8 best family tents that are spacious, portable and quick to set up

Camping with the kids is a prospect to strike fear into the heart of even the most redoubtable parent. But long gone are the days of the leaky canvas constructions and twisted pegs that still haunt former Scouts and Brownies.Instant tent best selling

Family tents on the market now range from multi-roomed luxury to technical and trail-ready: whether you’re heading to a festival this summer or planning a summit attempt, or you just want a full-size fort for the garden, there’s a tent out there to please every single member of your clan.

We tested these tents at family campsites and (where appropriate) wild camping; on multi-day trips and on a sunny Sunday in the garden. But we also took a couple – the Mutha Hubba and the Jack Wolfskin – overlanding without any family attached, and luxuriated in the palatial space.

Our first consideration was space: when family camping, you will never regret having a bigger tent. You need internal space for resting and running around, space for card games in the evenings and when it’s raining, space for someone to nap while everyone else is awake, space for storage and space for changing. We looked for tents with a big footprint, but that also had plenty of customisable compartments.

As our expert camping consultant Poppy Begum wisely put it: “You need rooms in a tent because it makes it look more like a house”. Even with bell tents and yurts, it’s worth buying a model with internal compartments where that’s an option: these help to regulate temperature, which kids are really sensitive to when sleeping.
Then we looked for the many little features that make family camping just a little easier: a built in awning for shade, a porch for wellies and toys that are too muddy to bring inside, but that you don’t want to get soaked; as many pockets as humanly possible; brightly coloured guy ropes (kids are proficient at falling over these); double stitching on seams to stop them coming apart when a small person flings themselves at a wall; double zips on sleeping compartments and external doors so kids can let themselves in and out.

Weight isn’t a huge consideration for family camping, so some of the tents below go up to a hefty 15kg. That is heavy, but with family camping it can often feel like you’re mounting an expedition anyway, and a few extra kilos won’t make much of a difference if you’re carting four mattresses, 17 board games and four suitcases of clothes along for the ride.

That said, there are families with older children who will want to travel fast and light and move on every night – on a hiking or biking trip, for example – so we included a couple of technical models. The biggest weight saver is inflatable vs old-fashioned pole construction: inflatables are faster to put up and lighter, but are often not as sturdy.