CORE 12 Person Instant Cabin Tent 18′ x 10′ Review

As with the selection of “Best Overall” for tents in any size category, this selection for the 12+ person size category was based mostly on consumer reviews and ratings. Don’t take the wrong way – this tent has many impressive qualities.

Each of those qualities and the combination of those qualities also affected my decision. However, if you really look at this deeply, you will see that it is very likely that these other great qualities are what led to such positive consumer reviews.

Reliable and Durable

Perhaps the best and most important consumer comments were related to this tent’s overall quality. Over and over again, they raved about how well this tent stood up to the elements. Rainstorms and even windstorms were no match for this tent. It withstood heavy rainfalls and medium-strength winds.

Honestly, one really cannot ask for more from a tent of this size. The sheer size of this tent means that it has many more walls, larger walls, and more poles than smaller tents – all of which offer the possibility for more weak points when strong winds approach. Longer seams and more seams overall also increase the chance that large tents will leak more than smaller tents.

I remember when a friend of mine had set up a large tent in his backyard for a few weeks while he completed renovations on his home. After spending the night out at his sister’s house, he went home to find that his tent had been torn apart by a storm which had moved through while he was gone. To find a large tent which has received no major complaints about its ability to handle rather strong storms says a lot about its quality.

Three Rooms Mean Many Possibilities

This 10 foot by 18 foot tent is set up with a door in the middle of each of its long sides. By default, this makes the middle of the tent a sort of hub for all entertainment and storage purposes.

You can use this area to store clothing, shoes, boots, or to house a small table for playing cards and board games on rainy days. Using this type of arrangement, this tent could house anywhere from four to eight people for a decent night’s sleep on air mattresses or in sleeping bags.

Of course, there is nothing to say that you must use the center room for these kinds of purposes. You can also choose to use it as a sleeping area, bumping the possible sleeping arrangements from 4-6 up to 6-9 people on queen-sized air mattresses or from 6-8 people in sleeping bags up to 9-12 people.

Plenty of Light

Not only will plenty of light make its way through this tent’s many windows and fully mesh roof during the day, there will also be plenty of light at night. How can there be so much light inside this tent at night? Well, don’t get your hopes too far up, it doesn’t glow in the dark. Actually, I am quite happy that it doesn’t glow in the dark. I don’t sleep well as it is and I am certain that glowing walls would keep me awake all night long.

Instead of glow in the dark walls, this tent features three lantern loops. Okay, I get it, this doesn’t seem as impressive as a glowing tent, but it is nice to know that you can turn a lantern off when you would like it to be dark for sleeping or staring up at the stars.

What’s most impressive is that very few tents, even tents this size and larger, feature multiple lantern loops and force you to set lanterns on the floor of the tent if you would like to light only one specific area.

Other Notables

A fully mesh roof, two ground vents, seven windows, and windows in each of the large doors of this tent offer incredible ventilation. Hot air will float out of the roof while cool; fresh air comes in through the windows and ground vents.

A partial fly covers the mesh roof during rain showers and rainstorms. The windows can be zippered shut in these events and the ground vents feature special awnings to keep rain from coming in while still allowing air to flow through.

The “instant” aspect of this tent cannot be ignored. Who doesn’t love something simple? I know that I have a deep appreciation for instant tents, because they allow me to get out and enjoy nature without having to spend hours assembling a complicated oversized 12 person tent.

Instead of fumbling around with color-coded poles and complicated instructions, simply open this tent, attach the fabric to the extendable poles with plastic clips, stand it up, and peg it into the ground.