The best pop-up tents 2024: backpacking and camping tents for speedy setup (2024)

The best pop-up tents provide easy and speedy pitching for fuss-free summer camping. Popular with festival goers and first time campers, they're obviously not as sturdy and reliable as dedicated backpacking tents but advances in design during recent years means that the best pop-up tents can hold their own in some pretty challenging conditions.

We've put this to the test, camping out in a range of the best pop-up tents. As well as traditional campgrounds, we've taken these fast-pitching wonders into the backcountry, to see how they cope when things get a little wilder.

For serious backpackers, these tents don't rival the very best camping tents available. However, if you're new to camping, heading to a festival, or are looking for a shelter for the kids to play in, these options are great and they tend to be decent value too.

After extensive testing, we've concluded that the best pop-up tent is the Night Cat Backpacking Tent, which is light enough for solo adventures and a piece of cake to pitch even when you're tired. Read on to learn more, and for the rest of our recommendations.

The quick list

Here's our quick list, a brief look at the very best pop-up tents. For more on each shelter, navigate to the detailed reviews further down this guide.

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The best pop-up tents we recommend in 2024

The best pop-up tent overall

Set-up in a minute or less, we found the Night Cat is a sturdy, stable, single-layer shelter that's light and easy enough to take out on the trails, and big enough (just) to take two people. It is primarily designed for solo backpackers and the floor plan is roomy enough for a single air mattress. Fiberglass poles deliver strength, durability and stand-up to windy breezes, but remain light to carry. Waterproof fabrics and waterproof tape on all seams keeps the water out and comfort in. Small storage bags kept our poles, stakes and guy lines untangled and organized.

If you’re not backpacking, the Nightcat can still come in very handy at festivals and garden sleepovers. An inexpensive model, the Night Cat could be the perfect den away from home for recalcitrant teenagers who no longer want to share a shelter with their parents of their siblings.

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The best cheap pop-up tent

Coleman’s popular Galiano tent is available as both a 2-person and a 4-person tent, and we’d recommend both as two of the best pop-up tents on the market if you just want a simple tent without bells and whistles. Like most pop-ups on our list, they erect as soon as they’re freed from their circular bag; all we had to do was peg in the reflective guy lines.

Inside, a thick nylon groundsheet kept us dry and wide vents in the roof help with airflow. Taped seams and a flysheet waterproofed to 2,000mm offer enough protection from the kind of weather we were expecting from a British summer, although this is a single skin design, so won’t be tough enough for other seasons. There are also only two guy ropes, which isn’t enough to fight off strong winds. In terms of size, we’d recommend the two-person tent for one or two people and the 4-person for three adults or a family with two smaller children.

It's often available at a steep discount during sales events like Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday.

Read our full Coleman Galiano tent review

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The best one-person pop-up tent

After a long day on the trails, when you’re hungry, thirsty and tired, the last thing you want to deal with is complicated, time-consuming tent set-up operation. Welcome to the Vista Quick, a rare breed pop-up tent that’s lightweight enough to take backpacking. Using a locking hub and pole system, we found that the Vista Quick lives up to its name.

Ready in seconds, the pop-up tent has two-way zippers to offer fine adjustments for ventilation and entry. Slide in a Teton Sports Camp Cot, get comfortable and ponder the blue skies through mesh ceiling panels. A gear loft kept our headlamp, smartphone and keys in a safe place. When the weather turned, the rainfly kept us dry. An optional rainfly offers more coverage if you want more protection.

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The best blackout pop-up tent

Despite testing it out on a weekend in the wild, we still don’t really understand how this clever tent erects – it’s a bit of a magic trick. Pull the 2 Seconds Easy Freshblack (it has a bit of a mouthful of a name) out of its bag, pull two cords tight and it springs into shape, then you just peg it down and you’re ready to camp. To dismantle, you click a release button and then gather the tent into its bag, which is also the work of minutes.It's as easy as using an umbrella.

Inside, there’s a bedroom suitable for two plus backpacks and lined with effective blackout material, plus handy pockets and a lantern hook. Although this tent can’t be classed as lightweight, it’s still just small and portable enough to be useable for wild camping and backpacking at a pinch, as it folds down into a compact rectangle rather than a bulkier circle, and fits in a backpack.

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The best pop-up tent for festivals

Firmly aimed at beginner campers and the festival crowd, this is the archetypal pop-up – we found it to be a nice light weight, a compact and easy-to-store size and it pops up instantly and folds down quickly into a circular carry bag. It may be described as a 2-person, but we’d only use it for one person unless you were just bunking in for the night, as it’s pretty dinky inside.

Pegging in the corners and the four reflective guy ropes offers some protection from wind, and the outer material holds up against light rain. Good vents that can be propped open and a mesh inner door make this a great little tent to hang out in, especially in hot weather. We’d have liked big inner pockets rather than the frustratingly small ones inside, however, and for £50 you might be able to get something a bit more ambitious and better quality for your money.

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The best pop-up tent for the beach

A tent big enough for a pop-up party, the freestanding Moon Lence tent uses a fiberglass pole system, 10 steel stakes and 5 guy lines to create a spacious and stable shelter that we found can be put up in seconds and has room to accommodate four or even five adults. The large entry door can be unzipped, rolled down and toggled out of the way. Dual door zippers and four large mesh windows allowed us to tailor ventilation to match weather conditions. The wall pockets keep gear off the floor and a lantern hook createed a cozy atmosphere for our late night card games.

If the weather turns sour, waterproof materials and a small ‘top of the tent’ rainfly will keep you dry and comfortable. And the best thing – everyone who uses it sings about how easy it is to take down and pack away (not something you hear about all pop-up tents).

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Pop-up tents comparison table

How we test pop-up 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 pop-up tents overnight in outdoor conditions, temperatures and terrain appropriate to the rating assigned to the product by the manufacturers/ brand. Specific features (weight, zip quality, headroom, ventilation, vestibules, awnings, ease of assembly/packing and so on) are tested against claims made by the brand.

Meet the testers

Sian Lewis

Sian is an avid camper who loves nothing more than getting back to nature, whether on a wild camp or a glamping retreat. Life as a camping, wild-swimming and hiking adventure writer has taken her around the world and she's pitching up in all kinds of wild and wonderful places. Her blog,The Girl Outdoors, champions accessible adventures.

Lou Dzierzak

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.

How to choose the best pop-up tent

Pop-up tents are a popular choice for summer campers, festival-goers and parents of kids who like garden sleep-outs, and there is a wide array of models available. The best pop-up tent for you will depend on what adventures you and your crew have planned.To help you choose, we've compiled the frequently asked questions when it comes to pop-up tents, followed by some other features to consider.

Remember that, wherever you camp, to protect the environment for future generations it is vitally important to leave no trace.

How does a pop-up tent work?

The magic of the best pop-up tents is in their fiberglass poles, which remain integrated with the main tent fabric at all times. The poles are designed to be flexible enough that you don't need to remove them when taking the tent down. The tent folds into its packed shape and is zipped away into its carry sack.

When pitching, all that you usually have to do is open it up and stake the the corners and any guylines into the ground.

Can one person put up a pop-up tent?

Most pop-up tents are so straightforward to pitch that they can easily be done by a solo camper.

Should I buy a pop-up tent for the family?

You may be thinking: should I buy a pop-up tent for the family? Most of our featured pop-up tents are a little on the small side for big family trips and won't fit all the items on your camping checklist, let alone your kids.

The best family tent will suit your needs and serve you much better during the shoulder seasons, as pop-up tents generally do not perform as well in the weather that early spring and late fall experience.

Are pop-up tents suitable for the mountains?

If you're heading high into the mountains on a wild camping trip, pop-up tents do not combine the lightweight and weather resistant qualities you are going to need. If this sounds like you, we advise you to take a look at our guides to the best one-person tents and the best two-person tents.

Weight, size and capacity

Tents are usually categorised by how many adults they’ll sleep, so you’ll see models listed as ‘two-person’, ‘four-person’ and so on. Sometimes this is accurate, but often, this means how many people the tent will sleep at an absolute push, and if you’re going to be camping for any length of time, you’d be best off picking a tent with a bigger capacity than you really need – a four-person tent, for example, gives two people lots of space to sleep with room to spare for camping gear.

If you’re camping with kids, consider two separate two-person pop-up tents, one for you and one for the kids – children love pop-up tents as they can easily erect them themselves, and they also double up nicely as quick tents to play in when you're in the back garden.

Check the weight and pack size of your tent before you buy. If you have to carry your tent any distance, for example at a festival, aim for one that weighs under five kilos. If you’re going to be camping right next to the car, weight is less important.

The best pop-up tents are designed to fold down neatly, making them some of the easiest tents to store at home or stick in the car boot. Tents that fold into a circular carry case can easily slotted under the bed, while tents that fold down into rectangles are easier to carry in a backpack.

Waterproofing and wind resistance

Pop-up tents may be at the more affordable, casual end of the tent market, but they still need to be able to resist bad weather. Ideally your tent should be ‘twin skin’ – a tent with both an inner layer and a separate, waterproof outer flysheet layer – to reduce the chance of rain seeping in. Look for the waterproof rating of your tent.

If you’re planning on using it in bad weather, you don't want to sleep in a puddle and see all of your best camping tech ruined. So, it’s best to avoid a tent that is just labelled as ‘water-resistant’ – look instead for the tent’s Hydrostatic Head rating and pick a tent with 1,500mm or more to ensure it can withstand a storm. Good tents have tough waterproof nylon groundsheets too, to stop any wet seeping in from the ground below you.

Even the best pop-up tents aren’t usually as wind resistant as dome and tunnel-style tents, as they’re not designed for adventures off the beaten track, but a pop-up tent with lots of guy ropes you can peg out and pull tight will help offer some resistance from the wind.

Living space

Most pop-up tents have one bedroom, and may also feature a small porch area where you can store backpacks, boots and other belongings. They don’t usually have more than one room or a living room – if you need space to hang out in at a festival or to store more kit, consider bringing a second tent or a gazebo. A few of the best pop-up tents have gear lofts or side pockets for storing things like phones, portable chargers, your best headlamp, flashlight, insect repellent and binoculars.

Some of the best pop-up tents have bedrooms lined with ‘blackout’ material, which stops light getting in and keeps them cooler and darker – these are perfect if you’re a light sleeper, or for making sure that children sleep through the night in the summer. Check your tent has ventilation flaps, too. Tent doors with a breathable mesh inner door are also useful for keeping bugs out while ensuring good airflow.

Easy pitching and packing up

The whole point of the best pop-up tents is that they take the stress out of tent pitching – just take the tent out of its carry bag and the whole structure will spring open into a tent shape in seconds. Some pop-up tents require a few straps undoing and other pitching steps in order to fully erect them, but they all usually take less than under a minute if they’re labelled ‘pop-up’.

Things vary more when it comes to packing down the tents – some are quick and simple, others can be fiddly to squeeze back down into the right shape. We recommend having a look at instructions or a YouTube tutorial before you pack your tent down again – it’s a good idea to have a go in the back garden before you take it on a camping weekend or to a festival.

Pop-up tents are ‘standalone’ tents, which means that once they’re erected you can use them instantly, but it’s best to peg in their corners and guy ropes if there’s any chance of the wind picking up.