I am looking to buy a family (6-8 person) tent and was thought I'd check here to see if anyone had good/bad experiences. Probably in the price range $200.00-$300.00. Any input would be appreciated. 8-)

This is mainly for backpackers, but I think they have a few family tents mixed in as well.

http://www.backpackgeartest.org/reviews/Shelters/Tents/

I bought a 3 room cabin tent sleeps 12 it says but more like 6 with some room left over.

I bought mine at  shopco $169.00

I have a BPS 2-Room family dome tent, and paid 170 for it. I had 7 peoples in the tent with some extra spaces.

Just bought this one today...on sale, and sleeps 8 comfortably...they say!

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=netcon&id=0078895519812a&navCount=41&podId=0078895&parentId=cat20103&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=9IS&rid=2146251080&parentType=index&indexId=cat601233&hasJS=true

Jamie

I have this one. It is well made and goes up easily. It is a great family tent, as long as you don't have over three (total) in your family. It is supposed to sleep six. How you would do that is beyond me.

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_104390_325001002_325000000_325001000?cmCat=CROSSSELL_THUMBNAIL

There are several gotcha's to be aware of.

1) the sleep count is always way off. It may or may not fit the number of people ( doubtful ) but put anything in it for clothing, bedding, gear etc and you can forget it.

2) When they talk about the tent size 14ft x 10ft for example most are not square so you don't really get the full dimensions for floor space. In fact many have irregular floor dimensions so you lose even more floor space.

3) on the same note often they mention floor space including screened in areas that most often don't have a floor? tough to sleep in that if it rains.

4) they are harder to come by but I prefer a square tent with straight up vertical walls. You get a ton more headroom for the sq ft. In domed tents you also effectivly lose sq ft for anything other than sleeping as you cannot stand up close to the edge.

I'm far from a tent expert just my .02

REI always helps me out with camping stuff, those guys know their stuff. Too bad it's like an hour away from me.  :-/