When planning for a camping trip, there’s no question that a tent should be one of the top few items on your packing list. There are many important factors to consider when picking a tent, one of them being how fast you can erect it.
There are a variety of tents to choose from – Quick Erect Tents, Air Tents, Pop Up Tents and Bell Tents. After some thorough research, we’ve concluded that Quick Erect tents are the fastest to set up. Read on to find out why!
Quick Erect Tents
Swift and simple to erect, Quick Erect Tents come with the poles already fastened and all you have to do is snap them into place.
Coleman Instant Tourer 4
The Coleman Instant Tourer 4 Tent provides campers with lots of space and high opacity for maximum comfort and privacy. It also features big windows for campers to check out their surroundings from the inside. This tent is extremely easy to assemble and will only take campers seconds to erect.
HEWOLF Automatic Pop-Up Tent
The HEWOLF Automatic Pop-Up Tent is a very affordable tent that uses the umbrella mechanism. It is very compact and only weighs about 2.72kg. This tent has a headroom of about five feet and can fit up to three or four people, depending on how cosy you’re willing to get. One of the coolest features of this tent is that if you detach the inner, it can serve as a shelter.
HEWOLF Instant Tent
The HEWOLF instant Tent features a unique shape that provides campers with a spacious interior. Just like the HEWOLF Automatic Pop-Up Tent, it can double as a shelter by detaching the inner. When erected, this tent measures 200cm x 180cm x 130cm and weighs just below three kilograms.
Air Tents
Air Tents feature inflatable beams that are pumped up to give them a solid structure. When it comes to this category, we were left spoilt for choice as there were so many to choose from. There are Air Tents with different shapes, spaces, windows, opacity and so on.
Quechua Air Fresh and Black Four-Person Tent
Despite its name, the Quechua Air Fresh and Black Four-Person Tent fits a bit snug for four adults. We recommend using it as a two-person tent for maximum comfort and hassle-free storage. This tent features a high opacity for sleeping past dawn and a sewn-in groundsheet. It measures 480cm x 280cm x 190cm and weighs 14 kilograms.
Coleman FastPitch Air Valdes 4
The Coleman FastPitch Air Valdes 4 is so spacious that you can fit a nice cosy mattress or camp bed in it. It measures 610cm x 300cm x 200cm and weighs about 20.8kg. This tent also features a sturdy canopy, large window, high opacity, sewn-in groundsheet, and low side doors with a hinge. On top of that, it also inflates very fast and comes in different sizes ranging from four to six people. The only downside to this tent is that it is more on the pricey side.
Pop-up Tents
Pop-up tents are commonly known as kids’ or backpackers’ tents due to their small size. However, many companies have started making larger tents using pop-up technology.
Cinch Hub
This smart tent comes with a bunch of nifty add-ons such as a solar panel, LED lights, and an inner tent for sleeping. The Cinch Hub takes about one minute to pop up and is very spacious, measuring 190cm x 230cm x 230cm. It also has zips on all four sides and a big canopy for increased rain protection.
Coleman Pop Up Tent Galiano
The Coleman Pop Up Tent Galiano is lightweight and can be erected in no time. It packs away nicely for hassle-free transportation and storage. It features light and flexible fibreglass poles and waterproof and fireproof fabric for maximum protection against harsh weather. Campers can also open up the top of the tent to look at the stars at night.
Decathlon Quechua Pop Up Tent
The Decathlon Quechua Pop Up Tent comes in a circular pack. Campers will have to peg out the groundsheet and the poles will snap into place in one ‘explosive’ motion. This tent uses Velcro, straps, pegs and guyropes to stay up. Repacking it is rather tricky, so make sure to watch the instructional video before you try doing it yourself!
Bell Tents
Also known as a tipi, a Bell Tent is very easy to set up. All you have to do is set up one pole in the middle and use pegs and guyropes around it. Bell Tents provide plenty of room both vertically and horizontally. They come in a range of different materials from tough canvas to thin polyester.
Campfeuer Teepee With Porch
This massive tent measures 560cm x 450cm x 300cm and weighs just below 14kg. It features a central steel pole and individual sleeping pods. However, the Campfeuer Teepee With Porch has a sewn-in groundsheet which means it is not as versatile as the other tents in this category.
Robens Cone and Field Tower
The Robens Cone is easy to use and is the smallest and most inexpensive tent in Robens’ tipi collection. It weighs just over five kilograms and fits four campers.
The Field Tower is a larger version of The Robens Cone and has five-person and eight-person options for bigger crowds. Instead of the heavier and less versatile sewn-in groundsheets, this tent utilises zip-in groundsheets.
Quest Bell Tents
The Quest Bell Tents takes the best bits from old and new bell tents to provide the best experience for campers. It weighs about 26kg but is simple enough for one person to set up. The zip-in groundsheet is made of tough PVC and the walls are made of cotton canvas, which is good for ventilation but takes a while to dry.
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed our guide to picking the quickest tent to erect as much as we enjoyed making it. Whether you want to try a unique experience this summer, sleep under the stars, or escape to the countryside for a few days, we know that nobody wants to spend hours setting up a tent. Remember: each minute saved on erecting your tent means an extra minute to enjoy the great outdoors!
