The Best Solar Lantern By Style

The best solar lantern styles and models are both elegant and decorative. Find the perfect choice to embellish your outdoor space with our solar lantern style guide!

Solar Lantern FAQ

The 7 Best Solar Lantern Styles

Beautiful and decorative solar lantern for your garden and patio

Lanterns evoke mystery and adventure. We associate lanterns with genies, Halloween, and nights under the stars away from home. If you’re looking for a solar lantern for your outdoor adventures, or to bring a little magic to your home, there’s an impressive selection to choose from in our guide. To maintain your lights, be sure to read How To Clean & Care For Solar Lights In 3 Easy Steps.

1. Best Solar Camping Lantern

When you’re camping or spending the night away from electric power, solar powered lanterns are the perfect light source. Many are inflatable, foldable, and even floatable. Never get stuck in an emergency situation without a charged phone or bright light! My favorite camping lantern has a powerful LED light AND a phone charger.

A man hiking in a dark forest with a solar camping Luminaid lantern that is glowing and lighting his way.
This High Quality Solar Powered Camping Lantern Doubles As Cell Phone Charger

LuminAID PackLite Hero Supercharger

Both a phone charger and a solar light, this camping lantern is a powerhouse! Packing 300 Lumens of bright white light in Turbo Mode, it can charge your phone via a USB port in 2 hours. It has a 4000 Mah battery that’s charged by its solar panel. This Luminaid model lasts for days on low power mode. Its collapsible design folds up flat as a cell phone. It has 5 light modes including an emergency SOS flashing mode. It’s lightweight, inflatable, 100% waterproof, and extremely durable. The versatility of the Luminaid Packlite HERO makes it our top solar camping lantern.

Watch The LuminAID Packlite Hero 2-in-1 In Action

LuminAID PackLite Hero 2-in-1 Supercharger

2. Best Moroccan Solar Lantern

Moroccan lanterns create a magical shadow pattern when light glows through them. When the wind blows your hanging lantern, it’s a dancing kaleidoscope of intricate shapes. A simple, ancient concept that dazzles to this day, they are more popular than ever, and solar power charges them for hours of light.

Beautiful blue moroccan solar lantern glowing with LED lights and casting intricate shadow shapes all around

Moroccan Lanterns In Dazzling Designs

With many designs, shapes, and colors to pick from, picking one of these metal beauties comes down to your personal taste and the space it will illuminate with its outdoor ambient light. Solar-powered Moroccan lanterns charge by direct sunlight and have long-lasting battery life, giving them a gentle glow at night. Which of these is your favorite?

Beautiful Moroccan Solar Lanterns

Teal moroccan solar lantern with warm light casts dazzling shadows

Moroccan Teal Lantern

Teal blue with warm yellow light

4 Pack Color Lanterns

Red, blue, green, and yellow

Solar Moroccan lantern casts a leaf pattern shadow

Swirling Leafy Lantern

Leaves swirl in weathered metal

Royal Blue Moroccan lantern with golden star pattern

Maggift Star Lantern

Gypsy lantern with golden stars

Solar Moroccan lantern with a floral design that looks like daisies.

Yinuo Floral Lantern

Flowers aglow in your garden

Bohemian solar lantern casts a spiral design

Bohemian Lantern

Cool spiral shadows


3. Best Oriental Solar Lantern

Oriental lanterns originated in China and Japan and are made of paper or silk stretched around bamboo. With a glowing candle within, the ancients released the glowing orbs to the heavens to commemorate ancestors.

Chinese solar lanterns glow colorfully with an oriental charm

Today, these balloon-like luminaries still create an exotic ambiance, however, they glow thanks to soft white LEDs and are powered by a solar panel cleverly hidden in the cap on top.

Solar Chinese Hanging Lanterns 

The sublime, pure colors of these Chinese lanterns create the perfect mood for parties and festive party evenings. At 12″, they’re bigger than most Oriental solar LED lanterns and are a beautiful light source. Illuminate your garden parties with these 8 energy-saving lanterns that will spark some joy in your nights.


4. Best Vintage Solar Lantern

When you’re going for the rustic, cabin feel, a vintage-style solar lantern is the perfect marriage between old-fashioned style and modern tech. Two minimalist solar-powered metal lanterns stand out above the rest for vintage decor. Better yet, they are 100% solar powered!

Bronze Vintage Lantern

These Bronze Vintage Lanterns look like real “flame” lanterns. Features warm dancing LED lights. The retro style makes for unique rustic decor. Available in purple or warm flame colors.

Vintage copper solar lantern

Copper Vintage Lantern

The Pearlstar Copper Vintage Solar Lantern has a rustic style reminiscent of traditional hurricane lanterns. The warm filament-style light shines in the intricate copper caging. First-class quality and minimalist style evoke a bygone era in this simple yet lovely lantern.


Beautiful woman gazing into a decorative, red solar lantern that glows and sparkles with light and star shapes

5. Best Decorative Solar Lanterns

When you want a showpiece that doubles as a gorgeous night light, then a decorative solar power lantern is for you. There are many artistic and fanciful designs to choose from that reflect the style of your home and garden. Much like Moroccan lanterns, there is a wide variety to choose from so you’re sure to find one that captures your fancy. Check out some of my favorite styles with cleverly concealed solar panels.

Best Themed Decorative Solar Lanterns

These colorful, whimsical-themed lanterns feature butterflies, flowers, hummingbirds, and peacocks.

Best Artisan Look Decorative Lantern

Blue artisan solar decorative lantern by Exhart
Exhart purple artisan solar glass lantern

To truly appreciate the beauty of Exhart artisan lanterns, visit their Solar Lantern Store on Amazon

Exhart’s translucent glass hanging lanterns feature hand-blown glass with metal caging hung on long metal chains. Inside the hand-blown glass are firefly LED accent lights. These exquisite hanging solar powered lamps are crafted with industry-grade glass designed for outdoor use.


6. Best Mason Jar Solar Lanterns

Mason jars have the perfect design for solar lanterns. The solar panel is integrated into the lid, and the jar is filled with LED lights to give Mom’s mason jar a brand new jam. Mason jar lights are made of strings of LED fairy lights twined into unique mason jars for a magical home-spun glow.

Fairy Lights Mason Jar

Solar Fairy Mason Jar Light that can hang or be placed on a tabletop

With braided hemp rope handle

Color Cycling Mason Jar

Color cycling solar powered mason jar

 With color cycle & lock modes

Mom’s Classic Mason Jar

Mom's classic solar powered mason jar

Filled with warm white fairy lights

Crackled Glass Mason Jar

Large crackled glass solar powered mason jar

 Extra-large globe with 30 bright LEDs


7. Best Classic Retro Solar Lanterns

The timeless elegance of these exceptionally crafted solar lanterns by TomCare feature flickering LED lights for a true candle effect. Constructed of heavy-duty metal with a rustproof finish and classic designs, these solar powered lanterns have lighting modes to suit your mood. The solar panel is equally top-notch and has earned TomCare an excellent reputation for its solar light products. The dancing flame in their 4 popular designs will create a warm ambiance in your garden.

Beautiful solar lantern lights up a dark corner of a yard by glowing softly on a bench

You’ve seen the best solar lantern styles. Here are the key points to remember:

  • Solar powered products need direct sunlight without shading for the best operation
  • No wiring, electricity or recharging is needed
  • While these are water resistant, bring them in during extreme weather for the longest life
  • If you get a defective unit, return it for a replacement after fully charging and testing it
  • Less is More: Lighting effects are most dramatic against darkness. Don’t use too many lights
  • Consider the location when picking a style
  • Highlight an alluring area of your yard
  • For camping lanterns, go for durability, portability, and battery life
  • Choose warm white LED solar lights for maximum ambience
  • Solar powered camping lanterns can be used as emergency lights and chargers
  • Most important, pick a lantern that sparks joy and mystery in your garden at night

Explore our other posts, guides, and reviews about solar lights, decoration, gadgets, and gear. If you have a pool, these solar pool lights are amazing!