Best Overall Camping Tent

The $499 REI Kingdom 6 is absolutely packed with features that go above and beyond the 10 other tents on our 2021 list, so it should come as little surprise that we named it our Best Overall Camping Tent. What’s not to love about this ten? It is adequately roomy, incredibly rugged, and its smart room divider paired with dual entryways make it perfectly suited for a family camp outing. We also couldn’t get over the nearly two dozen storage pockets, which is borderline excessive but in a good way. However, the front vestibule really only offers enough space to act as a storage area or covered porch, and upgrading to the larger Mudroom will bring the price tag up to nearly $600.

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See Our Best Camping Tent Review 2021 HERE!

REI Co-op is unquestionably one of the biggest names in the outdoor community. Along with acting as a major retail outlet for some of the top makers in outdoor industries like camping, hiking, biking, kayaking, and more, they also produce a range of products that are well built and also often well priced. REI has quickly become one of our favorite tent makers thanks to their intuitive design choices, with the REI Kingdom 6 being a prime example. This $499 6-person tent is packed with features that go above and beyond the ten other tents on our 2021 list, so it should come as little surprise that we named it our Best Overall Camping Tent.

Comfort

Interior dimensions for the Kingdom 6 are 10′ x 8’4″, totaling 83.3 sq ft, with a peak height of 6’3″. These numbers are nearly identical to the Marmot Limestone 6P, which has an additional inch of headroom but costs $45 more, while the Big Agnes Big House 6 has the same headroom but three fewer feet of square footage for $25 less. Regardless, these are well within the acceptable range for a 6-person tent, especially when you consider that this is a cabin-style tent with fairly vertical walls. What’s also noteworthy is that, unlike most camping tents that have a greater width than length, the Kingdom 6 is actually longer than it is wide, which is an ideal layout for more than two air mattresses. One large mattress can run lengthwise along the back wall, while two smaller side-by-side mattresses can be placed perpendicular, split up with the included room divider.

The front wall of the Kingdom 6 is mesh for the top two-thirds, extending across the entire roof, and there is a zippered half-window at the top of the back door, offering plenty of views and ventilation. Both doors are quad-zippered and open up completely for easy access. Attach the rainfly to generate an awning over the back door and a vestibule at the front.

We were impressed by the versatility of the vestibule. It has a large entryway that can be half-zipped and rolled sideways to create a half-door or rolled up completely to make one large entryway. As a third option, the doorway can be extended outward and propped up with a pair of hiking poles (you’ll also want to stabilize this with a pair of guylines) to make for a covered veranda, much like what we saw with the Marmot Limestone 6P. Our only real qualm with this vestibule was how small it is. At only 29sqft, it’s one of the smaller vestibules we came across, and when sealed up, it can only really serve as a storage area. For an extra $99.95, this vestibule can be replaced with the much more spacious Kingdom Mudroom. If you aren’t too concerned with your colors matching up, the orange version of this can be acquired for $25 less. The mudroom boasts 50sqft of space and entryways on the left and right sides.

Ease of Setup

It should take roughly 10 minutes to pitch the Kingdom 6, which is a very reasonable time given its size. It comes in at around the same time as the Limestone 6P and The North Face Wawona 6. The main structure is supported by one multi-hubbed pole set, with one pole running along the roof with three-way hubs on both ends that connect it to grommets at the four corners of the base. There are also two poles that loop around the doorways and expand the walls. These poles are color-coded, which made the process much simpler, and they are connected to the tent body using clips. REI even thought to include zippers in the ceiling to make it easier to clip the high poles! The rainfly also uses color-coding to make it simpler to orient. Although this tent could be pitched by one person if necessary, we found it to be much quicker with two.

The 20.6lb Kingdom 6 packs away into a travel bag measuring 25.5″x9.5”x16.5”. We were rather surprised by how much thought REI put into this bag, which is better designed than some of the generic duffel and tube systems employed by other brands. The inside of the Kingdom 6 bag is sectioned off to make it less complicated to access your tent, poles, and rainfly, while the outside has backpack straps for easy transport.

Weatherproofing

The rainfly on the Kingdom 6, which is three-season rated, is made of seam-sealed waterproof 75D polyester taffeta. It offers complete rain protection on three sides, with the backdoor awning providing marginal protection (it should keep out a light shower). There are several popup vents on the fly to provide ample ventilation and reduce potential moisture buildup. Wind can be a bit of an issue, though, due to the Kingdom’s vertical walls; unless your Kingdom is filled with heavy gear, anything more than a gentle breeze has the potential to turn the tent into a sail, so you’ll want to stake it out and utilize the six guylines.

Durability

The Kingdom 6 is quite beefy as a whole, utilizing a 150D coated polyester Oxford floor and 75D polyester taffeta canopy. The poles are made of 6061/7001 aluminum; the hubbed pole is 14.5mm while the doorway poles are 11mm. There is no footprint included with the Kingdom 6, but one can be purchased through REI for $64.95. It’s worth noting that if you purchase a used Kingdom 6 made in 2018 or earlier, any and all current accessories (such as the footprint, mudroom, or even the Kingdom Porch) will not be backward-compatible.

Other Features

As we mentioned earlier, the room divider is an excellent inclusion that’s well complemented by the fact that the Kingdom 6 has multiple entryways, so it really can feel like two tents in one, which makes it highly family-friendly. One of the other things we loved about this tent was its nearly endless storage; sprinkled throughout the interior, you’ll find a jaw-dropping 22 pockets, both large and small. The only other tent in our review that even comes close to this number is the REI Co-op Base Camp 6, which has 14.

The Bottom Line

What’s not to love about the Kingdom 6? It is adequately roomy, incredibly rugged, and its smart room divider paired with dual entryways make it perfectly suited for a family camp outing. We also couldn’t get over the nearly two dozen storage pockets, which is borderline excessive but in a good way. However, the front vestibule really only offers enough space to act as a storage area or covered porch, and upgrading to the larger mudroom will bring the price tag up to nearly $600. Still, we felt that the Kingdom 6’s many positives were enough to earn it the title of Best Overall Camping Tent.

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