Hello!

117 Comments

For adventurous family holidays, a tent is a must have. Getting back to nature is a fun way to spend quality time with the kids. Walking into a camping store, or buying a new tent online can be an overwhelming task if you’re not quite sure what you’re doing.

Don’t be put off by the options that are available, there’s a few key points to consider, and once you’ve worked them all out, you’ll be putting up your new family tent in no time.

1. Budget

This is a big consideration for buying a family tent. Tents range from less than $100 to well into the thousands of dollars. The best idea is to set yourself a budget maximum. This will allow you to take the other points into this article into consideration, and have room to move on your final tent choice. Allow plenty of money and flexibility to get a quality tent that will be useful and functional.

2. Your Destinations

Where and how you camp can make a huge difference to the type of tent that will suit your family. Are you going to be camping for extended periods of time and need lots of space? Are you going to be hiking into campsites and need something that is light and portable. If you’re going to be camping in hot or humid conditions, fly screens and ventilation are very important. Wet areas will require a waterproof tent, one that has a 100% waterproof floor is always preferable.

3. Ease of Use and Tent Type

There are a huge range of tents, from dome tents to heavy canvas tents with poles, quick tents, safari tents, single room tents, even double and triple room tents. Each has its own benefits, and can be suitable in a range of uses. One thing to consider among all the other choices is the ease of use. Canvas tents with many poles, often require at least 2 people to put up and are more time consuming. Dome tents may be much faster, but are often not as sturdy as other tents in windy environments. Quick tents can be more expensive, but are very fast. Find the balance to suit your family.

4. Size and Quality

The size of your family will definitely define the size of your tent. However, things such as budget and likely camping destinations will also help to determine the size. Quality is a huge consideration, but one that may perhaps be sacrificed in order to meet other considerations such as size and portability. The best thing to do is to decide the size, budget and type of tent, and get the best quality you can afford that meets all your requirements.

Whichever tent you use, the best thing you can do is see them set up in store. This gives you a true idea of the size when set up, the quality, and also the pack down size. Before you head off on your first family camping trip with your new tent, be sure to test it out in the backyard. This will prevent having to waste time learning how to set up your home away from home when you should be enjoying your time in nature.

We may get commissions for purchases made using links in this post. Learn more.
  • Lol we just bought the biggest tent we could afford. Had it for nearly ten years and it’s still functional

    Reply

  • Quality and safety are the most important things. When assembling make sure they have plenty of anchor points both in the upper part and where you peg them to the ground. If you get strong wind you may find them collapsing in on you if they don’t have enough strong supports in their framework and where they are pegged tightly to the ground. I personally have seen the sad results of tents being blown down, or in the case of a cheap one badly torn. The wind came from the opposite direction to what it occasionally comes from and the tents weren’t sheltered at all. One family had part of one end gradually drop down. Fortunately nobody was hurt at all. One of them they were able to hold part of it up to all get out safely. They then put it down flat on the ground, put some heavy outdoor gear on the top of it, and folded it up later. All of those in tents ended up doing the same thing. We actually heard the wind coming through a gully before it reached us. Fortunately we were camped on a rural property and were able to take shelter indoors.

    Reply

  • Good suggestions! This is interesting! Thank you for sharing this!

    Reply

  • 4 great tips, thank you

    Reply

  • Also; make sure you have test runs at home; putting up the tent!

    Reply

  • Thanks for sharing this information on camping; such a great family activity.

    Reply

  • I NEED THE EASY SET UP TYPE LOL


    • don’t need to pay heaps for a tent either

    Reply

  • Some great advice about the purchasing of a tent. I only have a 2 man tent so this information is very handy seeing we now have a large family.

    Reply

  • Who knew tent buying could be so overwhelming.

    Reply

  • A good read thank you for sharing very interesting

    Reply

  • We always camped as kids and it’s something I’d love to introduce my kids to, some great tips to consider, thank you.

    Reply

  • We are looking at purchasing a tent. Useful tips here. I think we might try a caravan & camping show to see them set up. Lots of things in one place

    Reply

  • We bought bigger than we needed so that we didn’t feel like we were on top of each other

    Reply

  • So true! We just restored a camper trailer! Love the idea of camping with a real bed!

    Reply

  • Great things to know about choosing a tent.. although tents are not my thing, my husband would love to get one!

    Reply

Post a comment
Add a photo
Your MoM account


Lost your password?

Enter your email and a password below to post your comment and join MoM:

You May Like

Loading…

Looks like this may be blocked by your browser or content filtering.

↥ Back to top

Thanks For Your Star Rating!

Would you like to add a written rating or just a star rating?

Write A Rating Just A Star Rating
Join