A tent with aluminum poles.
Tents may come with fiberglass poles, but they are fragile and more likely to break. If you bend or break a pole, most camping stores sell replacements or repair kits.
A tent with an adequate rainfly.
The rainfly is your tent's umbrella. The bigger the better. Look for a fly that comes well down the sides of the tent rather than just across the top. Rainflies are waterproof. Tent walls are water-repellant.
A tent with folded seams and double stitching.
If you can pull the material on either side of a seam and see through the stitches, this tent will leak. Be sure to use seam sealer on all seams.
A tent with a one piece tub floor.
The floor should be made of waterproof material, and it should come a few inches up the sides before it is sown to the tent walls. No seam in the floor means there is no place for water to seep in.
A tent with adequate guy lines.
Tent walls, and sometimes rainflies, have loops sown near the middle. These loops are used to attach guy lines that pull out the walls so that they are taught. It's impossible to sleep in a tent that's flapping in the wind.
A tent with good-sized stake loops.
There should be loops at the base of your tent in every corner and at the center of each side. These loops need to be big enough to accommodate the large plastic stakes sold in camping stores. Material stake loops are preferred. Plastic ones might break when you hammer in the stakes.
A tent that uses noseeum meshing.
This is the best material for keeping those nasty little bugs out.
A tent with a roof vent.
Opening this at night will help create some air circulation and eliminate condensation inside your tent.
A tent with heavy-duty zippers.
You'll be in and out of your tent a lot so you want zippers that will hold up to frequent use.
