Why A Yurt Tent Is The Perfect Structure To Bring Camping

When you think of a yurt tent, what may come to mind is a Mongolian countryside peppered with adorable and elegant round houses. You're not wrong. Of course, the yurts you might find in Mongolia can be permanent housing structures where people live. Built with a wooden infrastructure, they have kitchens, bathrooms, and plumbing. Yurt tents take the same premise and structure style and make it portable, so you have yet another dwelling to choose from on your next camping trip.

When you and your family are done roasting weenies and singing campfire songs, it's time to chill and go to bed. You want a place that will keep you warm in the winter and cool in the summer with plenty of room to hang out and sleep. Imagine a wide-open space to sprawl out and relax for the night. The yurt's beauty alone can draw you in and make you feel like royalty.

A yurt tent is like other tents you might use for camping in that there's an inside structure covered by fabric where you sleep. One thing that makes a yurt tent different is the shape and the materials used to cover the solid structure. It's built to withstand all weather with plenty of room inside.

Simply, a yurt tent is a circular tent, resembling a mushroom, with ventilation through the door, windows, and ceiling. They've been used for everything from camping to wedding tents to guest houses, and have been around since ancient times. Genghis Khan and his men lived in yurts, as did the Huns of Attila, so they've stood the test of time.

Yurt Breakdown

Yurt tents have a straightforward round structure with a tall peaked roof, similar to that of a mushroom. They have the same basic pieces you need to set up your sleeping quarters.

Setting up your yurt tent is easier with multiple people, but you can build it on your own.

Yurt Tent Against The Rest

Since the yurts we're talking about in this review are more yurt-like than traditional yurts, they have a slightly different set-up. There is a center pole in the yurt tents, and the structure is round with a peaked roof but lacks wood lattice on the sides. Instead, the sides hold their shape with the help of guylines (ropes) and stakes.

How Much To Spend On A Yurt Tent

Yurt tents vary widely in size, and the amount of space you'll need will determine your bottom line price. Other factors like stove holes and door frames affect how much you'll pay for the yurt tent you choose.

The average price for a yurt tent is $ to $$$, and that's just for temporary camping structures. Permanent and semi-permanent yurt tents can set you back $ to $$$$. Since we're comparing temporary camping structures, it would be fair to stick to the lower range cost.

Where Can You Find These Yurts?

A search for yurt tents online will bring you to major retailers like Pacific Yurts and Yurts of America. Those higher end yurts are probably not what you and your family are looking for to sleep on your next weekend camping trip.

Your best bet to find yurt tents is to look through Amazon, which offers a lot of different options from which to choose.

There are a few manufacturers who stand out from the rest with their yurt tents. While you can find yurt tents that travel well for camping, like the one in the video above, the yurt tents in this list are missing the lattice structure. The things that qualify these tents as yurt at all is the general shape of them.

How We Reviewed The Yurts

We looked at customer reviews for the different yurt tents available on the market to bring you real feedback from customers. We're hoping by compiling this information, you can make the best decision for a yurt tent you would like to try for your next camping adventure.

Himalaya Yurt

The Himalaya Bell Tent is a yurt-like design and fits 12 people comfortably. If you want to use the tent for sleeping, stick to seven or eight people, so you all have some elbow room. The cover for the yurt tent is a waterproof polyester fabric. A single stainless steel pole in the center keeps the tent up. The outside walls are secured out with lines and pegs. These help the tent keep its circular shape, and the mess screen door allows you to keep the door open without risking a bug invasion.

The Himalaya Bell Tent costs between $650 to $800 and includes a ground sheet to protect the fabric from the ground.

This tent received a full five stars on Amazon, but only one person wrote an actual review. Customers did have questions and comments, from which we pulled some intel.

Customers love the easy set up of this tent and appreciate the stability and firmness of the structure. It also provides plenty of room to hang out and to sleep while allowing for airflow and ventilation to keep everyone comfortable.

Some customers were hoping for an opening for a stove pipe so they could furnish the yurt with a stove for cold weather.

Ozark Trail 8P Yurt

The Ozark Trail 8P Yurt Tent is easy to set up and sleeps eight people comfortably. The outside is made of polyester with three large windows to help with ventilation. The frame is fiberglass and steel, and there are pockets inside for storage.

The yurt-like tent is easy to set up and comes with a built-in table in the center around the support pole. If you feel like it will be in the way of your slumber, you can remove the table and use it separately. Nice.

The Ozark yurt-like tent costs between $ to $$ and is available on Amazon and Walmart.

Customers gave this tent 3.0 out of 5 stars and were all over the map in star value. People loved the roominess, ventilation, and the ease of set-up. One customer said the tent held up great in high winds.

The downside across the board was about rain. The Ozark isn't waterproof, and people were disappointed when puddles formed inside the tent after it rained. Also, even though the shelter is spacious, it lacked sufficient headroom.

Dream House Bell Tent

The Dream House Bell Tent is another one of the yurt tents that is yurt-like because of the lack of wooden structure. This tent is a four-season tent, so you don't have to worry about the weather with this one. It features double stitching in the seams, can withstand 30 miles per hour winds, and has mosquito netting on the doors and windows to keep bugs out.

The outside is cotton canvas which is naturally waterproof, and it includes an extra tarp for heavier downpours. It comes in different sizes -- 3 to 6 meters in diameter -- and costs between $$ to $$$.

Customers gave this yurt tent 3.5 out of 5 stars from over 70 reviews, and over 150 answered questions about the product. Many customers love the ease of set up and break down of this tent and said it was aesthetically beautiful. They also said it stood strong against wind and rain, keeping the interior dry in extreme weather.

The biggest complaints from customers were about the sheer weight of the tent and the heavy rubber smell inside the tent. Some said the tent's construction is poor and others were confused how such an expensive tent could rip so easily.

DANCHEL Cotton Bell Tent

The DANCHEL Bell Tent has a cotton canvas outside with two stove jackets (holes) that close with a flap if you don't have a stove. It comes in 3 sizes from 3 to 5 meters and runs a price tag of $$ to $$$.

The yurt-like dwelling contains a strong steel pole structure with an A-frame in the doorway and guylines to hold the shape. There are four air vents in the top and four zippered windows, so there's plenty of airflow inside. The canvas features double stitching and is waterproof.

Customers gave this roomy tent 4.0 out of 5 stars based on a handful of reviews and a few dozen questions. Campers love the easy set-up and the ample room inside. It's also easy to pack up, and if you want to roll up the sides entirely, you can do that too. Talk about a nice feature.

One downside from a customer was the tent leaked and looked cheap, while another said the stove pipe opening wasn't large enough.

The difference between yurt tents and other multi-person tents available lies mainly in the structure and the materials. Although camping tents use cotton canvas sometimes, you'll find those are few and far between. The fabric of choice for most camping tents are lightweight nylon or polyester.

Multi-person tents also have more elaborate frameworks than center pole yurt tents which rely heavily on guylines to hold their shape.

CORE 12 Person Instant Cabin Tent

The CORE 12 Person Instant Cabin Tent has water-repellent fabric with sealed seams and door and window seals to keep you dry. Like you may have guessed, it's shaped like a cabin and divides into three separate rooms. Windows all around, vents in the ceiling and double doors give you plenty of ventilation and, get this, the tent sets up in two minutes.

This cabin tent received 4.0 out of 5 stars on Amazon and costs between $ to $$ from various sellers.

Customers loved the ease of set-up and said the tent was nice and roomy inside. The tent withstands rain and wind and has an opening for an outlet, so you can bring a space heater in when it's cold, which is a plus.

Some customers did have an issue with wind, saying the tent knocked down in the wind and wouldn't stay up. That's not a great thing in a windstorm when you and your family have nowhere else to sleep. A few other customers mentioned rain leaked in the top vents and suggested covering them in inclement weather.

Ozark Trail 14-Person 4-Room Base Camp Tent

This Ozark Trail Tent fabric is treated polyester with a fiberglass and steel frame. It can withstand three seasons, has windows all around for airflow and taped fly seams so your tent won't leak. This tent sets up in 20 minutes and sleeps up to 14 people, as the name suggests.

The Ozark has an electrical outlet and is divided rooms that fit five queen size air mattresses. Customers gave this huge tent a 3.8 out of 5 star rating on Amazon and 4.2 out of 5 stars on Walmart, so the overall consensus was positive. The price runs between $ and $$ from various sellers on both sites.

Reviews love the easy set-up of this tent and the divided rooms for different uses. Customers also loved the roominess and the placement of the windows for airflow during summer camping.

Customers thought the tent should come with a thicker footprint to protect the floor and the stakes weren't sufficient to hold the tent in place. A few other customers questioned the quality of the tent, saying it not only leaked in the rain, but the poles snapped in half causing the tent to collapse.

OZARK Trail Family Cabin Tent

The OZARK Trail Family Cabin Tent is different in the fact that while it is a multi-room tent, you get to choose how many rooms you want. The pods are individual tent cells that fit together to form a chain of pod tents. The individual pod's set-up is similar to a traditional yurt because it has a center ring where you plug in the poles. Just raise the center ring, secure the poles on the bottom, and stake it down.

Setup takes 20 to 25 minutes, and the material is breathable polyester. The side walls, doors and top have mesh ventilation for airflow, and the four total pods fit eight people.

So, how does the yurt tent structure hold up against a multi-person tent when camping under the stars? We've compiled the overall pros and cons, so you can decide if a yurt tent is for you.

Likes

Dislikes

When you're planning your next camping trip and deciding on a tent to bring, you might want to consider a yurt tent. That is especially true if you're going to camp year-round. The Himilaya Bell Tent stood out against the rest as the best choice unless you want a stove in your sleeping quarters. If you want or need to bring a stove for warmth, go with the DANCHEL Cotton Bell Tent. Not only does it have openings for a stove pipe, but the sides roll up completely. And you can't get much more airflow than that.