The Best Survival Tents and Emergency Shelters for Every Situation

Survival Tent Essentials and Considerations

If you’ve ever been camping in a tent before, you may already be pretty well versed in the ins and outs of these portable shelters as well as the kinds of factors that need to be considered when choosing, pitching, and staying in a tent.

Even so, whether you’re an experienced user or totally new to the scene, it’s still worth getting a handle on some of the main points of reference when looking at survival tents.

In this part of our definitive guide to the best survival tents, we’ve taken a look at the essential considerations to keep in mind when choosing the best outdoor shelter for your needs.

Whether you’re looking for a bug out tent, a survival tent for weekend hiking and wilderness trips, or a high performance shelter durable and versatile enough to handle it all, the following points will ensure you get the best tent for the job.

Survival Tent Essential #1 – Intended Use

Probably the most important consideration when starting out on the path to choosing the best survival tent is to identify, how and where you intend to use it.

Start by assessing the purpose you’re buying it for and the considerations which are specific to your situation such as the number of people who’ll be using it, as well as your local climate and geography.

All of these factors ultimately play a critical role in establishing the right tent for your circumstances and will make it easier to find the perfect fit first time.

Survival Tent Essential #2 – Packed Size and Weight

When it comes to picking a survival tent, size and weight always matter.

As with other activities such as choosing the best bug out backpack for your needs, there’s often a trade-off to be made between the size and weight of the shelter you choose and the specifications it’s going to offer.

If you’re planning to bring a survival tent with you when evacuating a disaster or emergency situation, you’re almost certainly going to want to be aiming for a lightweight and easy to pack tent (especially if you’re intending to bug out on foot).

Survival tents generally range in size from a couple of pounds to those coming in over ten, with many of the best survival tents and high performance shelters sitting squarely in the middle of this range.

In this ‘sweet spot’ you’re going to find the best combination of features and functionality to weight and packed size and if you’re going for the best survival tent that ticks as many of the boxes as possible, you’ll want to keep this ratio balanced whenever you’re able to.

Whether it’s the weight of the tent when packed in your bag or the eventual size when pitched and feature set, you’re almost always going to lose out in some way in the trade-off mentioned above somewhere along the way so it’s good to have an idea ahead of time about the elements that matter most for your specific needs.

With that being said. as you’ve probably already guessed, the optimal combination is to find a survival tent that gives maximum bang for your buck while offering the smallest (and lightest) footprint when packed.

Survival Tent Essential #3 – Capacity

The size of your group will determine any requirements around how many people your survival shelter needs to cater for and accommodate.

From one-man tents to family shelters suitable for sleeping four or more people, survival tents vary in size and you can be sure you’ll find one that fits the bill.

If you’re considering a survival tent with a higher occupant capacity, the bigger question in this regard will almost always come back to the size and weight issue again as well as any obvious budget considerations.

Carrying a larger survival tent in a vehicle is one way around the physics issues and will make any problems around weight redundant, but if you’re planning to carry a higher capacity shelter on your back, you’ll probably have to make some alterations to your load-out.

One option if you’re travelling on foot may be to carry the tent yourself, replacing items in your bag and delegating the carrying responsibility to other members of your party to free up the space and weight required to carry the shelter.

Similarly, breaking the components of a survival tent down among a couple of members of the party (such as flysheet, poles etc) can get around the weight and packing space issues but you then run the risk of being without a shelter should your group get separated.

Survival Tent Essential #4 – Internal Storage

Similar in some ways to capacity, the amount of internal storage space inside a survival tent is an important thing to be thinking about when choosing a suitable shelter and can basically be broken down into a couple of main areas.

Vestibule Storage Space

Almost without exception (and without exception in this guide), the best survival tents will include some form of entryway which incorporates one or two vestibules for providing a dedicated and sheltered storage area for footwear, larger gear and backpacks immediately outside (but ultimately separated from) the main space of the tent.

Vestibule storage is an important addition to any survival tent if you’re looking for a solution to increase the overall footprint of the tent in terms of storage in a way that clearly divides larger equipment and muddy footwear from the living space of your tent.

When it comes to looking at the best vestibule arrangement on a survival tent, you’ll be influenced to an extent by the climate where you’ll be using the tent as some offer dedicated exterior rainwater channels on the outside of the vestibule – an essential in wet environments.

Internal Pockets and Clips

Pockets within the best survival tents are usually spread throughout the interior of the shelter with the majority often located within the main living space for keeping essential ‘close at hand’ items near where you’ll be sleeping.

Most tent pockets are usually formed from either the same fabric as the inner tent, nylon, or some form of meshed fabric and can vary in size from flashlight sized storage spaces through to large ‘document’ pockets for holding larger items.

Some expedition and survival tents also include specialized pockets such as the NEMO Galaxi which features a ‘Light Pocket’ with a permeable fabric for illuminating the area inside the tent either from a flashlight or headlamp.

Similarly, many of the best survival and expedition tents will often feature one or more internal clips or latching points which can be used to secure items, pouches, or smaller pieces of equipment such as a tactical flashlight and are a good way to maximize the utility inside your shelter.

Survival Tent Essential #5 – Ease of Setup

The ability to pitch your tent quickly and easily should be a priority factor if you’re looking for the best tent for use in a survival situation or in any kind of adverse conditions.

Think of it this way, if you’re exhausted already, it’s getting dark and starting to rain, do you want a survival tent that can be assembled by one person in under 5 minutes or one that requires 3 people to put together and takes half an hour to get ready?

The fact of the matter is that in a survival or outdoor situation, time always matters and minutes can make all of the difference to overall prospects and reducing exposure risk.

With this in mind, you ideally want to find a survival tent that utilizes as few components or ‘moving parts’ as possible and that can be pitched in no more than 10-15 steps.

When finding the best survival tent for the job, ask yourself the following question:

“could I put this tent up on my own in the rain in 10 minutes?”

Bonus points should also be awarded to the best tents that also score a yes to the additional question:

“could I assemble this tent if I was injured or incapacitated?”

The best survival tent manufacturers know that ease of pitching is a primary consideration when it comes to what makes an effective tent, so you’ll find that many of these factors are built into the design elements of the top tents on the market – all the same, be on the lookout for things that will make assembly (and disassembly of your shelter easier or more difficult when the time comes).

Survival Tent Essential #6 – Carrying

As mentioned earlier, if you’re looking for the best survival tent to include as part of a bug out bag, your considerations are likely to be around the carrying weight as well as the ability of the shelter to unpack and be easily assembled.

The chances are, that if you’re bugging out on foot with 72 hours worth of equipment in your bag, capacity and the ability to carry extra weight will be at a premium.

This is a major factor when picking a survival shelter for a backpack and should never be overlooked. Knowing the essential elements that make up a bug out bag, alongside your own personal requirements and physical considerations will put you in the best position when it comes to determining the weight you can afford to carry in the form of a tent or shelter.

Alternatively, if you’re intending to bug out by vehicle, considerations around size and weight when packed may be reduced, with a greater emphasis on finding a survival shelter that offers a greater degree of overall protection in exchange for the extra weight limitations.

Survival Tent Essential #7 – Climate

The main role of a survival tent is at the core, the same as any other tent – to provide a portable source of shelter and protection when you need to bed down outdoors.

With this objective in mind, the best survival tents are designed to cope with a wide range of climate conditions from arid desert settings (where ventilation is key) to specialized winter tents built to cope with heavy snow and low temperatures.

Seasonal ratings for survival tents will generally vary between three and four seasons with the major difference usually coming down to the ability of the shelter to deal with snow and heavier wind and rain conditions. The local environment where you anticipate you’ll use the tent most will have the most bearing on the

Many of the best survival shelters and survival tent choices will function equally well whatever the weather, however you can expect to pay a premium in either (and sometimes both) price and weight. With that being said, if your budget can stretch to a comprehensive tent that performs in all conditions, you can be assured that you’ll be totally covered for every eventuality.

Season Rating

Most of the best survival tents will be rated anywhere between 3 and 4 seasons and as you can probably tell, this indicator gives you a pretty good idea of how well the shelter will hold up in different climates.

If you’re likely to be making camp in period of severe winter conditions, consider investing in a high performance cold weather tent to keep you warm and safe in extreme weather and low temperature situations.

Four season tents (also known as ‘all season’ tents) are built to withstand the more extreme weather conditions associated with winter such as stronger winds and heavy snowfall that three season tents are not as readily equipped to deal with.

These kinds of expedition tents are extremely durable, water resistant, and lightweight and as such, are often favored by mountaineers and for use in extreme conditions.

With a 4 season survival tent, you’re really looking at the ability of the structure to survive much heavier gusts of wind, heavy downpours, and to offer a significantly improved snow loading ability.

Conversely, the best 3 and 4 season tents will usually also provide some kind of ability to adapt or roll-back the outer flysheet in order to improve visibility and airflow in warmer months.

Even if you go for an all season tent though, it’s important to remember that any additional insulating capabilities of this kind of shelter are likely to be basically negligible, so don’t fall into the trap of thinking that a 4 season tent will keep you significantly warmer than a 3 season tent, it’s simply going to stand up to the conditions of heavier rain, wind, and potentially snow better than fairer weather alternatives.

Look to increase warmth inside your survival shelter with winter rated sleeping bags and ground insulation mats if you’re likely to be utilizing your survival tent in winter conditions.

Survival Tent Care and Maintenance

As with all survival equipment, taking care of your survival tent will ensure it takes care of you when you need it most.

The good news, is that unlike your permanent dwelling, your outdoor shelter requires considerably less effort to keep things running smoothly and in good working order.

Survival Tent Care 101

Above all else, there are four golden rules to practical tent care that will see you right if followed at all times:

1. Take care of the moving parts – Anything that moves or is interacted with on a regular basis should be to be handled gently to prolong the life and effectiveness. This means zippers, poles, grab handles, and velcro attachments. If a zipper gets stuck, resorting to brute force over the slow and steady approach is not a good plan when it comes to caring for your shelter in the long term.
2. Keep the tent cleaned on a regular basis – Cleaning the flysheet and main tent from time to time will not only ensure that your tent stays as good as new but will also allow you to regularly check it over for damage or wear that may otherwise go unnoticed. As with all things in preparedness, prevention is always better than cure and a clean tent will ultimately be a maintained tent.
3. Always dry your tent – If you follow no other rules when it comes to caring for your survival tent, try and stick to this one wherever possible. Packing up a wet tent is never a good idea and can lead to some pretty challenging issues such as mold and mildew among others. Moisture comes from a lot of places – rain, snow, condensation, and dew – but the upshot is the same. Basically, packing up your tent while it’s still wet should only ever be an option in the most exceptional circumstances. Even if you ever pack your tent up in a less than dry state, look to get it hung up and drying in sunlight as soon as is practical and/or safe to do so.
4. Check out the manual – Your tent will come with an instruction and care manual and is an invaluable source of manufacturer specific information on how to look after your shelter in a variety of conditions. At a minimum, look to run through the manual once even if you don’t get a chance to read it thoroughly. This will give you the best advice for caring for the tent during everyday use in the field as well as any particular things you need to know when it comes to cleaning or repairing.

Setting Up

Below we’ve taken a look at some of the best tent care rules to live by when you’re setting your tent up.

One of the very best things you can do (maybe even the essential thing to do) before using your survival tent in the wild however, is to practice pitch at home.

Not only will this allow you to get an overall feel for how the tent operates and  is assembled in a controlled environment, but it will also help you identify potential trouble spots that may occur further down the line.

Invest in a footprint.

A footprint is a piece of high-durability material or fabric that is cut to exactly the size of your tent’s floor plan.

The objective of the footprint is a simple one – to protect the floor and underside of your survival tent, primarily from abrasion and tears (think jagged sticks and stones), but also from mud and other things that would otherwise make packing a clean tent back into your bag a near impossibility in adverse weather conditions.

One alternative to a footprint is to purchase a heavy duty tarp of some kind to sit underneath your tent, the issue here however is that you risk it collecting water in heavy rain (as opposed to a footprint which doesn’t extend beyond the floorplan of the tent and so isn’t exposed to collecting rainwater).

Almost all survival tents will offer some kind of dedicated footprint option and some will even come with one included for the price (such as the Marmot Limelight and TETON Mountain Ultra mentioned above).

Either way, a footprint is a relatively small additional cost even for the top flight survival tents out there and if you can afford the space in your packing list, should be considered perhaps the essential add-on investment when it comes to prolonging the life of your tent and protecting it from the wear, tear, and general rigors of use outdoors.

Pitch your Tent Outside of Direct Sunlight

A certain amount of sunlight is actually a good thing when it comes to finding a good pitching spot for your tent, particularly when it comes to ensuring that your tent remains dry when you break camp and pack it up again.

However, too much of a good thing can actually have an adverse effect and this holds true in terms of the effect of sunlight on your tent.

Specifically, the ultraviolet (UV) rays can degrade the fabric of your tent over time and this can make the material of your tent less resilient following prolonged exposure.

Some outer flysheets will be specifically treated to help protect against UV rays and in general, polyester flys will be more resistant than nylon.

Regarding sunlight, look to strike a balance when finding the perfect pitching spot and find a place that’s not completely exposed to direct sunlight but that still offers a place to dry any equipment if needed after rain.

Pitch Perfect

The enemy of all survival tents is an unprepared pitching spot. Here lie the hidden dangers of tent damaging debris that can quite literally put a hole in your plans for a weatherproof wilderness shelter.

When you find a spot for making camp, look to clear away any debris equivalent to the size of your tent’s floorplan to prolong the life of your tent.

Find a level spot and brush away any loose vegetation, sticks, rocks, or other potentially fabric damaging debris to maximize the life of your tent. Again, if you can combine your pitching strategy with a dedicated footprint, even better.

During Use

Once your survival tent is setup there are a couple of incredibly straightforward habits to get into that will both make your stay in the tent as comfortable as possible, while also considerably extending the operational life of your survival shelter.

Go Easy

When you’re in your tent, there are a few things that crop up as regular annoyances and probably near the top of the list for many people is the curse of the stuck zipper.

The natural reaction to this irritation is often to force the thing free, however this is the path to a whole load of tent nightmares and is not the course of action to take if you’re looking to keep your tent fighting fit.

Stuck zippers are usually down to caught fabric. With this in mind, rather than force the stuck zipper, hold the track with one hand and gently coax the the zipper slider back upwards, moving it from side to side until the fabric is freed up.

Seal Your Food

Never underestimate the ability of wild animals to pick up the scent of something good to eat.

If you have any highly scented food, be sure to keep it in an airtight container away (ideally outside) your tent to avoid critters attempting to burrow through your tent fabric to get to their next meal.

Separate Outside from Inside

You probably wouldn’t wear mud or dirt covered shoes inside your home so look to maintain this rule with your tent.

Most of the best survival tents will include a vestibule area which is the perfect area for storing footwear and larger gear separately from the main living space of the tent.

These areas will provide overhanging protection from the elements outside (some will even channel rainwater directly away) and are a good option for storing things which are either covered in mud or are two large to justify storing in the area where you sleep.

While uncommon in most survival or expedition tents these days, if your shelter doesn’t incorporate a vestibule space, look to fashion an alternative arrangement that’s conveniently located (and protected from the elements) but remains outside of your tent’s main internal area.

Breaking Camp

When it’s time to move on, follow these steps to ensure your survival tent remains in the same condition when packed up as it was when you unpacked it.

Dry and Shake

(Usually) in this order, you want to make sure that your tent is completely dry and that it is clear of any dirt and debris that it may have accumulated both inside and out during use.

Even if you’ve enjoyed incredible weather during use, it’s amazing just how much moisture can accumulate in those hard to reach parts of a tent due to condensation.

If your tent is freestanding and hasn’t been in rain or snow conditions, you may want to start by tipping out any major debris while the pole structure is still assembled – i.e the tent is still in one ‘piece’. Once you’ve done this (or if the outer fabric is too wet to do this easily), continue to the steps below.

You really want to make sure that your tent is as dry as humanly possible before packing it up again to prevent any moisture damage, so look to drape it gently over a suitable (and snag-free) rock or branch that has sunlight and airflow.

Once dry, look to remove any remaining debris or dirt from the tent before packing up.

Roll With It

When your fabric is dry and debris-free, try to roll up the inner and outer tent fabrics rather than cramming them into the tent bag or stuff sack.

This approach to packing your survival tent is considerably easier on the fabric and any specialized coatings of your tent and will ultimately ensure a longer life for your tent.

The Last Word

With all of our rundowns and reviews, we reference as many expert sources, and real world user reviews as possible so we’re able to provide the most relevant and educational information on the ins and outs of the best survival tents.

Finding the best survival tent for your specific situation is ultimately a highly personal activity with individual needs and preferences sometimes varying considerably between people, locations, and uses.

With these considerations in mind, this guide looks to provide advice on our own opinions of the best survival tents available today, however, it’s always important to carry out your own due diligence to find the best solution for you when picking a suitable survival tent or emergency shelter solution that’s perfect for your situation.