The Best Tents For Casual Camping

Not sure what the best tent is for the occasional night in the great outdoors? Rest easy with one our top picks.

If your old tent is starting to look tatty, you’re well advised to pick up a new one before your next camping holiday or festival trip. After all, nobody wants to wake up damp in a faraway field, lamenting the poorly-executed duct-tape repair job that clearly failed to re-waterproof that once trusty dome.

To save you the trouble of lumbering around the shops in your local town centre, we’ve pulled together some fine replacements for your knackered old tent.

Easiest To Assemble: Heimplanet The Cave

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.  Coach

If camping holidays bring to mind visions of an increasingly irate man trying and failing to attach one spindly length of metal to another, put your mind at ease with this inflatable tent that goes from flat to fixed in about a minute. At 4.8kg for five square metres of space (room for two large or three small-ish people) it’s not the lightest out there, but there are multiple sewn-in storage bags inside the tent, while a vestibule provides room for cooking equipment or your shoes. Plus, the five closable ventilation points at the entrance ensure sufficient air exchange and a pleasant climate inside the tent.

Best Family Tent: Skandika Montana 8

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With space for eight people across two sleeping pods, the Skandika Montana 8 is a brilliant choice for taking your family – or a group of friends without personal space issues – away for a camping trip. It’s more affordable than a lot of the large tents on the market, but still offers plenty of handy features: mosquito nets, organiser pockets, sealed seams, a repair kit and a sun canopy. It’s also made of breathable, sturdy and fire-retardant material, which will keep you at a comfortable temperature without compromising on safety.

Best Budget Hiking Tent: Coleman Coastline Compact Tent

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If it’s a sturdy two-man tent you’re looking for, perhaps for a hiking or backpacking trip, look no further than the Coleman Coastline Compact. It weighs just 3.6kg, a burden most can shoulder, but it still manages to pack in some impressive features. The groundsheet is highly durable, everything except the porch is waterproof, and there are also window nets and large side pockets.

Best Affordable Two-Man Tent: Vango Soul 200

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The Soul 200 from Vango is a brilliantly simple little tent, with its two-pole design and slim tubular structure combining for easy pitching and a comfortable night’s sleep. It has a fully breathable inner that reduces the risk of condensation, and factory-taped seams to prevent leakage. It’s very light at 2.17kg which, when combined with the price, makes it a very decent starter tent. You won’t regret picking one up for a money-saving weekend away.

Best Cheap Festival Tent: Mountain Warehouse Festival Dome

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If you’re headed to a festival and want an absolute bargain of a tent, the Festival Dome from Mountain Warehouse fits the bill exactly. For less than 30 quid, you’ll get a water-resistant two-person tent that weighs 2.2kg and even has a little storage porch at the front to keep your crates of beer out of the sun. It may not have the bells and whistles of more expensive options, but it’ll save you some dosh and as long as the forecast looks promising, it’ll do the job nicely.

Best One-Man Tent: Snugpak Ionosphere

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The clue is in the name with this one: the Snugpack Ionosphere will snugly pack you into a one-man sphere, serving as a supreme solo sleeping solution. It’s seriously lightweight at just 980g and its pitched dimensions take up the absolute minimum of space (225cm longways by 75cm across). It’s ideal for walking holidays, solo adventures or any camping trip when you don’t fancy sharing your space.