One of the best family camping tents of the year was the Grand Manan series, from Eureka!® camping tents. These tents have a simple two-pole design that is easy to erect and provides a lot of usable interior space, for a dome style tent, due to the unique shape of the poles. This year, Eureka is adding the Tour to their Grand Manan lineup and they gave CampingBlogger an early look at the new model.
Step inside the Grand Manan Tour and it’s immediately apparent that this is no ordinary dome tent. I’m 6’ 3” tall and I have no problem standing up in it. The sidewalls rise straight up from the floor a full 18-inches before they start sloping over, so all of the floor area is usable space.
The Grand Manan Tour has a tremendous amount of ventilation, with large windows along each side, a mesh roof, a large mesh rear door and an even larger mesh vestibule area. It’s a real plus in hot weather to be able to have a vestibule area without having to use the rainfly. Rollup curtains on the windows and separately zippered solid door panels provide plenty of privacy.
The rainfly lets in a fair amount of light and the sides roll-up to allow cross ventilation through the windows. There is also a small vent on the back of the rainfly that mates-up to the mesh roof of the tent (see below). Nobody likes to camp in the rain, but the large vestibule will keep all of your gear dry and there should be enough ventilation to keep the Grand Manan Tour from getting too stuffy. We will be tempting fate on a Fall camping trip to Oregon, so we may put this to the test.
The big rear door provides a lot of extra light and ventilation. The Grand Manan Tour is well thought out and provides a lot of great features that make it one of the best family tents I’ve used. The Grand Manan Tour will retail for $349.90.
See also…
- Anatomy of a Really Bad Tent
- Family Camping: Test the waters in your own backyard
- Camping Mishaps: Weather
Stay updated on new posts by subscribing to my RSS feed. To get additional tips delivered right to your inbox, sign up for my free monthly newsletter, which also includes my free six-page guide to cold weather gear!
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, looks pretty good.
I count 3 poles, is it really that easy to put up?
Love the vestibule!
How many does it sleep Scrib’?
First off, let me say I’m really enjoying your site. Through my childhood and younger days camping helped me learn useful organizational skills, and more than a few useful life skills. So happy to be back at it … but boy would l like pop-up!
Our first tents were Eurekas that saw such use they were finally put to rest. When we decided to re-camp, I bought two tents at the local super-athletic store and put them up in the yard: “See Anatomy of a Bad Tent!!!” That was us. I knew we needed another Eureka. We’ve purchased two: An 12′ E! for my husband & I, and a smaller Tetragon for the boys. The quality is, as expected great, I can put them up myself without stress or extra hands. Standing up in the big one makes me so happy!
Still want that pop-up though …
Mes – funny how those tent people count poles, they only count the structural poles. The 3rd pole in front isn’t holding the tent up, it’s just providing structure to the vestibule area. We all fit in it just fine, so a family of 5 or 6 would be no problem. I think they will spec it at 6, but that would be crowded for adults.
Suzanne – thanks! We have some friends that love their pop-up. Hopefully we’ll get together on a camping trip with them, because I’d like to get some pictures and write about it.
Been scouring the Massachusetts area for my pop-up and found a beauty down the road in Tolland CT. Wish me luck. I really had my heart set on a particular model located about a 6 hour drive away. Before I made the trip I asked one very important question: Did you have any wet dogs in it? Did anyone smoke in it ? Does it smell like beer? Turns out to have been a crucial question!!! Saved myself a long roadtrip! Stay tuned!
Been scouring the Massachusetts area for my pop-up and found a beauty down the road in Tolland CT. Wish me luck. I really had my heart set on a particular model located about a 6 hour drive away. Before I made the trip I asked one very important question: Did you have any wet dogs in it? Did anyone smoke in it ? Does it smell like beer? Turns out to have been a crucial question!!! Saved myself a long roadtrip! Stay tuned!
That's awesome, Suzanne! Let us know how it goes.
personally I like the tents in Harry Potter. The ones that are tiny but you walk in and it looks like a furnished four bedroom house
Nice looking tent, count me as a fan of the Eureka products. I camped as a kid and am now getting my family into it. I was lucky to find a Eureka N!ergy 1210 at the LL Bean outlet near my office, cost me $60 when all said in done. Really put it to the test this past Friday. Right around dinner time we got hit with a major thunder storm that included tornado warnings (not common in Maine but one actually touched down about 10 miles from where we were). The forecast for the rest of the night wasn’t much better so we made the decision to pack up and head out, we didn’t want to be caught off guard during the night with a 3 & 5 year old. Despite the major wind and downpours, everything inside the tent was perfectly dry. It’s not the first time the tent has been in the rain, just the most extreme. Despite the bad luck, we were online this morning planning the next trip.
Thanks for the site, it’s one of my new favorites.
Yeh!!!! We were in our N!energy last weekend during a major storm in Maine. We stayed dry until it was justtime to make a run for it and go home. Still, that tent broke down and set up within 10 minutes. Love the clip tents !
Still want me pop-up though …
VE – so you finally admit to being a closet Harry Potter fan?
Jason – thanks for the kind words, I sure remember those diaper days out in the backcountry! I’ve still got a weather radio on my shopping list – I really need to get that taken care of.
Eureka tents can sometimes be very expensive. What other brands are recommended that still contain quality but will not break the bank?
Russ – I don’t think it’s brand-specific; just focus on the material, the zippers and the support structure. One of the big complaints about “cheap” tents is snapping the poles when trying to bend them into shape. These two-pole tents that have big, gentle, arches going from front to back are a lot easier on the poles than the designs that have tight arches going from side to side.
This summer I purchased (and took back) a smaller version tent in the Grand Manan line. I liked what I saw of the tent on line and like the idea of the 18″ of straight side at the bottom to have more usable floor space. However, I have found that I am more a fan of the clip style tent then the pole/channel tent. I put the tent up in my living room and realized it wasn’t going to be an easy-up tent. Then I got out the fly and began to unfold it and there were bells and whistles all over it and I didn’t even bother trying to get it on the tent. The fly would have been ok if the tent itself had not been so much work.
The point I want to make is that it was an excellent, quality tent and would probably serve any camper well. I was heading off for a week camping trip right after I took the Grand Manan back to the store. I took a bigger tent with me that is a clip style dome tent. At the campsite I started to set up my tent and realized I had left the poles at home. I drove back 30 miles to a camping supply store and bought a tent similar to the Grand Manan with the pole/channel setup, which turned out to be a great tent, but a friend is going to buy it from me, because in the end I will steer away from the pole/channel tent.
But I want to say, from an up close and personal experience, the Grand Manan line is a quality tent.
Jenn – the clip-style frame tents are definitely great for easy setup. I can’t say I’ve seen one that specs out similar to this one, as far as interior space.
Hello I just ran across your blog when doing a search on the reviews of Grand Manan Tour tent. I am thinking about purchasing a new tent this year for camping with my family. I have been looking at a lot of tents and their reviews trying to make an informed decision on what to buy. I have been looking at 5-6 man tents mostly. There is 3 in my family and we always have 2-3 more that joins us. These are kids not adults. I like the looks of the Grand Manan Tour with the vestibule area to use as staging area for shoes and equipment. This tent also has other features I like such as being able to add the lighting system that Eureka has to offer. This is not a deal breaker though you can do this with just about any tent. I am more concerned with the quality of the tent and longevity than price. 2 other tents that I have considered are the Eureka Headquarters and the Marmot Halo 6P. All these are close in size for the tent area but all have something little different than each other. I am not sure which one is the better because I have read good things and bad about all of them. In your opinion what would you recommend . Thanks Sherrill
Thanks Sherrill, I’m glad you ran across CampingBlogger! It’s such a tough call on the tents – the Headquarters is very good and probably easier to setup than the Tour (it’s a clip-style, so you don’t have to thread the poles through sleeves in the material). Of course the Marmot is a top-notch tent, too. I’d add that both the Eureka and Marmot use metal poles instead of fiberglass, which is a real plus – of course you will pay a bit more for those features.
Good luck!