There’s nothing more summery than packing up the car, rounding up the kids and heading for a sunny campsite. And while you don’t need much for a happy holiday under canvas, a good quality tent is a definite essential.
There are some key things to look for when buying a new model: make sure the tent has a completely waterproof rain fly (the outer later) and a coated nylon floor, so you don’t wake up in the middle of the night in a puddle. The more guy ropes a tent comes with the better (for added stability), and groundsheets are essential – they protect the tent’s floor from rocks and stop condensation forming if you’re camping somewhere chilly (like, say, Britain). Be wary of the number of people a tent claims to sleep – for some, you have to halve that number unless you fancy sleeping like sardines.
Larger family tents are often heavy and bulky, but if you’re planning a week-long trip with the car it makes sense to pick something really spacious since you’ll only have to erect it once. We’ve tested out a range of sizes and found eight great quality options for all budgets. Fancy sleeping in something little different? A canvas bell tent is great fun, and children will adore sleeping suspended in a tree tent.
1. Hi Gear Voyager Elite 6 Family Tent: £475 (£275 with Go Outdoors discount card), Go Outdoors
The crowd-pleasing all-rounder in our list is the Hi Gear Voyager Elite. Combining a generous size with a decent price, this blue beauty lets plenty of light into its spacious, high-ceilinged main room, making organising the masses of gear involved in camping with kids a lot less hassle. The tent is easy to erect in about 20 minutes, with a waterproof, wind-resistant outer and two roomy bedrooms best suited to two adults and two or three children. The sleeping pods are designed to stay dark even when dawn breaks, too, so you’re less likely to be woken up at 5am by excited small campers.
2. SoulPad 5000-Hybrid Tent: £595, Cotswold Outdoor
An ideal size for two grown-ups and two little ones, this pretty canvas bell tent makes an easy, breezy portable house for summery weekends and family festivals. It’s great for tall mums and dads, too, as the central ceiling is three metres high. Unlike some canvas tents, the SoulPad Hybrid is designed to fully withstand the elements, with a zipped-in groundsheet (on really hot days you can unzip this and roll up the tent’s sides), a waterproof canvas outer and mosquito mesh on the windows. It's heavy to transport, but easy and fast to set up between two of you. It’s a really luxurious option – if you find normal tents plasticky and hot at night you’ll love this.
3. Vango AirBeam Maritsa 600XL Tent: £1169.99, Winfields Outdoors
An eye-watering price, yes, but you really do get what you pay for. This big and beautiful six-man tent is surprisingly easy to pitch - two people make it easier due to its sheer size, but you can get it up in 15 minutes with practice due to its user-friendly design. and inside are three massive, airy bedrooms, a space suitable for storage and a living space with loads of light, courtesy of the big windows and high roof. The Maritsa is the only tent on test that would comfortably fit as many people as it claims – you could pack in two adults and four teenagers and still not get in each other’s way. It’s as reliably waterproof and weatherproof as you’d expect for the price, and boasts more features than there’s space to list here (for starters: sewn-in groundsheet, watertight seals, mesh doors, a sheltered entrance, blackout inner tents, inner dividers and a roller bag for moving it all around). If you’re planning to carry on camping as your family grows, this is an excellent investment that’ll last for years.
4. Quechua Arpenaz 5.2 XL Family Tent: £299.99, Decathlon
Decathlon’s own-brand tents are cheap, cheerful and functional, and the waterproof Arpenaz stands out as the best family-sized option at a great price. The tent’s two decent-sized bedrooms are ideal for a family with two or three children, and there’s a roomy living space too. The well-made, colour-coded poles make it easy to erect in around 20 minutes and keep it stable in bad weather. A versatile, go-anywhere tent which is ideally popped in the boot for a summer camping adventure in France or Spain.
5. Tentsile Connect Tree Tent: £420, Cotswold Outdoor
Who wants a boring old tent when you can sleep in your own portable treehouse? These hugely fun Tentsile tents hang suspended above the ground between tree trunks and are far comfier than sleeping on cold, hard ground. On really balmy nights you can sleep under the inner mesh layer and watch the stars, and in less-lovely weather the outer fly is fully waterproof. They only sleep two, so you’ll need one tent for the grown-ups and one for the kids, but it’s worth buying a pair for such an innovative and downright fun way to camp. The ratchet system pulls the whole thing so tight that they don't bounce around in bad weather, either. Tentsiles are also brilliant strung up in the back garden at home as an instant den, or hung between posts or larger cars if there are no trees around.
6. Mountain Warehouse Holiday 6-man Tent: £119.99, Mountain Warehouse
Feeling strapped for cash? This simple, spacious tent will do a family of four proud for a smidge under £120. The Holiday tent boasts three bedrooms, a central living space and useful covered porch and is fully waterproof, with a built-in groundsheet. It’s a bit of a faff to put up, despite the colour-coded poles – try it in the garden first, so you’ve got the knack before you venture outdoors. That said, you won’t find a bigger, better quality family-sized tent for less than £150.
7. Clas Ohlson Asaklitt 8-Man Tent: £249.99, Clas Ohlson
Pretend you’ve landed on Mars by bedding down in this funky, futuristic dome tent. It’s a simple, one-room design that can fit up to eight campers (eight adults would be a squeeze unless you travelled without much gear, eight children will fit with tons of room), making it perfect for children’s camping parties or for cosying up at festivals. There’s plenty of standing room in the middle, too, with a ceiling 3.4m high to help when getting things organised. The outer fly is waterproof and stands up well to high winds, and the inner mesh layer keeps everything breathable. The one-room design makes it straightforward to set up.
8. Berghaus Air 8 Inflatable Tent: £679, Blacks
If the idea of fiddling about with endless tent poles in the drizzle makes you want to give up and go home, do not fear. Berghaus’s fully waterproof inflatable tent is a doddle to put up and down (we reckon you can do it in five minutes once you’ve got the hang of it), and despite feeling like erecting a bouncy castle, once ready the tent is solid and waterproof, with a very generous central living room space and room for up to eight at a squeeze. You can also buy a separate add-on porch space for £229, ideal if you’re camping with extended family.
The Verdict: Family tents
If money is no object or if you’re buying a tent with years of family camping in mind the excellent Vango AirBeam Maritsa is worth splashing your pennies on. Otherwise, the thoughtfully-designed Hi Gear Voyager and the fuss-free Quechua Arpenaz both offer great value for money and are ideal for summer camping holidays. The Berghaus inflatable tent stands out as the best pick for bigger families, and quirky campers will love the Tentsile tree tents.
Sian Lewis is a travel and outdoors writer and editor of The Girl Outdoors blog
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