Best 16 to 20 Person Tent (Buying Guide)
If “the more the merrier” is an adage you live by, you’re going to need one of these 16 to 20 person tents.
More often than not the most memorable camping trips are not solitary reflective individual excursions, but rather camping trips with large groups like a family, the scouts, or groups of friends. Convening and living together in nature for a few days or several weeks instills a lasting sense of camaraderie, and regular camping trips that build on this amity can help to build relationships that last a lifetime.
For campers to feel their most connected and familiar with their fellow campers, a large tent with plenty of floor space that affords room for sleeping bags or air mattresses will do the trick. The sense of togetherness that comes with communal living is invaluable for a meaningful camping experience.
In a hurry? Here’s the test winner after 13 hours of research:
- EASIER SET UP: Bell tent sets up easily with two pole assembly; Oversized door makes loading and unloading your gear quick and easy; Carbon steel stakes drive through the roughest camping terrain
And here’s an overview of the best 16 to 20 person tents on the market today:
How much space is required for 20 people really depends on how familiar the campers are already and how many luxury items they plan to have. For a pared-down camping trip with no electronic items and lots of DIY activities, on which the tent may only be for sleeping, then 20 sleeping bags can probably fit in a family-size tent that is advertised as a 16 person tent, or perhaps even a 12 person tent. For more laid back camping trips where there may be tablets, GPS systems, or an electronic power pack, fewer people may sleep in each tent, but the extra space will function nicely as a common area in case of rain.
In case it’s a large group of more than 20 people, or if it is a camping trip of multiple families, consider giving the campsite a village feel by connecting the tents together. The best tents for this will have more than one entrance and connecting them in a circle or two lines can create an enjoyable common area for bonfires and mealtimes. Check out the best tents for group camping trips in the article below.
With a larger tent, you can build camaraderie while enjoying the outdoors.
Best 20 Person Camping Tent – Overview
1. Ozark Trail Flat Creek Family Cabin Tent
This Ozark Trail 16 person tent is roomy enough to sleep 20 in sleeping bags. 4 queen air mattresses fit inside comfortably the three rooms of this large cabin tent. Each room has its own separate entrance for everyone’s easy access without disturbing other campers. At 230 square feet and with a center height of 80”, this family tent is large enough to be seen easily, but Ozark Trail has also designed the guy ropes to be reflective for added visibility.
The mesh roof is perfect for stargazing and the No-see-um mesh is well-sealed so you don’t have to worry about bugs flying into the tent. The mesh also affords excellent ventilation and can be closed in the event of poor weather conditions. The rain is also kept out by taped seams on the rainfly, which is basically a tarp or tarpaulin that is hung on or over the tent to shade it from the elements.
This Ozark Trail tent features many convenient extras for the technologically obsessed, including gear hammocks, movie screen room with a media pocket, and 3 e-ports that can be connected with extension cables to power the tent. Two room dividers are included so campers can delineate their own space within the tent, and they can stay organized with the many storage pockets.
However, bear in mind that these are not removable room dividers, as they are sewn-in. The tent folds up and fits in a fairly portable zipper closed carrying bag. This is a 3 season tent, meaning it’s designed for use in 3 seasons: spring, summer, and fall. A 4 season tent is one designed for winter as well, but this Ozark Trail family tent is not the best option for camping in cold weather.
Pros:
- Large tent
- Gear loft
- Screen room
- Gear hammocks
- Storage pockets
- Reflective guy ropes
Cons:
- 3 season tent, not 4
- Non-removable room dividers
2. Tahoe Gear Family Cabin Tent
- Large yet practical with a generous 7-foot center, the Tahoe Gear Ozark is perfect for group or family camping trips with up to 16 people
This Tahoe Gear cabin tent provides ample room for 20 in 240 square feet. It’s easy to transport in its zipper closed carry bag and makes for an easy set up since the steel poles are all shock-corded and fit together with a pin and ring system. The 7-foot center height offers plenty of headroom. The included 1200mm polyester rainfly has taped fly seams to keep bugs out, and the tent has a polyethylene floor, which means it’s easier to keep clean. This Tahoe Gear tent features a fly canopy awning as well, which extends over the tent entrance to provide a shady place to sit. The canopy is held down by guy ropes so as not to blow away in windy weather conditions.
Open mesh and ground vents allow for excellent ventilation throughout the tent, just don’t accidentally block the ground vents with sleeping bags or air mattresses. 3 season tents like this one won’t be insulated enough for camping trips in the winter, but it has been designed with weather-resistant fabrics which make it water-resistant but not quite weatherproof. The tent features ground vents and roof vents for excellent ventilation as well. There is one e-port for electrical cords by the back door.
Pros:
- Roomy
- Portable
- Polyethylene floor
- Fly canopy awning
- Ample ventilation
Cons:
- 3 season tent
- Not weatherproof
3.CORE Instant Cabin Tent
- INSTANT SETUP: Setups in 2 minutes or less! The poles are pre-attached to the tent- just unpack, unfold, lift legs into position and extend legs until they click into place.
This CORE instant tent has a super easy setup that can be accomplished in two minutes or less. The steel poles it uses for support are pre-attached to the tent, so all campers need to do is unfold and lift the legs into place until they snap into position. The rainfly is water repellent and the tent itself has also been through a water-resistant treatment, both of which work together to keep rain and moisture out of the tent.
There are two removable room dividers included that fasten shut with a zipper for privacy but can also be left open. The tent is big enough to fit three queen air mattresses and has two entrances so it’s fairly easy to connect this tent with another one like it to fit in the whole camping crew.
Excellent ventilation is a sure thing because of the advanced venting system CORE has designed into this tent. Large ground vents and the mesh roof allow hot air to quickly move out of the tent for a breezy and temperate night’s sleep. The front and back doors are each covered by awnings that can be secured to the ground with guy ropes to ensure they don’t take damage in windy weather conditions.
The mesh roof allows for stargazing and the rainfly has an easy setup in case it starts to rain. CORE includes a zipper closed carry bag for easy transport. The tent has an e-port and a durable polyethylene floor. At 180 square feet and with a center height of 80 inches, this tent offers lots of headroom for taller campers and plenty of space for a large family.
Pros:
- Easy setup
- Water-resistant
- Zipper shut removable room dividers
- Mesh roof
- Polyethylene floor
- Two entrances
Cons:
- Must be paired to fit 20
4.Fortunershop Family Cabin Tent
- 3 sewn-in room dividers 1, 2, 3 or 4 rooms
Upping the ante on cabin tent connectivity, this family tent has four separate rooms that look like a crossroads, perfect for connecting to another of the same model or with another large family tent to make enough room for 20 people or more. There are three removable room dividers that connect with a zipper and can be taken down at will, so you can have as few as 1 or as many as 4 separate rooms.
It’s outfitted with a whopping 12 large windows made of mesh that offer great circulation and excellent ventilation. As a four-room cabin tent, it boasts 400 square feet of floor space and a center height of 78 inches, which is a great size for a 14 person tent and about average headroom for a roomy cabin tent. Now, since it is such a behemoth family tent and not an instant tent, this Fortunershop model takes a bit longer and is not as much of an easy setup as some other models, taking an estimated 20 minutes to set up fully.
That being said, it is spacious enough to fit 5 queen air mattresses, which translates to about 14 sleeping bags if there isn’t tons of additional equipment to store inside as well. There is only one e-port but it does afford quick access to an electrical cord if you need to charge phones or tablets for mapping purposes. There is a rainfly included, and there are taped fly seams to prevent insects from getting in the tent. Steel poles are included for support as well as a zipper closed carry case.
The windows and mesh roof do the same job ground vents do in other tents of this size. Overall this is a nice heavy-duty 3 season tent for a large camping trip, but there are some smaller details missing, like gear lofts, a screen room, gear hammocks, a media pocket, or storage pockets. But it is weatherproof, rain won’t get in if the rainfly is up, and it will still enable any large family of campers to enjoy the outdoors the way they want.
Pros:
- E-port
- Rainfly
- Large windows
- Carry bag included
- Easy access with 4 entrances
Cons:
- Long setup time
- No awnings
- Lack of additional features
5. TETON Sports & Outdoor Sierra Canvas Tent
- EASIER SET UP: Bell tent sets up easily with two pole assembly; Oversized door makes loading and unloading your gear quick and easy; Carbon steel stakes drive through the roughest camping terrain
Despite the gargantuan size of this 20 x 20-foot large tent, the easy setup can be easily accomplished by just one person. Unlike the other cabin tent models on this list that are supported by steel poles throughout the frame, the TETON Sierra canvas tent is supported by one central pole, guy ropes that tether the canopy into the ground around it, and two smaller A-frame poles that support the door frame. Though it may seem too large to transport easily, it folds up into the included carry bag and is carried in one hand with no trouble.
The tent is crafted from really heavy-duty canvas that will likely outlast most other models. The Sierra tent features waterproof (not just water-resistant) cotton canvas fibers that provide excellent ventilation. If the air inside the tent gets really stale, or if you just want to create a large covered area for all the campers to enjoy together, the all-weather interwoven polymer floor with welded stitches to keep out groundwater also unzips around the entire perimeter of the tent, transforming the tent into a canopy that everyone gather under, which means you can use it even when you aren’t on a camping trip but need a covering for other events like concerts or parties.
The tent features four gusseted windows to keep water out. It doesn’t feature ground vents since it transforms easily into a canopy but it does have 3 built-in weatherproof top vents in the roof for additional ventilation and heat escape whether it’s being used as a tent or a canopy. At 314 square feet, this is one of the largest tent models on the market and offers plenty of space for a large family.
This is also a 4 season tent, not a 3 season, so it will offer enough insulation from the elements to be used in cold weather conditions. Another nice feature is the lifetime limited warranty offered with this tent, which offers some degree of security on the consumer side. All in all, because of its size and versatility, we’re choosing this TETON canvas tent as our top pick for best 20 person tent.
Pros:
- 314 square feet
- 2-in-1 tent and canopy
- Lifetime limited warranty
- Excellent ventilation
- Heavy-duty breathable canvas construction
- Strong guy ropes
- Maximum headroom
Cons:
- No interior organizing features such as storage pockets
6. NTK Super Arizona GT
- THE ULTIMATE FAMILY CAMPING EXPERIENCE! SUPER SPACIOUS 11 to 12 Person (adult/kids) tent, Detachable Room Divider, 2 Doors, 3 Windows Tent Designed for Easy Assembly with color coded poles. Super 6.9...
This NTK model has almost everything you’d need in a camping tent for a large group, but a few drawbacks. At a little over 210 square feet, it is neither the largest nor the smallest family tent on Amazon, but sufficient if paired or connected with another similar model. It does have a removable room divider, the 2 doors offer privacy for campers and the mesh roof vents also excellent ventilation if the tent will be crowded. The center height, 6.9 feet, is fairly sizeable headroom for a tent of this size.
The full-coverage rainfly is impressively designed with a water column and is treated to provide UV protection. There are mosquito mesh coverings to offer great views and keep bugs away. The tent features roomy storage pockets on the inside and comes with additional poles to set up a canopy on the outside. The fiberglass support roads are equipped with a pin and ring system for easy setup, as well as a color-coded system to make things even easier.
The floor is constructed with polyethylene that has been treated to be anti-fungus. The whole thing comes down and fits into an included heavy-duty carry bag. One drawback to the mesh doors is that the zippers can only be accessed from the outside of the tent. Queen airbeds may be a bit large to fit into the smaller of the two rooms that are created when the removable room divider is in use. Overall, though, this is a solidly constructed multiple person tent.
Pros:
- Enough square feet for a large group
- Removable room divider
- Canopy
- Rainfly included
- Storage pockets
Cons:
- Zippers on the outside of the mesh doors
- Queen airbeds may be an awkward fit
7. Ozark Trail Hazel Creek Cabin Tent
- Traditional all steel cabin design with single gable entrance Two strings of LED lights hang conveniently inside tent (batteries not included)
Another great cabin tent model from Ozark Trail, this Hazel Creek model is roomy enough to comfortably fit a large family and can be combined with other similar models to create a campsite big enough for 20 campers. Steel poles provide support and large windows provide excellent ventilation. One of the two included removable room dividers has very creatively been designed to double as a screen for projecting movies.
A few other nice design additions are the two mesh roof-hanging corner organizers, tow integrated storage pockets, and a media pocket that is perfect for a tablet. There is also a mud mat to keep the floor clean, e-port for connecting electrical cords, and a rolling duffel carry bag for easy transportation.
There is only one main entrance to this tent, which does provide easy access, but a second entrance would be very helpful, especially when the removable room dividers are in use. This is a 3 season tent, so not ideal for use in winter weather conditions. There is a good amount of floor space but not the most on this list, with only 180 square feet. This Ozark Trail Hazel Creek cabin tent is probably more ideal for people who want the space of a 20 person tent but intend to spread out a smaller number of campers within that larger space.
Pros:
- Roomy
- Steel pole support
- Large windows
- Movie screen
- Mesh hanging organizers
- Storage pockets
- Carry bag included
- E-port included
Cons:
- 180 square feet
- No canopy
- 3 season tent
Choosing the right size tent for a large camping trip is essential to camping with a large group outdoors.
Our Winner:
Standing out in the Amazon market for its large amount of floor space and the versatility of its 2-in-1 canopy and tent design, the TETON Sports & Outdoor Sierra Canvas Tent is our top pick for best 20 person tent. It can be used at any sort of outdoor event, or even when entertaining friends and family in the backyard at home.
The excellent ventilation afforded by the roof openings and mesh door is unparalleled in tents of this size. For any large group camping trip, or to enjoy the luxury of ample space in a large family tent, this TETON canvas tent is simply the best large tent for the purpose.
The guy ropes provide the main source of structural support, which makes it an easy setup that just one person can do if needed. The center height is more than ideal, and is in fact spacious compared to other models. More spacious than any cabin tent or dome tent, this tent features exactly what you’re looking for large camping trips: a space to share with others who have joined you so that you can all experience the fun of the outdoors together. For this reason, it is our top pick for best 20 person tent.
Bonus tip: Check out this really quick tip for taking tent poles out of your tent!
