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I have a Athena, the forrunner to the Aruba, and I love it. it would be very cosy for 6.

There seem to be quite a few Cabanons....or the equally lovely Litchfields and sunncamps.....on ebay at the moment, and you are likely to get a bargain between now and xmas.

Sometimes they appear with the bedroom annexe,

Happy hunting.

I love Dowards.......its great

We have an Aruba - brilliant. I don't know about an extra inner room, it comes with 2 already and the additional one would tend to use up the front end living space. I guess you could adapt one of the cheaper caravan awning inner tents that you can buy as aftermarket add-ons (Argos did them earlier in the year).

They come up on ebay quite reasonably - we paid £200 for ours, only used for 8 nights by the original owner. Probably because they are heavy and some people find them bigger & heavier than they anticipated.

We were lucky enough to get the additional side porch for ours brand new and that makes a nifty storage area.

I can't compare stability to a Montana since we've never had one - but after a storm on Shell Island the Aruba was the only thing standing.

A friend has one as well and he's also delighted with his. In fact it was him who persuaded us to buy ours.

They are very 'old school' of course, and you need to take seriously the weight of the canvas and the poles - but with 6 of you getting it up should be a doddle. (We do it with 2.) The Cabanon website has a simple diagram of how it's done. The only thing we've done with ours is to colour code the poles as the middle overhead poles come in 2 different lengths and if you get them in the wrong order it doesn't work too well!

Imho, moving to a cotton tent can never be a step back.

There are some gorgeous old frame tents around begging for someone to adopt them and let them out their bag every so often.

Hopefully you will find your dream tent soon

Angie

Another thumbs up from us for Canvas tents :) 

We went to look at Gary Cross's camping shop yesterday as it was a really windy day and a good chance to see what condition the tents are in after being out all season.  A lot of the outwell's and vango's on display were in a terrible condition, huge holes and rips :(  Yet the Kampa (polycotton) Holkham just stood like there like it was a just  a little breeze :)

I'd seen the pics of the Kampa Tenby and liked the look of it but after seeing the polyester ones in shreds we both said we wouldn't want one.  Even though we realise they have had the worst the weather could throw at them this year

Don't know about the weight of the tent but the poles felt quite lightweight though very sturdy in the wind :)

We have an assortment of tents and I'm afraid every time we buy one we never sell others . But every time we think we'll take the Outwell or the Khyam I cant help remembering how chilly they are on cooler evenings and how awfully hot they are in the sun and noisy in the wind, so always end up taking a canvas one.

I can't help feeling so much more secure and definately more comfy in my solid little Cabanons.Then packing up a soggy canvas tent I think 'If I'd brought a polyester one I would'nt have to pitch the damned thing again when I get home.  Can't please me really