REI Co-op Wonderland 4 Review

The Wonderland 4 is a solid family car camping tent. It boasts everything you need: height, storage, and privacy with a view. Even with its 75 inches of height, thanks to an abundance of guylines, crazy thick aluminum poles, and heavy-duty stakes, this beast holds strong in the wind. The oversized storage options keep the tent clean, and the clever side vents are a nice touch for extra airflow when the fly is on. On the flip side, setup time with two people for us was 10.5 minutes and was a bit of a floppy mess until the top pole was put in place. Another drawback is the weight — at close to 22 pounds, don't plan on shlepping this one too far from your car. Our final negative with the tent is the bag size. Unless you roll the tent back up extra tight, you will have a struggle on your hands getting this one back in the bag. Overall, the Wonderland is a solid middle-of-the-pack tent.

Performance Comparison

Space and Comfort

This tent was designed with space and comfort in mind. Massive headroom, 69.4 square feet of floor space, and eight large pockets make this 4-person tent feel much more like a 6-person. Thanks to the tent's height, REI was able to create just enough privacy for changing while still allowing for great views when the fly is off. We should mention that the doors are nearly the entire side, making walking in without ducking easy — a nice touch. With the fly attached, the huge side vents and single-walled doors with windows still give an open feel.

The views in the Wonderland 4 are quite impressive. The triangle vent and the oversized mesh top give both side and top exposure.

Weather Resistance

For a tall, fairly blunt tent, REI nailed this one thanks to the included 18 stakes and eight pre-attached guylines. A little overkill, to say the least, but the Wonderland has the wind on lock. The full mesh top, side vents, and door windows make this a pretty sweet tent in both hot and cold weather, and it handles the rain admirably too.

Ease of Use

The Wonderland 4 gets a slightly above-average rating here. While not nearly as complicated as some of our other tents, the odd pole configuration, crazy amount of stakes, and abundance of guylines make it hard to fit this large tent into its not-quite-big-enough bag. We also fought with the zippers a little bit and feel they could use an upgrade. Overall, we wish a little more attention had been paid to this category during R&D.

Family Friendliness

Will it fit a family of four and then some? Absolutely. Will you have enough storage options? For sure. But unfortunately, this category is not just about size. REI decided to make the "garage" or vestibule an expensive add-on so you will not have any covered outdoor space for animals, feet cleaning, or gear you don't want in your tent unless you upgrade. The side flaps are an interesting addition but didn't seem to add much function to the tent outside of the stated stability.

Quality

Except for the zippers, every other element of this tent is well-made. The aluminum poles are the thickest in our lineup. You get super thick 150D-coated polyester floors, a 75D-coated polyester rainfly, great guylines and stakes, and an extra thick bag. You can tell REI built this tent to last.

Should You Buy the REI Co-op Wonderland 4?

The Wonderland 4 is a very large, well-made 4-person tent with some neat features and a cool look. It is great in both warm and cold environments and offers an excellent mix of privacy and epic views. As long as weight and setup/teardown time aren't an issue for you, this could be a solid choice.

What Other Camping Tents Should You Consider?