Life in a Tent

Picking a tent

Finding the perfect tent takes time.

Here’s the funny thing about tents…you want them to be small enough you can carry the bag without giving yourself a hernia and ruining your camping trip, but you also want them to be large enough that everyone doesn’t have to be on top of each other.

(I mean hey, we’re all friends here…but that doesn’t mean I want to sleep two inches from the person who snores like a chain saw…though now that I think of it, making them bring their own tent is probably a better plan…but I digress.)

Why’d I Need to Buy a Tent in the First Place?

A path like this just screams "set up a tent and stay!"

It all started this past summer. I hadn’t been camping in years because I hadn’t had the time, the equipment, or the friends with an interest in going. I had a tiny little 3 person dome tent (translation: if you REALLY like the person you are camping with, you might fit one other person in there with you), a sleeping bag and the other basic gear, but I didn’t have a good tent I could take camping with friends.

Then a friend from out of state moved to town and I learned he loved to camp, though he hadn’t gone in years. Scott suggested a bunch of us go camping for the 4th of July weekend and that started the ball rolling. The original plan was for Scott, Stoney, Rachel and I to head to Hocking Hills for a weekend camping trip. Now with four of us, we could have squeezed into two tiny dome tents, but not long after plans were made, Rachel decided to bring along her then boyfriend John. Suddenly we were a party of five.

That’s when I found out Stoney also loved to camp. Since his kids live out of state and mine are with their father three weekends out of four, we realized we could have a lot of fun camping on the weekends through the summer while we explored some of Ohio’s state parks. That was all the excuse I needed to toss my teeny tiny tent and replace it with a larger one. That way, we could enjoy the “condo” camping experience when it was just the two of us (i.e., all the space we could need) and still have plenty of space for friends to come along.

What Was I Looking for in a Tent?

So now I was tasked with finding a tent that would usually get used by two people, but might occasionally need to sleep half a dozen or so. Since neither Stoney nor I mind camping in the rain (more on this in another post) I figured a larger tent would work just fine because it would give us enough space to spread out and play games or cook if we decided to camp through a monsoon.

Since I’ve learned from camping trips past that the amount of people a tent advertises it will hold should be cut roughly in half, I knew a six person tent was going to be the minimum and an eight person would be ideal. Neither Stoney nor I are a big fan of dirty tents, which means shoes come off and dirty gear stays outside. That meant I was going to be looking for a tent with either a screened porch or a vestibule for storage.

The final challenge was the fact that I, like most campers, am not made of money. I had some money laid aside and I’d decided I could probably cough up around $150, but there was no way I could spring the $300+ that most of the big cabin tents set you back. So…let’s check out the finalists…

Columbia Bugaboo II 5-Person Dome Tent

Sturdy, compact, and probably sleeps three at the most...

I’m a big fan of dome tents. They’re pretty easy to set up, they’re a good use of space and if you get one with a good rain fly, you’re pretty much set to weather any storms. That said, dome tents only tend to get so big. One of the first tents I looked at was the Columbia Bugaboo II 5-Person Dome Tent. I liked the looks, the price ($120) was right, and it had great reviews…but that whole 5-person thing was getting to me.

The listed dimensions of the tent were 12 foot by 9 foot. You put four people side by side and they each have about 3 feet of width to sleep in. That’s not terrible, but overall, it does leave you getting pretty snuggly with each other. Add a fourth person laying alongside everyone’s heads or feet and you eliminate pretty much any space for gear. For two of us, it would have been fine. For five of us? Umm, no thanks.

Jeep 7-Person Family Dome Tent

Plenty of space, decent price but no porch!

Next up I took a look at the Jeep 7-Person Family Dome Tent. Running just over $175, it was more than I wanted to spend, but the fact that it boasted three rooms was appealing. (Boys over there, girls over here, everyone meeting in the middle…or kids over there, gear over there and grown ups in the middle…I like tents with rooms.)

This looked like a great tent and it had pretty strong reviews (though some people said it needed a hefty dose of water sealant if you planned on being out in the rain.) The biggest issue I had with this one (apart from price) was the lack of a porch. I really…really…REALLY wanted a tent with a porch.

Greatland 7-8 Person Cabin Dome Tent

Ironically, after two weeks of hunting on Amazon, several trips to sporting goods stores and some serious Internet searching, I ended up buying a tent from…Target. Yep, Target. I know, I know…hard core campers are probably shaking their heads at me. (Go ahead, point and laugh at the new girl, I can take it!) I was strolling through Target one afternoon and decided to swing by the tents just to see what they had. What I found was a nice sized 8 person tent with a screened in porch and a room divider. The price was $160, which was close enough to my established budget for me to fudge it a little. I called up the web site on my iPhone and the reviews were pretty solid.

Two rooms a porch and space to comfortably sleep five

So…tah dah…meet the official tent of Life in a Tent camping trips. It’s pretty easy to set up…one person can do it in about 30 minutes, two people in 15-20. The rain fly is super easy to put on and covers both the tent and the screened porch. We usually take a large tarp with us that’s big enough to set the tent on and then fold the front corners back under themselves to conform to the shape of the front porch. We’ve camped through several rain storms with this tent and apart from some water collecting on the tarp from rain coming in on the screened porch, it stays remarkably dry.

I’d like to say it sailed through our first season of camping with flying colors, but the truth is, it only made it to a second trip. That’s when one of the clips that holds the outside tent poles came right off at the seam. This happened about three weeks after we got it, so we simply packed it up and took it back to Target for an exchange. The second tent has held up just fine. Alas, Target doesn’t sell it any more so I can’t really suggest you run out and buy it.

(Top tent photo courtesy Flickr creative commons license user: leeno)