Tin dioxide/carbon composites is an important class of promising candidates for anode materials with superior electrochemical performance and thus have attracted extensive attention. Herein, a tube-in-tube nanostructure, denoted as CNT@void@SnO2@C, has been fabricated by a facile and novel strategy. The possible formation mechanism is also discussed and determined by TEM, XRD and XPS characterizations. As a promising anode material for lithium-ion batteries, the CNT@void@SnO2@C exhibits superior lithium storage properties, delivering a reversible capacity of 702.5 mAh g−1 at 200 mA g−1 even after 350 cycles. The excellent performances should be benefited from the peculiar tube-in-tube nanostructure, in which SnO2 located between CNT and outermost carbon coating layers can sure the structural integrity and high conductivity during long-term cycling, and one-dimensional void space formed between the inner CNT and outer SnO2@C nanotubes, in particular, can provide larger free space for alleviating the huge volume variation of SnO2 and accommodating the stress formed during repeated discharge/charge process.