The best 4-person tents are spacious shelters with enough room for a small family or four adults at a squeeze. However, we'd always recommend going a tent size up from the stated capacity, which makes most of these excellent shelters better equipped for up to three adults, realistically – though there are a couple of exceptions, such as the spacious Robens Vista 400.
Of course, kids don't take up as much room, so the best 4-person tent is great for a cosy camping trip for a family of four. The tents featured in this roundup have been tested thoroughly by our experts in all conditions and provide ample protection from the elements.
The best camping tent for you will depend on your planned use and budget. In this guide, we rate the Kelty Dirt Motel as the best 4-person tent of all and it's ideal for backpacking. Special mention should go to the Outwell Nevada, a superb choice for family vacations, while the Vango Carron is a great option for those on a budget.
The quick list
Our reviewer found the Kelty Dirt Motel to be a light, backpacker-friendly tent that’s ready to get off the beaten track and gives you plenty of living space
According to our expert, the Limelight is a comfortable choice for family camping adventures and features reflective points to prevent a trip in the night
Hold your head high in this three-season, luxurious car camping shelter that comes with a lifetime warranty and an excellent recommendation from our expert
Our tester reckons that backpacking families should look no further than this high-quality lightweight tent that's made from premium components
A good size compromise, the Journey is portable and weatherproof, and according to our expert, has more living space than a one-room backpacking tent
Our reviewer concluded that the simple, functional Carron is ideal if you’re after a one-bedroom tent on a budget and need something that's compact once packed down
A great first family tent or festival tent with big living space and room to stand – and at a very pocket-friendly price, says our expert
A beautifully designed, spacious tent sleeping four in comfort with an excellent porch – our tester rates it a top pick for families
A beautifully made shelter that's roomy and breathable – ideal for family vacations. Our reviewer found that it sleeps four comfortably
When reviewing the Coleman Mackenzie 4, our tester found a well-sized, reliably weatherproof multi-bedroom tent that's waterproof and wind resistant and comes in at a good price point
According to our expert, the Luna Bell is a handsome, weatherproof bell tent with masses of space, making it perfect for DIY glamping in the summer months
A roomy, lightweight three-season tent, ideal if you’re moving between camping spots thanks to its ease of pitch, says our tester
A 4-person tent just at home on a summery overnighter as it is in harsh wintry conditions, our reviewer thinks this stylish and high quality tipi-style tent has your back in any situation. It's pricey though
A heavy-duty fortress that will help you in whatever conditions you throw it at, our reviewer found that the Nortent Gamme 4 is a seriously impressive shelter that will help you weather the storm
The best 4-person tents we recommend in 2024
You can trust Advnture Our expert reviewers spend days testing and comparing gear so you know how it will perform out in the real world. Find out more about how we test and compare products.
The best 4-person tent overall
Dreaming of 4-person tent that you can still take backpacking? Meet the Kelty Dirt Motel. The name sums up its appeal: it’s happy to go adventuring far from the madding crowds but still offers a comfy nights sleep when you pitch it in the wild.
As lightweight as many backpacking tents, it could be carried alone in a backpack or easily split between two people. We wouldn’t recommend sleeping four adults in the bedroom, but there’s a good amount of room for three and it’s positively palatial for two. Two doors, each with their own wide porch, make it easy to pop in and out when sharing. There's also room to store your bag and boots next to you.
The Dirt Motel's dome design is wind-resistant enough to take higher into the mountains, but although we found it waterproof enough to deal with a shower when testing, 1,500mm of waterproofing might not be enough to deal with more heavier outbursts. Like the MSR Zoic, the Dirt Motel's inner tent is made of ‘No-See-Um’ insect-stopping mesh that can be used in isolation on the hot summer nights.
Read our full Kelty Dirt Motel review
Best 4-person tent for visibility at night
Small details matter. Often overlooked by first time tent buyers, details like color-coded easy pitch clips and poles, a waterproof seam, taped full-coverage rainfly, and durable fabrics make the Limelight 4 a very comfortable 4-person shelter. Set-up is fast and stress free.
Reflective points shine under headlamps and help avoid campers tripping over guidelines after dark. A large D-shaped door makes entry easy. The top half of the Limelight uses mesh to improve ventilation, save weight and lets campers stargaze late at night.
The rainfly provides solid weather protection but in place, ventilation suffers a bit. The spacious floor plan fits four and two vestibules add more storage space.
A fine choice for car camping families, it’s also light enough to take backpacking if you split the load. The Limelight is constructed with a excellent attention to detail, durable materials and plenty of features to improve liveability. Better still, it is backed by Marmot’s lifetime warranty.
The best 4-person tent for car camping
Higher priced than competitive models, the uniquely shaped Wagontop offers a way of spending a few days outside in almost glamping-style comfort. A self-contained pole hub system creates a large living space with almost vertical walls. No more hunching over or pressing your head against a thin fabric ceiling.
With a floorplan comfortable for four people, there are plenty of pockets and loops to keep sunglasses, smartphones and headlamps from getting crushed underfoot. A huge vestibule adds storage space for muddy boots and daypacks, and helps with living space inside the tent.
Recently updated, improvements include a new window hardware, more rugged 300-denier floor fabrics, and a new pole hub system that simplifies set-up. If your criteria for a family tent is great ventilation, stand up tall living space and lots of room for gear, the Wagontop is hard to beat. Just in case, the stuff sack includes a small repair kit.
The best 4-person tent for backpacking
MSR’s adventurous tents are firm favourites with backpackers. Their larger Zoic 4-person tent, new for this year, provides the same excellent quality we’ve come to expect from this all-American brand.
The inner tent only takes a few minutes to pitch, using lightweight pre-bent poles that magnetically click together. Better still, its mesh lining works well as a standalone tent for stargazing on warm nights, without those pesky insects.
The outer fly is waterproofed to 1,500mm and has withstood heavy rain when testing. The one large bedroom is best suited to three adults or a family with two smaller children. Its two doors each come with a generous porch keep kit dry and stored away.
The Zoic is one of the most breathable tents we tested – ideal for camping adventures on tropical travels. The great quality of every component, from poles to pegs, make this a tent built to last you for years of adventures in the wild.
Read our full MSR Zoic 4 tent review
The best multi-room 4-person tent
Snugpak’s Journey 4 offers a great middle ground between hefty family tents and dinky backpacking numbers – it’s a compact size and a portable weight but offers far more living space than a bedroom-only backpacking-style tent.
When testing, we found it sleeps four adults (or three with lots of space) in one bedroom. It has a separate living room and porch for kit or for shelter during bad weather – which the tent will happily withstand thanks to a flysheet waterproofed to 4,000mm and a groundsheet waterproofed to 5,000mm.
The Journey 4 isn’t a tent you’d want to spend hours in on a long holiday, and there’s no standing room inside, but for a camping weekend or a festival where you’re out exploring for most of the day and want shelter from the elements at night, it’s perfect. It is slightly on the large and heavy side for backpacking, but you could easily split it into two if you want to take it off the beaten track.
Read our full Snugpak Journey 4 tent review
The best 4-person tent for value
One of our top picks if you’re watching the pennies, this simple but effective 4-person tent will fit four adults at a push, but would definitely be better suited to two or three people. Alternatively, it can be used as a separate tent if you want to give older children some space.
Inside there’s one nicely sized bedroom, tall enough to stand up in if you’re under 180cm in height. It's lined with ‘Nightfall’ material to keep it cool and dark, perfect for those humid summer nights. We also liked the well-sized porch for storing our gear or for hiding from the rain.
The Carron is quick and easy to pitch using lightweight, colour-coded fibreglass poles. The outer fly is waterproofed to a decent 3,000mm, which should put up with even heavy rain, and the tough groundsheet keeps water out and is easy to clean.
There aren’t many innovative touches here, but that’s not the point – this is a simple, effective one-bed tent that’s ideal for weekends and festivals.
Read our full Vango Carron 400 tent review
The best 4-person tent for blackout fabric
Decathlon’s cheap and cheerful range of tents are the perfect place to start if you’re after a simple, affordable option to sleep a family of four for a first camping holiday, or to share with a few friends at a summer festival.
We love the living design of this tunnel tent, which features bedrooms at each end separated by a large living area you can stand up in. Two big doors on either side of the living room open up the tent still further, making it a nice space to hang out in during warmer weather. The bedrooms aren’t huge, but each will sleep two, and they are lined with ‘Fresh & Black’ technology, which we found very effective at keeping the rooms cooler and darker during the night.
A bathtub-style groundsheet and 2,000mm of waterproofing mean the Arpenaz can take on wet weather. The tent is pitched all in one and is easiest erected with two people, although colour-coded poles do make the process relatively simple.
Read our full Quechua Arpenaz 4.2 tent review
The best 4-person tent for standing room
The Outwell Nevada might just be the Goldilocks of our round-up – neither too big or too cramped, it’s the perfect size to sleep four in comfort.
Walk through the roomy porch of this tunnel tent, which can be opened up on sunny days, and you’ll find a generous living space that we found, during our test, feels light and spacious thanks to two huge windows and plenty of headroom. Past this are two large blackout bedrooms, both of which will fit a double air mattress without blinking.
The Nevada is fully waterproofed to a hefty 6,000mm, and shrugged off rain effortlessly when we tested it out. It’s not the lightest tent to transport or the quickest to pitch, although pre-bent poles do make things more intuitive and also make the erected tent more stable.
There are lots of nice touches here, including a mesh door to keep insects out and a rain-safe side door for easy access. There’s also a three-bedroomed version available which sleeps five.
Read our full Outwell Nevada tent review
The best 4-person tent for living space
Tents from Robens tend to be pitched (excuse the pun) at the expensive end of the market, but you definitely get what you pay for with the Vista 400, a tent of brilliant quality. Unlike many 4-person tents, Robens mean it when they say the Vista is for four people – the roomy bedroom will sleep four adults comfortably, and is a great size for a family of four to share, even on longer holidays.
We love the big living room, which has huge plastic windows and feels light and airy even on grey days, due to the lighter hue of the Vista’s polycotton outer material. A big porch can be tied open on warm days, with a zippable mesh panel if you need to keep insects out, and has an effective fixed roof to keep rain off.
This may be a heavy, multi-roomed tent, but it’s a doddle to pitch thanks to inflatable ‘air’ poles, and one person can erect it quickly and easily – although it’s still a sizeable tent once packed down. If you want a quality four-man to last for many family camping trips to come, this is worth the price tag.
Read our full Robens Vista 400 tent review
The best 4-person tent for bedroom design
Another well-sized all-rounder aimed at families of four, Coleman’s Mackenzie is perfect if you like good headroom and space throughout. It features two large bedrooms and a roomy living space with lots of built-in storage space.
The bedrooms comfortably take double air mattresses and can even be zipped open to form one massive room. If you're looking to block out bright summer sunlight, the blackout bedrooms are some of the best we tested – perfect for families with younger children. We like the double doors and the well-placed windows too, which can also be easily zipped closed or converted into breathable mesh panels that keep insects at bay. The living room is large enough for a table and chairs, as well as all your camping kit.
This is a large, hefty tent – best used for holidays where you’re setting up in one campsite for the duration, and rate comfort over manoeuvrability. The price seems very reasonable for such a well-built tent – if you’re after a versatile two-bedroom family option, this comes highly recommended.
Read our full Coleman Mackenzie Blackout tent review
The best 4-person tent for DIY glamping
Fancy something a little bit different for your next camping foray? A glamping-style bell tent is definitely a big investment, but they offer a wonderfully airy living and sleeping space, ideal if you find traditional tents on the stuffy side.
Our top pick is the handsome Luna bell tent from Boutique Camping. Inside there’s one large living and sleeping space that can comfortably fit four mattresses by night and a table, chairs and full cooking kit by day. Canvas tents are naturally breathable and cool on hot summer days, and the Luna’s polycotton outer material is water-resistant enough to deal with showers. We loved the large windows, which made the inside a lovely place to hang out whenever rain stopped play, or as a haven to retreat to at a busy festival.
All that space and the quality, thick canvas comes at a price, and the Luna is heavy and cumbersome as well as expensive – you’ll need somewhere spacious to store it and a car boot to transport it. That said, once it’s erected (which isn’t difficult with two people) and kitted out, it’s a true delight to camp in. Perfect for a summer holiday.
Read our full Luna Bell tent review
The best 4-person tent for easy pitching
Sierra Designs specialise in lightweight backpacking tents, camping tarps and shelters for one or two people, but that lightweight know-how translates brilliantly into a bigger tent like the Nomad 4.
After a glance at the instructions, it took us just mere minutes to pitch. Three colour-coded poles offer good protection from high winds, even above the tree line. The bedroom doesn’t quite offer room to stand but is still far roomier and taller than most lightweight 4-person tents on the market.
During our test, we found it a tad too heavy for anything but short trails, but could still work for bikepacking or motorbike touring. Two doors and two porches are great for stashing kit, and plentiful pockets inside make it easy to get everything squared away. If you’re planning on camping for more than a few days, the roomier Nomad 6 might be worth the extra cash.
Read our full Sierra Designs Nomad 4 tent review
The best 4-person tent for versatility
Able to be used on any type of camping trip, the Nortent Lavvo 4 is a beautiful, versatile shelter offering excellent protection against the elements while offering enough ventilation to warrant its use during the summer. It contains smart design features too, including the ability to customise the tent by removing the inner if you so choose, increasing the space as well as making it more suitable for hotter temperatures.
Another design feature is the stove compatibility, with a designated area above the main entry door, complete with velcro fastenings. You can feed your flue up through the chimney port above, adding some additional heat if you need it. Additionally, you can use the stove space to store wet gear, allowing it to dry throughout the night without bringing any water onto the inner.
Between a few people, the Lavvo 4 is easy to carry despite its large packed size, and if you're alone, you might have trouble pitching, at least initially. But if you're looking for a high quality, versatile tipi, there's not much better. Just be wary of that price tag.
The best 4-person tent for harsh conditions
A serious shelter for serious campers, the Nortent Gamme 4 is able to tackle extreme conditions with no problems, providing a roomy and warm camping experience with insane levels of protection. Like the Lavvo 4, it can accomodate a stove, adding extra levels of heat for the coldest of nights, while the nylon backing and heavy duty thickness keeps plenty of heat in if you end up leaving the stove at home.
With five solid poles and nearly 30 pegs, the Gamme is by far the most solid tent our reviewer has tested. Once deployed, both wind and body weight make no difference to its structural integrity, and even the most extreme weather is difficult to notice once inside. Packing it away is fairly easy, which is welcome for a tent of this size, however its ample reinforcement makes it extremely heavy and therefore unsuitable for standard backpacking trips. It's extremely expensive too, although compared to similar hardcore tents, its reasonable for what you're getting.
If you live somewhere with subzero temperatures and relentless wind, or if you want to venture into those types of conditions, this is the shelter for you.
The best 4-person tents comparison table
| 4-person tent | Price | Weight | Style | Best use |
| Kelty Dirt Motel | $380 (US)/£370 (UK) | Light | 4-person backpacking tent | 3 season use: backpacking, bikepacking, thru hiking, car camping |
| Marmot Limelight 4 | $380 (US) / £370 (UK) | Light | 4-person backpacking tent | 3 season use: backpacking, car camping |
| Nemo Wagontop | $500 | Very heavy | 4-person camping tent | 3 season use: car camping, festivals |
| MSR Zoic 4 | $450 (US) / £437 (UK) | Light | 4-person backpacking tent | 3 season use: backpacking, thru hiking, car camping |
| Snugpack Journey 4 | £290 (UK) | Medium | 4-person camping tent | 3 season use: car camping, festivals, easy backpacking |
| Vango Carron | £190 (UK) | Heavy | 4-person camping tent | 3 season use: car camping, festivals |
| Quechua Arpenaz 4.2 | $199 (US)/£170 (UK) | Very heavy | 4-person camping tunnel tent | 3 season use: car camping, festivals |
| Outwell Nevada | £625 (UK) | Extremely heavy | 4-person camping tent | 3 season use: car camping, festivals |
| Robens Vista 400 | £1,250 (UK) / €1,500 (EU) | Extremely heavy | 4-person inflatable camping tent | 3 season use: car camping, festivals, holidays abroad |
| Coleman Mackenzie 4 | $750 (US)/£400 (UK) | Extremely heavy | 4-person camping tunnel tent | 3 season use: car camping, festivals |
| Luna Bell | £839 (UK) | Extremely heavy | 4-person bell tent | 3 season use: car camping, festivals holidays aborad |
| Sierra Designs Nomad 4 | $425 (US) / £337 (UK) | Medium | 4-person camping tent | 3 season use: car camping, festivals, easy backpacking |
| Nortent Lavvo 4 | $760 - $1,150 (US) / £873 - £1,379 (UK) | Medium | 4-person camping tent | 3 season use: car camping, festivals, easy backpacking |
| Nortent Gamme 4 | $1,648.00 (US) / £1,528.77 (UK) | Extremely heavy | 4-person camping tent | 3 season use: car camping, festivals, easy backpacking |
How we test the best 4-person tents
At Advnture we endeavor to test every product we feature extensively in the field. That means one of our team of reviewers and writers – all experienced outdoor specialists active across the US, UK, Europe and Australasia – taking it out into the terrain and climatic conditions that it’s designed for. If, for any reason, this isn’t possible, we’ll say so in our buying guides and reviews.
Our reviewers test 4-person tents overnight, sleeping out with adventure buddies in outdoor conditions, temperatures and terrain appropriate to the rating assigned to the product by the manufacturers/ brand. Lightweight 4-person tents will also be tested in backpacking scenarios to assess their performance as a shelter for multi day hikes.
For more details, see how Advnture tests products.
Meet the testers
An award-winning travel and outdoors journalist, presenter and blogger, Sian regularly writes for The Independent, Evening Standard, BBC Countryfile, Coast, Outdoor Enthusiast and Sunday Times Travel. Life as a hiking, camping, wild-swimming adventure-writer has taken her around the world, exploring Bolivian jungles, kayaking in Greenland, diving with turtles in Australia, climbing mountains in Africa and, in Thailand, learning the hard way that peeing on a jellyfish sting doesn’t help. Her blog, The Girl Outdoors, champions accessible adventures.
A journalist specializing in outdoor recreation, Lou has covered product design innovations, participation trends and environmentally sustainable manufacturing for over 20 years. On the other hand, he’s had some less than successful outdoor adventures: once, completely spent after a hard day on the trail, he managed to set a vintage MSR Whisperlite stove ablaze before accidentally kicking the burning contraption into a lake. A published author, his book about invasive fish threatening the Great Lakes watershed will be published in 2021.
How to choose the best 4-person tent
Although our best 4-person tents share the common denominator of being able to provide four adults with shelter, there’s a huge variation of styles and sizes, with one to suit every kind of outdoor adventure.
If you're arriving by car and setting up camp for a week with the family, you're not going to be concerned with weight, whilst room and comfort are going to be high on your priority list. If you're rocking up at a festival, you'll want to head for the arena as quickly as possible, so you'll want a tent that pops up with minimal fuss. However, if you're wild camping, you're going to need a lightweight tent that combines weather resistance with ease of set-up.
When you’re choosing, consider the following:
1. Weight and size
They may all be amongst the best 4-person tents money can buy, but the weight of the models in our round-up varies from a featherweight 3kg to a whopping 31kg. Think about how and where you want to use your new tent before you splurge.
If you want to go on a multi-week family camping trip with the car, a large, heavy tent such as a family-style 4-person tent with multiple rooms or a canvas glamping tent (see our feature: in defence of glamping) is worth the size and weight for the roomy living space you’ll get.
If you’re looking to discover the joys of camping wild, look for a more compact, lightweight tent. Ideally, you'll want to pick something that weighs 4kg or less if you intend to carry it long distances over a weekend or longer. (Check out our feature on 10 essential items for a backpacking adventure for more inspiration.)
2. Waterproofing and wind resistance
Any tent you invest in should be waterproof enough to withstand a sudden downpour. Look for a ‘twin skin’ tent – this means the tent has a separate inner layer and an outer ‘flysheet’ layer – and pick a model that has a fully waterproof fly.
You’ll sometimes be able to find out how waterproof a tent is by its Hydrostatic Head rating – anything above 1,500mm is considered waterproof. If you’re buying a canvas tent, look for one made with water-resistant polycotton. Good tents have built-in waterproof nylon groundsheets, which stop any wet seeping in from the ground.
Choose a tent with plenty of guy ropes, which you can peg out and pull taught to keep it stable in wind. Dome tents are usually more wind resistant than tunnel tents.
3. Bedrooms and living spaces
4-person tents range from small, one-bedroom options (that are really more suitable for two or three people) to multi-bedroom units with plenty of space for a family of four. Camping with teenagers? You’ll definitely get a better night’s sleep if you pick a tent with two separate bedrooms.
If you’re a light sleeper, choose a tent that uses blackout material inside the bedrooms, keeping them cooler, darker and blocking out the dawn's rays. Breathable mesh panels and ventilation flaps are also useful in bedrooms on hot nights.
For a camping weekender, a small tent with one bedroom and a porch for your kit will be fine. For longer holidays, a large living room – ideally one you can stand up in – plus a roomy porch will give you much more space to manoeuvre and store gear.
4. Tent type
You’ll see multiple 4-person tent designs on the market – the most common are dome, geodesic and tunnel tents – although inflatable tents are becoming more popular.
Dome tents have poles that cross in the middle to create a stable, wind-resistant half-sphere structure, offering a good amount of internal space. Geodesic tents use more poles to create a structure made up of triangles. They are even more stable in extreme weather conditions, but they might be overkill for a simple campsite holiday.
Tunnel tents use sets of poles to create a tunnel shape, usually with a living room and one or two bedrooms. They are easy to pitch but won’t stand alone without being pegged into the ground. This is a good option for families, as they usually offer more space.
You’ll also see traditional canvas glamping-style tents in our round-up – they aren’t usually as waterproof as modern tents but offer the most living space.
5. Pitching
Pitching and packing up a tent can be a breeze – or a fiddly nightmare. (See our foolproof how to pitch a tent guide.) As a rough rule of thumb, the bigger, heavier and fancier a tent is, the more complicated it will tend to be to pitch, and may require two people to erect.
That said, ‘air’ tents, which feature hollow tubes instead of traditional poles and which are inflated using a pump, are a great way to own a bigger, multi-room tent without the pitching nightmare. Whatever tent you choose, it’s a good idea to have a go at pitching it in the garden at home first, to get the hang of things. Pack extra pegs, and don’t forget to use all your tent’s guy ropes, to keep your tent stable in case of wind.
