An In-Tents Decision: How to Choose a Shelter

Whether you find yourself deep in backcountry of Grand Canyon National Park or sipping a drink at a campground in Oak Creek Canyon, your shelter is your home away from home. It is also likely to be one of the more expensive pieces of gear you will purchase. Picking the right shelter, therefore, is a big decision, and it’s comprised of many factors and considerations. How much are you willing to spend? What capacity do you need? Single-wall or double-wall? Free-standing or non-free-standing? These are all important questions to answer before making a purchase. To complicate matters, there is an astounding variety of tents on the market, each with different designs, structures, and features.

Feeling overwhelmed yet? You’re not alone. To simplify the tent-buying process, this blog will cover different shelter types and offer a step-by-step guide to your main considerations. Strap in—it’s gonna get in-tents.

What’s a Shelter?

The term ‘shelter’ broadly refers to a portable structure designed to protect occupants from the environments around them, including precipitation, wind, insects, or ground water. Oftentimes, but not always, this refers to a conventional tent, from the smallest, ultralight option all the way to the largest, most luxurious family camp or music festival tent. However, ‘shelter’ can also refer to the following:

• Tarp: A minimal and (usually) lightweight waterproof ‘sheet’ pitched to protect the user from the elements. Unlike tents, tarps do not have doors or walls on all sides or a floor on the bottom. They can be lighter, less expensive, and more versatile than tents, but they expose the user to greater environmental risk, such as cold, precipitation, and bug pressure.
• Hammock: A non-ground-based shelter in which the user sleeps in a hammock with some sort of rain fly or tarp suspended above them for protection from precipitation and wind. Hammocks are often more comfortable than ground shelters and can avoid areas where the ground is uneven or heavily impacted by recreation but limited to areas where there are trees to hang them. They are also usually heavier than ground shelters.  
• Bivouac (or bivvy): A lightweight, minimal, waterproof personal shelter that acts as a protective covering for a sleeping bag or quilt. They are light, packable, and simple, allowing the user to sleep in spaces where a tent might not fit. However, there is limited room for storage and their small size makes them generally less comfortable and more prone to condensation than tents or shelters. 

In the name of simplicity, and because most recreationists use a tent of some fashion, we will frame this article around tent camping and backpacking. 

Different Types of Tents

There are a lot of tents out there; there are also a lot of ways to distinguish between different types of tents. This is a double-edged sword, as there are possible tents that could be right for you, but we must be careful to decision paralysis in the face of so much information. Let’s break it down. 

1. Single-wall vs double-wall 

These terms refer to the structure of the body and rain fly of a tent. 

1. Single-wall: A single-wall tent only has one layer of fabric between the user and the elements. The fabric used is almost always waterproof. It can be helpful to think of these kinds of tents as having a body and rain fly that are one in the same. 
2. Double-wall: A double-wall tent has two layers of fabric between the user and the elements. This is the far more common type of tent and is what most people think of when they picture a tent. There is an inner portion (the body), often made partly of mesh for ventilation, and an outer portion (the rain fly), that is a fully waterproof material. 

2. Freestanding, non-freestanding, and semi-freestanding

These terms refer to how the tent is set up for use and anchored (or not) to the ground. 

1. Freestanding: A freestanding tent is one that holds its shape on its own without needing to be staked out. These designs receive their support from included tent poles and can be picked up and moved around camp without going limp or needing to be unstaked. This is the most common type of tent on the market, whether for car camping or backpacking. 
2. Non-freestanding: A non-freestanding tent, on the other hand, is one that requires staking out to hold its shape via tension. These types of tents often use trekking poles to prop them up, making them very popular with backpackers and thru-hikers. 
3. Semi-freestanding: A semi-freestanding tent, then, sits somewhere between the two. These kinds of tents can hold most of their form with included poles but need to be staked out to achieve their full size and function. Oftentimes, this occurs in the foot box of the tent, requiring the user to stake out each side by their feet for the tent to shine. As a result, these tents strike a good balance between the simplicity and livability of a freestanding tent, and the weight savings of a non-freestanding tent. 

3. Three-season vs four-season

These terms, put simply, refer to what kinds of conditions tents are designed to handle. 

1. Three-season: Sometimes colloquially called ‘backpacking tents’, these tents are designed for lightweight performance and breathability. They keep your pack light while still offering protection from bugs, wind, and rain. Because of this they are often built of lighter fabrics with more mesh and typically use a double-wall design. 
2. Four-season: The most basic function of a four-season tent is to withstand extreme conditions or weather. They must keep you safe during strong winds and heavy snow, featuring rigid shapes and pole geometries. They also use more durable fabrics and use single-wall construction to maximize insulation.  

4. Tent capacity

The size of a tent is another distinguishing factor across designs and styles, as well as model-to-model. Tents can be sized from a one-person capacity (usually noted as ‘1P’) up to five or six people, or even more for some family car camping tents. Many solo backpackers will opt for a 1P tent (or, more recently, a growing category of 1.5P), while some will want to get two-person shelter to have more room for storing their gear. Three and four-person tents are well-suited for couples, people with dogs, or small groups looking to divvy up weight and share a common sleeping space. 

Choosing the Right Tent: A Step-by-Step Guide

To make the process of researching and purchasing the right tent as simple and stress-free as possible, we’ve crafted a step-by-step guide that you can follow. 

1. Step 1: Location and Use

Where are you going and what are you doing there? Or, where do you typically go and what do you typically do there? Answering these questions first will narrow down the rest of your search significantly. If you are car camping, there is no need to purchase a highly packable, ultralight backpacking tent. You can comfortably select a fully free-standing, double-wall tent. If you are spending time in the backcountry where you need to haul in all your gear on foot, ski, watercraft, or bike, it’s a different story. Or maybe you want something that can do both, a jack of all trades. There are options for that too. 

You should also determine the conditions you will be in so you can choose between a three-season or four-season tent. The good news here is that, unless you are mountaineering or winter/snow camping, a three-season tent will serve you just fine. This is especially true for most folks in Arizona. 

2. Step 2: Choose your Size

Are you primarily a solo backpacker? Lean toward a one-person tent, or a two-person if you’re taller and/or want extra storage space. Do you want to get out there with your significant other or a few friends and be able to share a tent? Opt for et least a two-person tent, maybe even a three-person depending on your preferences for comfort and livability. Choosing the size tent you want to purchase will steer you toward specific models.

Another point to consider when choosing the size of your tent is the size of your pad. If you and/or your tentmate use wide pads (usually standardized to 25 inches in width), you might want to size up your tent. For example, two wide pads side-by-side will not fit very well in a standard two-person backpacking tent; in that case, it would be more ideal to purchase a three-person tent instead.

3. Step 3: Determine Your Price Point 

In general, the outdoor industry is an expensive space. However, lower/entry-level price point options do exist from most brands. Determining your budget is a crucial factor in selecting a tent, as they are often one of the most expensive items in your gear closet. Keep in mind that, generally speaking, lighter tents are more expensive than heavier ones (materials depending), and feature/detail-rich tents are more expensive than simple, streamlined designs. Decide what you’re willing to spend, what you need, and what you’re willing to sacrifice; then, go from there. 

4. Step 3.5 Tent Structure

If you’ve decided to purchase a backpacking tent, congratulations! It only gets more complicated for you. This is where you will need to narrow down tent design and structure, selecting if you want a free-standing, non-free-standing, or semi-free-standing tent, and whether you want it to be single-wall or double-wall. See below for a list of advantages and disadvantages of each of these types. 

1. Free-standing:
   1. Pros: Simple, easy to set up, generally more stable and durable
   2. Cons: Heavier, bulkier, sometimes more expensive (materials depending)
2. Non-free-standing: 
   1. Pros: Ultralight, extremely packable, sometimes less expensive (materials depending)
   2. Cons: Takes practice to set up, ground must be able to be staked, cannot be easily moved once pitched
3. Semi-free-standing:
   1. Pros: Relatively simple and easy to set up, good balance between structure and weight savings
   2. Cons: Ground must be able to be staked, cannot be easily moved once pitched, tend to be premium options that are more expensive
4. Single-wall: 
   1. Pros: Lighter, more packable, oftentimes warmer
   2. Cons: Not as versatile (especially during good weather), tend to have problems with condensation inside of the tent 
5. Double-wall:
   1. Pros: Better ventilated (less condensation), more versatile 
   2. Cons: Heavier, bulkier, less insulated (if camping during shoulder seasons)

5. Step 4: Features and Details

For many people, the small details in their gear can make or break their choices. With such a wide range of tents on the market, it can be helpful to think about these details ahead of time. Let’s break down a few common features in tents so you know what to keep an eye out for. 

Tent Feature and Details

1. Doors and vestibules

Tents usually have one or two doors. One-door tents are usually front-entry, good enough for the solo traveler or backpacker. Sometimes, however, there are two-person (or larger) tents that also only have one door. In this scenario, you will want to decide if it is comfortable for multiple people to enter in and out of the same door. Many people will find it better to choose a tent that has two side-entry doors. 

Vestibule size, orientation, and quantity are also important considerations. Vestibules are extended, covered, and usually floorless storage areas attached to the outside of a tent door, created by the tent’s rainfly. They are great for gear storage, especially during precipitation when you don’t want to store wet shoes or a wet backpack inside the tent with you. Some tents have large vestibules, some have small ones; some tents only have one vestibule, some have two. Think carefully about what feels best for you and/or your group. 

2. Interior storage

Many tents out there will have small storage features on the inside of the tent, whether it is in the body, the rainfly, or both. This often comes in the form of small pockets by the user’s head, which are a great place to put things such as headlamps, phones, battery banks, or even water bottles. Sometimes, tents have overhead storage too—small mesh accessories on the ceiling of the tent, often called gear lofts. These are another great spot to store small items, particularly headlamps or lanterns that can serve to illuminate the tent from above. 

3. Floors and footprints

The floor of a tent is exactly what it sounds like: the bottom of the tent where you lay down your sleeping pad and sleeping bag each evening. To compensate for use on rocky, uneven ground or in wet conditions, most tent floors are manufactured with stronger materials than other parts of the tent and are at least water-resistant. However, not all floors are created the equal and all floors will wear overtime and eventually let water through. No tent is fully waterproof in standing water. 

The advent of ultralight backpacking has led to many tent floors being constructed out of thinner, lighter materials. This makes considering footprints an important aspect of the tent-buying process. A footprint, also called a groundsheet, is a protective sheet placed under a tent to help shield its floor from punctures, abrasion, and moisture. Many times, footprints must be purchased separately from your tent. If buying a footprint or making your own after-market footprint using materials like Tyvek, make sure that the size of the groundsheet is slightly smaller than the area of your tent floor. This might seem counterintuitive, but if it is larger, it will allow rain to flow and pool underneath the floor of the tent. 

Ready for Your In-Tents Decision? 

If so, we’d love to chat! At Peace Outfitters, we offer a wide selection of tents and other shelters. We carry car camping and backpacking tents from brands such as Big Agnes, NEMO, Kelty, Marmot, and Gossamer Gear. All our tents are three-season and span across free-standing, non-free-standing, and semi-free-standing designs. We also sell tarps from Kelty and Gossamer Gear, as well as hammock camping setups from ENO and Grand Trunk. Our knowledgeable staff are happy to assist you in the tent-selection process or simply answer any questions you may have while doing your own research.

Not ready to make a purchase but curious to try a few options? We have you covered with camping and backpacking rentals. We offer camping tents in two-person and four-person options, and backpacking tents in a two-person option. These are great options for folks visiting the Flagstaff area or traveling to the Grand Canyon, particularly those interested in backpacking Havasupai and Havasu Falls. Visit: https://peaceoutfittersaz.com/camping-and-backpacking-rentals/ for more information on our camping and backpacking rentals. 

See you out there—hopefully in your new tent!