BkWhale® Sun Shelter

I strongly recommend setting this up before you take it out for use. I bought this to take on an upcoming trip to Maui. It arrived quickly and I set it up in my living room. The poles are too long to fit. It was like wrestling with a python to get the poles over the pins! I worked up a sweat and broke skin but finally got it together. It's pretty nice once you finally get it set up. I think it will work nicely to provide protection from the sun. I left the tent set up for four days and hope that will help stretch the fabric and make the poles more flexible for the next set up on our trip. It will definitely fit in my suitcase. It is very compact and lightweight for packing and carrying around. I would have given 5 stars if the poles fit better. It would help immensely if they were even half an inch shorter or the straps with the pins were half to one inch longer. I sew and may add a bit more strapping fabric to the straps before our trip. On the plus side, it gave me a good workout and I will definitely have earned a nice frozen concoction after getting it set up. Make sure you have liquid refreshments with you. A lava flow would taste great after getting this set up!

The tent poles are very firm and difficult to manage. I am an avid camper who has set up many tents, but this shelter is by far the most difficult to set up. The poles seem to be too long for their intended enclosures. I bent them nearly to the point at which I thought they would break but still could not secure them into their locations. My wife indented to use this as a beach shelter for our infant son. I returned it because she would never be able to set it up herself while managing a child.

It is incredibly lightweight, which is nice for transport, but it blows over easy and you will need to go buy real tent stakes since the included ones will probably bend for you the first time they are used as they did on me.This is definitely a light filtering shade, not blocking.I laid in it since I was tired and it was almost as bright as being out in the sun.I put towels up with the handy clips they included and that blocked everything, but that also blocks the vents.Also there are no vent flaps, i as thinking the children could go in zip up the flap and change, they do, but you need to cover up the vents with towels.Incredibly easy to set up and take down.Really is decent for the price.Will update if the thing falls apart from use.

Good product. We have used this several times going out to our favorite island and sitting on the beach. Clean up of sand is the worse part using this but that is true of everything that comes off the beach. After a few years of use it has held up well.

Once I finally got the instructions and got it right great product, we just used it for our weekend outing, worked great, sturdy, it did get really hot under the shelter when the sun was directly on it and extremely hot out side but stayed warm when it was cold and windy and rainy out, we experienced lots weather this weekend definitely recomend, love that it zipped so the kids could sit inside safe and play very roomy we put our coolers inside to weigh it down we didn't have sand for the sand bag pockets, and still fit two adults and three small children comfortably, sooo worth the cost, it has two pockets inside that held tons of stuff just remember to take the clips they really come in handy. Easy to store quick set up, wish I would of bought one sooner

Waste of money. Took this to the beach thinking I was the smartest new mom out there since no one else on the beach had one but I was wrong. As soon and i put it up, which took a good 10 mins plus help from my father in-law, I put my beach blanket down and in 5 mins it felt like an oven because there was no way for the air to flow even with the mesh siding. I should have brought a casserole with me and cooked it on the beach. Spend the extra 20.00 and get the canopy tent.

I paid to get this same day as it is 90 in Seattle and I was taking the girls to the beach. Since my kids are little I wanted to know what I was doing when we got there so I decided to do a test run. I "snapped" the big pole together and then went to insert it in the guide and the pole snapped. The cord inside came out from the end pole. I'm returning it and moving on... But this means no shelter for the beach tomorrow

Very easy to assemble on the windy beach. It is easier with two persons (one holds), but can be done alone. It did not provide a huge amount of shade, but it worked. It would be quite snug for 3. Would suggest buying longer stakes. The ones that came with it would not stay in the sand. Used it for a whole week at the beach already. No tears and very easy to fold up to a compact and easy to carry tent. The tent folded up was much shorter than the chairs.