9 best family tents UK 2022: our favourite spacious, multiroom tents from Decathlon, Berghaus, Vango
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Sleeping under canvas is a childhood rite of passage, and you can’t beat family camping trips as a simple and affordable way to get outdoors in the summer holidays. A good camping trip lives or dies by one thing, though – a decent tent.
Whether you have happy memories of childhood’s spent camping, or recollect soggy holidays away, in a tent not fit-for-purpose, you should be reassured: the tents of 2022 are a stark improvement on the tents of yesteryear.
Exercise canny judgement and you can find a tent roomy, waterproof and comfortable both to sleep and hang out in - an ideal base camp for day trips hiking, a lovely home away from home to laze about and read in, or a refuge from the elements out wild camping.
Indeed, with individual chambers, you can even solve the issue of buying a family tent when you have a teenager who doesn’t want to be sharing an enclosed space with the rest of the family: just leave them enjoying their own, cordoned off area while you get on with roasting marshmallows and watching the stars.
What should you look for in a family tent?
Multiple bedrooms are an excellent idea when you’re shopping for a family tent, especially if you have teenagers in need of their own space. Standing room is a big help when you’re sorting out the myriad bits of kit involved in camping with children, and a spacious living area will give you somewhere to hang out and play games on rainy days.
A porch or anteroom is also useful for popping muddy boots in. Look for a sturdy, sewn-in groundsheet with a coated nylon floor to keep you warm and dry, a waterproof rain fly (this is the outer layer of the tent) and plenty of guy ropes for stability.
What does tent size mean?
Tents are sized according to the amount of adults they can feasibly sleep (i.e four-person, six-person). That said, two adults and two or three children will usually find a six-man tent the best fit, especially if you’ll be camping for a week or two at a time.
What are the downsides to a family tent?
The larger the tent the heavier it tends to be, of course, and the longer it’ll usually take to put together. You’ll see inflatable (sometimes labelled ‘air’) tents on sale as well as traditional designs using metal poles – air tents use a foot pump to inflate their structure, and are quicker and less stressful to erect.
If you’re hopping around lots of different campsites on your holiday then weight and pitching time are factors definitely worth taking into consideration, but if you’re just headed to one campsite and your car has a roomy boot, it’s worth going as big as you can afford and not worrying too much about weight – you’ll only have to pitch your new home once, after all.
The pitch times suggested by manufacturers are usually optimistic, so expect a bit of trial and error the first time you erect your canvas palace.
We’ve tested out a range of sizes and found our favourites: great quality tent options to suit most budgets, ranging from portable tents suitable for wild camping to multi-room mega-tents.
You need somewhere roomy, waterproof and comfortable both to sleep and hang out in, especially if the weather isn’t looking so balmy. We’ve selected nine of the best family-sized tents on the market to take with you, designed to sleep four people and up.
Key specs – Capacity: Six person; Rooms: One-three; Weight: 22.5kg; Pitch Time: 25 minutes;
Summer time, and the living is easy in Vango’s Stargrove II.
We were impressed with how thoughtfully the Stargrove has been designed – this sturdy tunnel-style tent stands at lofty two metres tall and is also wide enough inside to allow for plenty of storage, head room and living space throughout.
‘Nightfall’ blackout bedrooms can be customised with dividers to create one, two or three bedrooms – it might be a tad snug for six but this is a very generously sized tent for four or five campers.
Wide windows in the double living room, a tough waterproof flysheet, mesh insect panels and the option to pitch the side door as a canopy make it a pleasure to use the Stargrove in rain or shine alike.
Key specs – Capacity: Six person; Bedrooms: One; Weight: 10kg; Pitch Time: 15 minutes;
Kelty’s Palisade is listed as a six-person model but we reckon it works best when sleeping two adults and two children in its one large bedroom, leaving some space in the porch for kit.
This is not a big multi-room family tent, but if you don’t mind sharing a bedroom on camping holidays or if you’re planning shorter camping weekends with smaller children, it works very well, and is also useful for festivals or even just pitched as a roomy play tent in the garden.
You can also pitch this tent using just the transparent mesh inner layer, which protects against insects and is lovely for stargazing on hot, clear nights.
The Palisade’s low weight and compact size also make this a great tent to plump for if storage is limited.
Key specs – Capacity: Six person; Bedrooms: One; Weight: 32kg; Pitch Time: 15 minutes;
There’s lots of things we like about the reliable Lichfield tent, but where it really stands out is in its easy pitching and its great weatherproofing.
Despite being a large and heavy six-person model, this tent can be pitched in ten minutes flat by pumping up the well-designed inflatable Airbeam poles.
Once erect, the Lichfield feels very sturdy and weatherproof.
A tough plastic groundsheet keeps the inside of the tent warm and dry even when pitched on wet ground, and the tent’s thick outer fabric is fully waterproof and withstands wind and changeable weather, making it a sensible choice for summer camping holidays in Britain’s ever-unreliable summer weather.
While the Lichfield will sleep six, there are only two bedrooms, so we’d recommend it for a family of four or five.
Key specs – Capacity: Four person; Bedroom: One; Weight: 5.4kg; Pitch Time: 10 minutes;
Most tents that will comfortably fit four people are heavy, multi-bedroom behemoths designed for traditional summer holidays.
Not so Snugpak’s Journey Quad, which is lightweight and portable enough to work for wild camping adventures as well as for quick camping weekenders, but can still fit up to four adults comfortably.
There’s only one bedroom, but there is also a generous porch/living room where you can store extra belongings. It’s hassle-free to pitch the Journey Quad in about ten minutes, and on test we found it reliably waterproof in bad weather.
This is a great choice if you want to invest in just one tent that can go from backpacking trips to festivals to traditional family campsites.
