How to Choose the Best Family Tent
How to Choose the Best Family Tent
To make sure you purchase the best family tent for your outdoor vacation, make sure to consider the factors below when you go shopping.
Season or Weather Conditions
A basic family tent is affordable but can only provide you sufficient warmth and protection in all seasons except winter. If your family is not that fond of winter camping then a 3-season family tent is more than enough for your needs.
Water Resistant and Proper Ventilation
Old tents gave you privacy but not much protection against the rain or even morning dew! You could cover the parts that are prone to leaking, but that would prevent air from properly circulating in your tent. Moreover, there’s the ground to consider. Old tents only cared about providing shelter but nothing to cover the hard ground.
Today, however, there are more expensive varieties available that are made of water-proof and heavy duty fabrics from top to bottom. The ground cloth of your tent can provide ample cushion so that you won’t suffer too much from the hard ground.
You’re probably thinking, what about the ventilation? Don’t worry, that’s covered as well. New family tents nowadays have rain flies attached to the poles, which allows air to come in while keeping the rain out.
Assembly
Remember how frustrating it was to figure out how to set up your tent? Sure, it came with instructions – maybe even a manual – but it might as well have been written in Sumerian with what little you could understand.
Thankfully, modern tents nowadays are trouble-free when it comes to assembly. Many subtle but significant innovations had been added to make assembly as easy as ABC. Also, you can ask for a sales representative to make a demonstration of how the tent is assembled and disassembled. If you can do it on your own then you’ve got what you’re looking for!
Portability
Some tents – even though they’re able to accommodate an average-sized family – may be designed to be compact for portable travel. They could fit a single backpack or duffel bag, allowing only a single person to carry the entire tent kit. Consequently, compact tents would require less storage space than usual.
Brand or Quality
Finally, consider the quality of the fabric and poles of your tent. Feel its texture and thickness. Will it provide you sufficient protection from the weather and the hard ground? Is it easy to tear? High-quality tents may cost you more than usual, but it will also reward you with greater safety and protection.
