Would you take an Outwell Montana 6 for a weekend?

[TwigletMonster]

Bought said tent recently, we're going next weekend and I'm desperate to use it. There is me, DH, DD (2.5) and DS (6 months). We're going for 3 nights.

However, reading older threads, I see talk of 'weekend' tent. We do have an alternative tent, which we used last summer for 3 of us. It's fine but you can't stand up in it, and the porch is a bit cramped for getting sorted with all the kids stuff, food etc.

Would you bother to pitch a Montana 6 for this amount of time? Tried to practice but it won't fit in the garden so not sure how long it takes to pitch....

I'd say that for 3 nights - yes it's worth it - not for a single night but for 3 yes.
I'd really recommend trying to pitch before you go. Do you have a friend with a big enough garden? or the park which is where we had to take our Outwell Norfolk lake to practise! - all 7m x 4m of her

They are straightforward enough though, even with a 2.5yr old 'helping'. Is there a clip on the Outwell website or maybe Youtube showing you how to pitch?

Hello. I would certainly take your tent, you need to have enough room for toys, food etc withuot feeling cramped all weekend

We have a Bear Lake 6 and we always take it if going for more than 2 nights. We do have a smaller tent but find that is ok just for 1 night, stopovers etc, but no good if there for longer as no room to move around and stand up.

The Montana is a fab tent and ideal with young dc, especially in early morning as they can play in there without you needing to think about going outside to face the world!!

I love my Monty, but I wouldn't take it for three nights, we bought a smaller tent for such occassions. the small tent (hi-gear caplan 5) takes 15 minutes to put up, the Monty (with pegging) takes an hour, though I do do it all on my own.

Also it is just so much tent to clean/dry for such a short space of time, up to you though, I do really miss the space when we take the little tent, but really appreciate the ease.

Another thought, it depends on when you are going to do with your weekend, on short trips we often go to new places and only really use the tent to sleep, of three nights we would probably only cook at the campsite once, longer trips we tend to go to old faithfull campsites where there is lots for the kids to do and we spend a lot of time hanging out in (or hopefully outside in the sun) the tent.

Thanks all, opinion is divided! Our smaller tent might not fit the travel cot, so perhaps for now we'll take the Monty. I'm also thinking it would be somewhere to put DS out of the sun in the day, without it being too hot or having to take a separate tarp.

We have a kampa filey 6 which, I think, is a similar footprint size to the montana, steel poles the same and we always take it for weekends.

We looked at smaller tents for the weekend but we love the space and layout of the filey and really, after the first couple of times,pitching gets alot quicker and easier.