ALPS Mountaineering Aries 3-Person Tent

Last year my husband decided he liked backpacking with me, but he wanted a slightly larger tent than the 2-man I had purchased for us. Since we split gear between our two packs, splurging on the extra weight of a larger tent isn’t a big issue for us. Of course, there are some ultra-light weight big named tents on the market, but I just wasn’t interested in shelling out $400-$500 to quibble over ounces. I’m pretty sure my husband doesn’t plan on thru hiking the A.T. – so we don’t need to shave weight that desperately! I already own an Alps Lynx 1 solo tent that I love, so I kept Alps Mountaineering in consideration while I shopped for a larger tent. After comparing several brands and styles of tents, I kept gravitating back to the Alps Aries 3. After trying the tent for the first time this week, my husband and I are both extremely pleased with the choice. We have owned many tents over the years, in our car camping and kayak camping days…. And this Aries 3 is by far our favorite. It sets up in mere minutes, and oh man the ROOM! It’s total luxury. We can sit up comfortably, enter and exit the tent easily, stretch out, there’s space for our dog, and there’s plenty of room for our packs in the vestibules. The corner pockets are real handy, but the gear loft is a joke. Oddly enough, the gear loft in my solo tent is bigger and more versatile, so I don’t know how Alps faltered with this one. But, it is of little issue considering the VIEW! We peeled back the fly half-way, the black screen melted into the darkness, and we enjoyed unobstructed views of the night sky! We watched fire flies float, and stray meteors streak across the sky, while remaining comfortable and bug free. Later on when the rain clouds moved in I simply buckled down the fly and rolled back the vestibule doors for ventilation up until it finally started raining, and we remained comfortable, dry, and happy. I did purchase the fitted footprint for this tent, as it was lighter weight and less bulky than my homemade footprint. Of course I always inspect our tent site to remove sticks and sharp stones before setting up, but on this trip we were on a graveled tent pad, and we had no dimpling or punctures in the foot print or the tent floor. Despite the rain, we had no puddling or leaks through the floor, and no issues with condensation. I had read several reviews about leaks around the tabbed points on the rain fly, so I was prepared with seam sealer when our tent arrived.However, I think the company must have heeded those complaints, as the extra attention to sealing the seams and tabbed areas was obvious on the product we received. More-so than any tent construction I’ve ever seen. While this tent is marketed as a three person tent, I would say if you intend to use it for three adults, you’d all better really like each other. It would be more realistic to say two adults and a smaller child, or two adults and one or two dogs, are the limit for this tent to be comfortable. If we encounter any issues with further use of our tent, I’ll be sure to update this review. But right now, for features, price, and quality of materials and workmanship, this is our favorite tent, EVER.UPDATE: We've owned this tent for a year and a half, and it's still our all time favorite tent! We use it backpacking, car camping, and have even packed it for air travel. The materials and features have not failed, it keeps us warm and dry, and we're still enjoying amazing fly free views when the weather allows.

First, I must say that I have only taken the tent on one camping trip at this writing. So, I cannot say anything definitive regarding the long term durability of the tent. It is, however, well made of quality materials and I expect it to last me many years.While it will easily accommodate 3 campers, I would say that there would not be very much room for any additional gear inside the tent after three sleeping bags and pads are laid out. However, There is room under the two vestibule areas of the rain fly to keep some gear out of the weather. Likewise, the four corner pockets and small gear loft will allow storage of smaller items inside the tent. The tent is more than adequate for two campers with all of their gear and possible a dog (which we did).Setup goes pretty quickly and easily once you figure out that the fly tent, fly, optional footprint (which I recommend) and pole tips are color coded too ensure proper alignment. There is great headroom for changing clothes and such (I have solo camped for years in a Sierra Designs Clip Flashlite one person tent, so I know).While we did have a light rain during our camping, it was not long and hard enough to truly test the water tightness of the tent. I have not done any additional seam sealing at this point, but may before my next outing.Weight of the tent was acceptable for drive up camping, or backpacking as long as you share the tent components between 2 or 3 hikers.So, after one outing, I recommend this quality made tent. I plan to update this review after further use.

Set up is a breeze. Poles, tent, and rain fly, are color coded making it real easy. Clips instead of sleeves also speeds set up. The small cross pole that increases head room puts pressure on the rain fly, the fly has reinforced connectors, extra bits of webbing, for the cross pole. Use them. Everything is right there with the grommets, for the poles. Good fly connectors, easy adjustments.The dome design is a bit asymmetrical and wind direction, I have found after two trips and four nights, plays into how you place your tent relative to the wind. Once you set things up you'll see what I mean.As mentioned elsewhere, this tent can be dropped under the fly and pretty much put away all your gear before you drop the fly. Making it possible to pack things up, in the rain, and stay dry, or mostly dry. Been there, done that. Nice feature.Ventilation is good. One trip, with temps around the low 40's, got chilly around sunrise, but still fine. The breezes circulate well around the tent and it's easy to loosen the fly for better circulation, or snug the fly down for a tighter fit to keep the wind out. Good head room, put your feet towards the long slope of the tent. Again, you'll see what I mean once you're in it. Length for me was right at the limit, but still plenty of room inside.Nice vestibules on both sides, easy in and out. A ceiling gear net is included, along with wall pockets for small items.The tent packs away small and light.Good color, well made floor, easy freestanding bathtub clean up (when not raining). I'm looking forward to later this month for trip #3.I was amazed at the price. High quality at a reasonable price? Sounds like a good deal to me.

We really liked our 4-Person ALPS Mountaineering tent so we purchased this 3-Person tent for our kids. Its really easy to set up and tear down... and it's really light weight. Great value. I would recommend getting an extra tarp for the bottom of the tent. The floor is not very thick.

Excelente producto, justo lo que necesitaba.

Muy buen producto, me agrado ademas de que es practica y ligera. falta ver como se comporta en la lluvia, por eso no le doy 5 estrellas

TLDR:I'm back from a 10 days camping trip, my first camping trip in years. Went with the gf, same 1st experience for her too. I'm glad I bought this model.Story time:I had a first try at building the tent at home, which was fairly easy thanks to the color code for the bars and inner layer. I was done under 15 minutes taking my time. Long story short, the camping was a mess from start to end, and I had to build the tent first in a windy, rainy night while starving, and it went pretty fast even though I did not get the color code for the extra layer. Couple days later I had to build it again, by night again but being drunk this time, and I got it right the first time. It is only the 4th time I built it that I fully got the color code, allowing a new personal record.Taking the tent apart is a no-brainer once you've built it, and being able to do the inner layer before the outer one is nice. Shaking the outer layer removes most of the dew that could accumulate on it.Even though the bottom of the tent (inner layer) had no issue during this 10 days trip, I was a bit worried it would not hold when placed above a not-so-soft ground (say a couple branches or so).I'm overall very satisfied, as this tent proved to be a very reliable tool.

Very spacious and sturdy feeling. Lighter could be had, but this one has good thick floor material. I have the footprint, but can use without worries. Got it to drop a couple pounds where bugs are minimal. The fly and poles have a good compromise of weight and robustness. Lots of guy out points for ventilation and wind resistance. Zippers are smooth and the design of the doors to vestibule make ingress/egress easy. I setup in my yard and let the sprinkler have at it overnight, dry tent. Condensation is as most tents. Two people spacious ... three totally doable.