, durability, and affordability. The cabin-style Copper Canyon LX 6 tent, with a peak height of 7 feet and a cubelike shape, was one of the roomiest tents we tested, offering more space to help you stay organized and sleep more comfortably. It’s huge and boxy, but if you’re only going to carry your tent a couple hundred feet, you don’t need something ultralight and high-tech. Although the Copper Canyon LX 6 is not designed for inclement weather, it is strong and resilient enough to withstand most rainstorms and windstorms. With a tried-and-true design, you can expect to pitch this popular tent for years to come. (It’s designed to house six people in theory, but in our experience, a six-person tent is great for two adults plus two or three children and gear.)

Marmot Tungsten 4-Person Tent

The Marmot Tungsten 4-Person Tent is another nice option for two individuals who want a little more space. Though less streamlined than the Mineral King 3 and lacking that model’s flexible fly, which makes access and protection from the elements so easy, the redesigned-for-2022 Marmot Tungsten 4 offers nearly identical protection from the elements. A full rain fly with easy-attach color-coded clips covers and adds two big vestibules to a half-mesh, half-polyester tent body. With pentagonal doors and an overhanging dome scaffolded by two brow poles rather than a single one, the fly provides excellent sheltering from multidirectional wind and rain if the setup instructions are followed exactly. (Both the Tungsten 4 and the Mineral King 3 include pre-bent tent poles.) However, these poles are bent at a more acute angle and are closer to the ground, which might cause the tent to collapse in windy situations if the poles are not attached to the fly with the Velcro tabs running beneath the seams.) Because the tent body features a high polyester wall on one side, you can set it up without the fly to stargaze at night while maintaining some privacy. This tent, like the Mineral King 3, comes with its own anti-abrasion footprint.

Coleman Sundome 6-Person Tent

The most popular The Coleman Sundome 6-Person Tent has a footprint similar to our top-rated family tent, but it feels substantially smaller due to its dome-style rather than cabin-style design. Nonetheless, it can comfortably seat four people and is a good choice for two people. This no-nonsense, single-door tent is simple to set up, has plenty of windows, a partial rain fly that’s simple to put on and stake down, and is cheerful on the inside and out. We don’t recommend the smaller version of this tent for couples who intend to take it on the road; it proved to be too frail in our tests. Also, keep in mind that this tent does not come with a groundsheet.

REI Co-op Base Camp 4 Tent

Car campers who plan to endure inclement weather will appreciate the REI Co-op Base Camp 4 Tent’s added robustness and safety. Our other dome-style tent recommendations are built with two main poles and additional support from smaller brow poles. The Base Camp, on the other hand, has four full-size aluminum struts woven throughout it, similar to a basket. The Base Camp also provides more seclusion than our other options, with or without the rain flap. Other highlights include the tent’s two large doors, which can be opened halfway from either direction or entirely (the doors can be tucked into “roof pockets” to keep them out of the way), transforming it into a helpful beach tent or sun cover.

Base Camp 6 Tent