How Do I Keep My Tent Cool While Camping?

I’m sitting here at my computer scrolling through the camping subreddits and looking at all the amazing spots to go camping around.

But I live in Florida, so realistically most of my camping will be done there.

And it’s going to be HOT in the summer.

After some research, I found some really great ideas about how to keep your tent cool.

So, how do you keep my tent cool while camping? There are some really easy ways to keep your tent cool in the heat, including using a well-ventilated tent, setting your tent up in the shade, and switching up your gear for more lightweight items such as sheets in place of sleeping bags.

There are a few other ways I found to keep your tent cool while camping in the heat; I’ll elaborate below!

How Do You Tent Camp In The Heat?

Drink A Ton Of Water

Ever wondered why water can be used as a substitute for coolant inside of a car radiator?

Because it works really well at managing heat.

It works the same in our bodies.

Since our bodies are made up mostly of water, you’ll want to make sure you stay hydrated so your body can function properly and naturally cool you off in the heat.

Disassemble Your Tent During The Day

This is a really great tip to use to prevent your tent from being really hot.

Since you really only need your tent for sleeping in, try disassembling it during the day to keep the heat out.

Why does this work?

Because when you’re tent is set up, it is essentially a greenhouse; holding in trapped heat.

That heat that accumulates during the day is still trapped in your tent even after the sun goes down.

By disassembling your tent you remove the opportunity for that heat to build up.

It’s a bit of a pain, but another side effect to doing this is your tent will last longer since the tent material won’t be burning up throughout your camping trip.

Disassembling your tent in the morning and reassembling in the evening is a great way to remove trapped heat from keeping you warm at night.

Replace Your Sleeping Gear

Similar to how tents can trap heat from the Sun, sleeping bags tend to trap your body heat to keep you warm.

This is the opposite of what you want when you’re trying to keep cool.

Unfortunately, even the lightest sleeping bags rated for warm weather can still be too hot in some cases.

So what can you do?

Replace that sleeping bag with some sheets.

When it comes to sleeping cool, sheets coupled with a mattress pad should do the trick.

You can also sleep in lighter weight clothes with your sleeping bag.

Just remember that sleeping bags tend to soak up your bodies natural oils, so you might need to wash your bag when you get home if you sleep in just your undies.

Lastly, if you plan on using an air mattress remember that the air inside of them will rise or lower to the outside temperature.

This means if you leave your mattress blown up all day it will likely be holding hot air.

You can avoid this by deflating the mattress when you take down the tent in the morning and inflating again when you set your tent back up.

Utilize Any Breeze You Can

If there is any breeze at all, you should position your tent so that the ventilation flaps capture the wind and cools your tent.

You don’t always have to point your tent towards the front of your campsite!

It may be a little inconvenient if you wanted your tent entrance facing a certain way, but utilizing the breeze is a top priority if you’re trying to stay cool at night.

Even a slight breeze is enough to make a difference.

It will bring cool air in while cycling the hot air out!

Set Your Tent Up In The Shade

This one will help you to not have to take down your tent every day.

If you set your tent up in enough shade, it will likely stay cool enough so you won’t have to disassemble anything.

Sometimes this isn’t always possible though depending on where you camp.

But if you can, utilize the shade and place your tent directly in it!

Use A Wet Towel

While this technically won’t cool your tent off, it will help to keep you cool.

Wet a towel and place it on your forehead or neck to lower your body heat.

It will suck up some of the heat and when the towel starts to feel warm from it, simply flip it over to the cool side.

This can be used in your tent while you’re trying to sleep or even while you’re out on the trail during a particularly hot day.

Take A Cold Shower Before Bed

Another you-cooler versus tent cooler option, taking a cold shower before bed will help keep you from feeling overheated in your tent.

Even if there is no shower nearby, you can jump in a cool body of water or even pour some water over your head.

Lowering your body temperature before hopping in your tent will help it to feel less hot.

Use Frozen/Cold Jugs Of Water

A really cool trick you can use to stay cool is to bring along frozen jugs of water.

You can then place a jug at the foot of your sleeping bag (or sheets) to keep you cooler throughout the night.

If you didn’t happen to freeze water that’s okay.

Just using a jug full of cool water will be enough to make things feel slightly less hot.

Get A Nice Portable Fan

Having a portable fan nearby is another great way to keep things in your tent cool.

It will blow some of that hotter air off of you and hopefully out of the tent if placed correctly.

There are really nice portable fans built for camping that either work off of a rechargeable battery or use replaceable batteries.

Take your pick, they’ll all help keep that hot air off of you.

Fans work especially well when using a wet towel or when taking a cold shower before hopping in bed.

Why Do Tents Get So Hot?

I mentioned this a little bit in the disassembly tip above, but tents get really hot because they are insanely good at trapping heat.

The material of the outer walls of a tent is very thin and traps in heat like a greenhouse.

Tents don’t normally have too much ventilation, so the heat mostly just sits inside all day.

If you leave your tent out in the sun all day, it sits their heating up absolutely every piece of material.

The other issue with letting your tent sit out in the Sun is that it will wreak havoc on the material itself, causing it to wear much faster.

Using some (or all) of the methods above will help to not only keep your tent cool but will also help it to last longer.

What Is The Best Tent For Hot Weather?

While I won’t be sharing a specific tent as the ‘best’ for hot weather since there are a ton of variables, I will share what makes a great hot-weather tent so you can be informed when making your purchase.

There are quite a few aspects that help make a tent great for hot weather.

They are:

Lots Of Mesh

Mesh roofs help keep tents really well ventilated.

You can also get tents that have a mesh door that will add even more ventilation, helping to cool things off.

The two problems with mesh are that they don’t protect your tent from the Sun and that they aren’t waterproof.

First, if you leave your tent set up with a mesh roof you are still leaving everything inside to be baked all day long.

While the heat won’t hold very well, your gear inside will take a toll.

That’s why it’s still a great idea to either find shade or disassemble your tent daily.

Second, mesh isn’t waterproof.

In fact, if there is any form of rain, even a light sprinkle, you are at risk for everything in your tent to be soaked.

That’s why it’s important to check the weather if you plan to choose a tent that is suited for warmer weather.

Rain is your biggest enemy when using a tent with a mesh roof.

Unless that tent comes with a rain fly.

Removable Rainfly

A rainfly is the outer layer of fabric of a tent that goes over the mesh roof to protect from rain.

And in some tents it’s removable.

I would highly recommend opting for a tent with a removable rainfly to allow for as much ventilation as possible.

That mesh roof will keep the bugs and hot air out and let the breeze roll in.

And if the weather starts to get rainy, simply put the rainfly back on.

The rain will cool everything down anyways, so you won’t need to worry as much about keeping things cool.

Great Ventilation

This is an extension of having a mesh roof, but make sure the tent has great ventilation.

Tents can come with mesh windows and doors as well, allowing for plenty of breeze to pass through.

As long as you have a plan in place (rainfly, etc.) for rain, having as much ventilation as possible will keep hot air from being trapped inside your tent.

The Less Seasons The Better

What I mean by that is the higher season tents, 4 seasons for example, are built for colder weather.

A 1 or 2 season tent is specifically built with hot summer weather in mind.

They come with a mess roof, plenty of ventilation, and are lightweight.

Some 3 season tents come equipped with these features, but also come with a removable rainfly.

When picking out a tent for summer weather, a 1,2, or 3 season tent will serve you best.

Can You Air Condition A Tent?

You can air condition a home, so why can’t you air condition a tent?

Well, you actually can!

There are some pretty effective air conditioners built for tents on the market (check out this guide for some ideas).

You of course will need a power source, but other than that you should be good to just set up your air conditioner inside your tent.

Can You Use A Window Air Conditioner In A Tent?

You might have a window air conditioner lying around and are wondering, can you use it for your tent?

Sure you can!

It’ll just take some extra setup to work.

You’ll also need to make sure you have the proper cords and power output.

To use a window air conditioner to cool your tent, you’ll first need to set it up on a stand (a milk crate or similar works well).

Then open your tent door slightly and position the stand so the A/C unit blows cool air into the tent!

It’s best to leave the mesh door up to make sure no bugs or critters come into your tent.