Our pick
Mountain Hardwear Mineral King 3 Tent
Easy to set up and pack away, the Mineral King 3 is a lightweight, two-door tent with a generous footprint and a sturdy dome shape. It’s the perfect choice for three-season multipurpose camping.
The Mountain Hardwear Mineral King 3 Tent is the best car-camping tent choice for couples. It has everything you need for three-season camping, with the bonus of being light enough to double as an occasional backpacking tent. Although it’s designed to accommodate three people—hence the “3” in its name—we found that at 42.5 square feet, the tent is more comfortable for two, plus maybe a dog or lots of gear. Intuitive to set up, the Mineral King 3 has a full mesh body that clips into a hubbed set of poles. An adaptable fly provides protection during rain; you can roll it up and secure it at half-dome or completely remove it in fair weather for epic nights of stargazing. Two vestibules—that’s the camping word for “mudroom”—each add 18.75 extra square feet of livable space, which is handy when you want to store muddy boots or brew coffee from the comfort of your tent in the rain. It also comes with a tailor-made anti-abrasion groundsheet to protect the tent from wear and tear.
Our pick
The Eureka Copper Canyon LX 6 Person Tent offers the best combination of a spacious interior, easy setup, good durability, and a reasonable price. With a peak height of 7 feet and a cubelike shape, the cabin-style Copper Canyon LX 6 was one of the roomiest tents we tested, with extra space to help you stay organized and sleep more comfortably. It is big and boxy, but as long as you plan on lugging your tent only a couple hundred feet, you don’t need something that’s ultralight and high-tech. Although the Copper Canyon LX 6 isn’t built for stormy weather, it’s still tough and durable enough to ride out most rainstorms and windstorms. With a time-tested design, this popular tent is one you can expect to pitch for years to come. (In theory, it’s meant to house six people, but in our experience, a six-person tent is the ideal size for two adults plus two or three children and gear.)
Runner-up
Marmot Tungsten 4-Person Tent
With nearly 60 square feet of floor space and two large vestibules, the Tungsten 4 is an even roomier tent for two people who want to outfit their tent more or who anticipate spending more time inside.
For campers looking for a bit more space, the Marmot Tungsten 4-Person Tent is another good choice for two people. Though it’s less streamlined than the Mineral King 3—and lacks that model’s adaptable fly, which makes access and protection from the elements such a breeze—the redesigned-for-2022 Marmot Tungsten 4 provides nearly equal protection against the elements. A full rain fly with easy-attach color-coded clips protects a half-mesh, half-polyester tent body and adds two large vestibules. With pentagonal doors and an overhanging dome scaffolded by two brow poles—rather than a single one—the fly provides excellent shielding from multidirectional wind and rain, providing you follow the setup instructions faithfully. (The Tungsten 4 has pre-bent tent poles, as does the Mineral King 3. But these poles are bent at a more acute angle and closer to the ground, which, we discovered, can cause the tent to collapse in windy conditions if you don’t attach the poles to the fly with the Velcro tabs running under the seams.) You can also set up the tent without the fly to stargaze at night while retaining some privacy, since the tent body has a high polyester wall on one side. Like the Mineral King 3, this tent comes with its own anti-abrasion footprint.
Budget pick
Coleman Sundome 6-Person Tent
Great for backyard overnights, this simple dome-style tent is for anyone who doesn’t want to spend more than $150 on a tent but also doesn’t want to buy another one next year.
The best-selling Coleman Sundome 6-Person Tent has a footprint similar to that of our top-pick tent for families, but it feels significantly smaller because it has a dome-style rather than cabin-style design. Nevertheless, it still comfortably accommodates four, and it’s a roomy choice for two. This no-nonsense, single-door tent is intuitive to set up, has sufficient windows, includes a partial rain fly that’s easy to put on and stake out, and is cheery-feeling inside and out. We don’t recommend the smaller version of this tent for couples who might actually take it on the road; it was just too flimsy in our tests. Also note that this tent does not come with its own groundsheet.
Also great
REI Co-op Base Camp 4 Tent
A full rain cover, a spacious vestibule, and a reinforced pole structure make this the best choice for couples who are committed to getting outside no matter the weather.
REI Co-op Base Camp 6 Tent
A full rain cover, a spacious vestibule, and a reinforced pole structure make this the best choice for families who are committed to getting outside no matter the weather.
Car campers who plan to brave miserable weather will appreciate the extra strength and protection of the REI Co-op Base Camp 4 Tent. Our other dome-style tent picks are structured with two main poles with added support from smaller brow poles. The Base Camp, by contrast, has four full-size aluminum struts weaved throughout it, somewhat like a basket. The Base Camp also offers superior privacy compared with our other picks—with or without the rain fly. Our other favorite features are the tent’s two wide doors, which you can open halfway from either direction or open fully (you can tuck the doors into “roof pockets” to keep them out of the way), turning the tent into a useful beach tent or sun shade.
Families who regularly pitch their tent in rainy locales need a wind-fighting tent with a good-size vestibule for storing wet shoes and gear, as well as a full rain fly for added weather protection. With almost 45 feet of vestibule space and six stability-enhancing criss-crossing poles, the next size up of REI’s Base Camp, the Base Camp 6 Tent, offers the best combination of space and features among the six tents we tested that fit those criteria. A footprint for each model is sold separately.
