These tents have enough room for the whole crew.
Nothing says summer quite like a family camping trip. On the other hand, nothing can ruin a family adventure more quickly than being crammed in on top of one another in a tiny space—especially if you’re waiting out a rainstorm. This is why it’s crucial to have a tent with enough room for everyone to coexist comfortably and have sufficient space for themselves. Before your next family camping trip, check out these great spacious tents.
The Big House 4, from Big Agnes is a beloved modern classic among car campers—and for good reason. The tent’s vertical design maximizes both head room and floor space. And at 70 inches of the former and 57 square feet of the latter, there’s plenty of both to go around. The tent offers two big doors to permit easy entry and ventilation, regardless of how you set up the interior, and plenty of stash pockets for storage. The tent even has an integrated “Welcome” mat to keep your shoes off the ground and out of the tent. More recently, Big Agnes released a six-person version of the Big House with a whopping 83 square feet of floor space and 81 inches of head room. Both the 4 person and 6 person versions can be set up as a sun shelter using just the rain fly and poles. An option vestibule adds a bunch of extra covered storage space and protection from the weather on either model. Both come in easy-to-tote backpack-style storage bags.
Just about any family would be comfortable in the North Face’s huge Wawona 6. This bomber tent boasts more than 86 square feet of interior floor area and its included, two-door vestibule adds almost 45 more square feet of covered, exterior space for storage or shelter and cooking on a rainy day. With 80 inches of height, most everyone in the family will be able to stand, with plenty of clearance, inside the tent. The tent is a waterproof, single-walled design, which simplifies set up and take down, and comes with plenty of interior storage pockets, hanging loops, and internal drying lines. The storage sack is a convenient, duffel bag style.
The Copper Canyon LX, from Eureka!, comes in both four-person and six-person versions. Though its styling is reminiscent of the canvas-and-steel-tubing family-camping tents of the 60s and 70s, the Copper Canyon LX is designed with modern materials and offers plenty of the smart features you’d expect from Eureka!, which is known for making extremely livable camping shelters. First and foremost, the size of these tents is incredible. The four-person version comes in at 64 square feet of living space, while the six-person tent registers a whopping 100 square feet. Families will enjoy seven feet of interior peak height on either version. The tents are designed with massive single doors on one side and three, huge mesh windows on the other three, allowing light and air to circulate while keeping the bugs outside. Plenty of stash pockets and a gear loft offer lots of interior storage, and a cleverly designed, zippered power port lets in electricity (via extension cord) to charge and run your gear without letting in the elements. Both versions of the tent pack up into an incredibly portable, single-shoulder sling bag.
The Grand Hut is the best reviewed of REI’s big, family-sized tents, thanks primarily to its roomy size, easy-to-set-up design, and bomb-proof rain fly. The four-person version offers up nearly 60 square feet of usable floor space or spread your family out in the 83 square feet of the six-person tent. Both versions boast well over six feet of height at the tent’s peak. These two-doored structures feature mesh walls all around the tents’ upper halves, allowing for ample ventilation and stargazing while providing plenty of privacy. In colder or less stable weather conditions, a full fly protects the tent and its occupants from peak to ground—and creates a large vestibule to store gear out of the weather. Multiple pockets, both high and low, as well as gear loops, make for plenty of interior storage.
At under 11 pounds packed weight, the Marmot Limestone 4 is by far the lightest entry on this list—light enough for a family to divvy up the components for a backpacking trip. But with almost 60 square feet of floor area and over 5 feet of headroom, you’ll have plenty of space for the whole family to sleep and store their gear. (The six-person version comes in at 17 lbs., 83 square feet of area and more than six feet of head room). The tent has plenty of stuff pockets for interior storage and a mesh upper for ventilation and enjoying the night sky. The vented fly offers protection all the way to the ground and creates a roomy vestibule for gear storage or enjoying a cup of hot coffee on a breezy morning.
