Stooping in a lightweight, minimalist, backpacking tent while camping out of your car isn’t much fun. Neither is getting blown over in a flimsy, big-box-store mega shelter. With that in mind, we tested seven new larger camping tents this past year in a quest to find the most luxurious, well-designed, and storm-worthy camping tents for lounging in style, no matter what the forecast looks like.

　　Be sure to also check out our picks for the best backpacking tents and our favorite camping cooking gear.

　　At a Glance Best Overall: Big Agnes Bunk House 4 ($433) Most Durable: Snowpeak Alpha Breeze ($500) Best Bonus Feature: MSR Habiscape 4P ($500) For Larger Families: The North Face Wawona 8P ($699) For Bad Weather: Mountain Hardwear Bridger 4P ($468) How to Choose a Camping Tent How We Test Meet Our Lead Testers All gear in this guide was tested by multiple reviewers. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside. Learn more.

　　Best Overall Big Agnes Bunk House 4 $433 at Amazon $600 at Moosejaw

　　Floor area: 58 sq ft (tent), 15-34 sq ft (vestibules)

　　Weight: 16.2 lbs

　　Packed size: 6 x 16.5 x 26.5

　　Pros and Cons

　　⊕ Intuitive set-up

　　⊕ Packs down fairly small

　　⊗ No bathtub floor

　　The Bunk House 4 has almost everything we look for in a car camping tent, without any superfluous features adding unnecessary weight, complexity, or bulk. The 6-foot-tall ceilings were high enough for most people to stand under, and near-vertical wall angles made the simple rectangular layout feel more spacious than its approximately 7-foot by 8-foot proportions would suggest.

　　Despite its tall ceilings, the Bunk House 4 was easy to set up: Five-foot-four category manager Miyo McGinn had no difficulty pitching it solo. The backpack-style carry straps were convenient while loading and unloading the car, though not quite padded enough to comfortably haul the tent any real distance in its carry-on luggage-sized travel bag.

　　Two testers and seven friends were able to cram inside the 58-square foot main shelter for a rainy afternoon of card games, but we found that the space most comfortably slept three adults or fewer, particularly if they were using larger camping pads or cots. There was plenty of room to stash packs and extra gear out of the weather in the 15-square foot rear vestibule. A 34-square foot front vestibule can function as a mudroom, additional storage space, or be set up as an awning with two included poles. Inside, 16 interior pockets around the sides and ceiling kept small items organized.

　　The Bunkhouse 4 held sturdy on a gusty evening at the Washington coast with 20 mph gusts (which can’t be said of all tents this tall and wide), thanks to the well-placed, easy to tension guy-out lines anchoring the rainfly to the ground. The 60-denier waterproof polyurethane-coated polyester rainfly and 60-denier tent body held up just fine to light showers, soggy campsites, and oceanside fog and dew. But the lack of a bathtub-style lip along its base—where the denser floor fabric extends a couple inches up the sides to prevent any pooling water from leaking in through the thinner wall material—makes us reticent to give an unqualified endorsement of its waterproofing. This isn’t a disqualifying design for most campers and climates, but we might think twice before pitching this tent in a rainforest.

　　Most Durable Snow Peak Alpha Breeze $500 at Amazon $500 at Backcountry

　　Floor area: 121 sq ft

　　Weight: 24.2 lbs

　　Packed size: 4.9” x 8.1” x 6.1”

　　Footprint: 14.9’ x 8.1’ x 6.1’

　　Pros and Cons

　　⊕ Four points of entry

　　⊕ Excellent ventilation

　　⊕ Durable

　　⊗ Heavy

　　The Alpha Breeze showcases Snowpeak’s emphasis on designing elegant, simple products with a decidedly luxurious fee. The top-tier materials—in this case, polyester fabric and duralumin poles—are strong and functional, and durable enough to stay that way for quite a while.

　　The extra-thick copper-aluminum poles gave us confidence when a sustained 15 mph wind picked up during an overnight on Camano Island in Washington. The structure barely flinched under the gusts, and the forearm-length Douglas fir boughs they knocked down onto our campsite. The 75-denier, DWR-treated polyester taffeta rain fly and 300-denier polyester tent floor both looked brand-new after two dusty, rocky trips in Montana’s Bitterroot Mountains.

　　Besides the fact that it felt indestructible, Seattle-based tester Maeve Axtell loved the boxy tent’s four doors, with one on each side. “It was easy to get in and out without disturbing other people sleeping in the tent, and when it got warm we could get cross-breezes from every direction,” said Axtell. The tent’s high ceiling and two mesh-covered “windows” on opposite walls contributed to the spacious feeling inside that the four doors created, although all those openings only left space for four mesh pockets and 10 loops to stash small essentials inside.

　　All good things come at a cost, though, and with the Alpha Breeze, the cost is weight. Despite its heft, it’s not excessively bulky and doesn’t take up an unreasonable amount of trunk real estate. Another ding? It’s not especially easy to set up: and the tent’s 6-plus-foot height makes the Breeze a tad unwieldy to pitch. Testers ultimately forgave those shortcomings, since both features made for a rock-solid pitch and roomy, comfortable interior.

　　Best Bonus Feature MSR Habiscape 4P $500 at REI $500 at Backcountry

　　Weight: 12.7 lbs

　　Height: 73 inches

　　Interior space: 62.5 sq. ft. + 23.5 sq. ft. vestibule

　　Pros and Cons

　　⊕ Lots of livable space

　　⊕ Highly weatherproof

　　⊗ Mediocre ventilation

　　There’s a lot we liked about the Habiscape, from the generous elbow room (86 square feet including the vestibule) to the ample standing height (73 inches), but it was a dual-sided pocket that hooked us. Next to the door MSR built in something they call a “pass-thru pocket”—a bug mesh-lined portal that’s accessible from both inside and out. Without opening the door, testers could reach through to grab car keys, bug spray or a headlamp. “It seems like a little thing, but the convenience was huge,” says Chris Baikie, a British Columbia-based tester. “There were definitely fewer bugs in the tent because of it.”

　　Set-up for the Habiscape requires two people, but the asymmetric design and color-coding helped make it quick and easy. The dome structure and low-hanging 68-denier polyester fly stood up to a 20 mile-per-hour windstorm with little flapping. The rest of the tent is equally tough, with the same 68-denier poly on the floor, 40-denier ripstop nylon walls, and 7000 series aluminum tent poles.

　　We had to duck under the vestibule door to get inside, but it provided enough room for a cooler and gear, and kept drips out of the tent during rainstorms. A second door came in handy for frequent nighttime bathroom excursions. The Habiscape packs down easily, and ends up smaller than many tents of its size, at roughly nine inches by two feet. “It’s almost perfect,” says lead tester Ryan Stuart. “And it’s not even that heavy.”

　　Best for Families The North Face Wawona 8P $699 at REI $699 at Amazon

　　Weight: 18.1 lbs

　　Height: 77 inches

　　Interior space: 112 sq. ft. + 44.7 sq. ft. vestibule

　　Pros and Cons

　　⊕ Massive vestibule

　　⊕ Room divider

　　⊗ Large footprint makes it hard to fit into some campsites

　　The Wawona is big all over—and that’s a good thing. In a decade of tent testing for Outside, this might be the biggest tent that tester Ryan Stuart has ever slept in. There’s plenty of room for eight to lay down in the 112 square foot area, though we mostly tested it with smaller groups. Cumberland, B.C.-based tester John Waters used the Wawona like a bunk house at his in-laws’ cabin on British Columbia’s Denman Island. By hanging the optional mesh wall, which splits the tent down the middle, he created two rooms and stuck his two kids on one side, while he and his wife enjoyed a bit of privacy on the other.

　　The mesh pockets in each corner are big enough to hold a laptop. The expansive, 45-square-foot vestibule alone is nearly the size of a three-person backpacking tent. “You can stand up in it,” remarked Waters. “We had two deck chairs and a small table in there.”

　　He wasn’t as keen on the door. It opens wide and tall—no stooping or ducking required—but the bathtub floor is 10 inches tall, enough to create a tripping hazard, particularly for fast-moving kids. The complementary high-cut fly, however, left lots of room for venting windows while preventing sideways rain from entering.

　　Most impressive was the set up. “It’s huge, but I still managed to get it up by myself,” says Stuart. “That’s rare for any car camping tent.” Color-coding and manageable pole lengths were key for raising the roof on this mansion. Ironically for those trying to avoid RV camping areas, the eight-by-eight footprint is so big that it can be hard to fit the Wawona into smaller, tent camping-only campgrounds.

　　Best for Bad Weather Mountain Hardwear Bridger 4P $585 at Backcountry $468 at Mountain Hardwear

　　Weight: 18.6 lbs

　　Height: 66 inches

　　Interior space: 62.5 sq. ft. + 69 sq. ft. vestibule

　　Pros and Cons

　　⊕ Bombproof design

　　⊕ Big vestibule

　　⊗ Smaller second door

　　There are two types of car campers in the world: those who cherry-pick sunny weekends, and those who head out no matter the conditions. Mountain Hardwear drew on its mountaineering tent heritage to design the Bridger for the latter.

　　The thick, 68-denier ripstop polyester on the fly extends right to the ground on all sides—a rarity in this category—to keep rain and backsplash away from the tent. Aluminum tentpoles create a domed main structure, while a separate hoop pole lifts the fly, giving the Bridger both a roomy- and weather-shedding shape. During a thunderstorm in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny National Forest, where winds whipped up to 30 miles per hour, testers created a bombproof pitch using adjustable stake-out loops at each of the six pole-tent connection points, as well as guy-out attachments on the fly.

　　The main vestibule is bigger than the tent itself, with a floor and removable storage panel that has six pockets large enough to fit a bike helmet, and opens far from the interior for drip-free entry. “The vestibule is effectively a mud room,” said tester Adam Sauerwein, a roving Vanlifer. Four more mesh sleeves inside hold smaller items, like headlamps and phones. The storage adds livability to the tent, which Sauerwein says feels roomy for four. Setting it up at camp was simple, he says, with color-coded poles, although packing it back up is a bit awkward, owing to a tight stuff sack.

　　The premium fabric and extra square footage makes the tent heavy, though not especially bulky for its size. If you plan to car camp in all seasons, the robust build promises years of dependably dry nights.

　　How to Choose a Camping Tent Size and Dimensions Start with the number of people who will be sleeping in the tent and add at least one. No one ever complained about a little extra elbow room, and ultra-wide camping pads often need extra space. Next, consider packability: If you have limited storage or trunk space, a more packable option will make jamming it between all of the coolers and propane easier. Height is crucial, but comes with a tradeoff: Being able to stand up to get dressed or stretch your legs is nice, but means it will be harder to set up, especially if you’re doing it solo.

　　Feature Set Look for ample pockets for staying organized, big vestibules and/or high bathtub walls that protect the interior from blowing rain, multiple venting options, and roomy doors. Of course, a tent’s principal job is to protect you from the elements, so weatherproofing should be a primary consideration. A fly that reaches to the ground provides the most coverage, but can also limit venting, making for uncomfortably stuffy conditions when it’s hot. A tall pole structure is susceptible to high winds, so make sure the tent has plenty of guy-out points for stabilizing and protecting the tent from gusts.

　　Budget Price is always important, but try to prioritize value. Spending a bit more for a tent with more durable materials, like higher denier fabrics and burly aluminum poles, will save you money in the long run. You can find a no frills, serviceable four-person summer tent in the $200 range, with waterproofing, durability, and reparability generally improving as you start getting into higher price ranges.

　　But if you’re looking for a tent to use three seasons of the year, that you expect to get a lot of use in stormy weather, or that you’d like to use for the rest of your life, we recommend budgeting between $350 and $600. That’s the cost of more reliable construction and waterproofing—which, as all of our testers who have woken up to puddles inside their tents can tell you, is priceless when you really need it.

　　How We Test Testers: 14 Products tested: 7 States visited: 5 Tent stakes bent: 3 This year’s batch of seven tents was put through their paces by 14 testers, who ranged in age between 18 months (car camping with a toddler is possible!) and 68 years old. Each tent was used on at least two trips, and the most popular—the Big Agnes Bunk House 4—ended up seeing almost four weeks of use when testers kept coming back to it. The worst weather these tents endured was two June days of non-stop rain in Yellowstone; the best was six straight days of mild blue skies in Washington’s San Juan Islands in August.

　　Testers rated each tent they used based on durability, weather-proofing, comfort, and ease of use/set-up. They also offered qualitative feedback on design details they loved or hated, what type of camper or setting a tent is best suited to, and, at the end of the day, whether they’d recommend it to a friend. The tents here are the ones that earned the highest praise across the board.

　　Meet Our Lead Testers Miyo McGinn is an assistant editor at Outside based in Bozeman, Montana. She has camped in a dozen different states and four continents, but Washington state, where she grew up, will always be her favorite place to pitch a tent. McGinn got her start reviewing gear as Outside’s gear editorial assistant in 2021.

　　Ryan Stuart became a freelance writer when he realized he’d never get paid to play doing any of his other passions, possibly because he has too many of them. He’s a pretty good skier, decent paddler, hiker, and runner, and loves to make mountain biking, surfing, and rock climbing look harder than it is. Whenever he can, he practices those activities from a campsite somewhere far from other humans.