The 6 Best Large Family Tents (Bought & Tested!)

The video

Best Weather Protection

The North Face Wawona 6

The North Face Wawona 6 is only a 6-person tent, but its overall square footage is humongous. It has a base area of 75.7 sq. ft. and a vestibule area of 51.0 sq. ft., bringing the total to 126.7 sq. ft.

Here’s how the Wawona 6 compares to the other large family tents I recommend:

The inner tent area and outer vestibule area of each large family tent I recommend.

Not too shabby, right? Its total area is only slightly smaller than the 10-person tents here, and it’s even slightly larger than the 9-person tent. That’s why I felt it belonged here.

Now, here’s the biggest reason I had to recommend this tent. This was the only large tent I managed to put through a whopping 3 days of heavy rain (my entire yard flooded, the bottom of the tent was completely underwater, and it didn’t leak at all).

The Wawona is also the only tent in this review that has a vestibule, and it’s the biggest and most livable one I’ve ever tested. I could fit 2 huge camping chairs in there, with lots of space left over for a big camping table too.

My Wawona also has the highest quality DAC MX aluminum poles, an aerodynamic shape, plus a whopping 11 guylines. So I managed to put it through 50 mile-per-hour winds, and it held up fine.

One not-so-good point is that the inner dome tent area is really quite small. I measured it at 75.7 sq. ft., the smallest 6-person base area I’ve ever seen, when the average runs about 85 to 90 sq. ft. You can still fit 4 adults in there pretty comfortably though, 2 on each almost-queen bed (80 x 59in and 80 x 56in).

And if you need this in a slightly bigger size, the Wawona also comes in an 8-person model, with all the awesome pros that the 6P has.

Best Instant Large Family Tent

Gazelle T8 Hub Tent

Note: I bought the Gazelle T4 Hub Tent, so all the pictures here are of the T4. I absolutely love it, for many reasons.

First, my T4 has a total setup timing of 5 minutes, so I estimate the T8 at about 10 minutes (about half the time of a regular tent this size). And without the rainfly or guylines, it pops open in just 1 minute and 45 seconds (yes, I timed this!).

Second, both the T4 and T8 have entirely removable tent floors, connected to the tent body by a super long Velcro strip all the way around. So when packing up, I just undo a part of the floor to let the air out, less than 10 seconds, where other instant tents take minutes.

Third, the space. Most instant cabin tents I’ve tested slant their walls between 15° and 35°. The Gazelle T4? A mind-blowing 0°. Those completely vertical walls gave me a whole ton of livable space, and I could literally walk around the entire tent from corner to corner.

And fourth, the quality. The polyester runs from 210D to 300D, even thicker than my Wawona’s, and where most instant tents have 1 to 3 center hubs, my T4 has 5 and I believe the T8 has 8. It felt much sturdier than every other instant tent I own.

But one con to take note of is the massive packed size. The T4 packs down to about 68 inches long and I think the T8 is about the same, so do double-check your car dimensions before buying it. And look, it’s taller than I am:

If you’d prefer a large family tent with a screen room instead, the best one I’ve seen is also from Gazelle. This is just the T4, plus a screen room, and its rain protection is much better than the budget screen rooms.

Best Budget Instant Large Family Tent

Core Equipment Instant Cabin 9

Now, I know the Gazelle above isn’t the most budget-friendly, so what’s your best bet if you’d like a large instant family tent on a budget? I’ve got just the pick for you.

I did some testing with the other large instant tents from Coleman and Ozark Trail, and here are my results:

The large budget instant tents I compared it against.

Essentially, the Core has the highest peak height despite not being the largest tent. It also has the most vertical walls and the most hubs holding the tent fabric up, which means much more livable space.

It’s also one of the fastest large tents here, second only to the Gazelle, at 12 minutes to set up and 9 minutes to pack away. The carry bag they gave is nice and roomy, which makes for a relatively easy pack up too.

But of course, since this is a budget-friendly tent, bear in mind that the rain protection isn’t that good. After my 1 hour heavy rain test, there was quite a bit of leaking through this un-taped flooring seam, so you’ve got to seal it yourself.

Best Budget Large Family Tent

Core Equipment Straight Wall Cabin 10

In my 4 years of testing, I’ve found that Core Equipment does much better than Coleman and Ozark Trail when it comes to cabin tents, both instant and non-instant. Bear in mind that this one is a non-instant cabin tent, so you’ve got to set up all the poles yourself.

I really liked this Core tent because it’s the least expensive of all the large tents in this review, and it still has the biggest floor area at 135.8 sq. ft. On top of that, its peak height comes in at a whopping 90 inches, taller than any other large tent here.

One thing though: if you’re not tall like me (I’m only 5’3), you might find this peak height a little too tall. I couldn’t reach the top of the tent, so every time I wanted to hang a lantern or get something from the gear loft, I had to stand up on a chair.

The lowest height at the corners still came in at a whopping 65 inches, so I could stand up everywhere in this tent.

But of course, since this is a budget tent, it suffers from the same issue as the Core Instant tent above. It leaks at the floor seam in heavy rain, so you’ve just got to do a little sealing and waterproofing on your own.

I also noticed that Core Equipment has this 9-Person Family Dome Tent, which is about 25% cheaper than their cabin-shaped counterpart, in case that’s more your budget.

The methodWhy You Can Trust Me

Unlike most of the “best large family tent” lists you’ll find, I actually bought, own, used and thoroughly tested every tent here. Yup, every single one.

I believe in objectively testing each tent and giving you the most accurate results, whether good or bad. That’s how 2 of the 6 tents here ended up in the discontinued pile instead of my picks.

Every figure above is from my own testing. Measured by hand, bought with my own money.