Need good tent recommendations

I'm looking for a 2 room tent that won't break the bank. We only have one child (2 years old), but he will sleep better if he is "separate" from us. The problem is most of the multi-room tents are GINORMOUS, and since there's only 3 of us, it doesn't need to be that big. Does anyone have a good medium sized tent that has a divider? Anybody ever rig up their own divider? I though maybe I could somehow fasten a couple loops and hang a sheet in a 4-5 man dome tent, but I'm not sure if that would work. Any recommendations would be helpful! Thanks!

I think I'd look into a second tent, like a backpacking one-man tent, and put them next to each other at the campsite. Easier to place, tons more options, should be easier to pack with shorter poles, et cetera.

The problem is you'll need a second footprint and rain fly if you aren't putting both under a tarp, when there's need for that kind of thing.

I have had good luck with cheap retail store tents, the $20-30 dollar ones. Just bring some painters plastic, duct tape (to act as grommets in the plastic) and string or fishing line to tie the "rain tarp" down with.

If you are car camping bring the pack and play and a separate tent. It will make your nights a lot more restful.

I made one out of my pants....after browsing the GGA thread ;)

Sleeping in a small tent with a 2 year old. Hmmm, can't find that on the chart yet...

2 tents - we just did this with our kids earlier this year.

Up here you would never find a flat enough spot for one of those multiroom tents.

Have you seen the new Coleman Instant-up Tents. They litreally take about 1 minute to have them ready.

We have one of the ginormous Coleman tents. It replaced a smaller Coleman tent that was just too small to comfortably set up in. I want to be able to stand up in it and have room to set up a couple of cots. We also use one corner to store stuff we don't want getting wet. I think mine is 9X14. It takes about 10 minutes to set it up and the included rain fly works great.

It looks a lot like this.

Are you only ever planning on having one kid? If you plan to add more to the mix, even if it's a few years down the road, I would save and get a nice big one -- assuming you do enough camping to warrant it. I bought a Springbar for my family and I love it. It was pretty pricey and weighs a ton, but it will last for eternity and it gets a LOT of use. My older sister still uses the one my parents bought when I was born in 1983. Using bunk-bed cots made it even more efficient.

If you don't want to drop that kind of coin, or don't actually go camping very often, then I second the option of having two smaller tents -- it's really no different than having the little tyke sleeping in a separate bedroom at home and will save you the trouble of possibly compromising water-proofness in order to hang up a curtain in the middle.

Big Agnes also makes this one that is multi-room and REI makes this one that is as well. Not super cheap, but they will be good quality.

^^ REI also makes a 4-person version of the one I listed above. Searching their "family & car camping tents" section will reveal other similar ones.

NGTD wrote: Have you seen the new Coleman Instant-up Tents. They litreally take about 1 minute to have them ready.

Have one. Kicks ass. Totally.

I hear that Holiday Inn has some good options. Marriott too. If you are a little thriftier than that, maybe a Motel 6 or Super 8.

Our only cabin tent is a big ol' canvas one. Works great in the winter as well.

rebelgtp wrote: Our only cabin tent is a big ol' canvas one. Works great in the winter as well.

I used to have one of those. What a great tent. It weighed about 80 pounds, so you didn't want to tote it far, but it would stay up in a gale.

Sadly after over 40 years of camping in all kinds of weather, it returned to dust.

I (and my wife, too), don't love the idea of having 2 tents. Call me paranoid, but I feel more comfortable defending my family from weird mountain creatures and weird mountain people if we are all in the same tent. If my son was older than 2 (say if I had a couple kids and they were 8 & 10 or something), I would be more open to this, but not at the moment. We definitely are planning on having more kids, but I don't know that I want to lug around and set up a huge tent in the meantime. We also don't camp a ton-this will be my son's first time-but hopefully we will do more in the future.

I guess I should have specified that I don't want to spend more than $150 at the moment (I am hunting Craigslist). I grew up with Eureka tents, and I currently have one of their Timberlines.

Thanks for the input guys!

Get the big family tent then within that tent set up a kid's livingroom tent like you might find at Ikea or Taget.
$19.99 and can continue the fun back at home

Junior on the inside and mommy and daddy trying to make more babies on the outside but all in the same tent. .

Or, for a 2 year old, bring a pack and play to put inside the big tent. Hang a towel over one side to create privacy.

Zomby Woof wrote:

NGTD wrote: Have you seen the new Coleman Instant-up Tents. They litreally take about 1 minute to have them ready.

Have one. Kicks ass. Totally.

We have one and we are getting another one. I agree.

NGTD wrote:

Zomby Woof wrote:

NGTD wrote: Have you seen the new Coleman Instant-up Tents. They litreally take about 1 minute to have them ready.

Have one. Kicks ass. Totally.

We have one and we are getting another one. I agree.

Do you guys have a specific model recommendation?