The Best Ultralight Shelters
At GearLab, we've been testing and reviewing ultralight tents since 2012. Our expert ultralight fast-packers have researched and tested over 50 of the top ultralight tents on the market, traveling the world with them, from Iceland to Europe to Canada and throughout Asia. We've used them in storms, blustery weather, cold and icy conditions, and desert heat to get an accurate account of their strengths and weaknesses. We tested against metrics of livability, weight, weather protection, adaptability, and ease of setup in many different scenarios to give you this in-depth review and help make your tent purchasing decision that much easier, all with your budget in mind.
Those seeking a double wall UL tent should check out our absolute favorite model, the Tarptent StratoSpire Ultra. It weighs under 40 ounces, which some may consider heavy for this category, but it's got excellent livability and has a spacious interior and vestibule. Our tests showed that it excelled at weather resistance, and we found it easy to set up.
Our favorite single wall shelter we tested here is the ZPacks Duplex Flex Upgrade. This 28.3 ounces tent is weather-resistant, spacious enough for two, and has double doors.
If you're looking to shave some weight and go ultralight, we can help. We've also put ultralight sleeping bags and ultralight backpacks to the test. If you don't need to go mega ultralight but are just hoping to drop a few pounds from your pack, we've also tested backpacking tents, which are lighter than their car camping counterparts. If you are building your gear collection from scratch, see our comprehensive backpacking checklist for some great advice to get started.
Editor's Note: We updated our ultralight tent review on October 31, 2024, to ensure our product lineup is up-to-date and to offer additional tent recommendations in our award section.