Choosing The Best Two Person Tent For The Most Awesome Camping Experience
Looking to buy a two person tent? All the tent specifications, trying to weigh the pros and cons, and making sure you get the best overall value – it can be overwhelming. As a camper, you only get a few precious days or (if you’re lucky) weeks a year of valuable camping time. Fresh air, the great outdoors – you don’t want to mess it up by choosing a tent that restricts all the adventures that can be had while camping or backpacking.
We’ve made it super easy to find your perfect fit with this complete guide to buying a two person tent. We broke it down into three simple categories: Best Tents for Backpacking or Camping, Types of Tents, and Budget – to give you everything you need to know to find the very best two person tent for your needs and preferences, no matter where your adventures take you.
GUARANTEEING BANG FOR YOUR BUCK WITH A TWO PERSON TENT
If you’ve ever been caught up in a rainstorm, you know that a quality tent is essential to a successful outdoors experience. Trust us, you really don't want to learn that the hard way. You don't want to waste you and your friend's, or family member's, short, precious time worrying about sleeping in a soaking wet sleeping bag, or chasing down a cheap tent that’s blown away and is completely unusable after just one camping trip.
Choosing a two person tent always starts with looking at your budget, and it is important to look at a good quality tent as an investment in years' worth of fun and adventure. A good rule of thumb is to spend the few extra bucks to buy the best you can afford, because in the long run it will save you money. That few extra bucks will be the difference between a tent that can hang with the changes on Mt. Everest and one that won’t last past the summer.
YOU GONNA BACKPACK OR CAMP?
So, at its most basic, two person tents can divided up into really two categories: Backpacking and Camping. Here are our top recommendations for each of these categories.
TWO PERSON BACKPACKING TENTS
If you plan on carrying your tent on or in your backpack, and hiking into wherever you plan on using your tent, then you want a Backpacking tent. It is lighter and usually has less elbow room than a Camping tent, where weight really doesn’t matter that much because it is usually taken out of a vehicle and set-up within easy walking distance.
THE BEST OVERALL TWO PERSON BACKPACKING TENT
Size always matters, but does weight? Okay, seriously, be honest. Are you really going to be hanging out on the side of a mountain where you need an expensive ultralight tent? Probably not. In fact, a pro-tip is to share the sleep space — and the load — with your buddy by you carrying the tent body while your friend carries the poles and rain fly.
If you are backpacking, then what you want is a strong, lightweight, weather-tough, truly comfy two person tent with lots of space for you both to spread out and handle all your gear, with both double doors and vestibules.
And that precisely describes the kick*** Eureka! Midori Two Person Tent. It is the very best two person tent on the market, and it has the most useable space of any backpacking two person tent anywhere – with two huge doors for easy in and out (so no clambering over your partner), two large vestibules for gear and muddy shoes, and enough interior space and high headroom for two people to camp out comfortably.
For $159.95 this is a two person tent deal you won’t be comfortable passing up on.
THE BEST FOUR SEASON, ALL WEATHER TWO PERSON BACKPACKING TENT
If you are hardcore and are planning on maximizing the outdoors year-round, then you’ll want a four season two person tent that laughs in the face of sub-alpine snow, wind, and cold, and has a much stronger material construction than Three-Season tents (for heavy snowfall on the roof) to withstand almost anything thrown at it.
However, most four-season tents are not truly four-season, because they are not designed for the hot weather of spring and summer. Most four season two person tents in July on the Bayou would have you both drowning in sweat.
That’s why the Eureka! Mountain Pass Two Person Tent is the only true four-season tent because it is what is called a “convertible tent,” which has removable panels and adjustable ventilation so that you can use it for hot summer dusty days, spring showers, cold fall nights, or sub-alpine winter snow squalls, and be equally dry and comfortable no matter what weather at any time of year.
Priced at $295.95, the Mountain Pass will allow you to conquer the deserts, the mountains, the hardest winter storms and anything in between.
THE BEST FOR YOUR BUDGET TWO PERSON BACKPACKING TENT
Want a durable two person backpacking tent that you can use to stretch every summer, but which won’t stretch your wallet at all? Then you’re talking the new Eureka! Suma Two Person Tent, a smaller backpacking tent with THE most bang-for-the-buck in backcountry.
In fact, it is the only choice because it is the only tent at this low budget friendly price that is purposefully designed to last you summer in and summer out, and designed to keep both the weight low and the interior space high so that you’re not elbowing each other. Head room is maximized in the Suma tent while keeping it rain tight, but allowing you to enjoy terrific ventilation. It comes with two easy-up aluminum poles, one large door, gear-loft and many gear pockets. Your wallet will love you for years to come.
Check out the Suma two person entry level backpacking tent specs or pick one up for your pack for $139.95.
TWO PERSON CAMPING TENTS
So, if you’re driving right up to your campsite – staying out at those awesome spots that are just a little off the beaten path, but still feels like a million miles away – then you’re looking into getting a Camping Tent. And since weight isn’t an issue for camping tents, then you should really be focusing all your effort on finding THE most comfortable tent possible: such as a two person camping tent where you have room to spread out if rain drops chase you indoors, or one with 360-degree wrap-around morning views or starlit nights.
MOST ROOMY TWO PERSON CAMPING TENT
Does a ton of room and wraparound views sound great? Well, you can find all of that and more in the Eureka! X Loft Two Person Camping Tent -- which also comes in 3, 4 and 6 person sizes to fully embrace the headspace no matter how many people you load up to your secret spot.
The X Loft tent is truly unique in that it is has a super cool freestanding tunnel design which makes it super sturdy in any winds, is incredibly easy to set up, and maximizes space a whole heck of a lot better than other two person tents out there that use the traditional ‘dome style.’ With two of the biggest doors and vestibules (like a mudroom at the front of the tent or along its sides) you’ll ever see, the X Loft two person tent is the best two person camping tent for people who not only want a ton of space to splay out, but who also want a tent that won’t blow away.
BEST LUXURY TWO PERSON CAMPING TENT
There’s a reason why Outside Magazine called the Suite Dream two person tent “a mansion” and the best two person tent for honeymooning couples. It’s because the Suite Dream two person tent not only has a 40-square-foot interior – ten feet more than a typical two person dome tent (according to Outside) – which can easily take a queen size inflatable air mattress with room to spare for lots of gear and the dog, and allow two people to easily dress (or undress) under the four-foot peak, but the Suite Dream Two Person Tent, with its included “media center” and “speed hub” fast pole system, means this weather-tough two person dome tent is as fun to use when you are looking forward to activities outside the tent, or inside the tent.
Take a peek at what Outside calls “the epitome of comfort camping,” and make it yours for $249.95.
WHAT YOU DO OUTDOORS DETERMINES THE BEST TENT FOR YOU
Ultimately, it is about what makes you get outside in the first place that will determine what kind of two person tent is the right one and the best one for you. But keep in mind, as was said in the beginning, no matter whether you buy a backpacking two person tent or a camping two person tent, you will save money and stress by buying the best quality two person tent you can afford that is durable, weather proof, comfortable, spacious, easy to set up, lightweight, and most of all, fun!
And you can’t go wrong by picking any of these two person tents. Because all of these Eureka! tents are ingenious and intuitively designed to give you the freedom to get a little out there and go a little wild, in those spaces and places where everything means a little more, and the best memories are made.
Feel like you still don't know where to start? Check out our full two person tent walkthrough guide.
For more of our great two person tents, check out our complete two person tent collection!