After 3 long weekends of camping in Western Massachusetts this summer, once late May, and twice in July, and one week late August in Acadia National Park in Maine, I regret buying this tent. It is obviously an overall high quality tent. It is an absolute breeze to pitch, even by myself, which was a requirement with 2 young kids of 3 and 1 years old.
The tent is marketed as having "Lights Out" sleeping compartments, but I don't think it deserves that marketing description. The sleeping compartments let in much more light in the early mornings and at nights than one would hope, like, or expect for a "Lights Out" tent.
The amount of light in the sleeping compartments I could -though begrudgingly- get over with, but the tent is simply too hot. It would be fine in early spring or fall, but in summer (when most people like to go camping...) this tent gets too hot. Mind you, this was not Florida, Texas, or Arizona. This was New England. And almost all campgrounds in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, or Vermont are state parks where you camp between the trees. Even in the shade of the trees, it's uncomfortably hot. The fact that the side door does not have a mesh door is incomprehensible. There are always bugs around, mosquitoes and gnats. We disparately need more ventilation, but the side door is pretty much useless, because of the bugs. This is not something to cut costs on, and for the next product update I suggest putting a mesh door on the side as well. Either that, or just a mesh window instead of a door. You don't need more than one door anyway; you DO need more ventilation. In fact, it would be very welcome for the windows also to have mesh, and the back vent panel to be at least twice as big.
Again, this was in New England, USA, in the woods. When I set up the tent in our backyard (we live in the Boston area), in full sun, in the time it took me to set it up (10 minutes), it turned into a sauna. An unbearable sauna.
Unfortunately, the return window to return it to Amazon.com has closed, but in its current form, this tent is not suitable for camping in the US. In fact, I don't even know I'd want to camp with it in Europe. The whole reason I bought this tent is that I'm from the Netherlands, and I wanted a European style tent. But I can't imagine going camping with this tent in Belgium or France in summer. I guess part of the problem is that I grew up camping with a large cotton tent, and cotton is a much more breathable fabric than the synthetic fabric on the Capri 500XL. To offset this, you need much more ventilation than the tent currently has.
On the flip side, if you like camping in the fall, when the nights are chillier, this tent would be perfect. The sleeping compartments stay nice and warm at night, and the living compartment is comfortably large for letting 2 kids play and crawl around.
We bought a tarp for underneath, and the optional carpet for inside. We had our friends buy the carpet in the Netherlands and bring in over, because at the time of writing, the carpet was not available (on Amazon). The carpet made the living room super cozy and comfortable.
For those seeking a more SPACIOUS and COMFORTABLE FAMILY tent, the Capri XL is the ideal choice. It is deceptively LARGE with great divisions of SPACE. The Pre-Angled beams create a BRIGHT and AIRY LIVING ROOM, which is complemented by a generous front extension. It's the perfect tent with plenty HOME - FROM - HOME FEATURES.
