Best one-person tents for 2025 | Tested and reviewed

MSR are onto a winner here. The cleverly-designed skeletal pole has a wishbone shape at one end and a transverse pole at the central peak (known as an “overhead spreader bar”), with the inner clipping tightly to this frame. This creates near-vertical walls, maximum head room and excellent tension to the inner, ensuring a generous rectangular footprint.

You also get a decent-sized vestibule. Pitching is inner-first and the structure is semi-freestanding. The inner has lots of mesh for ventilation and clever zippers that always close to a single point. The hydrostatic heads aren’t particularly high (1,200mm for both the groundsheet and flysheet), but the high-tech tent materials are well-proven.

The flysheet features PU and silicone coatings and has a tight, high-density thread – an approach that guarantees waterproofing, according to MSR’s gear boffins. There are some flaws. A big worry is the flysheet cut-out – a weight-saving innovation that exposes the (albeit waterproof) inner and feels like a weak-spot that could fail in very wet conditions.

Furthermore the steep walls can “catch” the wind, the mesh inner is cold and draughty and the groundsheet is on the thin side. But, overall, this tent is a gram-saving revelation – so much comfort for 909g is quite remarkable.

Read our full MSR FreeLite 1 review here

The superbly-priced Soloist XL is a favourite of budget-conscious, bargain-loving backpackers. You certainly get a lot of bang for your buck with this two-skin tent, which strikes a good balance between weight (1,383g), functionality and durability.

A smaller Alpkit Soloist is £20 cheaper and officially 118g lighter, but 20cm shorter in length (yet with the same width and height dimensions). The XL version is better suited to taller campers, therefore.

Pitching the tent is usually inner-first, with a single central pole – which forks into a wishbone Y shape at each end via a hub connector – creating a freestanding structure onto which the inner is suspended. Over this goes the 15-denier, silicone-coated, 3,000mm-rated flysheet, providing three-season weather protection.

The 20-denier, PU coated ripstop nylon groundsheet is 5,000mm rated. If we’re being fussy, the shape of the Soloist – a thin, wedge-like spine with a ridge-y profile – is a bit odd. The high side walls can “catch” the wind if you get a side-on gust, and the lack of a cross pole means the internal headroom is quite narrow.

Internal spaciousness is average, not palatial, and the door design may polarise opinion. But all in all, for £170 it’s a bargain with impressive performance.

Read our full Alpkit Soloist XL review here

This niche tent is only suitable for ultralight thru-hikers – it’s not designed for the mass market. But, if you’re a gram-counting, fast-hiking camper, Gossamer Gear’s The One – a single-skin shelter erected using trekking poles – is a total dream.

It’s outrageously lightweight (597g) with a surprisingly roomy, comfy and liveable interior and solid all-round levels of protection, stability and performance. I wild camped in this tent for 23 nights last summer while walking the 1,014km South West Coast Path and I loved it – it was perfect for my fast’n’light needs.

But other hillwalkers might despise the design. It’s certainly a polarising approach. The pros? The low weight is phenomenal, the porch is sizeable, the mesh-centric design offers excellent ventilation, and the trapezoidal shape (with widened horizontal peak) creates difficult-to-believe levels of head room and liveability.

The cons? In bad weather, the trekking pole set-up is less stable than “normal” tents, the high walls are vulnerable to side gusts, the mesh design can be cold and draughty, you only get one layer of protection from rain, and one side wall is particularly vulnerable to water ingress. But who cares when it’s this ultralight? For spring and summer hiking in fair weather, this tent is the one.

Read our full Gossamer Gear The One review here

If you want a dome-shaped, high-walled tent with superb internal liveability at an ultralight weight, there are a few products out there that hit the brief – the MSR FreeLite 1, Sea to Summit’s Alto TR1 and this tent, the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL1. There’s little to choose between them, in all honesty, and their similarities are significant.

The differences? The FreeLite is the lightest and most minimalist, the Alto probably has the best headroom, but the Copper Spur is (perhaps) the best all-rounder. It’s a fully-featured, well-executed tent with loads of top-notch design features.

You get a sizeable porch, superb door set-up (including awning option), wonderfully taut structure, and excellent internal storage options (including a “floating”, off-the-floor “shelf”). It weighs just 1,117g and packs away to 46x12cm, yet delivers loads of internal space with great headroom and steep walls (although it’s not the widest).

It’s the same old downfalls: the mesh inner is cold and draughty, wind-resistance is ok but not great, and the hydrostatic head rating is only 1,500mm. But Big Agnes’ new eco-friendly HyperBead tent fabric certainly feels very premium – it’s 25% more waterproof and 6% lighter than previous versions, as well as PFAS-free, according to the American thru-hiking brand.

Read our full Big Agnes Copper Spur UL1 review here

If you love Terra Nova’s approach but can’t afford its prices, then its sub-brand Wild Country – which offers simple, good value products utilising Terra Nova’s own design and quality standards – is exactly what you’re looking for.

We’re big fans. So much so, in fact, that the Zephyros Compact 1 was a former LFTO Best Value winner and the Helm Compact 1 won our prestigious Gear of the Year title.

And the brand is at it again with the new-for-2025 Halny Elite 1, which is replacing the now discontinued Zephyros. It’s a tunnel-shaped tent with a proven design: single central hooped pole and two strut poles at each end, creating a low-profile, aerodynamic, wind-resistant shelter.

The waterproofing qualities are similarly impressive, courtesy of the 20-denier, 4,000mm-rated flysheet and 70-denier, 5,000mm-rated groundsheet. Both are PFC-free and feature recycled materials, thus enhancing the environmental credentials. You get a good-sized porch and some innovative venting orientations, but it’s not a perfect tent.

Internally it feels a tad cramped, particularly compared to dome tents. There’s not amazing headroom, the suspended inner feels a bit droopy and enclosing, and the footprint has a substantial taper. But, overall, this is an excellent value tent with loads more positives than negatives.

Read our full Wild Country Halny Elite 1 review here

This is about as light as a three-season, one-person tent gets without having to pay silly prices. At just 1,250g the weight is really impressive for just £215, yet despite the ultra-light design liveability and weatherproofing are good too.

The flysheet has a solid 3,000mm hydrostatic head while the 70-denier groundsheet (with 10cm bathtub-style waterproof lip) is 6,000mm rated – reassuringly high stats that should guarantee a dry night even in heavy rain. Fully taped seams and all-as-one pitching further enhance the suitability for Britain’s wet climate.

The hybrid tunnel shape, constructed with one pre-bent central pole and one shorter pole at each end, is a reliable design and should brace against winds effectively. A partly-mesh inner door and further triangular mesh vents at each end help increase airflow and reduce the likelihood of condensation. The vestibule is rather thin, meaning a large rucksack will probably press against the outer and inner, and internal space isn’t the roomiest.

But overall comfort is comparable to most other one-person tents with similar designs – and for the weight, features and all-round performance, the F10 Helium UL1 is an inflation-defying bargain. In fact, it cost £260 in 2021 when we last reviewed it - it’s now £215!

Read our full Vango Helium F10 UL1 review here

It would be no exaggeration to say that when it comes to lightweight tents for solo backpacking and wild camping, MSR’s Hubba NX is a true modern classic. The freestanding design is impressively lightweight, with a compact packed size that’ll happily fit in most rucksacks. It’s easy to pitch and sturdy enough for 3-season camping, while the tent’s symmetrical geometry and non-tapered floor maximise interior space. All of which ensures it’s a pleasant and comfortable space to rest, recuperate and recover after a hard day’s adventuring, whether you’re walking a long-distance trail or wild camping in the hills and mountains.

The familiar hubbed pole system has an integrated spreader bar for improved interior headroom. It has a symmetrical rectangular footprint that feels inherently more stable than the tripod designs of rivals like the Sea to Summit Alto TR1, the EXPED Mira 1 HL or the NEMO Hornet. The MSR also has steep walls at both the head and foot ends, ensuring lots of liveable space. In terms of floor area, it measures 75cm wide by 215cm long. Headroom is just as generous, with an apex height of 92cm. That’s ample space to sit upright, even if you’re over six foot.

The tent is well-built, with first-rate materials and components. This includes reinforced webbing at all pegging points, with quick adjust buckles and anodised aluminium hardware. The flysheet provides good all-round coverage and the design feels robust and protective enough for three-season use in the UK, with four guy lines to keep it securely anchored.

The dark green colour of the flysheet makes the Hubba NX a sensible choice for inconspicuous wild camps, as it is stealthy and unobtrusive. Weight is competitive for a one-person tent, though it’s worth noting that the pack size is a little longer and chunkier than some rivals, which makes the tent a bit trickier to stash in smaller packs.

What you get for your money though is an excellent lightweight backpacking tent that delivers tried and tested performance for three-season UK use, along with perhaps the best balance of protection, liveability, weight and packed size on the market.

Read our full MSR Hubba NX review

The Alpkit Ultra 1 is exactly what its name suggests: an ultralight solo shelter. Designed for multi-day adventures, it’s a 3-season backpacking tent that ought to work well for wild camping weekends, backpacking trips or weight-conscious mountain marathons and adventure races. With its compact packed size, it would also fit easily on a bike frame, making it a viable option for bikepackers too.

Technologically advanced, it employs ultralight fabrics and a carbon fibre pole set. This ensures that it packs small and weighs an impressively svelte 900g. All that for a UK RRP of £300 – in classic Alpkit style, this new offering seems to provide plenty of bang for your buck.

The design is freestanding, which makes it easy to move the tent if you need to hunt around for the flattest piece of ground. It does need to be pitched inner first, which is less ideal if you’re setting up camp in the rain, but it goes up quickly and easily. The pole system has an unusual but effective offset integrated spreader bar, designed to offer slightly improved liveability and a wider door entry. Chunky pole clips and an intuitive colour-coding system ensure that setup is simple and straightforward.   

There’s a single internal storage pocket for essentials and a hanging hook for a tent lantern. The single vestibule is a good size. It’s roomy enough to stash boots and a pack, whilst still leaving space to cook if needed. The flysheet door also has a well-designed curved zipper that ensures easy entry/exit and rarely jams or snags. It’s an excellent feature.

The Ultra 1 is a technologically advanced tent with an impressive sub-1kg weight and small packed size. At around £200 cheaper than comparable carbon fibre poled tents, it’s arguably good value too. However, if you’re not a committed ultralighter, you might want to look elsewhere, since you can buy roomier, cheaper and more robust solo tents, albeit with an added weight penalty.

Read our full Alpkit Ultra 1 Tent review

This (relatively) bargain tent has many great advantages, and one major drawback. We’ll kick off with the good stuff…

With the general cost of living being high, spending money on a tent is not a priority. But even for those of us lucky enough to still be able to pursue our hobbies, money is tight. For would-be wild campers, then, the Helm Compact 1 is a godsend. It’s rare to find a tent for less than £300, let alone one that performs so superbly.

It’s a well-proportioned, free-standing one-person dome tent that packs down to a compact size. Ultra-lighters may turn their nose up at the weight stats, but for most of us sub 2kg is a perfectly acceptable weight for a reliable one-person shelter.

And it’s tough – we’ve witnessed one of these withstand a wintery battering in north Wales, performing as well as the tent pitched next to it that had a price tag nearly 4x that of the Helm.

So what’s the bad news? These things are so popular that they’re currently rare as hen’s teeth. Which is frustrating, as there really are few alternatives to compete on this level. Still, keep your fingers crossed and your eyes open and you might just find one...

Read our full Wild Country Helm Compact 1 review

The idea that you need to spend several hundred pounds in order to get a decent backpacking tent is now defunct thanks to the OLPRO Solo.

There have been budget tents before but none are that good, either too bulky, not tough enough, or both.

With an RRP of £125 the Solo is a true bargain. It's basic but it does the essential stuff well (weather protection, lightweight, and decent sleeping space) and that's what matters. At 1.8kg it's not the lightest tent of its type but it's still light enough and packs away reasonably small.

It pitches outer first or all-in-one and the flysheet has a good waterproof rating and extends almost all the way to the ground. The vestibule isn't huge, however. There's enough space for boots and a small or medium sized pack. But anything 50+ litres struggles to fit.

Read our full OLPRO Solo review

The Alto TR1 Plus from Aussie outdoor brand Sea to Summit is a double-skinned solo tent designed for lightweight backpacking. It’s described as a ‘3+ season’ model, intended to enable use into the so-called ‘shoulder seasons’ of early spring and late autumn, thanks to more weatherproof fabrics. This is what distinguishes the ‘Plus’ version from the standard model. We’d say it’s worth the upgrade.

It is slightly more expensive, but features a full fabric inner, which is considerably warmer than mesh, plus upgraded waterproofing for the bathtub groundsheet (improved from 1200mm to 2500mm hydrostatic head). For UK use, it’s therefore much better suited to general wild camping and long-distance, as well as multi-day walks in the hills and mountains.

The Alto also strikes a good balance between low weight and liveable space. The major innovation in design terms is a wishbone-style spreader bar that the brand calls Tension Ridge architecture. This increases head height, creates more volume overall and improves airflow through the tent. It also helps to keep the tent walls taut, reducing bowing and buckling in breezy conditions.

The overall coverage of the flysheet is pretty good for a three-season tent. It also feels stable, and extra guy-out points made from sturdy reflective webbing tape enable you to add reinforcement in gusty conditions. Extra guy lines (x4) and pegs (x2) are supplied with the tent. You may well need these, since the design does have fairly steep walls, which can occasionally catch the wind in more exposed pitching locations. You also get a repair kit and a pole sleeve in case of emergency.

Sea to Summit’s overall sustainability report is mixed. It would be fair to say the company is ‘on a journey’. As such, it has estimated its Scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon emissions in order to try and reduce its overall carbon footprint. However, it has not yet put steps in place to offset or limit these emissions.

In truth, there’s not much to choose between this and our 2024 best in test winner, the MSR Hubba NX. Which one to go for depends on your priorities. The Alto TR1 plus does have some unique and innovative features that the Hubba lacks. The Alto also has superior headroom. The weights are comparable, though the Alto TR1 Plus uses marginally less tough and less weatherproof fabrics.

Read our full Sea to Summit Alto TR1 Plus review

NEMO markets this model as ‘the ultimate ultralight tent for extreme minimalists.’ The specs certainly back this up. It has a minimum trail weight of just 657g (minimum weight includes the inner tent, rain fly, poles and tent pegs, but not the stuff sacks). Yep, you read that right. Even the packed weight is a mere 812g, about the same as a loaf of bread. Which is an impressive feat for a double-skinned design. In fact, on the scales it compares favourably to several ultralight single skin shelters.

This tent uses cutting-edge fabrics that are exclusive to NEMO, in the form of their proprietary OSMO nylon-polyester blend. It’s made from fully recycled fibres and is free from harmful chemicals such as PFC-based water repellent coatings or toxic flame retardants. Meanwhile, the inner tent canopy is made from ultrafine mesh and the pole set uses a hubbed DAC Featherlite NFL TH72 aluminium alloy.

As well as being light in weight, the flysheet fabric is also light in colour. This means that being inside this tent is an airy experience – you almost feel like you’re out in the elements, despite being under cover. However, NEMO claims that OSMO fabric has 3x less stretch than conventional nylon. It wouldn’t be difficult to puncture it though, and we’d say that use of the additional footprint groundsheet (sold separately) is pretty much an essential.

Though the Hornet Elite is described and marketed as a backpacking tent, in reality we’d be hesitant to take it on long-distance classics that involve a lot of upland stretches. If you were forced to pitch in more exposed locations or higher up the hillside, you’d be in for a testing night. It just isn’t designed for blustery, gusty weather.  

Dedicated ultralighters will be familiar with these compromises and prepared to accept them in exchange for the Hornet Elite’s exceptionally low trail weight. It’s one of the lightest double-skinned designs on the market, and this also makes it arguably more protective (and certainly better at managing condensation) than a single skin shelter. It’s also worth pointing out that the price tag, though high, is way less than DCF or carbon fibre ultralight tents.   

Read our full NEMO Hornet Elite OSMO 1 review

The Mira 1 HL (‘Hyperlite’) is a lightweight backpacking tent that Exped says is “perfect for short trips in moderate climates”. That suggests a design suitable for 2-to-3 season use, primarily for overnight wild camps or backpacking trips from a few days up to a couple of weeks in duration.
The latest model has a commendably light packed weight of 1.15kg (2.54lbs) but is also intended to offer a balanced combination of space, comfort and trail liveability.

Unfortunately, the design lacks the additional corner struts that you get with some similar rival designs (like the Sea to Summit Alto TR1, for example). This means that the foot end slopes away more sharply, giving you a little less internal space. Despite that slight shortcoming, liveability is still decent. There is an impressive 105cm of headroom at the apex, while the footprint is a true rectangular shape with a total internal length of 215cm and a width of 70cm. There’s ample room for a six-footer to both sit upright and lie out straight. You also get a good-sized porch or vestibule, augmented by a small secondary vestibule at the back of the tent, which can be accessed via a reach-through zipper. This gives quick access to smaller items like water bottles. There are also two storage pockets at the head end and a handy gear hanging line, which comes pre-attached to the ceiling.

The brand is an acknowledged industry leader in sustainability. In fact, Exped calculates all climate emissions from the production and transportation of this product and finances certified climate protection projects through Myclimate to an equal extent. Overall, it scores well on sustainability, but is more of a US-style tent: great for less demanding weather but may not give you everything you need in the shoulder seasons of the UK.

**Read our full Exped Mira 1 HL review
**

As a left field alternative to tents, there is the hammock. Normally seen in back yards and resorts, those produced by Bali-based company Ticket To The Moon are designed specifically for backpacking and outdoor adventures.

The TTTM model we tested in Scotland was the Pro Mat Hammock. It's a fully featured hammock with everything from a mosquito net to a bungee cord for your boots.

As far as sleeping comfort is concerned, the TTTM Pro Mat Hammock is superb. Suitable for one of two people, you can adjust the ridgeline to find the ideal amount of slack for you, and there is a slot underneath the hammock into which you can insert a sleeping mat for extra comfort if you wish.

It's a great setup for summer thanks to a a highly breathable material (which is also softer and less slippery than tent fabrics). However, TTTM does sell quilts that insulate its hammocks to make them suitable for cold weather use too.

People will of course have questions about weatherproofing. On its own the Pro Mat Hammock has none, but TTTM sells tarps that can be rigged over the top and provide effective rain protection.

At 920g plus straps and a tarp if you're taking one, you're looking at about 1-1.5kg total weight. This is one of TTTM's heavier tarps but it's still lightweight and because there are no poles, is easy to pack into a rucksack.

Other TTTM products used our testing: Lightest Tarp | Lightest Strap

Read our full Ticket To The Moon Pro Mat Hammock review

Grangers' effective and eco-friendly care kit for tents and outdoor gear such as packs. It even comes with a sponge to help apply the Cleaner solution. The Cleaner and Repel are available to buy individually too.

Nikwax's tent and gear care kit. It's just as good as the Grangers kit and also water-based and PFC-free. SolarWash and SolarProof are available to buy individually.