Bell tents have become more and more popular thanks to glamping and festivals offering them up for unique camping experiences. If you are new to camping you might be looking at what the differences are between bell tents and normal tents and which is better suited to you.

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Bell tents are larger tent structures which are better suited to businesses looking to hire them out to couples, parties and festivals for glamping. Normal tents are designed for the owner to use in any space they require and move from place to place. They are more practical than bell tents.

In this article, we are going to go through the differences between bell tents and normal tents, what they are used for and who they are best suited to.

What Is A Bell Tent?
A bell tent is a multipurpose shelter with a single pole in its centre and is covered with cotton canvas. The type of the tent is usually made to be stable by connecting guy ropes around the top of the tent walls and attaching them to pegs on the ground.

Bell tents have a circular shape at the top and a cone shape for most of its body and are large by design with a diameter of about 10ft or larger.

People use bell tents when travelling for leisure – like during camping for many days at a time – and as shelter (during events). Since they are built to be large, their interior is spacious, giving room for a number of people to be able to sleep in at the same time.

It seems to have the same appearance as a yurt from a distance, but they are not the same. It is easy to set them up, but there are some downsides to using them. They are significantly larger than normal tents, making them more expensive to buy and more difficult to carry around.

When shopping for a bell tent, is it easier to get information about the tent’s size rather than how many people can fit into one tent at a time.

Some manufacturers might say a 5M wide bell tent can accommodate six sleeping people, but in reality, it will only do so if all six of them are okay with being packed like sardines in one tent. To know how many people would fit into a bell tent you want to buy, you have to consider the amount of space each person would ideally need, the average size of each person’s luggage and how much camp furniture would be used in the tent.

The fact that you might not take a lot of personal camping gear with you on your trip does not mean that you would not need to account for the space your bags, chairs, sleeping bags, kitchen utensils, clothes and so on would take.

Imagine fitting all the furniture and gear you would need throughout your camping trip in a 5M bell tent and expecting it to accommodate six people still while they sleep. It would not take a genius to know it would not work or if it does, it would not be the most convenient thing to do.

An ideal setup for a 5m bell tent is having four adults use it, and that is only a good number if you are comfortable with placing mattresses or sleeping bags on the floor. If you want to use proper camp beds, consider using a giant bell tent, or fewer than four people use one tent.

Inside bell tents, the walls slope downwards, so when setting a kitchen unit up or arranging camp beds, you have to fit them so that they would not be directly touching the walls. This would take up more space when compared to when you can let your property rest against the tent walls.

Some bell tents have higher sides and taller doorways than others, meaning you can get more usable space out of them. Door height is an essential factor when choosing a bell tent to buy because one with sufficient door height would save you from constantly bending over backwards when you go in or walk out of your tent.

What Bell Tents are Made of?
Bell tents are usually made entirely of cotton canvas and are highly breathable. If properly maintained, they can last a long time, meaning once you get a bell tent, it could be years before you buy another.

However, that premium material comes at a cost. Cotton canvas tents are expensive, not waterproof on the first usage and are reliant on constant maintenance. Other less common materials used in the production of bell tents are polycotton, polyester, and oxford canvas.

What Is A Normal Tent?
A normal tent is also a shelter made of fabric or some other material and is often designed to be free-standing with some support from guy ropes or pegs attached to the ground. They are typically used for recreational camping and are light enough to be carried by backpackers and hikers. However, there are some larger ones that are carried in cars or RVs.

Since they are of different sizes, the time to set them up varies between five minutes and half an hour. It takes around the same time to completely disassemble the tent too. Normal tents are made to be resilient against elements of nature like strong winds and heavy rainfall and be spacious enough to facilitate a comfortable living experience.

They are generally inexpensive, offer adequate ventilation and often come in a tunnel or dome shape. Normal tents are mostly categorized by the number of people that can fit in them at once. Manufacturers try to make normal tents as light as possible by making sure their interiors are not too thick so campers would have an easy time carrying them.

If you need more room than usual in a normal tent, it will help to buy one that was designed for one person more than your group. For example, if you are a 3-man group and prefer having more room, buy a tent meant for four people instead. Alternatively, you can buy tents that are a few inches longer than the average size. Tents like this have the word “plus” in their name.

Different normal tents are made to handle different seasons. The common type of tents people buy is three and 4-season tents. However, most hikers and campers go with three-season tents because they believe it is not on every trip they would be exposed to extreme weather conditions.

3-Season Tents
Three-season tentsare designed to be lightweight enough to be easily transported while being able to handle the weather conditions that come with summer, fall and spring. These tents are resistant to heavy rainfall and light snow but might not offer the best protection against severe thunderstorms, heavy snow and violent winds.

4-Season Tents
Four-season tents are excellent for summer use but are also well-suited to spring, fall and winter conditions. If you would be taking trips to places where you encounter snow, this kind of normal tent would be appropriate. Normal tent’s walls are upright, giving its occupants more headroom. A small number of poles – or none at all – is used to manufacture this type of tent to keep the weight low.

The emphasis on keeping weight low is because tent designers know it is a crucial factor campers consider when in the market for a new tent. The less a tent weighs, the less its size, the smaller the number of special features it would have, and the less durable it would be.

It is up to the camper to make tradeoffs between all the tent’s features and its size and find a balance when they are ready to buy a new tent.

What is the Difference Between a Bell Tent and Normal Tent?
The main noticeable difference between a bell and normal tents is their shape. Bell tents tend to have a triangular shape while normal tents come in different forms but are mostly dome or tunnel-shaped. Most bell tents can be set up but just one person.

They first have to stake the groundsheet, place the centre pole and raise the A-frame door. After, they will stake the guy lines to ensure the bell tents stay secure to the ground.

For a normal tent, there is no centre pole for you to set up the tent around. There is also no pole for the door frame as there is in a bell tent. Instead, normal tent doors are usually closed using a giant zipper.

Bell tents are generally bigger than normal tents, but both tents come in different sizes. It is possible to find 7M that can accommodate around eight to ten adults while normal tents are suitable for a small number of people.

Bell tents are available between 3M and 7M sizes. In many types of bell tents, you can stand upright and walk around while the average tent does not provide that level of convenience.

People using normal tents have to crouch while inside them, and usually use them primarily as a shelter to sleep in or avoid rain or snow. They do most of their activities outside because there is not enough space.

Bell tents recreate the feeling of being in your own room. If you plan to spend a week at a campground, you can set up the interior of a bell tent to look like an outdoor hotel room, but normal tents give the feeling of someone on-the-go. They come in different sizes as well, and the size per person ideally should be 80 inches in length (90 inches for taller people) and a width of 25 inches.

Furthermore, bell tents cannot be carried on one’s back from place to place (as the case would be when hiking). They are much heavier than normal tents and offer better protection from the elements of nature.

The conical shape of bell tents allows them to withstand strong winds with ease. The aerodynamics from the roof of a bell tent to the bottom makes it more stable than normal tents (this does not mean normal tents are not safe to stay in).

The steep shape of bell tent walls allows water to run off it quickly. This feature generally gives it an advantage over normal tents but normal tents that a dome-shaped are not far behind in this regard. However, normal tents that are tunnel-shaped might have a little more trouble getting rid of water that falls on their roof.

Also, since bell tents have an A-shaped door that stands vertically, rain that falls perpendicular to the ground would not fall directly into the tent even when the door is open.

Normal tents usually have a somewhat diagonal view of the sky and leaving the door open during rainfall would be a way to tell the rain that it is welcome into your tent. The effect would be similar to making a straight cut down your umbrella and taking it for a walk on a rainy day.

When snow is involved, it is a different story because it can accumulate on top of a bell tent and make it collapse if not taken care of quickly enough. Campers would need a telescoping brush – the kind used to remove snow from cars – to get rid of heavy and sticky snow that accumulates on bell tents. The process of removing snow is more difficult on bell tents when compared to normal tents because it is taller and the roof is less easily accessible.

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A dome-shaped normal tent – which is a pretty common shape for this kind of tent – would let snow slide off it more easily. The roof is also more easily accessible because most tents – when set up – are shorter than the average adult.

Bell tents provide more ventilation than normal tents and are more convenient during the summer. The floor can be unzipped, and the side walls can be rolled down to allow air flow in. Most of the air that you can get in a normal tent comes from the doorway when it is open.

Bell tents have vents at the top and sometimes have windows on the side walls. Normal tents usually do not have these features.

Which Tent Is Right for You?
Bell Tents
This is not the average tent, so it is not for the average camper. It is more suitable for people camping in large numbers, something like a family or a group of friends that want to stay under the same roof most of the time.

It is costlier than normal tents so it is only natural that it should be bought only when there is an excellent reason to use it. They provide space, and it is good if there are many things the occupants would be storing. Bell tents give people – like a couple – the opportunity to glamp.

Apart from the camping aspect, bell tents to offer glamping to folks that want it at company retreats, weddings, festivals, or similar situations. If you would frequently move your camping setup from place to place, you might not need to use a bell tent because it is more suitable for people who want to set up at a location for about a week.

These are perfect for those who are looking to set up a Glamping business which offers more luxurious camping style and a more comfortable place to sleep. They are also harder to erect and so are more suited to longer stays and to be used as a more permanent structure.

Normal Tents
As the name implies, normal tents are more conventional tents and are widely used by recreational campers, backpackers, and hikers. They are more suitable for short-term use a time.

They are made to be lightweight so they can be carried relatively easily from place to place. Not many people stay in one normal tent at a time. You would find only one or two people in this kind of tent at a time. It is almost impossible to fit a regular mattress in a normal tent. Sleeping bags are more suitable here.

Normal tents are used mainly for recreational camping, staying on a beach, any other informal outdoor activity. Families or groups of friends who want to camp together usually own their tents so they can live comfortably outdoors.

There is not enough space to keep the number of items that can be kept in a bell tent. Normal tents are used by people that would spend most of their camping time outdoors and want to have their resting space to themselves.

The Benefits of Canvas Tents: Durability, Beauty & More

When you need a tent to last for generations, a canvas tent is the answer. Beautifully crafted and well-made, a canvas tent is practical, functional, and aesthetically pleasing. With all of these features combined, you have yourself a canvas tent that offers many advantages and benefits to campers, glampers, hunters, overlanders, festival goers, and more.

So what are some benefits of canvas tents? Glad you asked! In this guide, we break down each and every reason you should consider a canvas tent.

The Numerous Advantages and Benefits Of Canvas Tents

Canvas wall tents have pros and cons that every tent owner must weigh, but they do present campers with many advantages and benefits, some of which are fairly easy to recognize. The ability to install a wood-burning stove is one. But there are also several other benefits of canvas tents that we are willing to bet you haven’t thought about or considered.

That said, here are the multitude of reasons why canvas tents provide the best camping experience.

Canvas Tents Are Built Tough

Canvas tents are designed with durable hardware and built with a sturdy frame and structure. This means they can withstand extreme weather like a storm and high winds, rather impressively, which we can’t always say about their plastic tent cousins.

Here are the many rugged features that make canvas tents so tough:

• Durable pole system: A canvas tent’s frame poles are typically metal or aluminum! 

• Thick cotton canvas: Most canvas tents are made of a 10.5 oz weighted canvas, or more, making them more durable than a polyester tent. We use a thick 11.5 ounce canvas – the most durable on the market.

• Guy line ropes: Reflective guy lines with aluminum sliders allow you to adjust and tighten the canvas structure (which helps to shed rain and condensation).

• Steel stakes: Powerful rebar steel stakes are strong enough to penetrate hard ground - and a long length.

• Enclosed waterproof floor: A canvas tent will keep water out of the tent, especially if it comes with a floor.  Some tents (like ours) have a zipped or sewn in floor, while wall tents allow of a floor to be laid down inside after it is set-up.

Wait! Don’t all these heavy-duty materials and poles mean a heavier tent to carry to and from the campsite?

Sure, a nylon or polyester plastic tent might be lightweight, but you just can’t beat the durability of a canvas tent with a metal frame. These tents aren't for backpackers, but they are perfect for longer car camping trips with larger groups and they are especially good for 2-week or 2-month use.

Canvas Tents Welcome Wood Stoves & Four-Season Camping

Ahhh. There’s nothing better than crawling into a glowing tent heated by a wood stove. But you can’t do that without a canvas tent!

Canvas tents are good for cold weather not only because of their spaciousness and durability, but because you can also use a wood stove in them.  The sturdy canvas makes it possible to install a stove jack and a wood stove, which means you can nearly double your days camping each year. Canvas tents are snow-capable. Imagine heading out to do some winter camping when you have a four-season camping tent warmed by a versatile wood-burning stove.

While canvas is not fireproof, Life inTents canvas tents are flame-resistant (with a CPAI-84 rating, to be exact).

Canvas Tents Are Built For Long-Term Use

The wood stove and many of these other features all add up to one important benefit: Canvas tents are built for long-term use and will last longer then a standard tent with proper maintenance. With proper protection and maintenance, a canvas tent can not only be used as a four-season tent and kept up all year round, but it can last for many years if you are diligent about caring for it.

Whether you plan to do some winter camping or pitch a hunting tent at your family’s deer camp, a canvas tent is made to withstand months and months of long-term use. You can make it a home away from home or even build a wooden platform deck where you can place it to keep it in great condition for many years.

Canvas Tents Are Made With Breathable & Insulative Cotton

Canvas tents are highly efficient at staying warm when you’re four-season camping. Why? Because the tightly woven cotton they’re built with is a highly insulative material. But a cotton canvas’ insulative properties don’t just keep you warm and toasty during winter months and cold nights.

One might think that these insulative properties make a canvas tent stuffy. But it couldn't be farther from the truth. Unlike synthetic tents that trap humidity, moisture, and even your own sweat within their walls and beneath the rainfly, making everything feel damp, canvas tents made of insulative cotton-style materials are inherently breathable.

In fact, cotton canvas is so breathable that it is more resistant to mold and mildew. Even more so if the tent fabric is made with Doektec canvas. 

Aside from the breathable cotton material, canvas tents are typically designed with extra features to allow for more airflow. Even during winter months, a tent can feel like a sauna and circulation is always needed. Especially in the summer, when even a canvas tent can get a bit too hot when in direct sunlight. For this, canvas tents offer features such as:

• Mesh-panel screened windows and doors
• Roll-up side walls with overhangs
• Ceiling ventilation points
• Electrical entrance points for fans
• An A/C exit port
• An optional fly cover for added shade protection

A canvas tent is more effective at regulating temperature, period.

Canvas Tents Are Waterproof

So how can a canvas tent made of breathable and insulative cotton also withstand the rain and snow? How does a cotton canvas tent simply not leak?

First, pitch a tent correctly and the canopy’s surface tension will cause water droplets to bead and shed away like sliding off a goose’s feathers. A well-pitched canvas tent, with a taught and steep roof, merely prevents water from standing long enough to absorb through.

Should you experience a torrential downpour, the canvas tent’s cotton fibers will absorb the water, swelling into an even tighter woven material.  But virgin canvas will eventually become too saturated if it is not treated with a waterproofing agent - sure that your retreat your canvas after extended use.

However, snow can be a bit tricky. A canvas tent will be perfectly fine as far as moisture from snow is concerned. But you will need to be mindful of how much snowfall you receive and how much weight it’s adding to the overall structure. As we covered, a canvas tent is far superior in strength to a synthetic tent, but just something to keep in mind is that the frame will not hold 6 inches of wet snow for long.

Canvas Tents Offer Spacious & Roomy Interiors

Another one of the many benefits of canvas tents is their spaciousness. You can accommodate several standing individuals inside, along with all your gear and then some! Often designed with side walls or a center pole, a canvas tent offers standing room too, allowing you to freely move about on two feet instead of crawling on the ground. 

Canvas tents are found in a variety of sizes. And you might be surprised just how many you can sleep in one. Take a look at our bell tent size comparison guide to see what we mean or help you make a decision.

Canvas Tents Are Highly Versatile & Serve as Multipurpose Spaces

Canvas tents are highly versatile and for so much more than camping! Seriously. Attractive and durable, canvas tents make a wonderful addition to almost anywhere you can imagine. You can use canvas tents for glamping, hunting, group road trips, or even backyard parties.

Pitch it in your backyard for personal home use or create a glamping retreat for a Hipcamp or Airbnb rental. A multipurpose canvas tent just makes sense, especially for folks who need an adaptable and functional living space or venue.

Multipurpose Space Ideas:

• Guest Room
• Home Office
• Artist Studio
• Yoga Studio
• Mediation Room
• Home Gym
• Birthday Party Space
• Coat Check
• Photo Booth
• Emergencies

The list could go on....

Canvas Tents Provide Superior Shade & UV Protection

A thick, quality canvas can withstand the sun’s harmful rays. This means keeping you and your family safe from UV rays as well as preventing fading. The light color of canvas tents helps with this too, but a protective treatment keeps the material from drying out and becoming brittle.

Used for extended periods under the sun, nylon and plastic tents weaken and break down over time. Canvas tents can be retreated with UV resistance too.

Another straightforward reason canvas tents provide better shade? Their shelter is simply larger and a larger footprint means more interior space to escape from the sun’s harmful rays.

Even if you prefer to be outside in nature, you can always extend your canvas tent structure with an awning or a setting up sun shade structure  to create a cozy lounge or sitting area.

Canvas Tents Allow Natural Sunlight

Canvas tents are treated for UV resistance, but their light-hued material still invites in that lovely glow of natural sunlight. Many synthetic tents are made of darker hues, which pretty much act as blackout curtains. However, when you crave to be outdoors, that usually means you crave all that comes with it, including the sunlight. One of the best ways to reset your circadian rhythm, after all, is to go camping.

You can find some canvas tents with darker shades like green, such as our Scout About A-frame tent, and even black canvas tents for stealth camping, but light-colored canvas tents are perfect for letting in that relaxing glow (and will stay a cooler in the summer).

More than that, you can find canvas tents designed with features like transparent roof panels. Not only do these clear top panels welcome more natural light, but they allow you to lie in bed and gaze up at the stars at night too. Life inTents’ Stella canvas bell tents feature 4mm thick PVC ceiling windows with a built-in curtain cover.

Canvas Tents Are Easy to Repair

Canvas tents are a cinch to repair, making them more sustainable. Remember when we talked about the durability of a canvas tent? Part of that durability lies in its canvas. Canvas tents are much more difficult to tear or rip.

Even if it does tear, you can patch it up on the spot and in the field with a threading kit and scrap piece of canvas. Then, you simply add some waterproof sealant to keep out condensation and rain. It’s better than fighting with adhesive, peeling up, repositioning and smoothing out over and over to get it just right.

On the flip side, when a nylon or polyester tent tears, a tape patch offers an easy fix, but ultimately harms the structure's integrity. That’s not to say that canvas tents don’t still require some maintenance, but their overall quality is ultimately worth it.

Canvas Tents Are Eco-friendly & Sustainable

From the tent poles to the canvas, canvas tents are much more eco-friendly than their nylon tent counterparts. As mentioned, canvas tents can last for generations. With the ability to make easy repairs to the fabric and weight and ruggedness of their poles and frames, a canvas tent will give you and your family many long years before you even *think* of retiring it.

However, when you do need to dispose of your canvas tent, you can breathe a little easier and have less on your conscience knowing that it is less harmful to our planet than most tents.  Plus, you can look for someone who might be able to up-cycle the tent and it make bags out of.

Cotton, which is a drought-tolerant and sustainable plant, is biodegradable. This means when your canvas tent reaches the end of its lifespan, the cotton canvas will break down in the earth. We simply can’t say that about traditional camping tents.

Traditional camping tents are often made from Nylon and Polyester, which are plastics derived from petroleum.

This is harmful to the earth twofold:

• Petroleum: Unlike cotton, petroleum is a non-renewable resource. More than that, the manufacturing process uses harmful and toxic chemicals and wastes that pollute our soils and waterways.

• Microplastics: Once a nylon tent is thrown into a landfill (whether due to costly repairs or it simply reached the end of its life), the nylon and polyester materials begin to slowly break down, creating tiny microplastics. These microplastics have been found in everything we digest and even the air we breathe. Needless to say, it’s a real environmental issue.

Chances are, you introduced your family to camping or glamping to bring them closer to nature. So do yourself and future generations a favor by choosing quality over quantity. A well-made canvas tent serves you a thousand times over when you compare and consider its footprint and environmental impact.

Which of These Benefits Appeal to You?

With the numerous benefits that canvas tents offer, there's something to please everyone. We hope this thorough guide helped steer you in the right direction and allow you to see the many advantages that a canvas tent like a bell tent or wall tent has to offer. 

Have more questions? Don't hesitate to reach out to Life inTents. As experts in glamping, we know canvas tents inside and out. And we're happy to help! 

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