Rei Kingdom 8 Tent

My husband and I used a large dome REI tent for years and loved the quality of it. Sadly, our family grew out of the whole REI product line, until now. The Kingdom 8 is great. Admittedly, I'd actually like it to be even a little larger, but overall I am satisfied with tent size. That is really important to me, since we have 3 kids (7,4,1) and a dog (Old English Bulldog). We purchased the additional garage and it is perfect for the dog.

Pitching the tent is a breeze... even easier than our dome tent. I did it myself in about 15 minutes. The fly takes a little longer the first time, but not bad overall. Once up, I was surprised to find that the front screened room was much smaller than I thought (based on the picture on-line). I originally thought an air mattress or two could fit there. I thought maybe a queen size mattress would fit. NO WAY! A couple of people could fit there, but it would be a tight squeeze for a full size mattress. It would have to be 2 single mattresses. The back room is clearly the sleeping area and was actually much larger than I realized from the posted pictures. So you can get an idea of how much space is in the back... I fit 2 cots, 2 single air mattress pads (they are the kind that are thin and self-inflating), and a pack-n-play for the baby. I put the 2 cots on either wall and the 2 mattresses in-between and the pack-n-play fit at the foot of the mattresses. There is a little extra room at the foot of each cot, but that's it. So we can all squeeze into the sleeping area and enjoy the body heat, move 2 kids to the front room, or pull back the "wall" to make one large area. If you have a family of 3-4, you will have tons of room. For our family of 5, there is enough room, but I'd like just a little more (especially with the baby).

Last year we tried a super large tent. It was wonderfully large in the day, but painfully COLD at night (even with a tent heater on full blast). My sister had bought a new tent from a warehouse type store, and she had the same issue. We never had this problem with our REI tent. All of the heat when right out the windows because the fly actually left a huge gap in the ceiling. This is another reason why I chose the Kingdom 8... the fly completely covers the whole tent to the bottom and this is key to keeping warm at night!! We'll see what it's like in the mountains, but based on the design, it think it should be fine.

I like the pockets everywhere. There are pockets on the outside and on the inner "wall" there are several mesh pockets on both sides. The inside is really roomy. It's so easy to walk around and there is plenty of head-room. The doors are super large and can be completely tucked into a pocket located above the door.

Since we are a large family, we purchased the garage and it's GREAT!! We plan to lay a tarp under it so that we now have a whole additional room to our tent. But it is just staked at the bottom, so don't expect to be sleeping in that area (OBVIOUSLY). As I said, we plan to have our dog chill in the garage.

Overall I am very pleased with the tent. I love that it's rated for 3 seasons (rare in family tents. This is well worth every penny!!

This is simply an amazing family/car camping tent. My wife, toddler, and I had tried to hang onto camping in our 3-4 person tent the last two years and managed OK but got wet, were cramped, and generally lost much of the fun of camping. This year we decided to upgrade. We wanted a tent big enough to separate the sleeping area from gear, bags, clothes, etc. and looked at a number of different brands (TNF, Big Agnes, Sierra Designs) as well as the Kingdom 6.

We were a bit intimidated by the dimensions and so were leaning towards the 6-person after ruling out the other brands based on price and configuration, but the 6 is divided into two equal rooms. We wanted the smaller 'front' room for bags and gear so we could sleep comfortably in the 'back' room. The 8 is configured perfectly for that use, and it has made camping so much easier and more manageable. We put a tarp down in the front room so we can step into the tent with our shoes on and even brought in a basin of water for washing-up before bed. We fit a queen size air mattress and a wide ThermaRest Camprest side by side in the back room with space to walk around each.

Set-up is very easy--I can do it myself in 20 minutes. The full-coverage fly has kept us dry on both of our trips this summer when we encountered rain at night. With guylines to pull it taught along the bottom it's bomber in the rain, but being able to roll it up to get ventilation is a huge plus. Since we're still a relatively small family we haven't purchased the Hobitat vestibule or garage but probably will when we need the front room for sleeping space.

The height is fantastic. I'm 6'4" and can stand up the entire length of the tent. As other reviewers have indicated, the pockets are awesome for stashing clothes, diapers, stuff sacks, you name it. And the bag is great because you don't have to do a factory roll-up job to fit everything into it. It even has room for the footprint and a rubber mallet for stake pounding.

I would also echo the other reviewer who suggested purchasing additional stakes. I use all eight that come with it on the tent and then an additional eight to stake out the fly completely (three on either side and two for the vestibule off the back room--which is a thoroughly decent size, by the way). REI also has some nice 'figure-9' guylines that are a bit quicker and easier to use than the ones that come with the tent.

What it comes down to is that the tent has made camping possible for us again even with little ones and all the logistics that come along with bringing them camping. The entire process of sleeping, changing, washing up, etc is so easily manageable, and that was a major hang-up for my wife with our previous tent. Now that's not a worry so we can focus on actually enjoying ourselves.

Bottom line, I am completely satisfied with it, and highly recommend it for anyone looking for a family tent.

Having used REI products for over 10 years now, when it came time to get bigger family tent (My wife and I, our 2 daughters and the 2 dogs (1-little, 1- big) we decided to get the Kingdom 8.

We purchased the Kingdom 8 Tent, the Footprint, and the Connect Tech Garage.

We've been using the smaller REI Taj 3 tents for years... and in all the years I've been using it, its not once every let me down. And that tent has been all over with me. Its been on short over night trips and week long trips and cross country trips... worth every single penny! :) So I knew getting the Kingdom 8 was going to be the right choice for our family.

Having never set this tent up before, we had it up and ready to use in about 30 minutes. This tent it great! Its tall enough that an adult can stand up inside the tent and comfortably change. It has 2 sections inside the tent. The area by the door can house all your gear and the larger section through the barrier is where you can setup your sleeping gear. But the tent has plenty of room... this might be the biggest tent I've seen. Honestly the next thing up from here would be a Mountain Hardware Expedition type tent or a towable trailer setup.

Its slept all of us very easy. The 3 normal sleeping bags and my wife's twin size air mattress. We had all our gear in the tent.

It poured out the second night and had some pretty strong wind gusts and it never leaked a drop, and never felt like it was going to blow over.

The tent was on fairly level ground but the Garage was on a slight incline leaving the bottom open a few inches, and even with that the wind didn't more it one bit.

We had 2-20" bikes, 6 chairs, a cooler, a grill and a few other things in the Garage, and it still left us room to get in and out of the door with ease. Its totally worth the extra $100 bucks.

The only bad thing I can say, which honestly has nothing to do with the tent really, is that it does not come supplied with enough tent stakes or tie down guide lines. Thankfully I always carry extra spikes and a good 75-100' of paracord with me too, so it wasn't a big deal. But I would grab 10 more spikes and a least 10 more tie downs. I make my own tie downs with paracord its much cheaper that way plus you can make them the exact size you need. Paracord is cheap enough where you can cut it to the right size. You're setting up your sleeping quarters... might as well do it right instead of having to fix it in the middle of the night. ;)

Buy this tent for your family... its worth every penny.

Great tent! So far I have only set it up in the back yard and slept in it overnight with my 2 year old as a test run. Went up relatively easy, took about an hour by myself, including the tent floor, garage, and 6 guy lines. I also took my time and tweaked everything as I went. I could probably do it under a half hour next time by myself.

Once set up and staked down, it seemed very sturdy. Strong cross winds would be the only concern, but the 6 supplied guy lines would help with that. Like other reviewers have said, you need to buy extra tent stakes if you intend to use the guy lines. Not sure why they didn't throw an extra six in; a bit annoying. You could actually add another 2 guy lines too (and 2 more stakes), for a total of eight; one at each side of the cross members.

This is one spacious tent! There is room inside for 2 full or 2 queen air mattresses plus walking or gear storage areas. (See picture) Note that the all mesh room is smaller than the other and the mattress touches 3 sides of the wall when the room divider is used. Same thing for the other room when the mattress is oriented in the long direction.

The mesh really makes this a breathable tent. To increase the breathability while still using the rain fly, I hooked the rain fly strap to the tent stake instead of the pole end to keep it further out from the tent body. (See picture) If doing this, just be sure to drive the stake in at a good angle so a strong wind will not pull your stakes out of the ground. Of course if there is no chance for rain, the fly is made to be rolled back in multiple configurations and secured which is nice.

One reviewer mentioned defects in the mesh areas. I also noticed this as well, but upon further inspection it seems this is just from packing and can be fixed. I found the spots easily go away when rubbed with your fingernail a bit.

Another quirk is the exterior door zippers. Quite often, they get hung up on the tent fabric, especially when opening/closing from the outside since you tend to pull it into the orange fabric flap. Using two hands helps, and so far every time it has happened, it's easy to fix. Something to get used to I guess.

Overall I am very pleased with this tent and recommend it to any family of 3 to 5 people (6 max). You definitely cannot go wrong with the added garage and tent floor either. Both easily fit into the tent bag. I can't wait for the fam to use it this summer!

In my earlier review of this tent, I stated how easy this tent was to setup, and how I looked forward to setting it up somewhere other then in my garage. Well we finally got to go camping again, this time with our new Kingdom 8. Previous camping trips with the "Taj 3" were getting cramped with two dogs and two adults who all liked to sleep on a full size air bed. Now we're no longer squeezed into a "Three-Man". This tent is a dream. The workmanship and features are first rate, with gear and door pockets conveniently located throughout the tent. Our first 8-man tent was bought at a big box store in an attempt to economize....you get what you pay for! The first night we camped in it, it rained, and most of the seams leaked. The same thing happened the first time we took the Kingdom 8. It rained, and rained, and rained.... but this time we stayed cozy and dry. I was able to stake out the rain fly enough to get a wide perimeter around the tent footprint to keep the floor bone dry. Some other reviewers complained about the tent not being wind friendly. With all the guy ropes attached and well staked, we withstood winds in the 12 to 15 knots, and gust to 20 knots plus. Also, anyone buying this tent would be remiss for not buying the optional attached garage. While we were unable to cook outside because of the rain, the attached garage provided an anteroom to continue life in the semi-wild. The instructions for both the K-8 and the garage discourage the use of open flames for lighting and cooking due to the obvious hazards associated with these appliances. But with care and proper attention and placement, we were able to cook a number of meals safely. As for live-ability, my wife Mary repeatedly commented about forgetting that she could now stand-up to get dress. Being nearly 6' 2" tall, she's always had to struggle horizontally every time she needed to change. Now with full headroom throughout she almost feels like running with scissors. We've also upgrade to a queen size "Aerobed", using a small 12V inverter to blow it up. Yes we're getting soft(er), but we're also going camping more. Some trade-offs are worth it. There's also plenty of room inside for all the gear that is usually left out of doors during good weather, and then crawled over when its not so good. All in all, this is another great REI product.

Since this was intended for car camping for 2, at most 4 people, I went big. This tent is very easy to set up (buy the footprint, it helps immensely).

It is incredibly waterproof (it's been through some downpours lasting 3-4 hours, not a drop inside). Wind, on the other hand, it doesn't fare quite as well in. You MUST guy it down well, from both the sides and the end, and you should be fine. You have to watch out, the poles will bend if the wind is strong enough. We are at Rifle Gap state park (CO) and even with it guyed down pretty well one end collapsed and bent the poles somewhat. To its defense, a neighboring site's tent of about the same size was completely collapsed, and the next site, another of the same approximate size, the tent was gone. Just gone, blown away. It's a big tent, this is a risk with any big tent.

That said, the size was one motivator to buy this tent. I am 6'5, and can stand up inside. Fantastic.

The rainfly/vestibule works well, the vestibule is on the non-screen house end, and adds a good amount of extra space. The fly itself is incredibly versatile, I love that you can roll it back to fully expose the screen room, and/or roll the sides up to have sun and partial rain protection, yet still get great ventilation.

Inside there are a TON of loops to hang lights, clotheslines, whatever from. Also, the partition is perfectly placed for me, cots (remember, I am car camping!) fit perfectly so I could still close the other end off if another couple is camping with us. In the partition are several more pockets.

Overall, AWESOME tent with only one complaint. It only comes with 8 stakes, meaning none for the guy lines. My advice is buy some MSR groundhogs, and some tiny carabiners for the guy lines so you can attach/detach easily, and guy it down well.

If you are considering this tent versus some Coleman tent or the like, spend the extra money for this. Just after buying this, I was at Bass Pro Shops and they had several other large cabin tents for 2/3 the price, most also looked like they had great features...I was sad until I went inside 2 of them. They already, just on display in a store, had broken poles. Skimp somewhere else, but buy a good tent. You won't regret buying the Kingdom 8.

First I don't know how anyone gives this tent a single star? I have 4 kids and camp with them monthly.. all of them are under the age of 10 so using more than one tent really isn't an option for my wife and I. we need a large tent and I have tried the big box retailers tents, the "up in one minute" tents and several more. The Kingdom 8 tent is in a class by itself. It vents very well. Other tents I have used have degrees of condensation inside after cold nights or with the use of a heater, this one so far had no condensation.. both on very cold nights and after a good solid rain storm with 20 mph winds this tent is dry on the inside.. not a drop of water.

In the tent we had the following one of the "extra large camp cots", a queen air mattress, a pack in play and a twin air mattress with space to walk between all of these. Another review mentions the tent is divided 60 / 40 with the two rooms. In the larger space I had the extra large cot and the queen mattress the rest in the smaller space. I am 6' 1" tall and there is plenty of head room. If I can figure it out I will add a picture that shows all of these items inside of the tent. We also have the garage which I would say is a MUST .. for a very moderate price you really add a lot more square feet and space to stay dry if and when the rain comes. Most tents come in a long fabric bag, this one comes in what I would call a simple backpack style case. The straps are not padded but it carries well on your back. The construction of the tent is fantastic. You can see and feel the the attention to detail in the fabric and what I would call the "User friendly" components. Everything is well thought out: Pocket placements, storage areas, the room dividers .. it is a very intuitive tent. Its a bit more expensive than other "Large" tents but it is well worth it. With a large family a "fun camping trip" has two minimum requirements - being warm and being dry. This tent does both well and in contrast to the big box tents its an investment vs an expense.

Highly Recommend!

My wife and I got the Kingdom 8 as a gift to start getting our two young daughters into camping. We plan to use it car camping in the State Parks of Texas as well as while out trail riding in our Polaris Ranger. As my children get older and stronger, we will try to combine these activities with hiking and paddling.

I set this tent up for the first time in the San Antonio REI with ease. My mom and I had it set up and back in the bag in less than 30 minutes. I set it up in my living room today by myself with ease in about 15 minutes. It is very simple to set up and take down. The carry bag has plenty of room for all the included pieces as well as the foot print (which is an absolute must if you want your tent floor to last). We haven't purchased the garage yet but we plan to in the near future.

The tent has plenty of mesh for ventilation, which is a major selling point for me since Texas ranges from warm to very hot most of the year. I'm not a native Texan and the heat here is something I still haven't gotten used to even after nine summers.

The space and storage capacity of this tent must be seen to be believed. We will camp with my wife and two children most of the time, but my mom and perhaps other family/friends will join us from time to time. The floor space of this tent should allow 4-6 people plenty of room and I can't imagine eight people feeling terribly cramped while sleeping, especially if the garage is purchased and used for gear storage. There are several mesh pockets and gear loops to organize smaller items inside the tent. I'm 6' tall and have no problem standing in the center line of the tent.

I can't wait to get it outside and take my girls camping for the first time. I haven't camped in several years and am looking forward to getting back outside. Since we are starting basically from scratch, we will be comfort driven for awhile as we adjust to the changes and improve our outdoor skills. With the size and ameneties of the Kingdom 8, this should be a pain free and enjoyable journey back into outdoor sports.

I researched for about a month before purchasing the Kingdom 8 - what sold me was the amazing headroom, great reviews and REI's legendary customer service.

We camped with the tent for the first time this weekend and it was perfect! Except for the fact that one of the eye tabs was completely missing from the base of the tent, therefore we could not attach the pole (second pole back on the right side.) No problem, we popped the pole into the footprint and put a heavy bag down inside the tent to hold it down. Otherwise, the tent was amazing!! Tons of mesh for ventilation, even more in the sleeping area than it appeared online. We had a queen air mattress, and two ground pads, which fit comfortably with room to spare. The front mesh room was smaller that it appeared in pictures, but the ratio seemed perfect once I moved around in it a bit. There are a plethora of pockets, which is awesome, and did I mention the headroom?! That is the most attractive feature of this tent, hands down, in my opinion. No need to shimmy around horizontally, trying to get dressed.

We didn't need to use the rainfly, so I didn't set it up. Same with the garage attachment. Next time! The footprint worked well.

My only complaint is with customer service when I called today to let them know of the defect. The person I spoke with seemed rushed, and annoyed to be having the conversation in the first place. I have another trip planned for 2 weekends from now and was very disappointed when she told me that they would only send out a replacement tent when they received the defective tent back. I expect better than that, honestly! I feel that once they have a shipping conformation number indicating that the defective tent is on its way back, they should send me a new tent immediately. I was told I could order a new one (sorry, don't have an extra $500 on hand), and that was the only way to get me a "replacement" quickly. I was surprised and disappointed by that.

All things considered, I'm happy with the tent - it went up easily and has all of the features that I was looking for. I just need one that is fully assembled before it ships :)

This is a great tent. Just taking it out if the bag and feeling the fabric I could tell it was good quality. Very different from my Coleman tents. The seams and zippers all appear to be strong. Tent is large and tall, im 6'2 and could stand up the length of the tent.
Set up was really easy. My wife and I did a backyard test run and had it up in about 30 minutes. ( which by the way was faster then we could ever set up our big Coleman tent and no arguing with wife while setting up the kingdom 8 :) Taking the tent down was also very easy. Tent fit in bag on first roll along with foot print and garage. Haven't used the garage yet.
Took it out on a 4 day camping trip to Tettegouche state park Mn with wife and dog. Set up went much quicker second time. I was even able to fit our fully inflated double rise queen air mattress through the door, which was very nice. We put the mattress in the big room along with end table on either side of bed. In the smaller room we had the dog bed and were able to fit camp chairs in there as well. Vestibule was great for storing fire wood and our camp table. It rained for an hour one evening and we stayed dry in the tent. We put our table in the tent and played cribbage . My wife almost had me convinced into to buying the kingdom 6 but we were both glad to have the extra 2 and half feet. The small room worked great as a living room. The temp dropped into the 40's at night and it was cold inside the tent, which we expected. But we stayed warm in our 0 degree mammoth sleeping bag.
I looked around for about 6 months before I bought this tent. So glad I went with the kingdom 8. I would recommend this to any one and also you need to buy 8 extra stakes to stake the guy lines on rainfly.
And by the way, lots of pockets! Had tent almost rolled up before realizing I left the cribbage board in one of the wall pockets.
Can't wait to take this tent on our next camping trip!