An excellent tent for Family Camping
The Coleman Castle Pines 4L Blackout is an excellent tent for a family with one or two children.
Review Score
We think the Coleman Castle Pines 4L is an excellent tent for family camping if you have one or two kids.
Our Score: 9.3/10
We've given the Coleman Castle Pines 4L Blackout the Thumbs Up award.
Value for MoneyFeaturesFamily FriendlyQualityPracticality
The good
- A great layout for family camping.
- Good sized living space, ideal for family camping holidays.
- Built-in porch - a big bonus.
- Zip-up Blinds.
- Darkened Bedrooms.
- Flexible cable entry points.
- No-trip entrance.
- Bug mesh on all the doors.
- Great hydrostatic head.
- Lots of features throughout this tent!
- Not heavy or bulky to transport or pitch.
- The price is exceptionally good for a tent with all these features.
The not so good
- None found!
This was a hands-on product review. The product was supplied to us to test and conduct the review.
Price Guide
Coleman Castle Pines 4L Blackout Videos
Coleman Castle Pines 4L Blackout Photos
Enjoying camping with the Coleman Castle Pines 4L
Coleman Castle Pines 4L Tent Layout
Looking inside
Family Camping
The porch area
Side view of tent
Pitched
Tent set-up
Front porch door accessory
Front view of tent
Our Review
This tent is packed full of features, with an excellent layout for family camping. We think it's ideal if you have one or two children and want a tent for weekends and family holidays.
The Coleman Castle Pines 4L Blackout pitched and set-up
Tent Layout
This tent comes with not only a large living space but also a convenient built-in porch.
As you can see from the tent layout diagram, there's a lot of useful living space in this tent
Tent Bedrooms
The bedrooms are at the back of the tent. The divider between the bedroom can be unzipped, making it easy to get to young kids if they wake up during the night.
Coleman BlackOut bedrooms are in this tent. These bedrooms are darkened to help everyone sleep longer when the sun rises early at the campsite. Coleman also states that their BlackOut technology makes the bedrooms warmer in the evening and cooler in the daytime.
Coleman says that the BlackOut bedroom technology can keep the bedroom up to 5°C cooler during the day and up to 1°C warmer during the night.
The bedrooms have useful storage pockets, and one has a cable entry point, which is useful for charging your phone at night or running a powered lantern.
This photo gives you a good look inside the tent. You can see the darkened bedrooms clearly in this photo.
The bedroom doors also come with bug-free mesh, so you can open them up to vent during the day without flies and mosquitos getting in there.
The Inner Living Space
This is a generous size, spanning two whole sections of the tent.
That's plenty of space for placing camping storage furniture, which is what we recommend for longer family camping holidays to avoid your tent descending into chaos ;-)
There are large windows with ventilation in this part of the tent. All the windows have zip-up blinds, which are less hassle than toggle-up binds. Zip-up blinds also allow you to set the blind halfway up, providing extra privacy when needed.
This part of the tent can take cable entry from both sides, which gives you more flexibility when pitching.
There is a side door here too. This comes with bug-free mesh, so you can leave it open to cool the tent down on warm days.
The main door is nice and wide, and the groundsheet folds flat here, so no one trips in and out of the tent.
This door also has bug-free mesh to help keep the annoying flies out of your tent.
An accessory worth getting is the carpet for this part of the tent. This will help make your tent feel warmer at night, providing that extra ground insulation.
The Built-In Porch
The porch is something we rate highly on family tents as it is so practical. It's a great place to leave wet coats and muddy boots, somewhere to sit out of the breeze, somewhere to bring chairs and toys in at night, and it provides an easy way to get in and out of your tent if it does rain.
As you can see, the porch area provides a great bit of space and a place to sit out of the wind. Note that the groundsheet at the entrance can lay flat.
If you want to close up the porch, purchase the Coleman Vestibule accessory that adds a door and groundsheet to this area.
Front porch door accessory
Pitching the Tent
This tent is pitched using tent poles that slot together.
Each pole is colour coded. You insert the poles into the colour-coded sleeves on the tent.
Here's a video from Coleman showing you how to pitch the tent.
We also like that this tent's pack size isn't large or heavy. This will make it much easier for you to take to the campsite and store it at home.
Our Hands-On Test
We were fortunate enough to get our hands on a Coleman Castle Pines 4L, which lived up to expectations.
You can read about our first camp with the tent here.
We can recommend this tent. It gets the Thumbs Up.
Details
| Attribute | Coleman Castle Pines 4L Blackout |
|---|---|
| RRP | |
| Best Price | £444.99 |
| Product Info | Brand Web Page |
| Height (cm) | 210 |
| Width (cm) | 300 |
| Length (cm) | 625 |
| Weight (kg) | 23.1 |
| Pack Size (cm) | 74x36x36 |
| Year Introduced | 2021 |
| Dimensions | |
| Height (cm) | 210 |
| Length (cm) | 625 |
| Width (cm) | 300 |
| Tent Details | |
| Recommended Tent Use | Ideal for Weekend Camping, Ideal for Longer Stays |
| Sleeps | Sleeps 4 |
| Bedrooms | 2 Bedrooms |
| Frame Type | Flexible Poles |
| Tent Accessories | Tent Carpet, Tent Footprint, Porch Door |
| Tent Construction | |
| Flysheet Fabric | Coleman WeatherTec™ 6000 mm |
| Fly Hydrostatic Head | 6000 mm |
| Taped Seams | Yes |
| Sewn-in Groundsheet | Yes |
| Groundsheet Hydrostatic Head (mm) | Not Applicable (PE Fully Waterproof) |
| Sun Protection | SPF50 |
| Fire Retardant Fabric | Yes |
| Wind Rating | 7 (High Wind: 32-38mph/50-61kph) |
| Tent Windows | |
| Window Blinds | Yes, zip up |
| Tinted Windows | No |
| Tent Doors | |
| Additional Tent Doors | Yes, on one side |
| No Trip Entrance | Yes, at main door |
| Rain-Safe Entry | Yes, on all doors |
| Bug-Free Mesh | On all exterior and bedroom doors |
| Door converts to sunshade | No |
| Tent Bedrooms | |
| Bedroom Divider | Removable, fully zipped (no gaps) |
| Darkened Bedrooms | Yes |
| Larger Bedrooms | Yes, 210 cm depth |
| Bedroom Partially Removable | Entire inner tent |
| Storage Pockets in Bedroom | Yes |
| Auto-seal Bedroom Doors | No |
| Cable entry to Bedrooms | Yes, one bedroom |
| Tent Living Space | |
| Inner Living Space Size | 2 sections (e.g. furniture space) |
| Living Area Storage Pockets | Yes |
| Cable Entry | Yes, both sides |
| Wet-Dry Zone | Yes, in the porch |
| Built-in Porch | Yes |
| Porch Storage Pockets | No |
| Internal Hanging Line | No |
| Pitching and Storage | |
| Weight (kg) | 23.1 |
| PackSize (cm) | 74x36x36 |
| Colour-coded Tent Pegs | No |
| Colour-coded Tent Poles | Yes |
| Guy Line Storage | No |
| People to Pitch | 2 People |
| Pump Included | Not Applicable |
| Wheeled Tent Bag | No, not required |