Kit Dillon has worked for Wirecutter for eight years in various capacities, writing about everything from backpacks and cooking gear to luggage and road-tripping. He has also written for Popular Science, The Awl, Metro, The Observer, and Fortune. 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. 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. You can split some larger tents into rooms to give cohabitants additional privacy. For example, the Browning Camping Big Horn Tent has a wall divider that separates the cabin into two spaces.
Or these slightly more expensive stakes will serve you well in any car-camping terrain. We timed the one-person setup for each tent, and we later clocked the time one person took to break down the tent and get it back in its bag. We also repeatedly zipped and unzipped doors and windows, looking for annoying snags. In spring 2017, we put up our three new contenders in the same neighbor’s yard and left them there for a couple of weeks, during which time we had the chance to see how they responded to two smaller rainstorms. In 2020, we tested the updated version of the Eureka Copper Canyon 6—renamed the Copper Canyon LX 6—to make sure we still thought it was the best. We did, but after hearing some complaints from our readers, we’re now retesting it against other options.
Outside the tent you’ll find extra storage space as well beneath the Skydome’s sizeable front vestibule which also converts into a sun awning as needed with help of a few trekking poles. Since we tested a lot of instant tents in this roundup, we want you to know that they can be heavier than you might expect. While instant tents are getting lighter, they’re still heavier than standard tents and are not a good choice as a carry-along when you hit the trails. They are best as car camping tents, and for backyard campouts and staycations. While many of these tents claim they can be assembled in 60 seconds, that doesn’t include laying down a tarp, putting in tent stakes, securing guylines, or putting on a rain fly.
Regarding camping, there are few things more important than finding a tent with enough shoulder and headroom. This cabin tent features vertical walls for plenty of shoulder room. Most people don’t consider interior storage space while buying a tent. It makes it easy to store and organize coleman sleeping bags your items, especially when it is difficult to find things in a tent. All of the tents were either taken on a car camping trip with a dozen kids that ran and out of it, or we set them up in our yard for four days and two sprinkler cycles (again, with kids running in and out of them).
Our testing also included sitting through thunderstorms on the public land just south of the Hualapai reservation, near the Grand Canyon. Finally, Kit somewhat cheekily borrowed many of these tents and thrust them into the hands of guests at his own wedding. Several couples with various levels of camping experience slept in these tents at the wedding, giving us their impressions and helping us whittle the group down to the finalists. We also wanted self-standing tents, which stay up on their own before you stake them down.
But it does that one trick of assembling quickly very, very well. There are some cheap touches, especially in the construction quality, but this is a cheap tent. While this isn’t a tent you would want take out in inclement weather, it’s a perfect option for backyard camping or shorter camping trips in decent weather. When folded and stowed in its bag, the tent is fairly small, making it easy to store. Coleman advertises the setup as being a less than 60-second process.