After extensive research, we found the best tent with a screen room is the Coleman Cabin Camping Tent with a Weatherproof Screen Room.
Getting a tent with a screen room is a great idea — you can use it for so many things:
- A bug-free lounge area to hang out with your family and friends
- Extra storage space for your gear
- A place to take off your muddy shoes to keep the inside of your tent clean
- Better ventilation for the main cabin
But the number of choices can be overwhelming.
To make it easier for you, our team has spent more than 15 hours gathering all eligible products on the market, reading through hundreds of reviews, then filtering the list down to a handful.
Without further delay, here are our favorite tents with screen rooms:
Best overall: Coleman Cabin Camping Tent with Weatherproof Screen Room
Best tents with screen room for 2 – 4 people:
- Coleman Carlsbad — blackout fabrics for sleeping in and staying cool
- Coleman Evanston — basic but affordable model
- Nemo Wagontop 6 — premium tent for extra ruggedness
- Coleman Elite Weathermaster 6 — built-in LED lights
Best tents with screen room for 3 – 6 people:
- Ozark Trail 10-Person Tent with 3 Rooms and Screen Porch — extremely affordable
- Wenzel 8 Person Klondike Tent — huge screen room
Best tents with screen room for 4 – 8 people:
- CORE 10 Person Instant Cabin Tent — sets up in less than 2 minutes!
- Coleman Skylodge 12 Person Tent — great weather protection
- CORE 11 Person Family Cabin Tent — huge screen room
See here for our buyer’s guide on how to choose the best tent with a screen room and how we rated these products.
Coleman Cabin Camping Tent with Weatherproof Screen Room
Best for: groups of 2 – 4 who want a spacious, weatherproof tent with a screen room and don’t mind spending a bit more; $$$
Do you want to experience all the luxuries of camping? Look no further than the Coleman Cabin Tent with Weatherproof Screen Room. It’s a new model released in 2021.
It’s really the complete package. Tall, roomy, mesh ceiling for stargazing, and, most impressively, a weatherproof screen room. Let’s dive into more details on each.
This tent is extremely spacious. The interior sleeping area for the 6 person model can actually fit 2 queen-size air mattresses. And the screen room adds another 10 – 15 sqft of space.
Also, you can stand up and walk around in this tent with its 6’ 4” ceiling. No more hunching over to get in or crawling around on the floor. Your back will thank you.
Most screen rooms aren’t waterproof at all, meaning you have to move all your gear when you know rain is approaching. Not for this Coleman cabin tent.
It actually comes with a vestibule that encloses the screen room. Simply zip the front cover, and everything will stay dry even in a storm.
And the mesh ceilings and windows couldn’t be better for sightseeing. With the rainfly off, it forms one huge curved mesh panel that gives you a panoramic view.
All in all, we are blown away by this product. It’s comparable to much more expensive tents like the REI Kingdom 4.
Pros:
- Very large interior floor space — can fit 2 queen-size air mattresses in the 6 person model
- Roomy with straight walls
- Standing height of 6 ft 4 in
- Screen room is fully waterproof with enclosing vestibule
- The vestibule adds 9 sqft of space in addition to the 13’ x 10’ floor space in the 6 person model
- Main room is waterproof with bathtub floor and inverted seams
- Beautiful views with giant mesh windows and mesh ceiling
- Phenomenal ventilation, even with rainfly on (the floor vents work wonders!)
- Relatively easy to set up; takes about 15 minutes with 2 people
Cons:
- Large mesh panels make the tent unsuited for colder weather (winter, early spring, and late fall)
- Heavy at over 30 pounds; will be challenging for hike-in sites
- Gaps in the screen room zippers may let in some very small bugs
- No space to hang your tent light on the mesh ceiling
Coleman Carlsbad Tent
Best for: couples or families who want to sleep in and stay cool in their tent; few competitors on the market; $$
One thing that annoys me a bit about camping is how bright my tent is right after sunrise. I couldn’t sleep in whatsoever. And I have to pick my campsites carefully so that my tent won’t turn into an oven during the day.
If you are experiencing the same problems, check out the Coleman Dark Room (Carlsbad) Dome Tents. This series uses a special blackout fabric on parts of the tent to keep it darker during the day. This means better sleep for you and more shade inside the tent.
A caveat, though, is that only the rainfly and window cover use the blackout fabric. The bottom half of the tent is still made from normal materials. So the tent won’t be completely dark, just darker than regular ones.
With all blackout tents, you sacrifice the mesh ceiling as well as some view out of the windows.
And though it comes with a screen room, it’s not waterproof. So expect to move your stuff inside when it rains.
Pros:
- “Dark room” fabrics block out the early morning sun and keep the inside cool
- Can withstand some heavy rain and wind
- Fast set up (10 minutes) with preassembled poles
- Screen room adds more space and bug-free lounging
- E-port allows you to easily bring electricity into your tent
- Great price for these features
Cons:
- You sacrifice some views with the dark room technology
- Screen room comes with no stake point and no rainfly coverage
Coleman 6 Person Evanston Tent
Best for: Couples and families who want a basic dome tent with a screen room; overall amazing value; $$
The Coleman 6 Person Evanston tent is a more basic version of the Carlsbad without any blackout fabrics. They are otherwise very similar — same sizes, with a screen room attached to a dome tent.
It looks a bit unconventional, but the Evanston is pretty easy to set up. You shouldn’t need more than 15 minutes with 2 people.
If you want a faster setup, check out the Coleman Steel Creek Fast Pitch tent. Everything is the same except that the Steel Creek goes up in 7 minutes.
The sleeping area of the Evanston tent has great weather protection. Many people said it kept them dry during heavy rain.
But the screen room will leak a lot since there’s no rainfly coverage and no zippered walls. This means you’ll have to take all your stuff inside whenever you expect a rain shower. A little annoying, for sure, but you still can’t go wrong with the Evanston tent at this price point.
Pros:
- Large screen room (10 ft x 5 ft) adds almost as much space as another tent
- The dome part is highly waterproof
- Relatively easy to set up
- Great ventilation with screen room and mesh back panel
- Roomy enough to fit 2 queen-size mattresses (6P model)
Cons:
- Screen room will get wet during the rain
Nemo Wagontop 6 Tent
Best for: those willing to invest more in a tent for better durability; $$$$$
Maybe those regular Coleman tents made for the masses can’t satisfy you. And you want something super durable, sturdy, and rugged for your bold adventures.
Then check out the Nemo Wagontop 6 Tent. It’s the premium tent on this list. It comes with a massive vestibule with screen covers, so we think it’s equivalent to a screen room. You can hang out, store your gear, or use it as a mudroom.
This tent features a sleek design with standing height throughout. Unless you are taller than 6’ 8”, you would be able to walk in and out easily without bending over.
It comes with aluminum poles, which are very strong and flexible, especially in windy conditions. All other tents on this list have fiberglass poles that break more easily.
The tent floor will last a long time, too. It’s made of heavy-duty 300D PU coated polyester, better than the material on most tents.
In short, the quality and build of this tent will give you the peace of mind on every camping trip.
Pros:
- Durable poles and floor fabrics
- Standing height throughout
- Simple setup with 4 poles and single-wall design
- Relatively lightweight at 27 pounds
- Spacious interior
- Well-designed interior storage spaces
Cons:
- The setup is unconventional and can be challenging for the first time
- Steep price tag
- Hard to balance ventilation and waterproofing during heavy rain with single wall design
Coleman Elite Weathermaster 6 Tent with Lighting
Best for: Groups of 2 – 4 who want roomy tents with lighting; $$$; probably isn’t worth it if you don’t care that much about the built-in light
Sometimes I wish my camping nights can last a bit longer. It’s so inconvenient to wear a headlamp all the time that I have to go to sleep early. And hanging lights can be a hassle too.
If you’ve had the same feeling, consider getting this Coleman Elite WeatherMaster 6 Screened tent with a built-in light.
It comes with a LED overhead light with a wall switch for adjusting the brightness. It makes it much easier to read and play games throughout the night.
It’s also a very roomy 6 person tent with more than 150 sqft of floor space. This means you can put 2 queen-size air mattresses with lots of space in between. The 6 ft 8 in ceiling will allow you to stand up and stretch out as well.
Weather protection is great too, with many people saying it kept them dry in heavy rain and storms. But the porch area will get wet since it’s not covered by the rainfly.
Pros:
- LED overhead light with wall switch
- Screen room for bug-free lounging
- East to roll up the windows with “slap bracelets”
- Sleeping area can withstand heavy rain and storm
- Standing height
- Hinged door for easy entry and exit
- Mesh roof for stargazing and ventilation
- Easy to access electric cord
Cons:
- Screened porch is not waterproof at all
- Not very affordable
Wenzel 8 Person Klondike Tent
Best for: groups of 3 – 6 who want an affordable tent with screen room; $$
Now that we’ve introduced several 6 person tents. Maybe you realized you need a bigger one, or one with a bigger screen room.
Check out the Wenzel 8 Person Klondike Tent. It’s a cabin-style tent with straight walls and tall enough for you to stand up in.
But the 8 person capacity assumes you have 3 people in the screen room. If we look at only the main room behind the divider, it’s just large enough to fit 2 queen-size air mattresses. So realistically, this would be a comfortable tent for 4 adults.
This is not shown in the Amazon photos, but you can zip up the wall and front cover of the screen room to make it waterproof. There’s also a bathtub floor for the screen room. This means you won’t have to worry about your stuff getting wet.
That being said, this tent does have some issues. The most notable one being that the floor material isn’t very durable. There might be holes after a few uses.
Pros:
- A door separating the screen room and main room
- Standing height in the main room
- Huge screen room relative to the total floor space
- Screen room and windows can be zipped up for weather protection
- Easy setup with clear instructions
- Meshed ceiling and windows for sightseeing and ventilation
- Ground vents allow for excellent ventilation with rainfly on
- Fits easily into the carry bag
Cons:
- Rainfly may leak during long periods of rain unless you applied waterproof treatment prior to the trip
- Tent floor is a bit weak; be sure to use a tarp
- Screen room ceiling is 6 to 8 inches lower than the main room; you most likely need to bend down
- Large meshed panels make the tent unsuitable for colder conditions
Ozark Trail 10-Person Tent with 3 Rooms and Screen Porch
Best for: groups of 3 – 6 looking for an affordable tent; unbeatable value; $
You can’t go wrong with this Ozark Trail 3 Room Tent with Screen Porch given how affordable it is. It’s huge and packed with features but so much cheaper than other tents on this list.
You will get both space and privacy. It comes with 2 removable room dividers that allow you to create 3 separate rooms.
Each room is large enough to fit 1 queen size air mattress with some space to spare. So realistically, this tent can fit 6 people comfortably, not 10.
The best part is how this tent can withstand most moderate rain showers with no leakage, based on hundreds of reviews.
That being said, we still recommend you waterproof it before your first trip. The storm could be worse than what you’d expect, and the quality may vary from tent to tent given the low price.
Pros:
- Shockingly affordable given its size and features
- 3-room design for better privacy
- Will keep you dry in rain showers
- Flexible usage of space with 2 removable room dividers
- Standing height of 80 inches
- Fits 3 queen size air mattresses with plenty of space for gear
- Mesh roof for stargazing
- Relatively easy to set up — 20 – 30 minutes
Cons:
- A little hard to put back into its carry bag
- Poles may not be very durable in strong winds
CORE 10 Person Instant Cabin Tent with Screen Room
Best for: groups of 4 – 8 who want an easy-to-set-up tent for camping in good weather; $$$
While it’s great to share one tent with your family or group, large tents can be a hassle to set up.
Not the CORE 10 Person Instant Cabin Tent with Screen Room. It sets up in less than 2 minutes, thanks to its pre-assembled poles. You can get to rest asap without fumbling minutes with your tent poles for 30 minutes.
It’s also extremely spacious. The main room alone has 200 sqft of space! You can create 2 rooms with the detachable room divider, each big enough for two air mattresses — one queen and one twin.
And with a 7 ft ceiling, you could actually stand up and walk around like you would at home, unless you play for the NBA.
But there’s one major drawback — this tent won’t fare too well in bad weather. The screen room isn’t covered by the rainfly and can’t be zipped up, so it will leak in heavy rain.
The floor isn’t very durable, either. Holes can appear and let in rainwater. So if you need to camp in the rain pretty often, this probably isn’t the tent for you.
Pros:
- Instant setup in less than 2 minutes
- 2 rooms with a detachable room divider, each about 100 sqft.
- Standing height of 7 ft
- Extremely spacious — main room 200 sqft with 70 sqft screen room
- Mesh ceiling for stargazing and ventilation
- Adjustable air vents
Cons:
- Screen room isn’t fully waterproof
- Not durable in windy weather
- Floor material isn’t very strong and may let in rainwater
CORE 11 Person Family Cabin Tent
Best for: groups of 4 – 8 looking to camp mainly in good weather; $$
The CORE 11 Person Family Cabin Tent is quite similar to the Wenzel Klondike 8 Person one. Both have a T-shaped design with a domed ceiling, but the CORE one is bigger.
Speaking of size, you can comfortably fit 5 adults in the main room with 2 queen air mattresses and one twin.
Also, the screen room could be converted into a weatherproof sleeping area, big enough for another queen-size air mattress. But it won’t be comfortable with 11 people in it.
The ventilation of this tent is superb. There’s the mesh roof, windows, and screen room. And with adjustable vents in the main room, you will get the perfect amount of airflow every time.
But you may want to look elsewhere if you have to camp in the rain a lot. The waterproof coating on the walls may become ineffective after a few uses, causing leaks even in light rain. You can fix this by applying waterproof treatments often; it’s just more of a hassle.
Pros:
- Very spacious — can fit 2 queen mattresses in the main room and 1 in the screen room
- The mesh panels for the screen room can be zipped closed, creating a sleeping quarter and providing weather protection
- Adjustable vents for the main room
- Great air circulation throughout the tent with mesh roof, windows, and screen room
- Standing height of over 7 feet
- Relatively easy assembly with color-coded poles
Cons:
- Heavy at 43 pounds — challenging for hike-in sites
- The thick tarp-like floor doesn’t extend upward to the walls of the tent — rainwater may get in
- Fabric may rip when putting down or pulling up the stakes
- Waterproofing may become ineffective after a few uses
Coleman Skylodge 12 Person Tent
Best for: groups of 4 – 8 who want a fully weatherproof screen room; $$$
Here comes the largest tent on this list — the Coleman Skylodge 12 Person Tent. Yep, it’s Coleman again, with a new model released in 2021.
The most notable feature of this tent is, of course, the amount of space it offers. You should have no problem having a family of 6 in there.
The total floor space is 19’ x 10’, with 5’ x 10’ of screen room and 14’ x 10’ in the main room. The main room could easily fit 2 queen sized air mattresses with a few feet to spare in between. If you want, you can put another twin mattress.
Though spacious, it’s a stretch to put 4 queen mattresses in there, as stated in the description. It would take up a lot of space in the screen room, leaving you little room to hang out.
Speaking of the screen room, it comes with full weather protection with a rainfly, front, and side covers. You would never have to worry about moving your gear as the rain approaches, or anyone sleeping in the screen room getting wet.
Pros:
- Very spacious with 190 sqft of floor space, 50 sqft of which goes to the screen room
- 7.4 ft center height means almost anyone can stand up in it
- Full weather protection for the screen room and main room; will keep you dry in heavy rain
- Excellent ventilation with zippered windows and ground vents
- Wide door for easy entry and exit
- Easy set up under 20 minutes with color-coded poles
- Port to pull through electric cords
Cons:
- Heavy at over 40 pounds, challenging for hike-in sites
- Might be too large for certain campsites
How to Choose the Best Tent with a Screen Room or Porch
Like any product, there are lemons on the market. We hope you don’t spend your hard-earned money on those. Here are some things to consider to get the best tent with a screen room:
A porch vs. a Screen Room
Sometimes the terms porch and screen room are used interchangeably, but they aren’t the same. I was a bit confused, too.
A porch is essentially a canopy that extends from the top of a tent to create a sun shade. Some tents also add a screen to this to form a “screened porch”.
The biggest difference between a screen room and screen porch is that the former includes a floor whereas the latter doesn’t.
This means you can’t sleep under the screen porch. You can only use it to store your gear and hang out with fellow campers. There will also be little in the way of weather protection since the ground will be muddy whenever it rains.
In contrast, people can actually sleep in a screen room with a tent floor. There will also be better protection from the elements.
Size and Capacity
If you’ve purchased a tent before, you know the manufacturers tend to inflate how many people can actually fit in the tent.
The labeled capacity assumes people would be sleeping right next to each other, even touching shoulders. For those more quantitative folks, the average width per person usually comes down to 1.7 ft to 2.2 ft.
I’m guessing you don’t want to sleep in such a tight space and prefer some additional room to store your gear.
This is why we recommend you “size up” by at least 2 people when buying a tent. Get a 4 person one for a group of 2, a 6 person one for a group of 4, and so on.
But you may want to size up even more when getting a tent with a screen room. The labeled capacities usually include 2 – 4 people sleeping in the screen room, which isn’t realistic for most of you.
So don’t be fooled by the “total floor space”. Look carefully to find the floor space of the sleeping area.
Tent Height and Shape
Would you want to stand up straight in your tent? Do you just hate hunching over to get in and crawling on the floor?
If so, look for cabin tents. These are tents with near vertical walls as opposed to inwardly-sloping ones. This creates a lot more headroom on the sides of the tent, and many are tall enough for you to stand up in (eg. over 7 ft high ceiling).
A downside of cabin tents, though, is that they usually offer less weather protection. The straight walls will experience more stress in windy conditions, and the rainfly on these tents usually cover only the top.
So wind may blow rainwater into the tent or even cause the poles to collapse.
In contrast, the shape of dome tents mean they hold up much better in strong winds. And the sloping walls make water run down the tent quickly as opposed to pooling on top.
Weather Protection
Nothing can ruin a camping trip like a leaky tent. I personally think weather protection is one of the most important things to look for when buying a tent.
We already touched upon this when discussing cabin vs. dome tents, but there’s a lot more to it.
I’ve written a detailed article on how to tell if a tent is waterproof, but here’s a basic summary. You need to look for:
- A waterproof rating above 1500mm, though this information isn’t always available
- Sealed seams (taped, welded, or inverted)
- Thick PU-coated floor with “bathtub” design
- Ideally a rain fly that covers the tent from top to bottom; not absolutely necessary though.
Of course, reading the reviews always helps.
Unfortunately, the screen rooms on many tents offer zero weather protection whatsoever. The rainfly usually doesn’t cover it.
But don’t worry, we found that this Coleman tent and the Coleman Skylodge have fully weatherproof screen rooms. That’s why we think they are the best ones on this list.
Ventilation
You wouldn’t want a stuffy tent in the middle of a hot summer night, right? That’s why you need ventilation in your tent.
You may be thinking, with the screen room, the mesh walls and ceiling, how could airflow ever be an issue?
Well, the problem arises when you need to put on the rainfly. Usually the mesh panels will all be covered, and you have to zip up your windows to stay dry.
So you would want a tent with ground vents, roof vents, or vents on the fly. Or better yet, adjustable vents that allow you to get the right amount of air flow every time.
Usually the more vents there are, the less stuffy it will be. Condensation will also be less of an issue.
Ease of Set Up
This one is self-explanatory. Almost every camper wants their shelter ready as soon as possible after a long day outdoors.
Instant tents with pre-assembled poles would be the easiest to set up. But unfortunately, the options are quite limited for tents with screen room. The only one we found is the CORE 10 Person Instant Cabin Tent with Screen Room.
That being said, a screen room tent with a traditional pitch won’t be that bad. Most tents in this article can be set up in under 20 minutes.
Final Verdict
If you’ve come this far, I applaud your dedication for finding the best tent with a screen room.
To sum it up, we think the Coleman Cabin Camping Tent with Weatherproof Screen Room is the best.
You get a lot of room from the large floor area, near-vertical walls, and tall ceiling.
The best part is how there’s a vestibule that encloses the screen room. This makes it completely waterproof so that your stuff will dry even in storms.
Though it’s more expensive than most Coleman tents, the features and quality are also better. You would usually find comparable tents at a much higher price.
