3 Room Tents for Family Camping

When you have a 3 room tent, you can use one room for you and spouse, one for your gear or for playing games in bad weather and the other for the kids. The middle room can be used as a screened in porch for good ventilation without compromising weather protection. It's great for family camping.

3 room tents can either be dome tents or cabin tents. Cabin tents are larger in general and have more headroom than dome tents but dome tents offer better weather protection. The design of a dome tent allows it to shed rain and snow better than cabin tents and hence are also much more stable in bad weather.

Bear in mind that these large 3 room tents are not suitable for backpacking because they're too heavy and bulky. If you're looking for a 3 room backpacking tent, you'll be disappointed because no such thing exists yet.

Coleman Red Canyon Dome Tent

There are quite a few good 3 room dome tents to choose from but the Coleman 3-Room Tent is one of the most popular. It's big enough for the average family (fits 8) and tall enough for the average man to stand in.

The tent holds well in bad weather in most cases but I recommend you apply a seam sealer to the seams. The stakes are also quite flimsy and bends too easily so you might want to replace those.

Setup is really easy and quick and the instructions are easy to follow even when you've not set up a tent like it before. You can set up this tent alone but you might want to get some help to set up the rain fly.

Don't be fooled by the price. This is not the kind of cheap tent that fall apart easily and leaks whenever whenever there's a small drizzle of rain. This is a good quality tent.

Wenzel's Sycamore dome tent is another favorite when it comes to 3-room tents, like the Red Canyon, mainly because of the price. There's more than enough room for 4 adults including gear and it's very easy to set even for a beginner (one beginner claim to have done it within 10 minutes).

In the description it says that the base measures 18 by 10 feet but the base shape is a pentagon so it has only 116 square feet of space. Just thought you should know.

There are reports saying that the poles break too easily so that's another thing you should be careful about. The two side rooms are also quite small.

However, this is still a good tent, with good construction, design and plenty of anchor points to withstand strong winds. If you're on a budget and can't get the Coleman tent, then get this one.

The dimensions of the Gigatent may be misleading because it takes into account the screen room. Instead of 17' by 12', the tent is more like 17' by 8'. Still, this is a very large tent and the screen room is great for hanging out in while keeping away the bugs. You might want to consider taking a tarp for use as a ground cloth because the screen room has no floor.

Theoretically, there's enough room to sleep 8 but I recommend it for 6. A large queen air mattress will not fit in the side rooms but a twin-size mattress will. However, the queen-size mattress fits nicely in the middle room. Large windows and roof vents assist in ventilation and keep you comfy.

Setting it up and taking it down is reasonably easy and weather protection is excellent.

This one is not as popular as the other 3-room tents but a lot more expensive than most of them. It's no better in terms of built and quality and it's not as easy to set up too. This just shows that the more expensive something is doesn't always mean it's better.

In terms of weather protection, I don't know how this tent performs because I've never used it before and it doesn't receive many reviews. Since it's not well made, I can guess that it will leaking badly when it rains even though one of the features is "Factory Sealed Fly and Floor Seams Give Best Weather Protection". I've seen many tents that don't live up to its promise so buy this one at your own risk.

If 3 rooms are not enough then check out 4-room tents like the Icarus 9 Person Family Dome Tent. At the center of the tent is the living area which can be used for gatherings, storing gear or for sleeping more people.