An inexpensive tent good for specific purposes - Eureka Solitaire AL 1-Person Tent

While I don't rate this tent highly, that is an overall rating. This tent is fairly well suited to specific situations such as solo backpacking or biking, and for those I would rate it a bit higher. That said, I would also not recommend this tent except as a possible option for someone shopping lighter weight tents both on the spendy ($400+) and cheap (this tent) side.

I had an Outbound tent of a similar design since 1993. It has served me exceedingly well (esp for a cheap tent). I've used it for most of my week-long Cycle Oregon camping trips during those years and some backpacking trips as well. It is aging but I've like the design and its compact size. In particular, I could get a extra large sized duffel into one side of the tent, and sleep comfortably on the other side. I could also sit up inside the tent and not be hitting my head on the top of the tent. And it was very quick to set up to not free-standing.

This Eureka tent has a similar design & shape, but for reasons that utterly battle me, is poorly designed in key aspects making it much LESS functional than my older tent. It is not nearly tall enough, so I not only hit my head on the top of the tent but have to duck for fear of damaging the tent when I sit up to change cloths. It is much narrower than my older then, so I will be cramped if there were a duffel of any size or a backpack inside the tent. The tent isn't as long, limiting options of what can be put at the foot of the tent. And you have to really work at making the tent taught so that you can use all the space in the tent; if not, much of a foot of space near the door is useless. There is no vent at the foot of the tent; all the venting comes from the mesh above. But that would be sub-optimal in very warm conditions as it misses out on any breeze the tent might otherwise take advantage of.

The tent's construction appears solid tho I have yet to put it to the test of rain or wind. It is not free-standing so you have to stake it out with a minimum of 5 stakes. I would certainly add guy lines to the 3 guy line holds provided on the tent; doing so should make the tent pretty solid given its low stature (unless the wind catches the tent sideways, then all bets are off).

I paid less than $80 for my new tent. That is cheap and I guess worth it. But there will be few situations where this tent would be my choice to take given is cramped size inside the tent. Which is why I give it a basically neutral rating.