A day at the beach is easily one of the best ways to spend time together as a family. But long exposure to the sun’s harmful rays does pose a danger to us and our children.
Rather than cutting short the family fun, more and more people are opting to take a Beach tent with them. They’re essentially a pop-up tent or shelter offering sun protection for the whole family whether you’re there for the day or on a week-long beach vacation.
In years gone by, you may have seen the traditional beach windbreaker dotted along the sand, often in its classic blue, yellow and red striped design. Now, you’re far more likely to see parents erecting Baby Beach Tents to keep their little ones safe.
In this guide, we’ll take a look at the features of a baby beach tent, what to look for when buying one, and of course, pick out our 10 favourites for you.
Table Of Contents
Our top three baby beach tents
Best overall
Gorich Beach Tent
Best budget
WhiteFang Beach Tent
Best for big families
UNP Easy Beach
Features of a baby beach tent
If you’ve ever seen a baby beach tent before, you know roughly what we’re talking about. If you haven’t seen a beach tent or a beach shelter before, you’d be forgiven for thinking some people turn up to the beach with a regular family camping tent. But that’s not quite the case.
There are two main types - beach tents and beach shelters.
Beach tent
These are very similar to their camping counterparts, but the front is often entirely open and have larger floors extending from the front of the tent. Some will have zippable front doors, offering privacy should you or the children need to change or dry off.
Many baby beach tents have mesh windows on the sides and rear of the tent to ensure ventilation on hot days. Some will also have additional ventilation flaps located in other areas of the tent.
Naturally, being a product designed to be used in the sun, UV protection is a big feature of these beach tents. They’re generally made from polyester with a specialised UV protection coating added to it.
While beach tents usually come with ground stakes to keep them in place, it’s not uncommon to find sand pockets on the outside of the tent, allowing you to add some extra weight and prevent it from blowing away in the wind. However, if you're taking an infant to the beach, you'll have plenty of baby gear to weigh it down.
Beach tents are typically the smaller of the two, particularly when it comes to height. You can get taller ones with room to stand, but most only have room to kneel or set up some beach chairs.
Beach shelter
A beach shelter (also known as a beach shade) is more akin to a garden gazebo than a tent, usually with a single, flat piece of fabric held up by a few poles. Some will stand on four equal sized poles - just like a gazebo - while others will have two shorter poles at the back creating more of an angled sunshade.
It’s much more common to find sand bags on beach shelters - particularly on the gazebo-type ones - as they’re the primary method of keeping the shelter on the ground.
Of course, beach shelters are also designed to offer plenty of UV protection. And with open sides, there’s no need for specific ventilation windows.
Beach shelters offer much more space than tents, but with no sides, the shaded area is always on the move and may even fall outside of the canopy itself (and they can take up a lot of space, so fellow beachgoers might not appreciate it on a busy day!).
What to look for in a baby beach tent
Make sure your baby beach tent or shelter has UPF50+ sun protection. This will block up to 98% of the sun’s harmful rays and should be a minimum requirement. If a product doesn’t list its level of UV protection, it’s probably best to avoid.
It’s almost become a cliche that setting up a tent will result in arguments. But they can be incredibly tricky. The last thing you want when you arrive at the beach is to have the kids sitting there in the sun waiting for you to erect something that looks like you need an engineering degree for. Look for one that is really quick and easy to set-up. The trouble is that most manufacturers will at least claim their beach tent is easy to set-up. The ones that really are quite simple will often have videos showcasing it. There are also pop up tents that, well... pop open... in one second.
If you’re getting a beach tent for infant, rather than a shelter, make sure it has plenty of ventilation. Without ample mesh windows and/or ventilation slots, the polyester material will quickly soak up the sun's rays and make it feel like a greenhouse.
Not all baby beach tents come with floors. It’s not essential and you could bring a floor mat along, but we think most parents would want a tent floor to give their child somewhere to play, eat, or get changed away from the sand.
A lot of baby beach tents and beach shelters will come with a handy carry bag, but not all of them do. So make sure you check!
Sand bags or sand pockets are almost an essential for beach shelters, because they’re the only way to weigh them down. They’re not quite as important for beach tents because (as long as they have a tent floor), you’ll have bags and bums to weigh them down.
The 10 best baby beach tents
1. Gorich Beach Tent
Editor's Review
“This was fantastic for our beach trip with our seven month old. It was easy to assemble and disassemble. It stayed put with the wind and was very spacious (3 person). Our baby was able to sleep inside, and I was also able to nurser her with privacy."
An Amazon’s Choice product, the Gorich Beach Tent offers plenty of sun protection, good visibility, great privacy options and a super compact storage - all at a very reasonable price. The options range from a compact, three person up to a large eight-person beach tent, with the three person being more than enough for a couple with one or two young children. The eight person is ideal for going on a beach vacation with the whole family It features three large mesh windows that offer brilliant ventilation and a roll-up curtain on each for when you need some privacy. If you want total privacy, to change your baby or for Mum to breastfeed, the extended floor also folds and zips up to create a door.
Type: Beach tent
Material: Polyester
Size: 4.9 x 7.2 x 4ft (W x D x H)
Sun protection: UPF50+ UV protection
Key features
- Fibreglass frame
Storage bag and hanging hook
Roll-up window curtains & zip-up floor door
PROS
CONS
2. UNP Easy Beach
Editor's Review
“This is sturdy and it does a great job of protecting us from the sun. And the included side panels offer protection from the sun and wind. BUT, plan some time putting this up. It is not an easy task."
The UNP Easy Beach is a bit of a mix between a beach tent and a beach shade that offers loads of space, even on the smaller options. It comes with two UPF 50+ coated panels that can be attached to any side of the tent, allowing you to configure it in the best way for protection from the sun's rays and the wind. The fibreglass frame is really sturdy, even against wind - and allow there aren’t any sandbags to weigh it down, it has ventilation flaps that allow wind to flow through the tent rather than against it.
Type: Beach tent/shelter
Material: Polyester
Size: 64sqft, 100sqft, 144sqft or 225sqft
Sun protection: UPF50+ UV protection
Key features
- Dome shape
Two open side doors, and two detachable doors
Ventilated stabilisation
PROS
CONS
