A family tent is the biggest thing most families buy for camping, and the one they live with longest. It has to sleep everyone, give them somewhere dry to sit on the third wet day, go up without an argument and come home in the car. This guide covers how much room you need, how the bedrooms and living area are laid out, porches and awnings, headroom, doors and windows, the frame, pitching a big tent, and keeping the bedrooms cool and dark.
How much room a family really needs
The number on a tent's label is the number of sleeping mats that fit side by side on the floor, with nothing else inside. That makes it a count of beds, not of comfort. A family tent filled to its label has no room for bags, no space to sit and nowhere to put the wet coats, which is why the usual advice is to buy one size up. A family of four is comfortable in a 5-man tent or a 6-man tent; a family of five or six looks at the 8-man tents.
How long you stay matters as much as how many you are. For a weekend, beds and bags are most of what a tent has to hold. For a week, it also has to hold the chairs, a table, the cool box, the games for a wet afternoon and somewhere to dry the towels, and the living area becomes the most used part of the tent.
Read the span and the measurements
Many family tents give a span rather than one number, such as 6–8 or 8–12. Count on the lower figure: it is the comfortable one, and the higher figure usually counts children, or counts the living area as sleeping space. The product pages here say so in their own words: the 6-8-12 Person Large Family Camping Tent sleeps 6 to 8 people comfortably, with room for up to 12 in its total living space.
Then check the measurements, because the number alone does not say how the floor is shared out. The Large Family Camping Tent with Two Bedrooms and Living Room is sold in three sizes: S for 5 to 8 people is 320 by 220cm, M for 6 to 10 is 380 by 260cm, and L for 8 to 12 is 430 by 305cm, bedrooms and living room together. The quickest check is to add up the beds: a regular sleeping mat is about 51cm wide and a wide one about 64cm, and an airbed or camp bed takes more. Tent sizes explained sets out those sums size by size.
A tent bought for toddlers may still be the family tent when they are teenagers, so plan for that. For everything from four people up, see family tents, and for the very biggest, 10-man and larger tents.
Layouts: one bedroom, two bedrooms, and the living area
Once a tent is past three or four people, the shape of the floor matters as much as its size. Family tents come in three main layouts.
One bedroom and a living area
The simplest family layout is one inner tent to sleep in and a covered living area beside it or in front of it. Makers call that space a living room, a hall or a vestibule, and "one room one hall" means the same thing. Everyone sleeps together, and the living area takes the chairs and the bags. The Naturehike Dune 7.6 tunnel tent shows how the space is shared: its outer tent is 320 by 240cm, and the inner tent you sleep in is 220 by 150cm, so about a metre of its length is hall. The Naturehike Village 6.0, for 3 to 4 people, gives up to 15 square metres of usable area including its vestibule. This layout suits a couple with one or two young children. See one bedroom and living room tents.
Two bedrooms and a living room
Two separate bedrooms let adults and children sleep apart, so the children can be settled while the adults sit up in the living area, and older children can have a room of their own. The bedrooms sit either side of the living room or behind it. The LanSheng tunnel tent, sold as the 5 to 8 person tent with 2 bedrooms and 1 hall, has a bedroom at each end of a central hall: the 3-pole size is 520 by 340cm and 210cm high, about 17.6 square metres, and the 4-pole size is 680cm long, about 23.1 square metres. The 10 Person Instant Cabin Tent has two bedrooms attached to a central screen room. See two bedroom and living room tents.
Three rooms, and tents that grow
A "room" in a listing can mean a bedroom, the living hall or a screened room, so a three-room tent most often means two bedrooms and a living room. Another way to add rooms is a connectable air tent. The Expandable Air Tent System, model MOT-Q500, is 265 by 265cm inside and 195cm high, and extra bedroom pods join it by zipped connectors; each pod is a tent in its own right that can be used alone. See two and three room tents.
The living area's floor
Check whether the living area has a groundsheet of its own, and whether it is sewn in or loose. A sewn-in floor keeps out draughts and insects; a loose one can be rolled back to let the grass breathe on a long stay. The LanSheng comes with a floor mat. A rug on top makes the living area warmer and kinder underfoot, and is easier to shake out than a groundsheet. See tent rugs and carpets.
Porches, canopies and tents with awnings
Three words describe the covered space outside the bedrooms, and they are used loosely, so it helps to know what each usually means.
- A porch is part of the tent: the covered space at the door, outside the room you sleep in. Boots, wet coats and bags go there. Makers also call it a vestibule, an entrance hall or a hall.
- A canopy is a panel of fabric at the door that can be raised on poles to make a sun or rain shade, or let down to close the door.
- An awning is a bigger roof of fabric that reaches out from the tent, a car or a caravan to make a sheltered space to sit.
On a family tent, the porch earns its keep. With four or more people coming in and out, it is the difference between a clean bedroom and a muddy one. Pitch with the porch door away from the wind, so rain does not blow in each time it opens, and on a tent whose porch has no floor, stand boots on a bag rather than wet grass. See tents with a porch.
Tents with an awning of their own
Some family tents carry their awning with them. The Large Inflatable Family Tent here, 420 by 513cm, has a built-in front awning. The 6-8 Person One-Touch Dome can take an optional extended canopy and a sleeping chamber, and its sides can be fitted with mesh or cloth panels, each 250 by 180cm, so the same frame is a shade, a screened room or an enclosed tent. On the 3-person pop-up family tent the flysheet doubles as an awning. And a separate shelter can be pitched beside the tent as a day room: the BISINNA One-Touch Awning Tent is 300 by 260cm and 216cm high, and weighs about 6.0kg.
Most of the tents with awnings range fixes to a vehicle: car side awnings, tailgate tents and caravan awnings. The RV Tent Awning, for example, attaches to a caravan and has two bedroom areas, 400 by 250cm.
Awnings in wind, and cooking
An awning or canopy is a large sail held at one edge. Peg its poles and guy lines every time, and take a canopy down or close it before strong wind arrives. And however tempting a covered space by the door looks on a wet evening, do the cooking outside, away from the tent: not in the porch, not in the living area and not under an awning fixed to the tent. A stove can set a tent alight and gives off carbon monoxide.
Headroom, doors and windows
Being able to stand up is what makes a week in a tent bearable. Dressing, packing, changing a toddler and laying the table are all easier standing, and that happens mostly in the living area, so check the height there against the tallest person going.
The height on a product page is the highest point, and how far that height carries depends on the shape. A dome slopes away from its peak on every side. A tunnel tent keeps its height along its length but slopes at the sides. A cabin tent has walls that rise nearly straight up, so the headroom reaches right out to the walls. Some heights from the shop:
- The two-bedroom family tents. Height: 195cm to 210cm.
- Naturehike Village 13 ridge tent. Height: 183cm. Floor: 395 by 270cm.
- Naturehike Dune 7.6. Height: 180cm outer, 160cm inner, so you stand in the hall and stoop in the bedroom.
- BASTION 4 Person. Height: 165cm internal.
- Large Inflatable Family Tent. Height: 330cm at the peak.
See cabin tents for the upright-walled kind.
Doors
Two doors are better than one in a family tent. Nobody has to climb past anyone else, and with both open a breeze runs through the tent on a warm day. The BASTION 4-person tent has dual doors for cross ventilation, and the 3-person pop-up family tent two large doors. Look for mesh doors behind the solid ones, so the tent can be open to the air but closed to insects; the Large Inflatable Family Tent has fly screen doors and windows, and double zipped doors with an extra rain cover.
Windows
Windows let in light, and in a big tent they stop the living area feeling like a cave on a grey day. Clear PVC windows give a view; mesh windows give air. The Inflatable 4 Season Cotton Fabric Camping Tent has 2 doors and 6 windows, all with mesh, and 2 vents, and the Large Inflatable Family Tent has panoramic clear windows with insertable privacy windows to cover them at night. Some families prefer the opposite: the 4-person instant pop-up tent here has no windows at all, for privacy.
Poles, air or instant for a family tent
A family tent stands on one of three kinds of frame, and each suits a family differently. Air tents or pole tents covers the choice in full; here is how it plays out on a big tent.
Pole tents
Most big tunnel and dome family tents stand on poles threaded through sleeves or clipped to the outside. The LanSheng two-bedroom tent uses 16mm 7-series aluminium rods with iron brackets; the BISINNA 4 to 6 person tunnel tent fibreglass poles; the three-size family tent steel and glass fibre poles. Pole tents are the familiar kind, and a broken pole can be splinted or replaced. They take longest to pitch, and a long tunnel tent stands only once its ends are pegged out.
Air tents
An air tent stands on tubes of air, blown up with a pump, so there are no poles to thread or snap. The pump does the lifting, which is a big help on a big tent. The 4-5 Person Instant Inflatable Dome is ready in around 2 minutes with its manual pump, by its maker's figure. Check what pump comes with the tent before you buy: most here come with a hand pump, the Automatic Inflatable Camping Tent with an electric one, and on the Large Inflatable Camping Tent for 4 to 8 the pump is an optional extra. Use a pump with a gauge and fill each beam to the maker's figure, around 5 to 7 psi on most air tents. Air tents are heavy: the largest here weighs 95kg. See inflatable air tents.
Instant and automatic tents
An instant tent has its frame built in, so it opens like an umbrella or springs up when pulled. The 10 Person Instant Cabin Tent opens on its own frame; the 6-8 Person One-Touch Dome is 16 square metres of covered space on a quick-pop frame, about 12.7kg; and the Naturehike Village 13 and Village 6.0 open on an automatic ridge frame. With children waiting in the car, fast matters. Folding one away again takes practice. See instant and automatic tents.
- Poles. Pitching: slowest. Weight: middling. A failure: a pole can be splinted.
- Air beams. Pitching: quick, with the pump. Weight: heavy. A failure: a valve or a beam to patch.
- Instant frame. Pitching: quickest. Weight: middling to heavy. A failure: the built-in frame.
Pitching a big tent: the pitch, the help, the time
The pitch
Check the campsite's pitch size before you book, against the tent's outer measurements plus room for its guy lines. The 4-pole LanSheng is 680cm long before a single guy line is pegged out, and comes with 14 of them. Campsites also space tents apart to stop a fire spreading from one to the next, commonly 6 metres between tents, so a big tent cannot simply spread into the next pitch. Follow the campsite's own rules on where to pitch.
On the pitch, look for flat ground, clear of stones, and avoid a hollow where rain will collect. If there is a slope, put the bedrooms so heads are uphill. Pitch with the narrow end of a tunnel tent into the wind and the doors away from it. Lay a footprint first if you use one, so the groundsheet is protected from stones and wear.
The help
A big family tent is a job for at least two adults: one to hold, one to peg. Four makes a cabin or canvas tent much easier. Children can hand out pegs. Bring a mallet and pegs made for the ground you are on, and peg out every guy line, because a big tent catches a lot of wind. See tent pegs.
The time
The first pitch always takes longest. Put a new tent up in the garden or a park before the trip, so you know how it goes together and that every pole and peg is there. Then arrive in daylight, with time in hand. A family tent is up for days, so it sees all the weather: after the first night of rain, check the guy lines again and look for any drips. Tent waterproof ratings explained says what the figure on the flysheet means and why taped seams matter as much.
Light, cool and dark bedrooms
A tent in summer sun warms up quickly, and dawn comes early in June. Both can wake a family long before anyone wanted. A few choices, in the tent and on the pitch, help.
Dark bedrooms
Some tents are sold with dark or "blackout" bedrooms. They use a dark coating on the fabric, or a dark inner tent, which absorbs most of the light that would otherwise come through. Makers' claims for how much daylight they block vary, and they are their own figures, but a dark bedroom is markedly dimmer than a pale one, which helps small children nap in the day and sleep on past sunrise. Several tents here use black-coated fabric: the Naturehike Village 6.0, whose maker says its Ti Black coating blocks 99.9% of UV and infrared rays; the Naturehike Village 13, in 150D titanium black Oxford; and the Expandable Air Tent System, in 200D titanium black-coated Oxford. Read each product page for what its coating is said to do.
Cool bedrooms
Infrared is the heat in sunlight, so a fabric that blocks it keeps the tent cooler as well as darker. A silver coating does the same job by reflecting sun: the Automatic Pop Up Tent with Canopy here is silver-coated 210D Oxford, and the folding hexagonal pop-up tent has a silver-coated layer for reduced heat inside. Air matters as much as fabric. Open the doors on opposite sides for a breeze, use the mesh to keep insects out, and open the vents. On the pitch, the morning sun comes from the east, so a bedroom on the west side of the tent stays darker and cooler for longer, and shade from trees in the afternoon helps the living area. Never leave a child or a dog shut in a tent in full sun.
Dry bedrooms
A tent full of sleeping people fills with the moisture they breathe out. A double-layer tent carries most of it away, but on a cold, still night there will still be some condensation on the flysheet. Keep the vents open even when it is cold, and keep bags and bedding off the walls.
Questions people ask
What size tent does a family of four need?
A 5-man or 6-man tent, ideally with a living area. A 4-man tent will sleep four, but leaves no room for bags or for sitting when it rains. With older children, or for a week away, a tent with two bedrooms is worth a look.
Can we cook in the living area?
No. Cook outside, away from the tent, never in the porch, the living area, under an attached awning or in a bedroom. A stove in a tent can set it alight and gives off carbon monoxide. Never take a barbecue into a tent, even one that has gone out, because carbon monoxide kills.
Can we heat a family tent?
Only a hot tent made for a stove, with its stove jack and a stove made for tents, and a carbon monoxide alarm inside. The Large Inflatable Family Tent here has a stove jack for an 11cm pipe. Never use a heater, a barbecue or a stove without a flue in any tent.
Is an air tent better for a family?
It is quicker to pitch, because the pump does the lifting, and it has no poles to break. It is also heavier, and it needs its pump. A pole tent is lighter for its size and simpler to mend in a field. Many families choose an air tent or an instant tent for the speed with children waiting.
How far apart do tents need to be?
Campsites set the spacing, and it is commonly 6 metres between tents, so that a fire cannot spread from one tent to the next. Follow the site's own rules, and leave room for your guy lines inside your own pitch.
Where to go next
- Family tents, 6-man tents and 8-man tents, for tents by size
- Two bedroom and living room tents and two and three room tents, for separate bedrooms
- Tent sizes explained: the bed sums, headroom and floor plans
- Air tents or pole tents: the frame, in full
- Bell tents and glamping, for a round canvas tent the whole family can stand up in
