REI Co-op  Westward Shelter

So first REI customer service is 5 stars as always. My shelter screen fabric knurled on day one and continued to further deteriorate at the end of one week due to contact with the wooden picnic table (as expected?). This , imo, is the result of the shelter not having guy loops on the non-door sides. I never has this issue with other brand screenhouses and i would get 3-4 years of service before i had to patch the fabric. This shelter is very sturdy, zippers work great, easy to set-up/take down. And i would guess it would’ve outlasted my other screenhouses had there been guy loops present to stake the side away from contacting the table. Note: there were other campers using the same model as a sunshade on the beach and i’m certain they are very happy with the product.

This is a nice bug shelter that has plenty of space for the whole family at a picnic table. The heigh is excellent and it feels very confortable inside. It has thoughtful additions like a spot to hang a light at the apex and color coded poles and attachment points. That being said, it is very heavy and not particularly quick to set up so using it for a single meal outside feels unlikely. I am most likely to use this if I anticipate good weather for several days so that I dont need to take it down. The poles are sturdy, but also seem to get damaged at the ends where they connect and splinter a bit. I like that it does not have a floor so that it can be placed over a picnic table at a campsite when car camping, which is probably the main use for this product. It is also great to have doors on both sides to give more options for setup.

It's very heavy and feels very sturdy which is nice. I would be comfortable having it set up in high winds. The setup is pretty straightforward, and after a little bit of practice I was able to set it up by myself without staking it in. It's much easier if you stake it and have a buddy however. It's plenty tall, I'm 6' 2" and I can stand up easily inside. The doors are on opposite sides to allow lots of airflow. My head touches a little bit when standing near the sides. It's a great shelter and I'm really happy with it.

This shelter is perfect for car camping. It's large enough to easily encompass a standard picnic table, with room for 4-6 people to move in and out of the two large zipper doors. It also saves backyard al fresco dining on evenings when flies and yellowjackets are chasing my kids inside. The shelter is strong and sturdy, with a nice-looking exterior. If guyed out well, it can withstand some gusty wind. I'm super excited about this thing. A word of warning, though--you'll need more than one person to put this up (believe me, I tried). As a trade-off for the overall robustness, the shelter is heavy and doesn't pop up easily. You'll need at least two people to stand it up, and three would be ideal. Once you've got it, though, you'll enjoy a beautiful space and bug-free food. Even when I'm not eating, it gives me pleasure to defy a horde of greedy mosquitoes while I lounge safely inside with a beer, unbothered.

Really handy shelter. First impression is that the carrying bag should be long term useful, large enough that there is no need to do careful origami to get the shelter back in the bag. Setting up the shelter is simple but I am not sure how I would get it up and running without a second set of hands to deploy the poles. Basically a sub five minute set up with 30 seconds of help from my son. Once up, the shelter seems sturdy enough for a big wind or lots of rain. This spring it will serve as a shelter to stare at the water and do some cooking during a PNW downpour and in the summer it will be a sun shelter in the Columbia River Gorge. In both cases, the screen should work well for bug protection as well. We may also get rid of a large shelter used for kids' soccer games. The Westward will take up much less space in the garage and is far easier to lug around and transport. Tall enough to walk around in, would work over a picnic table and still have plenty of space for gear.

This is an improvement over REI’s previous shelter in that it no longer needs guylines to hold it up, and they were a serious tripping/clotheslining-yourself hazard on the old shelter. This comes at a cost of this one being a ton heavier, but I like how substantial the poles are and how well it freestands. However, it doesn’t have the rain fly attachment and awning that the last one had, which makes it a lot less useful for camping, rain just comes right in the sides, though the top is pretty water resistant. Will definitely have to hang a tarp or two over it but really wish that was integrated into the design as it had been with the last model.

This shelter has a few design flaws that were disappointing. There are no attachment loops or hooks inside the shelter, making it difficult to hang string lights, lanterns, or other accessories. The only place to hang a light is from the center of the roof, which limits lighting options. Additionally, the roof is not waterproof, which reduces its usefulness during wet weather. It would be much more functional if attachment points were added to both the interior and exterior of the shelter and if the roof material provided better weather protection.

1 man setup in 5 minutes, sturdy design, easy to pair with a simple tent or throw up as a picnic/beach shelter just about anywhere? weighted poles help but guide lines are needed to keep it from flying around but at the beach. strangely enough the tent had only 3/4 guide line attachments on the tent, mistake?