Our Guide to Tents

We've organized the most commonly used items people use to address the Core function below, with example images, characteristics, features, etc.

Our category name		Easy Pop-up	Camping Multi-use	Technical Specialist*	Canvas Luxury
Example qualities & features	Example images
	Example names or uses	Instant tent, quick-pitch tent	Dome tent, tunnel tent, ridge tent	Geodesic tent, mountaineering tent (4-season tent/ winter tent)** See Other products section for more examples	Bell tent, canvas tent, glamping tent, event tent, circus tent, Burning Man tents (see below)
	Example brands	Coleman, Quechua, Ozark Trail	Coleman, Quechua, Ozark Trail, ALPS Mountaineering, Eureka, The North Face, Marmot, Mountain Hardwear, Big Agnes	The North Face, Mountain Hardwear, Black Diamond, or more boutique or specialized brands like SlingFin, Tentsile, Tepui	Kodiak, Springbar, Meriwether, Stout
	How to pitch it (set it up)	You know those laundry hampers that just... instantly spring open? Yup, same idea	Build the poles, then run them through connection points on the fabric
			1-3 poles, 1-5 minutes to set up, guying-out*** may be a good idea	3+ poles, 1-10 minutes to set up, guying-out*** is a good idea	1+ pole(s), 10-20 minutes to set up, usually requires guying-out***
	Set-up size	Designed for sleep only; snugly fits the number of people it's designed for & usually doesn't get to standing height until the capacity is 6+ persons			Can get large enough to fit real furniture inside & be as big as a hotel suite with 10+ft/3+m tall ceilings!
	Performance & durability	Generally not strong or durable, especially in high winds	Strong & durable, but exact specs depend on the product; strongest can be used for easier mountaineering trips	Strong & durable, but exact specs depend on the product	Very strong & durable given purpose as luxurious, outdoor hotel
	Common materials More info about mesh in the Anatomy section	Nylon fabric			Canvas fabric
		Affixed metal poles	Separate metal poles
		No mesh	Generally lots of mesh	Depends	No mesh
Effect on other factors	Price	$30-200	$80-700	$400-1000+	$500-1000+
	Size When folded down. Info on weight below	Due to its nature, can't compress down very well; usually cannot fit into a backpack of any size	Usually fits into a backpack, can be small enough to fit into a side pocket!	May be able to fit into backpack	Generally requires a car, largest capacity may need a truck
	Rationale	Less technical, less durable, and/or less material			More technical, more durable, and/or more material
Why we do/don't carry it = we rent = we sell		There may be issues with durability & already at a low price	Standard for most outdoor uses	We do rent mountaineering tents for people summiting peaks; extremely limited availability, please write-in a special request when you reserve	Much more expensive relative to the improvements in comfort (it's priced like a hotel)

*Our Technical Specialist category is meant to be a catch-all bucket for any number of tents designed for very specific technical purposes, but that still have the general shape of a tent (i.e., an enclosed shelter). For examples, see Other products in the market section at the end

**When you hear 4-season tent or winter tent, you might be tempted to think this is what you need in December. But this is a misnomer, for example, if you're camping in a tropical country in December, it is probably not going to snow. In fact, even in California, unless you're actually going mountaineering, camping in the winter doesn't usually require a special tent. That's why we prefer to call these tents mountaineering tents, to make the difference more obvious!

***Using guylines is key to keeping dry and may be more important for some tents than others; see Usage section for more information.

A tent for Burning Man

For background information, you may want to read our Burning Man Policy first, especially if you're considering renting a tent! The needs that people have when going camping or backpacking vs. Burning Man are completely different, resulting in very different feature requirements & ideal tent types (see above for overview of all types).

We know, Canvas Luxury types are pricey! But so is Burning Man... the incremental price of a good tent, split among people, is worth it. If you only plan on going once, it's worth it to give yourself the best experience. If you plan on being a seasoned Burner, it's worth it because you'll use it more times!

You may have noticed that Easy Pop-up tents also have no mesh, maybe that will work? Unfortunately, those tents, as we have noted above, are also not very durable, and the Playa gets very windy! That's why it's not a good strategy to buy something cheap to throw away at the end of the trip--that cheap tent may not get you through the week! And if you get a bunch of cheap tents as backups, you'll probably have spent your share of a nice Canvas Luxury tent anyway. If you're going this route, you may as well check out our Borrow program (at most, you'll lose the deposit).

If you don't go very often, of course you're going to want to spend less money, but this often means real trade-offs in terms of the experience that you will have with the gear. Even if you do go often & are ready to invest in quality gear, having the upfront funds can be hard!

Now, it may seem like this price & quality trade-off is disappearing, because you can find a cheap version of almost anything for tens of dollars that still has good reviews (assuming the reviews are real). So you might be thinking: I'll just buy something cheap, and because the price is so low it doesn't matter if it's less featured or heavier or whatever compared to something higher end. When that breaks, I'll buy something cheap again, and so on. Just remember:

• What's better than cheap? FREE! And we have a gear library of items you can borrow for free!
• Many reviews are written after only a trial use or first use: We've seen entire review videos of gear done at home, which is very different than actually being outdoors! And reviews after the first use don't tell you about durability at all
• You're headed outdoors to relax and enjoy life! Saving money only to have a trip ruined due to quality issues will feel terrible. Our program to rent tents is designed to help you avoid this trade-off: you get to rent high end, quality tents for around the same price as buying cheap ones (sometimes even for less!)

For this item specifically, the price vs. quality trade-off issues center around performance & durability.

• The tent was bigger or heavier: A 1lb or 2kg difference may not matter on a 3 hour hike, but it might on a 6 hour hike! Not to mention you might need to spend more on a big enough backpack to carry it
• The tent wasn't very waterproof or durable: Wind & rain often come together, and affect each other. E.g., if the poles bend so much that the tent rainfly touches the body, this allows water transfer (see Usage section for more info). If a pole just snaps in the wind, everything will crumble! Fabric-wise, lower end items tend to be made with polyester, which is less durable than nylon (more info in our clothing guide, see section on Durability); and of course, if the fabric tears, performance is compromised. Finally lower end items may not have or may have less effective waterproofing

How many people are you going with? Who will share a tent? These questions are important when considering what capacity (measured in persons) you need. Rule-of-thumb: each person is allotted ~25in (~64cm) of width in a standard tent (standard single sleeping pads are therefore about ~20in [51cm] wide)*, subject to a minimum for 1-person tents. On the length side, standard tents are always long enough to fit individuals' heights, at around 7 ft / 2.1 m long. Because of the constraint in width, a 2-person tent will mean the two of you are basically side-by-side! You can try renting a 2-person tent and then renting a 4-person tent to get a sense of space.

If you're thru-hiking 20+ miles (32+km) per day, every advantage counts! In this case, size refers to compactness. You can carry more gear in the same size backpack if all of it is very compact, or for more weight savings, you can get a smaller size pack.

To reduce more weight & increase compactability, manufacturers reduce the amount of material used (e.g., fewer features, thinner fabrics, etc.) and, where possible, use more technical materials to prevent performance loss. For example, ultralight fabric has to still be waterproof. These strategies create 2 general consequences

• Lightweight gear tends to be less durable: Sometimes, light-weight gear is just thinner & so more prone to damage (even a more technical material may not fully offset the loss in durability)
• Lightweight gear tends to be more expensive: While less materials = lower cost, the more dominating effect is often that thinner materials = more technical = greater cost

For these reasons, the lighter the gear, the more you should treat it as an investment! Is the price difference worth the weight or size savings? This depends on you & your trip! Given our mission we're the only shop that rents a tent that's ultralight, so feel free to try it out, and see how different the weight feels!

While backpacking tents have the same general dimensions as you see in the Capacity section, they are less voluminous because, in an effort to save weight, the tent body tapers downward more severly, there's more mesh, and less pole support. Especially in the ultralight models, even 2 average-sized people may find themselves pressed against the walls of a 2-person ultralight tent, which, depending on conditions, may create issues with water entry (see Usage section). Keep this trade-off in mind, and remember that renting a backpacking tent is a great way to test how it feels for yourself!

Here, we give you a list of questions to start thinking about other features. We hope our approach of savings these features for last gets you to more critically think about what you need & not get caught up in the hype of what's cool and over-spend your budget. Remember, we allow you to hire a tent so feel free to try out various models with different features.

• How many doors are there & what's the placement?
• How much mesh is there vs. solid fabric? If more of the latter, are there windows?
• How well does it ventilate?
• How many internal pockets are there & where are they placed? (e.g., at the ceiling, or on the walls)
• Does the rainfly come all the way to the ground to create a vestibule for gear (see Anatomy section)? How much space is this?

If you are car camping at an established campground, these steps may have been done for you, but you should still check!

1. Be sure that the ground is durable like dirt, not plants
2. Make sure your campsite is an appropriate distance from water, the trail, and not too close to any perilous cliffs!
3. Check that none of the trees overhead are broken and in danger of falling (these are called “widow makers”)
4. Clear out your space making sure that there are no rocks, pine cones, or glass where you are going to pitch your tent. If you are not in an established campsite you should scatter natural materials back over your spot before you leave (but please pack out or dispose of trash), following Leave No Trace principles
5. Whether flat ground is preferred over a slight slope depends. For example during rain, a slope can direct more water to your tent (bad) or direct water to not collect under or around the tent (good). Look at the other factors of your site to manage your risks. Also some people are sensitive to sleeping with their head downhill (the blood rush may lead to headaches in the mornings). In any case, avoid pitching a tent over a depression in the ground, since that can definitely cause water to accumulate.
6. More tips in the section on Keeping dry at camp if you're worried about rain

These are general instructions for most Camping Multi-use & Technical Specialist tents that are freestanding or semi-freestanding (more info on this below) & therefore apply to all the tents we carry. For instructions for your specific tent check the packaging or look up the instructions for your particular model and brand of tent online. If you hire a tent from us, we can send you a YouTube video we've found online with good step-by-step instructions. Protip pay attention to colors on straps, poles, etc., as tents often use color-coding to help you figure out what goes where. In the example below in the images for Steps 1 & 2, if you look carefuly, you can see that the grommet tabs on both footprint & body are green on one end (lower half of image) & white on the other end.

Step 1

Lay out your footprint (aka ground cloth) or tarp. For footprints, lay the glossy side up (shine to the sky, dull to the dirt!). When using a tarp as a footprint, make sure it is folded to be roughly 2in (5cm) smaller on all sides compared to the tent body's floor side, in other words, the tarp should not poke out beyond the tent floor. If it pokes out or is too large, it can collect water, that then pools underneath the tent. Of course if you fold it too small, it won't protect enough of the floor.

Step 2

Lay out the body of the tent on top of the footprint. The mesh parts, zippers, or any plastic clips (for poles) should be facing up

Step 3

Assemble the poles by putting the metal segments together (they naturally want to stick together!). Lay the poles over the body. The most common set-up is shown: 2 poles cross diagonally & attach at opposite corners. Poles may also need to go through fabric 'sleeves' on the body (not present in this case)

Step 4

Each end of the pole should go through a metal grommet found at the corners (in this type of set-up). Since the poles are so long, they'll curve for this to work

Step 5

Bring the curves upward to form the shape of the tent. Usually there's a main central 'clip' to hold X-pitch tents in place where the poles cross, as shown in the image

Step 6

Clip the remaining clips to the pole. A tent isn't done until it looks very tensioned out! Here you can see it looks a bit flat, and as well we have a shorter pole remaining

Step 7

In many models, there may be another pole that further helps create volume, in the case shown, the pole runs perpindicular to the X-poles

Remaining steps

These last steps vary a bit more based on circumstances:

Set-up the rainfly

• The orientation is correct if the logo faces outward (i.e., it's readable as you're walking by) & the zippers on rainfly are lined up with the zippers on the tent body door
• Some rainflies have grommets that should attach to the tent body poles as well
• Additionally, some rainflies have their own poles to create more volume or support. Remember, generally whenever you see a grommet, it's made for a pole

Anchor the tent and/or rainfly & make sure the structure is taut

• Use stakes or guylines (see sub-section on keeping water from getting in)
• A stake mallet may be helpful to drive the stake into ground that's hard, be careful to avoid bending the stake
• In a pinch, you can use heavy objects inside the tent to hold it down, but this will be less effective at providing the tension that you want the fabric to have to keep dry (see below)

Shock cord end pulls out of tent pole

The image at far left below is not a broken set of poles. Sometimes the ends of the shock cord get pulled out from the pole. Just "tuck" the knot back in the pole, and continue pushing it in (see images from left to right).

Stake tips

Depending on the ground, it can be really hard to drive stakes into it. Try stomping on it with your foot, using a rock or a stake mallet if you have one (we do rent them). If all of these fails and you absolutely cannot, it's not the end of the world! Bring more of your gear indoors and lay at the edges to stabilize the tent. Be aware that there are specific stakes for specific terrain such as sand or snow.

Should you push your stakes into the ground straight at a 90 degree angle, or you should you angle it so that there's a 90 degree angle between the stake and the cord or strap hooked on it (usually means pointing end is closer to tent, while top end faces away from tent)? Honestly there's a debate here, and folks swear by one way or the other. Experiment with different ways of doing it! Usually you'll have more than enough stake points that if some are straight and some are angled, it's fine!

Semi-freestanding tents

These tents can stand by themselves, but they may not fully expand to their entire volume. In the example below, the images are taken from above the tent, the bottom half of the image is the rear of the tent. You'll notice that at the top of the image (the front of the tent), the pole goes down to each corner, anchoring it out. However, the single "ridgeline" pole doesn't go to each corner at the rear of the tent. Therefore the rear looks very "collapsed". This would be an example of a semi-freestanding tent, the fact that the pole doesn't go to all 4 corners helps saves weight & size on this lightweight model. To correct this & expand the tent to its full volume, you need to stake out or guy-out (see sub-section on keeping water from getting in) each corner, such that the tension helps create structure, see image at right. Thus, these tents may also be referred to as tension tents. Non-freestanding tents completely rely on tension or other structures to be pitched (kind of like how a hammock requires trees or poles)

Fast-pitch mode

This refers to just setting up a rainfly, sometimes with the footprint (see Anatomy diagram). A fast-pitch tent is primarily used to save weight & size (since the body is not needed), and approaches the territory of tarp tents (see Other products in the market section at the end). Be aware, this mode is not possible with all tent models, check yours & practice at home before going outside!

The below components of a common double-wall** tent are designed to keep water out:

• Rainfly: The raincover for your tent
• Footprint (or ground cloth): Serves as another layer between wet ground & the tent. Generally goes on the outside, however, if you find that it's trapping & helping water pool under the tent, you may want to bring indoors as an extra layer of protection that way
• "Bathtub" floors: The same waterproof material used on the floor of the tent body runs up around the edges, forming a lip to keep water out if it starts to really pool around your tent

Most tents are double-wall, meaning they have a separate rainfly (and the body has lots of mesh, which is obviously not waterproof!). Single-wall tents don't have a separate rainfly, and the body itself is also waterproof. These tents are more common in mountaineering, since without they mesh layer they are more insulating. That said, single-wall tents may present additional issues with condensation, see below.

If you happen to not have a rainfly or footprint, some folks will use a tarp, just be aware of a few key points below:

Can you use a tarp as a rainfly? Tarps are generally at least water repellant. When you use it as water protection, make sure it has not been used previously as a ground cover, since that could create lots of small holes that compromise water resistance (for this reason, our rental tarps shouldn't be used as water protection, since we can't guarantee that people have not used them on the ground). If you're using a tarp as rain protection for a tent it's best to string it up over the tent using nearby trees or vertical poles, like an umbrella. It's not as good of an idea to drape the tarp over your tent like a rainfly, because it's not cut to the shape & contours of your tent, so draping could leave lots of unprotected areas. Not to mention without the right structural support, a tarp could trap condensation or allow water transference from the exterior.

Can you use a tarp as a footprint? Always worth repeating! When using a tarp as a footprint, make sure it is folded to be roughly 2in (5cm) smaller on all sides compared to the tent body's floor side, in other words, the tarp should not poke out beyond the tent floor. If it pokes out or is too large, it can collect water, that then pools underneath the tent. Of course if you fold it too small, it won't protect enough of the floor.

For these reasons, we always recommend having an actual rainfly and footprint. If you happen to have an extra tarp, hang it over the entire tent area, to provide extra protection and minimize rain that hits the tent (which can minimize the water transference effect below).

In addition to having all the components above, proper usage is key to keeping dry, read on each section for critical information.

Babies

If you will be using a Pack 'n Play, be conscious of size dimensions, especially height (i.e., you need height clearance to stand above it). A Pack 'n Play usually takes up the width of at least 1.5 people in a camping setting (e.g., roughly 2 sleeping pads, or 30 in/ 76 cm). For these reasons, we recommend at least a 4-person capacity tent, 6-person capacity for greatest comfort (since these will be standing height).

Pets

Camping with pets can be so much fun, and your pet will appreciate the new environment as well! In addition to checking park regulations on pet permissibility, also consider how your pet may interact with your camping gear. Gear is relatively fragile and we have stories of pets unintentionally damaging zippers, mesh, inflatable sleeping pads etc. when they're nervous or just being playful (those nails are sharp!). These damages can be severe, and necessitate replacement of the item entirely (we have a story of a dog chewing a hole through a tent entirely), so plan carefully to ensure a great time for all. Lastly, you may need substantial space for your pet's bed inside the tent!