Coleman Instant Setup Weatherproof Camping Tent, 4-10 Person

Muy práctica, fácil de armar y desarmar. Muy espaciosa, las ventanas adecuadas para el flujo del aire, los cierres prácticos, tiene dos entradas

I opted for this tent because the overall consensus was how very easy it is to put up. Yes, it really is very, VERY easy to erect. We are a family of scientific/engineering types, so not the very least likely to succeed with putting up a tent, but we are also not very advanced campers. With some experience (less than one camping trip per year) but not a lot, we found this tent to be super easy to put up, even with 5 and 8 year old children distracting us in the process.

We used it a couple of times in the backyard first. No real problems there (except a nervous preschooler who decided to “go back home”/inside before 9pm.) When we were planning a class camping trip with other families, I warned my husband, “the reviews say this tent is great, EXCEPT IN THE RAIN” so we planned to just pack up early and leave if the weather turned bad.

Well, living in New England… we got a pretty intense thunderstorm during our three night camping trip! The shelter over the picnic tables was leaking. One (out of five) families just packed it in and left at dusk when their tent started to flood. The weather reports the next day actually stated flash floods occurred in the area where we camped… but we slept pretty darn dry in the Coleman 6-Person Instant Tent! I would say there were two very tiny spots of water infiltration from above. We definitely had one child who rolled to the side and got a damp sleeping bag due to sleeping in contact with the side of the tent. HOWEVER, even without the rainfly and with no tarp covering us, all in all, we had a dry tent. This far exceeded my expectation for how well this inexpensive, easy-up tent would handle serious rainfall. (It POURED in the evening, then rained softly to moderately throughout most of the night.)

We did luck out, by arriving last in our group, in having the highest placed campsite at our New Hampshire state park. The coziest seeming sites were definitely downhill from ours when the weather turned bad. The site did seem pretty flat upon initial visual inspection, though. The soil was sandy, so the rain water was able to sink it fairly quickly, thank goodness.

Aside from weather resistance, our family of four found the interior space of this tent comfortable. We use the self-inflating (backpacker style) camping pads by Therm-A-Rest (

Thermarest Luxury Map Air Mattress, Blue

 in the 30-inch wide XL size for the adults and much smaller 3/4 length pads for the kids), so we aren’t crowding the tent as much as household sized thick air mattresses would. It was snug but comfortable with our beds deployed and a few duffle bags with clothing. We had room to move between our beds, but we only use the tent to sleep and get dressed.

Having read all the reviews, I brought a few wooden clothes pins to use to keep the window flaps from flapping, and I had zero issue with any noise or inconvenience with the windows. I am very easily disturbed by things like fluttering flaps.

As others have written, it sure would be nice to have extra loops or pockets in the tent for storage, but, again, I knew what to expect and just kept a little tote next to my bed with my LED lamp, eyeglasses, etc. At this price point, I found the tent completely satisfactory as far as features were concerned.

I wish there were a footprint sized precisely for this tent. I worried about water infiltration all night during our heavy rains. I was able to fold a standard tarp to fit neatly underneath the Coleman 6-Person Instant Tent, but I would have paid a few extra dollars to have a tarp that fit perfectly like a proper footprint does.

I am pretty likely to buy the new rainfly accessory for this tent now that it is available. As I said, our experience was very positive in a pretty significant rainfall, but I did sleep poorly worrying that water was going to come in during the night. I have also strongly considered some kind of easy up shelter just tossed up over the entire tent to stop the worst of a deluge getting to us…

In a nutshell, I am very satisfied with the Coleman 6-Person Instant Tent. It met my highest priority, which was a set-up so easy that tent-anxiety wouldn’t keep us from heading out for a camping trip. The five-star review is because FOR THE PRICE, this tent wildly exceeded my expectations. I would be using much more stringent requirements (pockets, conveniences) if the price point were more than just barely into the three digit range, like the Paha Que, Mountain Hardware, etc. tents that I covet but could not justify for our infrequent current usage. This is a great place to start if you are a family considering camping but not ready for big cash commitments. In that scenario, IMHO, spend less on your first tent and a little more to ensure you have good sleeping pads (cushioning) to avoid physical pain/misery, warm enough sleeping bags, and good basic cooking equipment so everyone can enjoy themselves.

Fast and easy set up and tear down. condensation will appear on walls, but plenty of room. only negative is door not centered, off set makes a little akward.

UPDATE 6-person tent on the beach:
I took the 6-person tent camping on the beach. Over-all it held up really well. I got it up in under two minutes. Then the wind kicked up. I would recommend that if the wind is over 10-15mph, don’t go. I had to anchor all of the corners and use the tether lines with heavy duty tent stakes (I purchased separately) to keep it anchored to the ground. When trying to take it down, I recommend closing the door and leaving the windows half-way up just to release the inner air. I tried it first with the door and windows all of the way open and the tent kept blowing up like a balloon which kept causing the legs to reextend. It was nearly impossible to take down. I had to really struggle to try and get it to collapse. I never had this problem with my traditional tent where I could just remove the poles. With no wind, I would say it is perfect.

UPDATE 6 – Person Tent:
I replaced the 8-person tent I had to throw away with the 6-person version. OMG – SO MUCH EASIER!! I was able to get it up by myself in around 1 minute and take down – back in the bag within 2 minutes! I went through the whole process twice just to make sure! The tent fabric is thick and feels very durable. The floor is the thickest I have ever seen on a tent…. It’s like a heavy duty tarp. So far I am really impressed! I changed my overall rating from 1 star for the 8-person to 5 stars for the 6-person! I will write another update after I take it to the beach in a couple of weeks and see how it holds up there.

ORIGINAL PURCHASE 8 – Person tent:
I have been camping for over 40 years. I selected this tent because it advertises as “instant-tent with 60-second easy assembly.” So much better than the hassle of dealing with multiple poles… right?

The 8-person tent has 6 legs; one in each corner and one on each side where there is no door. It was like trying to wrestle an angry octopus – seriously!! It requires a bare minimum of 2 people (and four people would be better) to set it up. You have to raise all of the poles at the same time or it will just keep collapsing in different directions. It took us over half an hour of struggling to get it up. I was exhausted and sweaty at the end.

One of the poles bent the first time the tent was up (not sure how, it wasn’t manhandled and no wind or anything) and it will no longer contract or expand. And the fabric was thin and saggy… as well as the floor. I don’t think it would hold-up in the wind or rain at all.

Taking it down was just as difficult as setting it up (or more so) because the poles kept collapsing every which way. You can’t take them all down at the same time unless you have 6 people. So we had to figure out how to manually fold and realign the legs from the big tangled pile on the ground in order to get the tent to fold back up for transport.

I bought this tent because it was supposed to be easy!! Maybe the 4 or 6-person tent that only has the 4 corner poles would be much easier to manage; but this 6-pole 8-person model is a nightmare! I threw it away. I could have tried to return it for the refund but with the bent pole that would no longer contract, I couldn’t get it back in the box! UGH!!!!!!