This work examines the vibration, damping, and instability properties of cylindrical shells comprised of glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite reinforced with carbon nanotubes (CNT). The 2 wt.% CNT-reinforced composites are created using the vacuum-assisted hand layup method. An experimental investigation was done to examine the material characteristics of CNT-reinforced GFRP composites. The results indicate that the CNT reinforced composite exhibits superior material characteristics. A finite element method-based higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT) is used to obtain the governing equations for the cylindrical shell. Further, a thorough parametric study is conducted to examine the effect CNT reinforcement, curvature ratio, thickness ratio and aspect ratio on the vibration, damping, and instability characteristics of the cylindrical GFRP shell. From the obtained results, it can be concluded that the 2 wt.% CNT reinforcement greatly influences the vibration, damping, and instability characteristics of the cylindrical shells.