Hyke and Byke Zion 2 Review (Bought & Tested!)

This is my review of the Hyke and Byke Zion 2-Person Tent. I bought it brand new from Amazon, tested it over 7 days, and this blog post goes through all my findings.

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Quick Recommendation

While I really appreciated the spacious interior and the provided footprint of the Hyke and Byke Zion 2-Person Tent, the glaring cons were, unfortunately, a little too big for me to ignore.

The Zion did not hold up well in heavy rain at all, and the particular tent that I bought came with quite a few quality control issues. Overall, I can’t say that I would recommend this.

I’ll show you exactly what I mean throughout this blog post.

What I Liked

• Vertical side walls: Increased livability compared to regular dome tents.

• Huge base area: 33.0 square feet of inner tent area, 2 vestibule areas totaling 17.1 square feet, total base area of 50.1 square feet.

• Better than average storage options: 4 pockets, 1 loop, 1 gear loft.

• Inexpensive: Lifetime warranty, and also comes with provided footprint.

What I Didn’t Like

• Not good in heavy rain: Tub floors are way too low, leaking in multiple places.

• More quality control issues than I expected: 3 issues, to be exact. (Explained below in the QC section.)

Check out the Hyke and Byke Zion 2:

RELATED: The 6 Best Tents Under $100 (Bought & Tested!)

What’s Included?

Here’s everything that I got out of the box:

• Carry bag

• Rainfly

• Tent body

• Gear loft

• Footprint (in a smaller storage bag)

• Pole (also in a smaller bag) (single pole, not tent poles)

• 12 stakes, 4 guylines, and a stake pusher (also in another bag)

Full Setup

Setting up the entire Hyke and Byke Zion 2-Person Tent (including the footprint) took me about 8 to 8.5 minutes. Without the footprint though, the setup takes about 7.5 minutes.

Here’s the gist of it:

1. Lay the footprint down first.

2. Lay the tent body over the footprint.

3. Secure the single pole to the grommets of both the footprint and tent body.

4. Attach the 12 pole clips of the tent body to the pole.

5. Attach the top pole to the 2 top grommets.

6. Secure rain fly with tie-downs and buckles.

7. Stake down the vestibules and entire tent.

8. Attach the 4 provided guylines to the guy-out points, and guy the tent out.

9. Buy 2 extra guylines to guy the widths of the tent out.

For more in-depth instructions on the setup process, I’ll embed my YouTube video here for you to check out:

Ultralight Setup

The ultralight setup includes just the footprint first, the pole secured to the footprint next, and finally, the rain fly on top of the pole and the footprint. Basically, there’s no tent body at all.

This ultralight setup takes about 5 minutes to set up, and this setup weighs about 4.3lbs, so not exactly ‘ultralight’.

Pack Away

Taking down and packing the entire Zion 2-Person Tent away back into the carry bag usually takes me about 6.5 minutes, I had no issues at all, and the carry bag was a big enough size to fit everything.

Peak Height

The peak height inside this Zion 2-Person Tent is about 41 inches, which is an OK height to me, but it’s definitely not the tallest I’ve seen.

Here’s what a 4-inch-thick pad looks like inside the tent, and this is the maximum pad height I’d recommend for taller people, especially if you like more headroom.

As for myself, I’m fine with a 6-inch-thick mattress. Here’s what it looks like, with about 2 inches of headroom left under the peak height.

For me, it’s still comfy, but that’s because I’m not very tall, and I wouldn’t recommend this if you’re much taller.

Vertical Walls

But one great thing about this tent is that you get the peak height throughout the width of the tent, and that’s because 2 of the side walls are almost vertical.

Why? Because the short pole at the top of the tent holds the tent body up nicely with the 2 top grommets.

Here’s what one of the vertical walls looks like from the outside of the tent; notice how it’s really almost vertical?

Tent Base

Now, here are my personal measurements of the inner tent base.

The length comes in at about 88 inches. It’s long enough to fit anyone that’s 6 feet and maybe even slightly more. You can also sleep a little more diagonally across the tent, if you’re using this by yourself.

As for the width, it comes in at about 54 inches, and I honestly would have liked it to be a little wider, because this can’t fit a Queen bed.

If you’re planning to fit just 2 regular sleeping pads inside though (two people on two pads), then there’ll be no problem at all, you’ll get plenty of leftover space both at the width and length of the tent.

Vestibules

On top of the inner tent area, I also got some outer vestibule area.

This Hyke and Byke Zion 2-Person Tent comes with not 1, but two vestibules, which are exactly the same on both sides, the longest width of each vestibule is about 28 inches, and I could fit my flip flops and my tripod in each vestibule, still with leftover room.

Alternatively, if you don’t need it, you can also un-stake the vestibule completely, and tie it up with the 2 vestibule toggles.

Doors

This Zion 2-Person Backpacking Tent also has two doors (behind the 2 vestibules).

When the doors are closed, the entire thing is just mesh, which is really great for ventilation.

On the other hand, when the doors are opened, each of them measure about 44 inches in length, by 30 inches in width, so I think they’re really quite big.

It was actually pretty easy to get in and out of the tent through either of the doors, especially because I’m not very tall. And also, to keep the doors open, there’s this toggle by the side of each door to hold the fabric together.

Gear Storage

Moving onto the storage options in the tent, here’s what we’re going to cover:

• Pockets

• Loops

• Removable gear loft

Pockets

There are 4 corner pockets in this Hyke and Byke Zion 2, 1 in each corner. Each pocket comes in a triangle shape, and measures about 9 by 6 inches.

Lantern Loops

There’s 1 lantern loop right at the top of the Zion 2-Person Tent for some lighting at night, and there’s also another 4 loops around it, and this is for the provided gear loft.

Gear Loft

The gear loft comes in a diamond shape, and measures about 16 inches in length, and also 16 inches in width.

It also comes with 1 toggle at each corner, these toggles go into the small loops at the top of the tent, and this is for hanging the loft up.

Apart from all these storage options, there aren’t any others, and there’s also no power port as well.

Heavy Rain Test

I put this Hyke and Byke Zion 2-Person Backpacking Tent through about 1 hour of heavy rain, followed by about 3 hours of light rain.

After the rain stopped, when I checked in on the tent, I found quite a few small droplets of water throughout the entire widths of this tent, and there was even some dirt that got in as well.

Why did this happen? Well, because of the bathtub flooring being too low, resulting in back-splashing into the tent. Let me explain.

Bathtub Floor

Here are my measurements. The bathtub floor at the length of the tent is about 6 inches high, and the tub floor at the width is about 5 inches high. This is very low for a tub floor.

Some of my other budget-friendly tents have tub floors up to 10 inches high, and that was just high enough to prevent any back-splashing. So, 5 to 6 inches for this tent, definitely not high enough.

If you need more info on this rain test, and it might also help you to visualize what I’m explaining about, you can check out my YouTube video here:

Sadly, the rain test results weren’t my only complaint with this tent. Read on for more info on this!

Rainfly Vents

Now, one thing this tent does really well in the rain though, is the built-in rain fly vents.

I actually left the 2 rainfly vents at the 2 sides of the tent open throughout the entire rain test, and I found that these vents didn’t leak at all.

I really liked that the vents are facing almost vertically downwards, which really helps prevent rain from getting in. This is really great, especially because these vents can’t be accessed from the inside of the tent.

Rainfly Ventilation

Apart from the rainfly vents, I usually also like to make sure that the rainfly can be pulled away from the tent body at all 4 sides.

So, at the 2 lengths of the tent, I had the 2 vestibules, and I was able to pull the rainfly about 28 inches away from the tent body because of the vestibules.

And for the widths of this tent, I was able to attach my own guylines, and guy the widths of the tent out. This gave me a small vent at each width that’s about 11.5 inches away from the tent body.

Amount of Mesh

Another great thing about this tent is that it has a ton of mesh. According to my own estimates, I think easily more than 80% of this tent is covered in mesh.

Basically, it’s really well-ventilated for hot summer days, and you can see for yourself how much mesh there is on this tent:

Materials

Now, here’s all the materials that are used to make this tent.

• Footprint: 63D polyester (5,000-millimeter coating)

• Rainfly: 63D polyester (5,000-millimeter coating)

• Flooring: 63D polyester (no PU coating)

• Body: 63D polyester (no PU coating)

• Poles: 7000 series aluminum

• V-stakes: 7000 series aluminum

• Zippers: Not branded (but not snaggy)

• Mesh: Micro mesh (not as smooth and silky as I expected it to be though)

Quality Control Issues

While the materials used to construct this tent wasn’t too bad, I wasn’t pleased with the quality control issues I found. Three reasons why.

1. I found a footprint on my rainfly! An actual footprint. Someone’s footprint. I honestly can’t tell if this was even brand new.

2. After unboxing the tent, when I was taking the footprint out, the tensioner just flew off the footprint carry bag.

3. I couldn’t really get the rainfly as taut as I wanted to, I think it’s because the stake loops aren’t elastic enough, so the tent looked really janky.

Packed Size

The packed size of the 2-Person Hyke and Byke Zion comes in at about 22 by 7.5 by 7 inches.

The carry bag comes with a really small hand strap at the back, this is the only way that I could carry it.

Total Weight

As for the weight, everything together weighed about 6.0lbs for me, so that’s including the tent body, footprint, and all the provided stakes and guylines.

Honestly, I wouldn’t exactly call this lightweight, it’s not even a pound lighter than a car camping tent like the Coleman 2-Person Sundome.  

• Hyke and Byke Zion 2: 6.0lbs

• Coleman Sundome 2: 6.4lbs

Ultralight Weight

Now, for what Hyke and Byke calls the ‘ultralight’ weight, without the tent body.

• Rain fly (with all guylines): 2.1lbs

• Pole (with bag): 1.2lbs

• Footprint (alone, without bag): 10.05 oz/0.63lbs

• Stakes (12, with bag, without stake pusher): 5.6 oz/0.35lbs

So, the total ultra light weight comes in at about 4.3lbs, which isn’t even all that lightweight. (FYI, I lost my footprint carry bag, and also the stake pusher, so I couldn’t weigh those.)

Example: The MSR Groundhog Stakes weigh less than 3oz for 6 stakes. These ‘ultralight aluminum stakes’ are about double the weight.

Price

One really great thing about this Zion 2-Person Tent is the price. I found it to be really quite inexpensive, the 1-Person model is now just slightly over $100, and I also got a lifetime warranty with this tent.

Provided Footprint

And the biggest reason why I found this Hyke and Byke Zion 2P to be great value for money is because I got a good quality footprint with the tent, and I didn’t have to pay a single cent for it. A nice feature, for sure.

The footprint fits perfectly under the tent, it protects the base, and there’s no need to do much cleaning afterwards for the tent body, which is pretty nice.

On top of that, I could also use the footprint instead of the tent body, which is what Hyke and Byke calls the ultralight configuration, and it saved me close to 2lbs in weight. I love this kind of versatility, it’s awesome.

Tent Alternatives (Must Read!)

Even at its inexpensive price and the provided footprint, there are way too many cons for me to ignore here, and I know that there are other tents out there that perform better and offer more value for money.

How do I know this? Well, I’ve bought and tested not 1 two-person tent, but many budget two-person tents under $100, I summarized all my findings into a blog post, and you can check that out right here.

Or, if you’ve made up your mind on this Zion, check out the best price here: