You have found the ideal hiking tent: very light, compact and easy to pitch. But you cannot sit up, your feet touch the fabric, condensation drips on your head, your companion disturbs you when going to the toilet, and you do not know where to put your belongings… In short, it is not a tent but an ordeal.
These are just a few examples showing why comfort matters when choosing a hiking tent, even if only to understand what you are giving up or where you are willing to compromise.
Dimensions and volume, doors and porches, condensation, warmth and capacity: RayonRando discusses the factors to consider for feeling comfortable in your wild camping tent.
1) Should you choose an ‘oversized’ tent?
You hike alone, but will you choose a 1-person or 2-person tent? For 2 people, is a 2-person tent sufficient, or is a 3-person model better?
Choosing an oversized tent clearly increases comfort, with a larger inner tent and perhaps larger porches. The greater volume may also reduce condensation compared with the smaller model. At RayonRando, we think an ‘oversized’ tent is worth considering for long trips, if you are tall or broadly built, or if you are unused to a tent's confined space.
However, this choice brings constraints:
If you are alone, pitching a 2-person tent single-handedly takes a little more effort than a 1-person model; the inner tent will also be harder to warm up.
Alone or as 2 people, weight and packed size will of course be greater; the footprint will be larger, which can make finding a flat camping spot difficult on rough terrain; the tent will also be less discreet.
2) Inner tent dimensions and volume:
Inner tent width:
If you move a lot or have broad shoulders, pay attention to the inner tent's width, especially when sharing as 2.
Consider the size of your sleeping mats in particular. For comfort, especially with a larger build, you may want a wide mat:
With 2 regular mats, each 51 cm wide, allow 10 cm between them and around 10 cm at the sides, so an inner tent 1m30 wide is not excessive for comfort. Most 2-person tents accommodate this. However, some cramped 2-person models only work with 2 overlapping foam mats, or even staggered sleeping positions.
A wide mat and a regular mat do not always fit in a 2-person tent unless pushed together, which gives sleepers no extra space and may leave them touching.
With 2 wide mats, each 63 cm, a 2-person tent is often too tight. If it narrows towards the feet, they will not fit. In this case, 2 wide mats generally require a 3-person tent or a large 2-person model.
Inner tent length:
If you are 1m90 tall, pay attention to this. Besides floor length, check the tent's profile at the feet: sometimes the roof is too low and your feet touch the fabric.
Extra length also lets you store a few belongings at the head end.
Internal volume:
Would you like to sit up in your tent? If only briefly to change clothes, limited volume is not too restrictive. But if you want to read, eat or play cards, you need enough space.
Headroom is the first indicator. Generally, at least 1 m is needed to sit up. But height alone is not enough; also look at the tent's profile:
- A tunnel tent is only high at the head end. This is generally just enough to change clothes.
- A classic dome tent offers height along the central pole but not at the sides. It is slightly more comfortable, especially alone, but more limited for 2.
- Finally, ‘spacious’ dome tents use a short central spreader pole to tension the walls. The inner tent's side walls are therefore vertical, giving almost as much space higher up as at floor level. This is clearly the type to choose for enough internal volume to sit comfortably for long periods. These tents come in 1-person, 2-person and 3-person versions.
3) Hiking tent entrances and porches:
1 or 2 entrances? Side or front?
Some tents have just 1 side entrance. Alone, this is quite practical. For 2, it is less convenient: the person furthest from the door must disturb the other to get out. In some cases it also restricts the tent's orientation to avoid catching the wind.
Just 1 side entrance also means a single, fairly small porch, where space must be left to pass through.
- Tents with 2 side entrances are very pleasant for 2 or 3 people. Everyone can enter or leave on their own side and has a porch for shoes and a pack. You can also store everything in one porch and exit through the other. However, side porches are not always very roomy. They can be relatively wide at ground level but narrow higher up. They provide storage, but not necessarily space to prepare food, for example.
- For this, tents with a front entrance are more practical. The entrance at the head end provides only one porch, but it is generally quite spacious, sometimes extended by a short pole or hoop. It holds packs and sometimes, with the inner tent open, offers a larger living space: you can sit inside and prepare food in the porch when it rains. Front entrances are more practical with a two-way zip, so you can exit on either side.
4) Condensation in a hiking tent:
Condensation can be particularly unpleasant. Whatever tent you choose, it varies with the conditions: number of people, cold, humidity, camping near a watercourse and so on.
Several factors indicate whether a tent will be more or less prone to condensation:
Single-wall tents are, by definition, prone to condensation. They do not really belong in this article…
For double-wall tents, dimensions and internal volume matter. The larger the tent and the greater the headroom, the more water vapour can disperse.
Similarly, sleeping alone in a 2-person tent generates less condensation than sharing as 2.
We have noticed that tents with a front porch produce little condensation. With the sleeper's head near the mesh door and porch, water vapour can probably escape more easily.
Tent ventilation can help water vapour escape, particularly with enough space between the outer and inner fabrics and airflow from below.
Finally, the inner fabric can catch and disperse condensation droplets before they fall on your head. For this reason, the top of the inner tent sometimes uses solid fabric rather than mesh.
5) Warmth in your trekking tent:
If you sleep alone in a roomy tent, it is harder to warm the space, and yourself, than when sharing a small tent as 2. You may need a slightly warmer sleeping bag.
The inner tent sometimes consists entirely of mesh, allowing draughts through, while others have solid fabric on the lower walls to block wind.
Finally, the flysheet provides varying degrees of coverage over the inner tent. Some ultralight flysheets are shaped, as on Nemo tents, to use less fabric, but provide less wind protection.
The Superlight Pyramid Mesh tent
Here, the lower walls use solid fabric to block wind
Conclusion:
If you are tall or broadly built, pay particular attention to comfort, especially volume and dimensions. Cramped conditions can be very restrictive.
At RayonRando, we think saving grams can justify some loss of comfort on a weekend or week-long trip, or when alternating indoor accommodation and wild camping.
On longer trips, however, lack of space and comfort can become very frustrating day after day. To enjoy your trek fully, carrying a little more weight for greater comfort may be worthwhile.
Finally, if one hiker is inexperienced in wild camping, choosing a comfortable tent is a safer way to help them enjoy the trek and want to do it again.