Find Your Store
Home Page

Cart, contains 0 items

When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures.
Expert Help
Earn Rewards

Marmot
Limelight Tent: 3-Person 3-Season

4.666666666666667 out of 5 stars
15 Reviews
$358.95
Color:Foliage/Dark Azure

Size:

Quantity


Why We Like The Limelight Tent

Simplicity is key when it comes to Marmot's Limelight Tent. Its painless pole system lets us pop up shop quickly at the campsite, while a double-walled design stops the coldest drafts and lets us rest easy. But if ventilation is needed, we can open up the mesh walls and let in all the air we want. After all, the versatile design is prepared for every season besides the snowy one.


Details

  • Homey 3-person tent for 3-season camping
  • Waterproof fly and bathtub floor offer protection
  • No-see-um mesh canopy ensures ample comfort
  • Generous size accommodates friends or dogs
  • One door boasts large size for easy in-and-out
  • Vestibule protects gear from elements
  • Included footprint stops water coming through the bottom
  • Item #MARZ9NC
Material
[fly] 68D polyester taffeta, [canopy] 40D No-see-um mesh, polyester mesh, [floor] 68D polyester taffeta
Capacity
3-person
Season
3-season
Wall Type
double
Freestanding
yes
Poles
DAC Pressfit (9mm), Velocity aluminum (8.5mm)
Pole Attachment
clip
Number of Doors
2
Number of Vestibules
2
Vestibule Space
11.3sq ft, 7.5sq ft
Ventilation
mesh walls
Seams
fully sealed
Interior Height
48in
Floor Dimensions
48 x 68 x 90in
Floor Space
42.5sq ft
Packed Size
22 x 8in
Footprint Included
yes
Trail Weight
6lb
Packed Weight
6lb 11oz
Activity
weekend camping
Manufacturer Warranty
lifetime

Overall Rating

4.5 based on 15 ratings

Review Summary

1 Stars - 0 reviews
2 Stars - 0 reviews
3 Stars - 2 reviews
4 Stars - 1 reviews
5 Stars - 12 reviews

What do you think about this product?

View

Selecting an option will reload the available reviews on the page
3 out of 5 stars

January 23, 2024

Average with a flaw

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Let me first state that I have purchased nothing but Marmot tents for the past ten years. I had both the 2 and 3 man versions of the previous limelight design. Both tents were great, 5-star tents in durability, waterproofness, easy to set up, etc. My 3 man limelight even provided shelter for my dog in I during a small, confirmed EF-1 tornado (true story) and came out the backend with only a small crack in one section of a tent pole. Granted I was set up between 2 RV's, which certainly helped protect us, and it only lasted about 10 seconds, but the tornado ripped the entire roof off of the adjacent barn (dropping it 75 feet away from my tent) and moved one of the 2 RV's a few feet to the side. After that, I swore that I would never purchase anything other than a Marmot tent. Fast forward a few years and that same tent ended up being run-over by another RV while the guy was backing up (luckily nobody inside) so it was time to purchase a new one. I noticed they had changed the design in order to incorporate part of the vestibule inside the body, which seemed like a good idea. However, the door opens from the wrong side in order to exit the tent. If you want to exit, you have to open the door all the way in order to reach the zipper on the rain fly, and if you don't roll it up, it can dangle onto the wet and muddy ground inside the vestibule area. This, in turn, leads to other problems including filty white mesh in the door (any white on camping gear is just a bad idea) that's impossible to get as clean as you would like, and dirty doorway zipper, which has already broken after only around 10 days since new. Who honestly rolls up their door and secures it every single time they enter and exit the tent? Well, if you don't, you pay for it quickly. Out of the box, the rain fly also wetted out, causing it to cling to the body of the tent, which then caused water to enter the tent in the seam between the floor and side wall. I have since remedied this problem with seam sealant and using a lot of waterproofing spray on the rain fly, but I would have thought it would have repelled rain right out of the box. My previous Marmot tents did. But when the rain rolls down the rain fly and hits the ground, it bounces back up under the rain fly, and even after spraying it twice, the fabric in the tent body still has a tendency to wet out and allow that moisture inside. Hopefully Marmot can address these issues (I saw someone else bring up the door problem) and get this model back up to snuff with its predecessors. Until then, and it pains me to say this after my previous high-quality Marmot purchases. I can't recommend this tent as it stands currently.

Pauly75
marmot.com

Originally reviewed on marmot.com

3 out of 5 stars

January 7, 2024

promising tent with a fatal flaw

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] To provide context for this review, I routinely live out of a tent for weeks at a time in remote sites at high latitudes in North America and Asia. Weather extremes, especially gale-force wind and rain, occur often enough that any tent I use needs to be able to handle such conditions without risk of collapse or allowing water inside. Biting insects are also a common concern, so tents need to allow exit/entry to take place through the smallest possible opening in the door, in as brief a time as possible, ideally with the fly only partially unzipped. I am not climbing mountains, so an expedition-grade mountaineering tent is not necessary, nor am I backpacking, so I am not concerned about going with an ultra-light option (though lighter is generally better, of course). Recently my two go-to field tents gave up the ghost in rapid succession, which sent me on the hunt for a new one. I’ve not been especially happy with the “standard model” that has become the norm for 2 and 3 person camping/backpacking tents – a “spider” made of 4 legs and a single ridge pole, and a separate short pole that holds the sides of the tent as well as the full coverage fly out from the ridge pole. That design is great for providing vestibule space, a roomy interior, and decent protection from rain. It is not so great, in my experience, in high wind situations. The single ridge pole simply doesn’t have much to brace against, so the spider flexes and flattens. With that in mind, I went on the hunt for something new. I liked the look of the Limelight for several reasons. Rather than the above-mentioned spider, it has a pair of poles that crisscross over the tent and are attached to one another via a swiveling linkage. I especially liked that the separate cross pole that holds out the sides of the tent didn’t cross the other poles exactly where they meet each other, but rather they cross on the opposite side of the tent’s peak. This creates a triangular arrangement between the poles in the roof that I believe gives the entire structure a bit more rigidity. I expect that each pole can brace against the other two when the tent is hit by a gust, though I admittedly have not had the tent in a big windstorm yet, so I can’t confirm that this is the case. In addition, I thought that the unique “wings” were creative, and they really do add a considerable amount of extra room inside the tent. Though it is not absolutely necessary to stake them out, the fact that they can be staked provides additional points to help hold the tent down in high winds. There are also several tabs for attaching guy lines, which for me are critical. The full coverage fly is adequate to prevent rain from being blown into the tent. The orientation and position of the vent close to the peak had me a bit worried about wind carrying rain in through it and I haven’t been in conditions to test for that possibility, but it has seemed to do fine keeping rain out under non-windy conditions. One might grumble that the vent is too small to be of much value at preventing condensation inside the fly. In my experience, there is no venting system that will guarantee a condensation-free tent under all conditions, so I wouldn’t worry too much about the vent, as long as it doesn’t let rain in. The construction is solid and consistent with my experience with Marmot gear (which I am, in general, a fan of). The tent was intuitive to set up. The gear hammock is clever, though I’m not sure about its long-term utility. Unfortunately, despite all of its good qualities, the tent suffers from a fatal flaw, which can only really be understood by crawling in and out of the tent itself, but I will do my best to explain. The issue is the arrangement of the doors and rain fly, and the position of the zipper on the fly. We’ll tackle this from the perspective of exiting the tent after a rainy night in northern Minnesota, but the same issues would be at play when entering. In our scenario it was raining last night, so you had the fly zipped down to the ground. Happily, you and your gear are currently dry (way to go Limelight!), but there is plenty of condensation lurking on the inside of the fly (because of course there is). To leave the tent, you have a couple options. You can either fully open the big inner door, or you can try to just open the curved edge enough of a gap to squeeze through. If you fully open the door, you will be able to easily access the zipper on the rainfly, unzip it, and crawl out. On your way out, you will definitely get condensation smeared down your back as you brush against the fly. After you escape, you will turn around to close things up, and discover that the unzipped rainfly is now hanging directly into the open tent door, and it is funneling rainwater and condensation straight into the tent (no tent design should allow this to happen, but in the Limelight it does). This problem could be somewhat mitigated by tying up the fly before you leave, but 1) that’s a pain when you are trying to be as speedy as possible (see mosquitoes, below; also, you probably really need to find the latrine) and 2) if it is still raining, you will now have rain entering the tent. Further, in addition to all that wetness, the inside of the fly was lined with several hundred hungry mosquitoes, because mosquitoes love to hang out under rainflies. As soon as you opened that big door and disturbed the rainfly, they all began swarming into the tent. This did not make you popular with your tent mate. What about the second option for exiting, in which you only partially open the door? This is the preferred method for avoiding providing entry to all those mosquitoes. However, if you only partially open the curved end of the door, which is at the corner of the tent rather than the center of the sidewall, you will be faced with the rainfly a couple inches from your nose rather than the rainfly zipper. To reach the zipper, you will have to squeeze your body through the gap between the door and the rainfly until you can reach the fly’s zipper to open it. This might limit the number of mosquitoes that get into the tent, but it is slow, it will absolutely soak you from the condensation, and it is awkward and uncomfortable. It will also inevitably result in damage to the door, zipper, and mosquito netting as buttons, Velcro, and buckles on your clothes catch on the tent while you are squeezing past. The bottom line is that the unfortunate arrangement between the door and the fly make this tent unsuitable for camping in any situation where you expect rain and/or mosquitoes (or other flying nocturnal blood-suckers). It is possible that simply reversing the direction of the door, so that the curved end lies directly across from the fly’s zipper (rather than in the corner of the tent), would go a long way toward resolving this issue. However, I still think that the rainfly would tend to channel water (rain or dew) into the tent when both are open. As a recreational tent for families who are camping in the American southwest or other places where rain and insects are not a major concern, I think it would do great. For anyone who needs to ensure that their tent will stay dry and bug-free in less-than-ideal conditions, I recommend looking elsewhere.

keg34
marmot.com

Originally reviewed on marmot.com

5 out of 5 stars

September 22, 2023

Backpacking

Very nice tent and light weight for backpacking the JMT

SJK Team
marmot.com

Originally reviewed on marmot.com

5 out of 5 stars

September 20, 2023

Limerock 3

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I’m happy receiving this tent. I was concerned regarding size, every review I had read said that it is no roomy tent. I needed tent for 2 person, so after all comment I had read before I decided to bought limerick 3, to feel more comfortable. BUT. When I opened the tent I saw that it’s enough space for 3 person- to feel comfortable. Anyway. It’s nice tent

Tamriko
marmot.com

Originally reviewed on marmot.com

5 out of 5 stars

August 11, 2023

Roomy and Innovative!

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This tent is really super cool. I love the "cubbies" on either side, like little night stands. My partner and I bought it for the two of us despite it being a 3P, and that was our mistake, not Marmot's. We recognize now that its pack-down size is too bulky for our backpacking excursions, so we should have gotten the 2P one. The only catch for us that is likely not applicable to other people is the fact that the cubbies require stakes to function properly. Our backpacking locations cannot rely on stakes, and for this reason only are we going with another tent, which makes me so sad, because I'm obsessed with the tent layout and space.

absgeller
marmot.com

Originally reviewed on marmot.com

5 out of 5 stars

May 7, 2023

Best tent I've owned

Familiarity:
I've used it once or twice and have initial impressions
Height:
5' 10"
Weight:
190

Awesome tent worth the price. Roomy Smartly designed Easy to set up

Alex A
5 out of 5 stars

December 17, 2022

Excellent design, my favorite tent in its class

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I have been using this tent for 3 years now. The design is smart and practical, including the internal height, the aerodynamic shape, the open to, the vestibule - and it's a piece of cake to put it up / take it down in less than 3 minutes total (2 people) or 5 minutes (1 person, inc. packing it away). I have found it to be the best in its price category. It has withstood 100kmph wind and 120 Fahrenheit in the Canyonlands, extreme damp and mud in the Olympic NP, snow camping in snow storm in Crater Lake NP and a lot of other challenges in between. Still as reliable as new. Is it perfect? No... but so far as good as it gets for the investment. I give it 4.5 stars - half reduction for the fact that the side gets pulled up at the bottom when the top cross-pole is in use (I usually don't put it in) and well, the weight is great but like all tents of this size, it "gets noticeably heavier" every dozen miles day during a 10-day hike, if you know what I mean:) Anyone who mentioned that it gets ripped easily or the zippers get stuck easily are either bots of have a lot of outdoor practicing to do. By the way, the color not only looks cool but also helps to spot the tent when you're hiking back to your camp in the middle of nowhere, regardless of the dominant colors of the environment. Would / will buy it again.

user image
forgottentraveler
marmot.com

Originally reviewed on marmot.com

5 out of 5 stars

October 10, 2022

Great tent for the money

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I ordered this tent on line as my previous 3 person was reaching the end of it's years. I have a Limelight 2 that is about 5 years old, so I am familiar with the brand. I just got back from a camping trip in northern MN, and I could not be happier with this tent. I really liked the color coded poles and hook ups, I also really liked the added square footage that the "wings" at the head of the tent offers. It was a cooler night, so it offered a lot of storage space for our packs and outer wear. I have been very happy with the Marmot brand in the past, and this tent continues to offer a solid product and a reasonable price.

marmot.com

Originally reviewed on marmot.com

5 out of 5 stars

October 3, 2022

Unique shape with plenty of room

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This tent has plenty of room. Set up is a breeze, I like that the poles and tabs are color coordinated making it super simple to keep everything straight. Having an included footprint is nice. Our scout troop uses Marmot tents and they've lasted well so I wanted to get one for myself for when I'm camping with the boys. This tent is high quality and seems like it will last. Unfortunately, the first Limelight 3P tent I purchased had a missing grommet so I exchanged it, only to find that its replacement was also missing a grommet. Luckily the third tent had no such issue and has worked perfectly on the campouts I've used it on so far. So my advice is to check the tent out thoroughly when you first receive it to make sure that all the parts are in order.

user image
BrainDeadBrian
marmot.com

Originally reviewed on marmot.com

5 out of 5 stars

September 28, 2022

Solid tent

Easy to set up. Hearty enough for the dog and light enough for backpacking.

user image
Katec
marmot.com

Originally reviewed on marmot.com