Best Family Camping Tents UK

The tent is the single most important piece of kit you will buy for family camping. Get it right and you have a comfortable, weatherproof home away from home.

Get it wrong and you will spend the weekend cold, cramped, and wondering why you didn’t just book a cottage.

To begin here, rather than a list of the best family camping tents, I’m going to walk you through exactly what to look for.

The mistakes we made, the checklist we used, and how we eventually got to our own tent.

You’re making a very personal choice, something that is in theory a holiday home you’ll be using for weekends away, maybe even longer. A bit of thought, some research and budgeting can all go a long way to making sure you get this key decision right.

How Big Should a Family Camping Tent Be?

Tent manufacturers measure capacity by the number of adults lying flat with no space between them.

A four-person tent is not comfortable for a family of four. For a family of four, look at a tent rated for five or six people, if not more.

The age of your kids will also play a big part here. Don’t just think about their age now, think about the future, is there something worth getting, not for now, but for two years from now, for example?

You are not just sleeping in the tent, you need space for bags, somewhere to change, and breathing room when it rains.

While you may spend some weekends where you only use the tent for storage and sleeping, we live in the UK, you’re also bound to have weekends when you sit inside for the entire trip.

A living area or porch makes a big difference. For more on kit, see our family camping equipment guides.

Which Type of Family Camping Tent Is Best?

Tunnel tents offer the best living space for the size and many have separate sleeping pods.

Dome tents are freestanding and easier to pitch, good for first-timers. But these generally just have one big space, and nothing else, so perhaps not practical for a family.

When you get into the bigger sized tents, tunnel tents have really taken over the market.

Inflatable tents use air beams instead of poles and pitch in minutes, brilliant kit, but significantly more expensive, so even looking at these would depend on your budget.

From personal experience, I can definitely tell you that air tents cut down on the stress and arguments while setting up. But they do need a bigger initial outlay, so you’ve got to be committed and sure you’ll use the tent.

What to Look for in the Best Camping Tents for Families

There’s a million things to look out for. Some key, some personal preference. Here’s a list that gets you started, without covering everything.

The best camping tents for families will tick most of these boxes, if not all, but your priorities will depend on the situation.

• A hydrostatic head rating of at least 2000mm for UK camping, higher for autumn or Northern Scotland. Even in summer, you’re likely to encounter rain at some point.
• A sewn-in groundsheet makes a massive difference with setting up, warmth and comfort.
• Bedroom blackout panels for families with young children are great if your kids will be up when they see the light.
• Good ventilation to manage condensation is key, to prevent your things from getting wet
• Colour-coded poles and clip systems for easy pitching are a nice extra, but this is always something you can do yourself, once you’ve learnt how to put the tent up.

How Much Should You Spend on a Family Camping Tent?

Finding the best tent for family camping is about matching the right features to your family’s specific needs.

For a first family camping tent, £200-400 is a sensible range, it should give you something that’s strong, ticking the boxes from above, without going high end until you know you’ll love it.

If you camp frequently, it is worth investing more of course, either for something bigger or better. Depending on where you are on your camping journey, will depend on the price range you’re looking at.

A well-made family tent that is looked after should last up to a decade, so it’s a long term investment if you get the right one.

Camping holidays are great for weekends away, and extra trips. It can be very cost effective, but only if you’ve got a tent to last. Buying new tents every couple of years soon adds to the cost of these trips.

For more advice, visit our family camping equipment section or the Camping With Kids homepage.

Pre-Buying Checklist for Family Camping Tents

I’ll round off by reiterating what I’ve said above. A tent will work for you and your family situation, it’s a personal buy.

A great tent for someone else, might not work for you. A best seller that you see everywhere, might not work for you.

A family meeting, with everyone old enough to have genuine input, is a great place to start.

What’s the key areas, how many separate bedrooms, a cooking area, seating area, multiple small sections or one big section. These should all be talking points.

Iron all of this out, combine it with your budget, and the hundreds of tents on offer are quickly whittled down into a much more manageable list.

When we bought our most recent tent, this is exactly the approach we took, and it really helped.

We wanted two equal sized sleeping areas, a living area and some kind of porch to be used as storage and cooking.

I don’t think this is a hugely complex list of things to ask for, but you would be surprised by how many tents we crossed off the list, because they didn’t offer those three things.

And finally, don’t forget to have fun! Picking out a tent, looking at the available options and visiting different shops should be exciting and part of the experience, so go and enjoy it!