An emergency tent can come in handy in a variety of circumstances. Here are our top picks for safety, weather protection, and peace of mind.
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Emergency tents come in a variety of styles and materials. These shelters are usually lightweight and portable, designed to provide protection from the elements and visibility in emergency situations, unexpected weather events, or nights outdoors.
Each type of emergency tent has different primary uses. You might carry an ultralight, single-use model during ski tours, hikes, or river trips where you don’t expect to run into bad weather or stay out overnight, but prefer to be prepared. Or you might live somewhere with extreme weather events and prefer to keep a spare shelter in a to-go bag or in your car. Emergency tents are good to have on hand in case your car gets stuck and you need a place to sleep and/or stay warm. As an added bonus, some are highly reflective, making them easy to be seen by passers-by or a rescue squad.
Emergency shelters can be as simple as a plastic tube tent, or as rugged as a standard backpacking tent— and there’s plenty of crossover. Emergency tents are usually easier to set up than regular camping tents, and most require no tools. True emergency shelters don’t have the same livability or long-term durability as a camping tent, but they also cost less and aren’t meant for daily use over the course of a season.
Your backpacking or camping tent can also be used as an emergency tent, but for this piece, we focused on emergency tents that you’d stash in your bag, car, or would deploy in an emergency situation.
What type of emergency tent do you need? There are a few different styles of emergency tents. The style you choose depends whether you want to carry it in a day pack, stash it in your car for emergencies, or have it in a ready-to-go storm kit.
The “emergency tent” category differs from standard camping or backpacking tents in that some models are truly one-time use, emergency-basis shelters. Others are more closely aligned (or overlap) with tents that are expected to last many seasons, even if they’re stashed in a car or emergency kit. If you think you’ll be using an emergency shelter for an extended period of time, choose one made with waterproof-treated nylon or other fabrics. Otherwise, an ultralight mylar or aluminum option is just fine.
How many people might need to shelter in the tent? If you’re the sole user and weight is an issue, a one-person tent will do the trick. A one-person shelter is also a good option if each person in a group carries their own. If you’ll potentially need to protect yourself and a partner or a full group, there are options for emergency-deploy shelters or tube tents that can hold multiple people.
To choose the best emergency tents, we made sure to include something from every category, from ultralight emergency bivies to more standard multi-season tents. An emergency tent means something different to different people, so we found the top models, ranging from one-time use shelters to options better suited for a situation where you’d be spending more than one night in the shelter. Each of these shelters are reliable, provide protection against the elements, and are easy to set up and secure.
This tube tent is the type of shelter that comes in many pre-made portable emergency kits, and is a great option for anyone (hunters, survivalists, people in storm zones, car campers) who want to keep a spare shelter stashed nearby in case of a night spent unexpectedly outdoors or in inclement weather.
This is a rugged nylon tent with a tight weave and an aluminum inner lining for warmth and heat reflection. The full tube tent measures 82- by 36-inches, and includes 23 feet of durable rope for hanging between trees or posts. The steel plates help keep the material from ripping during pitching / in high winds, and the outer material is a high-vis orange. The only opening is the door, so keep that in mind for moisture management.
This Outdoor Research Bivy was our top pick in our bivy roundup this year, coming in with high marks in everything from weatherproofing to durability to space-to-weight ratio. This shelter is low-lying, has a small footprint, and can be used as both a backup emergency shelter in a survival kit as well as a standard camping or backpacking shelter for people who don’t need a full-size tent. The hooped headspace helps eliminate the claustrophobia of other bivies, providing enough head room where you need it while keeping the leg and hip room smaller to save weight.
Similar in design to the Rab Group Shelter, this emergency shelter has a two-person capacity, a venting window, and waterproof seating panels on the inside to stay as dry as possible in an emergency situation. This is made with a PU-coated, rugged polyester material and has air vents along with the window to help manage condensation buildup.
The draw-cord closure isn’t as weatherproof as others on this list, but this is a great option for keeping pairs of hikers or other backcountry travelers protected in surprise storms. Keep in mind this model is smaller than the Rab shelter, and won’t be as comfortable for spending the night.
This ultralight emergency bivy weighs under 6 ounces and can be stashed in a daypack without ever remembering it’s there… until you’re grateful you have it. The proprietary SOL fabric reflects 70% of heat back to the user, providing a warm, safe shelter to stay in place while you wait for rescue or need to sit out a bad storm.
This is our top pick for packing on a day hike in the event of getting lost, unexpected weather or exposure, or in case you wind up out overnight and need protection from the elements.
The Group Shelter from Rab can hold up to six people, and is an excellent option for backcountry ski or hiking guides. The shelter has a spacious interior with waterproof seats, well-designed ventilation windows to prevent condensation buildup, and spaces embedded in the roof to secure ski or trekking poles for structure and stability. This is a bright orange shelter for high visibility in case of a rescue event and has reflective piping for nighttime visibility as well.
This compact, one-person shelter is designed as a combination between a bivy and a tent, with a low-profile design for wind resistance while still providing more head and shoulder room than a true bivy. The durable Ripstop polyester is sealed with a 5,000mm PU laminate coating, and has full seam taping and sealing.
This is a fairly simple shelter to set up, with lightweight, flexible aluminum poles that snap together with user-friendly press-fit connectors. Like some of our favorite three-season shelters and bivvies, this has the option of being fully sealed off with the waterproof fly, or unzipped with the bug mesh exposed for ventilation. This is a heavier option, so we recommend it for stashing in your car in case of emergencies where you need to ditch the vehicle or take shelter away from home.
Maggie Slepian is a full-time freelance writer in the outdoor industry and has tested gear professionally for almost ten years—she is an avid backpacker, trail runner, bikepacker, and horseback rider and has thru-hiked thousands of miles on the Appalachian, Colorado, and Ouachita trails, along with backcountry travel on terrain including coastal trails, the desert, and high alpine peaks. Maggie has written for New York Magazine, Huffington Post, REI, and Outside. She is a columnist with Backpacker Magazine and is the co-founder of BackpackingRoutes.com. Contact her at MaggieSlepian.com.
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