Don’t you want a tent that takes an eternity to put together? Come on, it’s all part of the fun!
No? You want something that sets up in SECONDS, which is why you’re reading our review of the best pop up tent!
We’ve looked at dozens of pop up tents available in Australia to discover which tents will provide the best camping experience. These pop-up tents are ideal for family camping, festivals or casual camping.
The best pop up tent Australia needs super fast set up, great performance in heat and bad weather, and pack up quickly without having to wrestle the tent. Find out which pop-up tent tops the list!
If you’re in a rush, the best pop up tents are:
- Quechua 2 Seconds Easy Fresh & Black 2 Person Tent – Overall Best Pop Up Tent
- Outdoor Connection Easy Up 2/3/4 Person Pop Up Tent – Best Pop Up Tent for High Temperatures
- Quechua 2 Seconds Pop Up 2/3 Person Camping Tent – Best Budget Pop Up Tent
Quechua 2 Seconds Easy Fresh & Black Tent
Pros
- The ONLY pop up tent to easily fold away
- Super fast pop up set up
- Comes with two doors for easy access from both sides
- Great ventilation for hot weather
- Black out feature reduces light in the mornings
- Good performance in wind and rain
- Packs into a cylindrical shaped carry bag rather than a big disk
- Small vestibules (without floor) beside each door
- Storage pockets to keep your gear
Cons
- Slightly more expensive than other pop up tents
- Heavier than most 2 person pop up tents
- Could get warm in very hot weather
The best pop-up tent on the market is the Quechua 2 Seconds Easy Fresh & Black tent. The outside is a lovely white tent that will make it easy to find at a campground, while the inside is black. The darkroom technology keeps the light out so you (and, more importantly, the kids!) can have a good night’s sleep.
It’s a pop-up tent designed to sleep two people, and, as with all claimed capacities, this is the maximum capacity rather than a comfort capacity. If there are two of you and you’re wanting to keep backpacks inside the tent, you may want to consider the Quechua 3 person pop-up tent instead.
The dark tent interior will be handy if you’re going to a festival. And the blackout feature will also help keep the grumbling of kids at bay in the morning.
You may be wondering if the blackout tent gets hot in the sun, and yes, it can do. If you’re expecting very challenging heat, then the Outdoor Connections Pop Up Tent may be more suitable. However, the excellent ventilation of this Quechua pop-up tent is great for keeping your tent cool on hot summer mornings.
It has two panels that you may open and fasten with guy lines. These help to ventilate the tent and, due to their angle, should keep the rain out. This tent also has good performance in wind and has been tested up to Force 6 winds.
What I really LOVED about this tent is that it has finally solved the biggest problem with pop up tents – taking them down!
Normally you have to wrestle with a pop up tent to break it down into multiple circles and loop it together. It’s a huge pain and many of us need a set of instructions the first few times.
But this new “Easy” version of the Quechua Fresh and Black series has an innovative technology. You simply press two buttons on the side of the tent to collapse the tent, then bunch it together and stick it in the bag. No more wrestling with a tent, no more having to walk around with a giant circle that makes it impossible to pack into a bag.
The only drawback of this tent is that it’s a little more pricey than other 2 person pop ups. If your budget is tight, you might want to consider the non-blackout Quechua without the new fold up technology.
However, if you want the BEST pop up tent – this Quechua Easy Pop up tent is the one for you. Check out its latest price here.
Outdoor Connection Easy Up Pop Up Tent
Pros
- Great value for money
- Quick set up
- Amazing ventilation – windows, ports and a mesh door
- Comes with a vestibule (with a floor) at the front
- Storage pockets for keeping gear
Cons
- Potential to get sunburn through the windows
- Only comes with one door
- Not a blackout tent – people who like sleeping in past 5am beware!
- Difficult to pack back up again
- Packs into the conventional and inconvenient pop up disk shape
The Outdoor Connection Easy Up Pop Up Tent is designed by Australians for Australians and this shines through in many of its features. It comes in three sizes – 2 person, 3 person and 4 person.
You can find them here:
- Check the latest price of the 2 person model
- Check the latest price of the 3 person model
- Check the latest price of the 4 person model
So what makes this pop up tent excellent for camping in Australia?
Firstly, the tent is half ventilation. It has giant windows on both sides which can be rolled back up in the event of rain. Below each window is a mesh-covered ground port, also with flaps to close it up. And like the Quechua, the door can be closed using just the mesh door so that you get a breeze running through at night.
Secondly, unlike the Quechua Easy tent, the vestibule comes with a floor. This means you can happily kick off your hiking boots into the vestibule at night without having to worry about creepy crawlies.
So why haven’t I rated this tent higher than the Quechua Easy pop-up tent?
If you’re expecting very hot weather then this Outdoor Connections tent beats out the Quechua due to its sheer amount of ventilation. However, I have some concerns about using the windows when sleeping. Despite the windows coming with a mesh cover, they’ll still let in sunlight and you could wake up with a nasty sunburn in the morning.
But if you’re happy to spend a little extra time setting up a tarp over this tent to block out the sunlight then this tent will perform excellently in very hot weather.
Packing away the tent is much less convenient than the Quechua Easy up tent. It doesn’t come with the helpful technology to quickly collapse the tent. Instead, you have to follow the standard procedure of collapsing the tent like with most pop ups, and you end up with the giant disc carry bag that is so unwieldy.
Overall, the Outdoor Connection Easy Up Pop Up Tent wins our award of the best pop up tent for high heats and, if you are expecting very high temperatures, this tent is the one to go for. But for most other uses, it just doesn’t stack up to the Quechua Easy pop-up tent.
- Check the latest price of the 2 person model
- Check the latest price of the 3 person model
- Check the latest price of the 4 person model
Quechua 2 Seconds Pop Up Camping Tent
Pros
- Great value for money
- Super fast pop up set up
- Great ventilation for hot weather
- Good performance in wind and rain
- Storage pockets to keep your gear
Cons
- Only comes with one door
- Tricky to put it down
- Not a blackout tent – people who like sleeping in past 5am beware!
- Packs into the conventional and inconvenient pop up disk shape
- No vestibules
This tent shares many of the same benefits as the Quechua Easy Fresh & Black Tent, including the excellent performance in wind and rain, as well as good ventilation. So how does this tent differ?
The tent comes in two sizes, 2 person and 3 person. 3 person is obviously roomier but also gives couples space to keep a small backpack inside the tent or more room to stretch out.
You can find them here:
- Check the latest price of the Quechua 2 person model
- Check the latest price of the Quechua 3 person model
This Quechua tent is also much cheaper than the Easy version and is, therefore, a good option for a budget-conscious camper. However, this lower price does mean a reduction in useful features.
For example, the tent now just has a single door at the front of the tent. This is far from a disaster but two doors at the side means you can escape for a nighttime bathroom break without waking up the whole tent. And without two doors, you can’t get a proper breeze running through the tent to cool it down. This is doubly important since this tent has less ventilation than the Quechua Easy tent.
The innovative feature of the Quechua Easy pop up tent which allows you to easily pack the tent back up is also missing on this version. You’ll have to settle with the regular struggle of pulling the pop up tent into the right shape before fitting it into the traditional and inconveniently sized circular carry bag. The Quechua does come with clips to make the folding a little easier than other pop up tents – although the difference is pretty small and the clips can break.
This pop-up tent is not a black out tent. If you’re an early riser then this probably won’t be an issue. But do be wary of tempers fraying in the group for anyone who likes to sleep in later than 5 to 6 AM.
Finally, this tent is a little smaller than the Quechua Easy pop up tent. The Quechua Easy tent has about 20% more room at the sides of the tent (inside) and comes with additional vestibules on the outside of the tent. There’s also about 5 inches more headroom in the Quechua Easy tent for sitting up.
Overall, I recommend the Quechua 2 Seconds Pop Up Tent for campers who want an excellent pop up tent on a budget. However, if you’re wanting to sleep in, to be able to pack away the tent easily and overall a more comfortable experience – I recommend the Quechua 2 Seconds Easy Tent instead.
- Check the latest price of the Quechua 2 person model
- Check the latest price of the Quechua 3 person model
Our rating criteria for a great pop up tent in Australia
Family-friendly and comfortable tents
In this category, we want to see tents claim a capacity that sleeps a comfortable number of people, not the maximum sardine-packed rating. We want features like blackout tents with dark interiors to keep kids asleep longer and allow festival-goers a few more hours of cool dark sleeping.
Tents with interior pockets, room to sit up, and a place to hang fans and lanterns are all great family features so that mum and dad aren’t refereeing torch holding times all night.
We want giant meshed windows for the breeze, views, and keeping the bugs out of the tent.
Family-friendly also means quick and easy to put up, with easy to undo zippered doors and windows for little fingers and a tough floor for rough play!
Ventilation to avoid the summer heat
Ventilation is essential when camping in Australia. The heat during the day can rise quickly inside a tent, and even if you aren’t in it, you don’t want your gear, food, or supplies sitting in a baking tent all day.
Good ventilation includes big meshed windows and doors on opposite sides to create a cross breeze. You’ll need ventilation flaps in your rainfly to keep condensation at bay in smaller tents when it rains, and as we know, that is a very likely scenario in Australia!
If your tent doesn’t have adequate ventilation, consider a solar rechargeable fan to keep the air moving, especially at night.
Lighter-colored tents will also be cooler in the sun as they reflect the heat more than darker ones. Blackout tents with white outer skins and black inner skins keep tents cooler and darker longer in the hot Australian sun.
Waterproof and windproof pop up tents
Like any other tent, you expect your pop up tent to be able to cope with some rain and wind. Granted, it’s not the forte of pop up tents. They aren’t extreme tents, but as long as it has flexible poles (which they do!) and there are some tent pegs to hold the tent down in the wind, you’re halfway there.
Check the waterproof rating of your pop up tent if you are expecting very heavy rain. If it’s under 1500 hydrostatic head rating, you might want to do a bit of seam sealing, use some spray-on waterproofing, and maybe put up the rainfly (if it has one) or take a tarp to keep the rain off your pop up tent.
Check the stakes that came with your tent. If they are flimsy and easily bent, grab a set that will hold up in the wind and stay in the ground, so you aren’t chasing your tent across the campground after a wind gust!
Great value for money
Value for money can be a very subjective assessment, and it’s one to quantify for all people and all tents.
Value comes from having the important or not negotiable features for you. If you give each feature a point and then divide them into the dollar amount, you end up with a value for the dollar amount that you can use to work out which tent is the best value for what you need it to do.
We award points for things like space, ease of set up, waterproofing, rainfly, durable poles, ventilation, and features that appeal, like internal storage pockets, hanging looks for lanterns, vestibules, and even color if it’s important to you!
Remove points for cheap parts that you’ll have to replace, zippers that aren’t smooth and catch repeatedly, a lack of meshed windows, skinny guy ropes, and cheap bendy stakes.
Durable tents that last years of camping
Durability is all about quality. The better quality the tent is, the longer it will last. Of course, that comes at a cost, but if you are ok to pay a reasonable price for a decent tent, it should last a long time if you look after it.
What you are looking for in durability is things like sealed stitching, higher quality tent fabric, a high hydrostatic head waterproof rating, polythene bathtub floors, a tent pole you can repair, decent stakes, a waterproof rainfly, waterproof zippers, reinforcing at strain points, and clips that won’t break.
You’ll pay more for all this, but if you’re planning on camping regularly, it’s a solid investment for the next time you want to take the family into the great outdoors.
Pop Up Tent FAQ
What is the easiest tent to put up in Australia?
Pop-up tents are the easiest tent to set up, whether you are in Australia or not! Some are so easy that they spring out of your hand and set themselves up. Pop up tents are part of the instant tent family. Pop-up tents are like a jack in the box. As soon as you release the catch, they expand and pop right up.
Instant tents have poles permanently attached to the tent with extension mechanisms built-in. You simply expand them out and out and lock them in place. It usually takes under two minutes to put up an instant tent, but pop up tents usually go up in seconds!
Beware, though, that all this ease of setup comes at a cost. These tents aren’t always the easiest to pack up. They also have a rather tricky shape (a giant disc) to store. They have to go into a bag to stay folded up, which can be difficult to manage.
How Does a Pop up Tent Work?
Pop-up tents literally pop up, like one of those prank peanut cans where the snake springs out as soon as you remove the lid.
Unzip the bag, pull out the tent and with a light shake, it springs into shape. All that’s left to do is stake it and deal with the rainfly, if applicable. This makes pop up tents some of the easiest tents to set up.
Due to their sudden pop-up assembly, which often happens right in your hand, these tents are usually small. If you want a large, quick setup tent, you may want to look into an instant cabin tent instead.
Is a Pop-up Tent Reliable?
Some people find that pop-up tents leak easier, and aren’t great for breathability. You also can’t replace the poles if they break and you need to buy a whole new tent when one breaks.
That doesn’t necessarily mean their poles break more easily, though—they’re typically aluminum poles or fiberglass poles, like a regular tent.
While they’re cheaper and may not be as high-quality as regular tents overall, pop-up tents are reliable, especially if you treat them right. If leaks are an issue, consider waterproofing spray and seam seal.
There’s not much you can do about a condensation problem other than pack a towel on your trip.
Lastly, if a pole breaks and you find you’ve been enjoying your tent, maybe it’s time to upgrade to a more standard tent anyway.
Are There Other (non popup) Instant Set up Tents?
There are other instant set up tents, but they’re not as instant as you’d think. You have to do some minor assembly work.
Instant camping tents are more or less all the same assembly-wise. They have pre-assembled poles that you slide into position and lock. All that’s left to do after that is stake the tent.
Sometimes you’ll also have to arrange and stake the rain fly; other times it comes as an integrated part of the overall tent.
Arranging the rain fly is often the most difficult part of the tent, but only if the tent is tall. If it’s a lower tent then it’s a simple, one-person job, like assembling the rest of the pop-up tent.