The best pop-up tents 2023: for backpacking, easy camping, and festival bliss

There was a time when the best pop-up tents didn’t turn the heads of experienced campers. Yes, they magically sprung to life when liberated from their packs, making pitching them super fast, as well as an absolute doddle. However, there was always a compromise in terms of overall quality, durability and stability that meant campers-in-the-know would look elsewhere. 

However, today the best pop-up tents are beginning to rival their counterparts as viable options for the summer camping season. Higher quality materials mean that these shelters can stand up to much more abuse and for much longer than they used to. 

Thanks to advances in technology, the best camping tents continue to get lighter and it’s the same with pop-ups. This is good news for wild campers. Some pop-up models, such as the Decathlon Quechua 2 Seconds Easy Fresh&Black, stash away into a pack that’s portable enough to go in a backpack, making it a conceivable option for a night in the wild. 

The best pop-up tents don’t just cater for one or two campers either. Here, we feature models like the innovative Gazelle T4 Camping Hub, a four-person tent which is spacious enough for a small family’s summer camping trip. Whatever your needs, there’s a tent that’ll pop up in no time for you here.

The best pop-up tents

The best pop-up tents for backpacking

Set-up in a minute or less, the Night Cat is a sturdy, stable, single-layer shelter that is 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, however, 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 keep 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.

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 rarebreed pop-up tent that’s lightweight enough to take backpacking. Using a locking hub and pole system, 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 keeps your headlamp, smartphone and keys in a safe place. If the weather turns, a rainfly keeps you dry. An optional rainfly offers more coverage if you want more protection.

When you hike a trail before dawn to experience an epic sunrise, an afternoon nap is a worthy reward. Coleman’s Pop-Up tent uses a pre-assembled pole system that takes just 10 seconds to set-up. The footprint is big enough for two camping pads, it features a wide door so you can get things (including large inflatable mattresses) in easily. 

It’s an easy tent to keep well organised, with two storage pockets to store small gear off the ground. A multi-position rainfly lets you customize access, protection and ventilation to match the weather. If it rains, taped floor seams will keep you dry. When it’s time to return home, the tent packs flat for storage.

The Pop 400 should rightly be called a half-pop-up – it’s made up of two sections, an instantly-erected main tent, which can be used alone on dry nights but which isn’t waterproof, and a separate flysheet waterproofed to 3,000mm which is pegged over the top, and which would also work alone as a tarp for bivvying or hammock camping. 

For a few minutes of extra pitching, you essentially get a weatherproof twin-skin tent, making this a versatile choice if you camp in varying locations and conditions over the year. Inside there’s loads of room for two or three plus your gear (but four people would find it too snug), and two doors make it even easier to share with others. Plus, when you peg the flysheet out it also creates a useful porch for storing extra kit, which most pop-ups lack. There are other nice touches including reflective guy ropes and a lantern hook. It’s a cinch to pop open and fold close the main tent, using the classic figure-of-eight fold to store in a circular carry bag. 

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. 

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. 

The best pop-up tents for festivals

Decathlon are always a good one-stop shop for affordable outdoor gear, and we reckon they stock the widest range of pop-up tents on the market, starting from pocket-friendly prices. Our pick of the pack is the roomy 2 Seconds Blackout. This well-made pop-up has plenty of space for two people and would fit in three adults if you don’t mind getting cosy. It also offers good height, and we’ve used it with two low camping beds in it without any problem. The blackout material that lines the bedroom works brilliantly – this is a great options for festivals or family weekends where you need your beauty sleep. 

The 2 Seconds is a doddle to erect – you just have to unclip three colour-coded clips and it springs to life. Once erect, it feels solid and can be further secured with good guy ropes. Now for the downside – we’ve used this tent on over a dozen occasions and always found it frustrating to pack down. That said, this is still a very good quality tent that’s built to last.

Firmly aimed at beginner campers and the festival crowd, this is the archetypal pop-up – it’s 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.

This good-looking tent looks too classic to be a pop-up – but pop-up it does, almost instantly, and the Pop is also quick and headache-free to dismantle. Inside there’s a generous bedroom with lots of space for two people and two doors for easy access, and we like the domed roof with good space for sitting up. 

Outside, there’s a mini porch that keeps rain off when you’re getting in and out of the tent. This is a great tent if you want an easy summer-ready pop-up that can still deal with bad weather if a storm is looming. It’s a twin skin product with an outer fly that is waterproofed to 3,000mm (meaning it can withstand heavy rain), and the crossed poles and guy ropes make it reasonably sturdy in windy weather. There’s also a good, thick groundsheet to keep your sleeping bag dry. Top marks for this weatherproof but affordable instant tent. 

The best pop-up tents 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 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 allow you to tailor ventilation to match weather conditions. Wall pockets keep gear off the floor and a lantern hook can create a cozy atmosphere for a late night card game.

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).

The best pop-up tents for families

Here for a good time, not a long time? This rather strange-looking beast is the Gazelle T4 Camping Hub, a fun 4-person pop-up that erects into a square behemoth of a bedroom with plenty of room for four people and, unusually for a pop-up tent, standing height, topping out at 198cm (6ft 6in). 

This is not a tent to use in anything but mild, clear weather (although the separate rain fly attaches to offer some protection from rain), but when you do use it, you get a very generous living space, a whopping six windows, a removable groundsheet and the chance to be the talk of any campsite you choose to pitch in. It’s easy to erect the T4 Camping Hub – you simple pull it upwards and then pop open each side, which is the work of seconds. It would also double up as the perfect moveable garden playhouse or beach shelter. 

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, you just need to peg in the reflective guy lines. 

Inside, a thick nylon groundsheet keeps you 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 you can expect from a British summer, although this is a single skin design, so won’t be tough enough for other seasons, and there are 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.

Choosing the best pop-up tent for you

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. 

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. 

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 autumn see. 

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.

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

So, before investing in your pop-up shelter, consider the following factors. 

Weight and size

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.