The Best 6-Person Instant Tents (Bought & Tested!)
Here are the best 6-person instant tents that I’ve bought and tested:
Caddis Rapid 6-Person Instant Cabin Tent
Core Equipment 6-Person Instant Cabin Tent
Coleman 6-Person Instant Cabin Tent
Best 6-Person Instant Tent – Quick Summary
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Here’s a quick summary of everything you need to know about these 6-person instant tents:
| Instant Tent | Recommendation | Check Price |
|---|---|---|
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BEST PREMIUM PICK Caddis Rapid 6
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BEST BUDGET PICK Core Instant Cabin 6
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And now, let’s get into the more detailed recommendations on these easy setup tents.
RELATED: Best Instant Tents
1. Caddis Rapid 6 (Best Premium Pick)
Key Info:
Set up timing (1P): 9.5 minutes
Pack away timing (1P): 7.5 minutes
Peak height: 77 inches
Base area: 95.1 square feet
Weight: 25.0 pounds
Packed size: 50 x 15 x 9.5 inches
Pros and Cons
Summary
The Caddis Rapid 6 is not only my best premium instant tent pick, but it’s also my best overall instant cabin tent in this review. Here’s why.
First, the Caddis has, by far, the highest quality materials of all the instant tents in this review:
| Instant Tent | Flooring | Tent Body | Mesh |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caddis Rapid 6 | 210D Polyester | 190D Polyester | Micro |
| Coleman Instant 6 | Polyethylene | 150D Polyester | Regular |
| Core Instant 6 | Polyethylene | 68D Polyester | Regular |
It’s the only instant tent here that doesn’t have a cheap polyethylene flooring, the tent body is thicker and more heavy duty than all the others, and it has really fine micro mesh to keep out even the smallest of bugs.
Second, the Caddis also has, by far, the most storage options of all the instant tents in this review. It has a whopping 6 pockets in the entire tent, and also a provided gear loft at the top of the tent too.
On the other hand, the Core has 6 pockets, but all of them are smaller. And the Coleman has only 2 pockets inside the tent. That’s nowhere near enough for a 6-person tent. (I would expect a 6-person tent to have at least 6 pockets, right?)
Third, I liked that the Caddis could be folded into half nicely, and be laid flat on the ground for me to easily wipe all the dirt off.
In contrast, the other instant tents in this review were not able to fold flat on the ground, which made wiping the dirt off more difficult. I had to use a water hose instead to hose down the entire tent. (This also made drying the tent off a much longer process.)
Fourth, I really loved that the Caddis Rapid has a much longer rain fly length than the other tents in this review. On the sides with the long rainfly length, there were no leaks from the heavy rain at all.
Also, the longer rain fly was able to completely protect my windows from the rain. I could leave almost all my windows in the Caddis Rapid open in the heavy rain, and this made for excellent ventilation on rainy days.
What about the other instant tents in this review? Well, they had really short rainfly lengths that covered only the ceiling mesh. This left the windows exposed to the rain, drenching all the windows from top to bottom.
One small knock against the Caddis Rapid is that the front of the tent has a short rainfly length, while the other 3 sides had longer lengths. Any leaking during the heavy rain test came only from the front, and not the other sides.
Pro-Tip: If you get a tarp to shield the front for extra protection, this Caddis Rapid 6 makes for a very solid instant tent in the heavy rain and bad weather conditions.
Moving onto the cons, the biggest one is that the longer rainfly length made it more difficult to secure it over the tent. This made the total setup timing of the Caddis Rapid a little longer than expected.
Here are all the setup timings of each of the 6-person instant tents in this review:
| Instant Tent | Setup Timing |
|---|---|
| Caddis Rapid 6 | 9.5 minutes |
| Core Instant 6 | 7.5 minutes |
| Coleman Instant 6 | 7 minutes |
And also, the Caddis Rapid isn’t a cheap, budget-friendly tent brand like the other 2 in this review. I paid about 50% more for the Caddis than I did for the rest.
Still, I think the higher price is well worth it for the number of features, the better rain protection, and the higher quality materials. And of course, I would highly recommend the Caddis Rapid 6; it’s easily the best 6-person instant tent that I have.
2. Core Equipment Instant Cabin 6 (Best Budget Pick)
Key Info (Core 6P):
Set up timing: ~7-8 minutes
Pack away timing: ~6 minutes
Peak height: 72 inches
Base area: 99 square feet
Packed size: 48 x 9 x 8.25 inches
Weight: 12.7 pounds
The version I have of this tent is the 9-person Core, so I’ll give you my measurements of the 9P as well.
Key Info (Core 9P):
Set up timing: 12 minutes
Pack away timing: 9 minutes
Peak height: 75.5 inches
Base area: 118.1 square feet
Packed size: 46 x 13 x 12 inches
Weight: 30.0 pounds
Pros and Cons:
Summary
If the Caddis Rapid 6 is out of your budget, here’s another great 6-person instant tent – the Core Instant Cabin Tent 6.
Unlike the Caddis Rapid, the Core Instant 6 has a much more affordable price tag. I personally bought my Core Instant Cabin 9 for just slightly over $200 (I bought this a couple years ago). This is such a reasonable price for such a huge 9-person tent.
And of course, the 6-person is naturally more affordable than the 9-person model, and you can easily check out the current retail price on Amazon here.
Now, here are some of the features of the Core Instant Cabin 6 that makes it the standout budget pick.
First, it has 2 huge vents inside the tent. And these vents are incredibly user-friendly, because I could open and shut them from the inside of the tent.
All I had to do was to reach for the toggle at the bottom of each vent, and adjust it according to how much ventilation I wanted. This adjustable ventilation is seriously such a cool feature.
In contrast, the other budget-friendly brand in this review (Coleman below) does not have vents at all, let alone two huge user-friendly ones.
Second, I really liked the big T-door at the front of the tent. It’s nice and big on my 9-person model, and I think the 6-person model doesn’t look all that shabby too.
On the other hand, my budget-friendly Coleman instant tent has just a tiny door at the front of the tent.
Third, the Core has way more storage options than the Coleman too. It has a decently sized pocket organizer on the back wall of the tent, with 6 different pockets for the car campers in this tent.
Admittedly, the pockets can be a little bit bigger, but at least there are six of them. Oh, and there’s also a gear loft and a lantern hook at the top of the tent too.
In contrast, my Coleman has literally only 2 tiny pockets, and 1 lantern hook. No gear lofts.
Moving onto the cons, since this is a budget-friendly instant cabin tent, don’t expect the rain protection to be fantastic.
Budget brands like Core and Coleman tend to be able to take light to moderate rains fine, but last no more than 15 to 30 minutes in heavy rain.
And that’s because tents like this tend to have very, very small rainflies, covering only the very top of the tent.
So, in heavy rain and strong winds, the wind can easily blow the rain under the rainfly, and into the tent, causing leaks.
On top of that, not all the seams will come sealed. My Core 9-person instant cabin tent had an un-taped flooring seam running all around the entire tent, causing small puddles of water to form after some time in the heavy rain.
This is unlike my Caddis Rapid 6, which came with completely taped seams.
But of course, this Core Instant Cabin 6 is still a great pick if you’re camping only in fair weather, with maybe the occasional light rain.
3. Coleman Instant Cabin 6 (Alternative Budget Pick)
Key Info (Coleman 6P):
Set up timing: ~6-7 minutes
Pack away timing: ~6-7 minutes
Peak height: 72 inches
Base area: 90 square feet
Packed size: 48 x 9.5 x 9.5 inches
Weight: 24.6 pounds (excludes separate rainfly and rainfly stakes)
The version I have of this tent is the 4-person Coleman, so I’ll give you my measurements of the 4P as well.
Key Info (Coleman 4P):
Set up timing: 4.5 minutes
Pack away timing: 5 minutes
Peak height: 61 inches
Base area: 55.4 square feet
Packed size: 40 x 11 x 8 inches
Weight: 20.0 pounds (includes rainfly and extra rainfly stakes)
Pros and Cons:
Summary
Like the Core Instant 6, the Coleman Instant Cabin 6 has an equally affordable price tag. I’ve also noticed that Coleman tends to promote its instant cabin tents more often than Core, so you may be able to score a better deal on Coleman.
Click on this link here to check out the current price on Amazon, and also whether there are any ongoing sales.
Pro Tip: So, depending on what the price is now, you could choose to go with Coleman Instant Cabin 6 over the Core 6, especially if it’s a lot cheaper.
The Coleman Instant Cabin 6 also has slightly higher quality materials than Core, mainly because it has double-thick Polyguard fabric.
This is just a fancy way of saying that the tent body is made of 150D polyester, while Core is only 68D polyester. The rest of the tent is the same as the Core tent though, with the same polyethylene flooring and about the same steel tent poles.
However, I found it extremely strange that this tent does not come with a provided rainfly, and I had to buy the rainfly separately. That’s, of course, an extra cost.
Pro-Tip: If you’re camping only in fair weather, and you’re on a tight budget, there’s seriously no need to buy the separate rainfly.
The rainfly you’ll get is going to be as tiny as the Core, and it doesn’t do very much to protect the tent from heavy rain too. My Coleman tent was leaking quite a bit in just 15 minutes of heavy rain.
I also found it strange that my Coleman Instant 6 didn’t come with any ceiling mesh. Most cabin tents, instant or otherwise, usually always have lots of ceiling mesh.
I’ve finally realized this is to deal with the no-rainfly problem. By not provided ceiling mesh, Coleman markets this tent as having an “integrated rainfly“. Hmm. Interesting marketing.
So, based on everything above, here’s where I stand – I will recommend the Coleman Instant Cabin 6 if you’re camping only in fair weather (so you won’t need to buy the separate fly), and if you can find a better deal on Amazon.
I think in this case, the Coleman would be better than the Core, especially if you’re on a tight budget.
So overall, here are my recommendations on the best 6-person instant tents:
Best Overall: Caddis Rapid 6-Person Instant Cabin Tent
Best Premium Pick: Caddis Rapid 6-Person Instant Cabin Tent
Runner-Up Pick: Core 6-Person Instant Cabin Tent
Best Budget Pick: Core 6-Person Instant Cabin Tent
Alternative Budget Pick: Coleman 6-Person Instant Cabin Tent
Instant Cabin Tent Features
Here are a couple of other things I took into consideration when selecting the instant tents in this review.
Tent Poles
First up, all the tents here need to have pre-attached poles. This is what allows for the easy setup and pack away of each of the instant tents here.
| Instant Tent | Setup Timing | Pack Away Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Caddis Rapid 6 | 9.5 minutes | 7.5 minutes |
| Core Instant 6 | 7.5 minutes | 6 minutes |
| Coleman Instant 6 | 7 minutes | 6 minutes |
Each of these setup and pack away timings include staking down the base and all the guy lines too.
Without pre-attached poles, here’s what a typical 6-person camping tent’s setup and pack away timings will look like:
| Non-Instant Tent | Setup Timing | Pack Away Timing |
|---|---|---|
| The North Face Wawona 6 | 20 minutes | 14 minutes |
| Eureka Copper Canyon LX 6 | 14 minutes | 12 minutes |
| Coleman Sundome 6 | 11.5 minutes | 10 minutes |
Center Height
The reason I chose the Caddis Rapid 6 as the best instant tent is because it also has the highest peak height/center height of all the tents in this review, and it’s easily the most spacious tent here too.
While both Coleman and Core had only a 72-inch peak height, the Caddis Rapid 6 came in at 77 inches, which is a whopping 5 inches taller.
On top of that, the lowest height in the Caddis Rapid comes in at 68 inches, which is still very impressive. I’m only about 5’3 (63 inches) tall, so I could stand up everywhere inside the entire tent.
Vertical Walls
I also measured the angle of the side walls of each instant camping tent in this review. Here’s the angles of all the tents here:
| Instant Tent | Side Wall Angle |
|---|---|
| Core Instant 6 | 15° |
| Caddis Rapid 6 | 17° |
| Coleman Instant 6 | 20° |
They’re okay, ranging from 15 to 20-degree angle.
I actually have tested another budget-friendly, 6-person instant tent from Ozark Trail, and the walls slanted at a whopping 30-degree angle.
This really ate into my livable space in the tent. This instant setup tent felt less like a cabin tent and more like a dome tent, it’s not a spacious tent at all, which is why I didn’t bother to recommend it here.
6-Person Instant Tent Capacity
Now, how many pads or mattresses can you fit into a 6-person instant tent? Well, the base area of the tents here range from 90 to 99 square feet, and here’s what they look like.
(A 6-person regular camping tent will have about the same base area too.)
Single Pads
For single pads, every one of the tents in this review can fit 6 single sleeping pads, still with a little leftover floor space to fit a bit of camping gear.
Queen Beds
As for the queen air mattress sizing, a 6-person camping tent can typically fit only 2. Some are just shy of a few inches of fitting 2 though.
For example, in my Caddis Rapid 6, here’s what 2 almost-queen sized beds looked like:
One of my mattresses is actually 4 inches shorter in width (the blue mattress is 80 x 56 inches) than a true Queen, which is why it fit nicely into the tent.
In case you need more room to fit more stuff, you can upsize to an 8-person instant tent or even 10-person instant tent.
RELATED: (1) Best 8-Person Instant Tent, (2) Best 10-Person Instant Tent
Why You Can Trust Me
Well, I bought and tested all 3 of the best 6-person instant cabin tents in this review. I actually bought 1 more from Ozark Trail, but I’m not recommending that because it’s not a great tent.
I truly believe in only recommending camping gear that I’d use myself, and I won’t recommend gear even if they pay me to do so. (Yes, I’ve turned down loads of sponsorship options too.)
I utilize a completely independent, structured review of each piece of gear and each tent I recommend here, and I recommend only the best to my blog readers and YouTube viewers and subscribers.
Oh yes, and the 6-person instant tents I’ve tested cost me a total of about $800, and I also took about 4 weeks to test and review everything.
Conclusion
Enough said for now, what are the 6-person instant tents that I’d recommend and not recommend for your next family-friendly car camping trip? Here they are:
Best Overall: Caddis Rapid 6
Best Premium Pick: Caddis Rapid 6
Runner-Up Pick: Core Instant Cabin 6
Best Budget Pick: Core Instant Cabin 6
Alternative Budget Pick: Coleman Instant Cabin 6
I didn’t like this instant setup tent: Ozark Trail Instant Cabin 6
I hope this helps, and feel free to reach out to me on my YouTube channel if you have any questions.
Alternatively, if you’re looking for a bigger or smaller instant setup tent, you can check out my full, comprehensive review on the best easy up tents (ranging from small to extra large tent sizes).
