Best 8 Person Tent of 2023

Based on our camping experience, the best 8 person tent is The North Face Wawona 8 because it has everything you could possibly need and more – like three doors for easy access, an oversized front porch, quality materials, and a lifetime warranty.

We understand that this may not be everyone’s top pick, so we’ve also assembled our other favorite options below – that way you can pick the perfect four person tent that best fits your needs.

8 person tents can be a great addition to a wide variety of gear closets, and they are a great balance of having a larger tent but not something that’s too oversized or too difficult to setup. They usually will have great features, lots of headroom, and be made of high quality materials that will withstand several years and lots of car camping trips.

We’ve thoroughly researched and tested all the best 8 person tents currently on the market and have narrowed it down to the six top picks below. They are all highly rated, quality tents, and are made by great brands that are well-known in the outdoor industry.

How We Test, Review, and Rate

We love outdoor gear, and we love recommending gear that adds value to our outdoor adventure. We know and understand the importance of having gear that’s worth every penny, so we thoroughly research and test every product we recommend. No matter how we procure an item, our goal is to remain as unbiased as possible, and we put it to the test against its competitors to find the best and worst features.

We also understand that each adventurer is different, and our favorite 8 person tent may not be yours. That’s why we rate and review a wide variety of products currently available, so you can see a breakdown of all the features and pick what’s best for you and your situation. We don’t recommend anything we wouldn’t personally use, so whether you’re looking for highest quality, an affordable price, superior weather resistance, a certain brand, or any other desirable feature, there’s sure to be a tent on our list that’s perfect for you.

Thing to Consider When Choosing an 8 Person Tent

There’s are some things to take into consideration when shopping for the best 8 person tents, and you should look carefully at your typically camping situations in relation to capacity, sleeping layout, materials, ease of setup, and max height. We’ve selected the Wawona 8 as the Editor’s Choice because it perfectly balances all these features for the best all around tent.

Capacity

The first thing we will always need to discuss when buying a tent is the capacity, or the number of people it’s supposed to sleep. You will find that this rating refers to the maximum amount of people a tent will sleep, with each person being shoulder to shoulder or even head to toe depending on the tent. This means putting eight people in an 8 person tent will be cramped and won’t leave any extra space for gear, pets, or even a backpack.

This is why we will always recommend sizing up by at least two people, unless you are sleeping in cold weather consistently, where having a larger tent would be too difficult to heat. But for most casual campers, sizing up by two people is a good rule of thumb. If you want even more space for pets, gear, or even just room to stand up in, you could size up even more.

This gives you some flexibility with sizing, and lets you pick something based on features or even price tag. For example, say you have eight people who regularly camp with you. This means purchasing at least a 10 person tent. But if you like a particular tent that sleeps 12, then that will just lead to extra space for you. You could even purchase two smaller tents, like two 6-person tents and split up your group. Since larger tents do tend to go up in price, you could end up spending a similar amount of money with two smaller ones.

Another way you can understand a tent’s interior space is by the square footage. Even though the tents above fit into the same capacity category, they do vary quite a bit when it comes to actual square feet. Use our post on how much space do you need in a camping tent to figure out how much space you need per person, then you can look at the square feet for each tent above.

Sleeping Layout

Part of the benefits of sizing up to an 8 person tent is that it’s the smallest capacity that will support two queen sized air mattresses, as anything smaller would only allow for one queen mattress. Depending on the layout, it may even fit three queen mattresses like the Coleman Skydome XL 8 above. Some of these tents also have a designated sleeping area, where you can use detachable room dividers to separate the space into several smaller rooms. All these things add up to the flexibility of having several different sleeping layouts if you’re camping with less than eight people.

Materials

For any tent, you always want to make sure it has a sufficient waterhead rating so you are prepared in case of any rain. This number is measured in millimeters (mm), and we’ve included it in the specifications of each tent above. All our top picks have numbers at least 1200mm or higher and this is sufficient for most casual camping conditions. If you are consistently exposed to adverse weather and torrential rains, you should definitely get a tent with a higher waterhead rating.

As far as denier goes, that’s a number that represents the thickness of the fabric, with a higher number being better. A sign of a good tent is having a high denier at least 60 or higher, with a significantly higher number on the floor fabric. For example, the Gazelle T8 above has a 210-denier fabric on the canopy, but a 300-denier fabric on the floor. This is ideal in a high quality tent that’s meant to withstand the wear and tear of constantly being stepped on. This doesn’t mean that any smaller numbers aren’t sufficient, although they may last longer with extra support in the form of a tarp on the inside floor and/or the matching sized footprint below.

For the poles, a tent of this size should really use a high quality pole material like aluminum or DAC. While it’s possible to get by with fiberglass poles, they won’t last as long as a better metal. You will usually only see fiberglass in the more affordable tent options, so if you have the budget to upgrade just a bit, we would recommend doing so. It will overall increase the longevity of your tent because metal poles are less likely to splinter or break.

Ease of Setup

As we start getting into the larger tents past 4- and 6-person capacities, the tents greatly increase in size and complexity, which inherently makes them harder to setup. Several of the tents on this list strive to make it as simple as possible by using color-coded poles and sleeves, but they still take time. The quickest setup time on this list is the Gazelle T8 – because of its hub design, it only takes 90 seconds (or less) to set up. All the other tents would take at least 5-10 minutes, with the canvas taking the longest at upwards of 20-30+ minutes.

It will always be easier to setup with two or more people, but with this size tent we would assume you aren’t camping alone anyways. Just make sure you have help when you arrive to your campsite, and know that the first couple of setups will take more time, but you will get faster as you figure out the flow.

Max Height

All the tents on this list have a very generous max height, with most of them well surpassing 6 feet. The tallest traditional tent we looked at is the Copper Canyon LX, which is 7 feet tall inside. Plus, near vertical walls make it to where you can stand up straight in a majority of the tent space, giving you room to walk around and change clothes upright. Some of the alternative tent options did have a taller max height, like the White Duck canvas tent (9’8″ or 116 inches) and the Zempire (7’2.6″ or 86.6 inches), which would also make them great products if max height was a big feature for you.

For most casual campers, a tall max height can be a huge benefit, and it also makes for a spacious interior and allows for larger windows for ventilation. The down side is that the tall height can catch wind like a sail, which is not ideal if you are regularly exposed to windy conditions. If this is a concern for you, then you should definitely consider downsizing into multiple smaller tents that will have less headroom but be better protected against the wind.

FAQ

Conclusion

All that said, there’s several options on this list that would be a perfect fit for a wide variety of situations and budgets, so you can be sure you’ll find the best 8 person tent for you and your family. Whether you go with our Editor’s Choice Wawona, the luxurious Zempire, or any of the other superb options, we hope you enjoy all the future adventures it will take you on.