REI Co-Op Trail Hut 2 Tent Review (Bought & Tested!)

This is my review of the REI Co-Op Trail Hut 2-Person Tent. I bought it with my own money and tested it for weeks.

This page contains affiliate links, and that means that I may earn a commission if you buy something, at no extra cost to you. You can find my full disclosure policy here.

Quick Summary

While the REI Trail Hut 2 is not the absolute best budget tent I’ve tested, it’s a perfectly functional tent that’s worth the money whenever it goes on sale at REI Co-Op. (I love that it comes with a footprint too, making it even better value for money.)

The author in her REI Trail Hut 2. — *Me in my REI Trail Hut 2. This is also what I used for my YouTube review thumbnail (test numbers will differ slightly from below).*

REI Trail Hut 2 V.S. Other Budget Backpacking Tents

Ease of Use

6.8

Spaciousness

7.1

Comfort & Features

Ventilation

9.5

Rain Protection

6.7

Quality

Portability

Overall Score 7.6 / 10

RELATED: Best Budget Backpacking Tents, Best REI Tents

Pros: Affordable, comes with footprint, great vestibules, good waterproofing

Cons: Low peak height, no guy-out point at widths, materials aren’t the best

If you enjoyed this video, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel here:

Check out the REI Trail Hut 2:

Check price on REI Co-Op

1. In the Box

Out of the box, this is what I got:

Carry bag
Rainfly (with 4 pre-attached guylines)
Tent body
Footprint (pre-attached to tent body)
Poles x 3 (2 long, 1 short)
Pole repair splint
Stakes x 6

What you get in the box when you buy the REI Trail Hut 2. — *From left to right: Carry bag, rainfly, tent body with footprint, poles, stakes.*

2. Set Up & Pack Away

This is the gist of the entire setup:

Lay tent body (and pre-attached footprint) on the ground.
Secure the 2 long poles into the 4 corner grommets.
Secure the 13 pole clips.
Short ridge pole to be secured with 2 grommets at top of the tent.
Secure rainfly with 4 corner easy-clip buckles.
Stake down entire tent (4 corner stakes, 2 vestibule stakes, 4 guylines).

Pro-Tip: Only 6 stakes were provided, but 10 were needed.

For more details, I have a separate video with loads of instructions and tips to help you set up your tent more easily:

Altogether, the entire setup takes about 6.75 minutes. The pack away takes the same amount of time – 6.75 minutes as well.

3. Footprint

The REI Trail Hut comes with a footprint, which is pre-attached to the tent body via toggles at the four corners:

The footprint toggles of the REI Trail Hut 2. — *How the footprint is pre-attached to the tent body.*

The benefit of this pre-attached footprint is that it doesn’t take any extra time to set up at all. Other footprints will take an extra 30-60 seconds to set up and pack away.

However, because of the lack of grommets on the footprint, this doesn’t allow for a groundsheet and rainfly-only setup.

4. Peak Height

The peak height in the Trail Hut 2 comes in at about 38 inches.

The author sitting under the peak height of the REI Trail Hut 2. — *I’m 5’3/160cm, and I’m sitting on a 6-inch mattress. I still had 2-3 inches of space above me.*

The extreme right and left widths of the tent also came in at about 38 inches.

The middle arrow is pointing to the peak height (38in), while the other two show the edges of the extended peak height (also 38in).

This means you get the peak height throughout the entire width of the tent, thanks to the short pole that goes on top of the 2 long poles.

5. Base Area

Here are all the important base area dimensions you might need:

Length: 86 inches
Width: 49 inches
Base area: 29.3 square feet

6. Pad Sizing

Now, here’s my Exped MegaMat Duo – it fit quite nicely, with a bit of leftover space for storing gear on the floor.

An Exped MegaMat Duo in the REI Trail Hut 2. — *The Exped MegaMat Duo measures 74 by 43 inches (the size of 2 regular pads), and the extra width left is only about 6 inches.*

Regular 20-inch pads fit best.
Wide 25-inch pads will be a very snug fit.
Extra wide 30-inch pads won’t fit.

7. Vestibules

The Trail Hut 2 comes with 2 vestibules, one at each length.

Width: 29 inches
Length: 86 inches
Area of 1 vestibule: 8.7 sq. ft.
Area of both vestibules: 17.3 sq. ft.

One of the vestibules of the REI Trail Hut 2. — *One of the vestibules of the Trail Hut.*

Each vestibule has quite a few configurations:

Fully closed
Right opened
Left opened
Fully opened
Opened over the top

Vestibule loops of the REI Trail Hut 2. — *Each vestibule comes with 2 red vestibule loops. You can use either side to stake the vestibule down, this allows you to keep either the right or left panel of the vestibule open.*

The opened vestibule of the REI Trail Hut 2. — *If you don’t need the vestibule at all, you can un-stake it completely, and tie the whole thing up with the 2 toggles by the side.*

The rainfly of the REI Trail Hut 2 partially opened. — You can even pull the vestibule up all the way, revealing the mesh at the top, thanks to the **extended vestibule zipper**. This is perfect for more ventilation and even stargazing (while still having the rainfly in place).

8. Doors

Under each vestibule, you’ll find one door each, so 2 doors altogether.

The 2 doors of the REI Trail Hut 2. — *The size of the doors are decently big too, measuring about 40 by almost 31 inches each.*

To keep the doors open, there’s a toggle by the side to hold the door fabric out of the way.

9. Zippers

Each door has 2 zippers, I couldn’t find any branding on them so they’re no-name zippers, but even so, I found that the zipping experience was pretty good, with no snags for me at all.

Zippers of the REI Trail Hut 2. — *Close-up of the door zippers (notice that there’s no branding).*

Same with the vestibule, each vestibule has 2 zippers, no branding but not snaggy at all.

10. Storage

For storage, there are 2 pockets in the tent. They’re at opposite ends of the tent, so each of them is easily accessible from each door.

One of the pockets in the REI Trail Hut 2. — *One of the pockets in the tent. Each pocket measures about 16 by 6 and a half inches, so decently big.*

There’s also a total of 7 loops in the tent, giving me lots of space for hanging gear up. (Note: No gear loft provided despite the many loops.)

11. Seam Taping

As for seam taping, it was perfect all around the tent:

All seams on flooring (corners, across the floor) were taped.
All seams above flooring were not taped.
All seams on rainfly were taped.

Seam taping in the REI Trail Hut 2. — *Seam taping in one of the corners.*

12. Tub Floor

The Trail Hut also has a tub floor that runs all around the entire tent with minimal seams on it.

The tub floor in the REI Trail Hut 2. — *The tub floor comes up to about 7 inches for the widths of the tent, and about 6 inches for the lengths of the tent.*

13. Rainfly

Moving onto rainfly protection, it’s a full-coverage rainfly, extending almost all the way to the ground for max rain protection.

What I didn’t like about this rainfly though, is that it cannot be pulled away at the widths of the tent, only the lengths (where the vestibules are).

The REI Trail Hut 2 in heavy rain. — *Notice at the width of the tent, there’s no guy-out point to pull the rainfly away.*

14. Vents

There are 2 vents, one on each side of the tent.

The vent zipper is actually the extended vestibule zipper that I talked about in Test 7: Vestibules.

One of the vents of the REI Trail Hut 2. — *Simply unzip, then use the kickstand to hold the rainfly up, and you get yourself a vent here.*

Now that we’ve explored most of the waterproofing features, let’s get into the rain test.

15. Rain Tests

I put the REI Trail Hut 2 through several rain tests:

2 hours moderate rain: No leaks
1 hour heavy rain: No leaks

Here’s the full rain test if you need more info:

Here’s a summary of all the results:

Seams: No leaks
Rainfly: No leaks
Flooring: No leaks
Vents: May leak depending on angle of rain (Thankfully, we can shut these from the inside.)

16. Mesh

Without the rainfly, there’s not a lot of mesh on the tent body.

I would say that this is about 40% mesh, and 60% fabric.

The REI Trail Hut 2 without its rainfly. — *There’s quite a bit of mesh up top though, so you can still stargaze or look at views at night.*

17. Materials

Here are all the materials of the REI Trail Hut 2:

Flooring: 66D polyester taffeta
Footprint: 66D polyester taffeta
Rainfly: 68D polyester taffeta
Tent body/canopy: 66D polyester taffeta
Poles: Aluminum (8.5mm)
Mesh: Nylon micro mesh
Guylines: Shockcord (with reflective strip)
Stakes: Shepherd-hook steel

18. Portability

Here are the packed dimensions of the Trail Hut 2:

Packed size: 21 x 8.5 x 7 inches
Pole length: 17 inches

As for weight, here’s a breakdown of all the components:

Poles: 21.6oz
Stakes: 5.5oz (for 6)
Rainfly: 27.5oz
Tent body: 28.2oz
Footprint: 7.1oz
Carry bag: 1.6oz
Total weight: 91.5oz/5.72lbs/2.6kg

19. Pros, Cons, Recommendations

Now, what are the pros and cons, and would I recommend the REI Trail Hut 2?

Pro #1: Inexpensive

First, I thought the Trail Hut was really good value for money, especially since I bought it at 30% off during one of REI’s sales.

Pro #2: Comes with footprint

It even comes with a pre-attached footprint (most tents don’t), making it even better value for money.

Pro #3: Great vestibules

I also thought the vestibules had lots of different configurations, and could even be pulled back further than most other tents.

The rainfly pulled over the top of the REI Trail Hut 2. — *What rolling the vestibule up fully looks like from the inside of the tent.*

Pro #4: Great waterproofing

The waterproofing is also pretty good, the Trail Hut went through hours of light, moderate, and heavy rain with no leaks at all.

Con #1: Rainfly cannot be pulled away at widths

I think the biggest con of this tent is that the rainfly cannot be pulled away from the widths of the tent. This is a very simple feature to have, yet this tent doesn’t have that.

Con #2: Low peak height

On top of that, the peak height is quite low for a 2-person tent. It’s actually one of the shortest I’ve seen. Here are some other 2-person budget backpacking tents that I’ve tested:

Budget Tent	Peak Height (in)
Alps Mountaineering Lynx 2	47
Teton Mountain Ultra 2	44
Marmot Crane Creek 2	43
The North Face Stormbreak 2	43
Nemo Aurora 2	42
Kelty Late Start 2	41.5
Coleman PEAK1 2	40.5
REI Trail Hut 2	38

Con #3: Materials can be better

Also, the flooring is thin, coming in at only 66D polyester taffeta. Most tents tend to have at least 75D for better durability.

The zippers are somehow also not branded. Every other REI tent has YKK zippers (except for, strangely, the REI Trail Hut).

20. Bonus – MUST Read!

And that’s why the REI Trail Hut 2 isn’t the best tent I’ve seen (when not on sale). Check out the best budget backpacking tents for other options that may be better for you.

Otherwise, check out the REI Trail Hut 2: