The Best Coolers that Keep Refreshments Colder Longer

“I personally have a lot of coolers. However, my absolute favorite cooler is my Coleman Xtreme cooler,” shares Ryan Cunningham, founder of camping site Beyond the Tent. “It's just the most practical. It keeps ice for up to five days and it’s inexpensive. Many of my expensive coolers weigh far too much and don't hold a ton of food for how big they are and how much they weigh. The Coleman is the lightest and weighs the least of them all.” Add in the wheels and telescoping handle and this cooler is super easy to transport over pavement, grass or sand. It’s not the sexiest cooler on this list, but it will do the job.

“For car camping, we really like our RTIC Hard Sided cooler,” says McDuffie. “It has a similar design and performance to the now iconic Yeti line of coolers but costs a lot less. We think RTIC coolers are a great value that gets you top-of-the-line performance without costing a small fortune.” Indeed, this cooler promises up to eight days of ice retention, despite the fact that it’s lighter than most coolers its size. Lid latches, non-slip feet, and two different carrying handle options round out some of the other features. You can also purchase a divider and/or basket for easier organizing inside. Just don’t be surprised by the three inches of insulation that shrinks the size of the cooler’s interior just a bit.

Whether you’re heading out on the boat for the day or enjoying a quick overnight, this compact Igloo cooler will do the trick. “I use it for weekend trips where I need to bring some stuff,” shares Lauren Aber, an avid camper and hiker. “Just last weekend, I used it to come up to Vermont, where we knew we were cooking breakfast and one dinner, and it fit everything perfectly for that. It’s easy to carry with the shoulder strap.” The soft sides are weather-resistant, while a side pocket and built-in bottle opener round out the extra features. Plus, if you need to go bigger, this cooler also comes in a 30-can size.

The tall, narrow shape of this Pelican cooler, along with its sturdy handle, make it easy to tuck it in and pull it out from alongside or behind the seats of your car. Meanwhile, the size is perfect for stashing all the drinks and snacks you need for a day on the road, and it’s durable enough to survive any accidental tumbles onto the pavement. Since it’s a small cooler it won’t retain ice for as long as some of the big boys, but if you’re replenishing your rations every night that won’t be a problem.

If the Yeti Tundra 45 is versatile, the Tundra 65 is all-purpose. One of the largest coolers on this list, it’s perfect for a family camping trip, a day at the beach with your friends, or a backyard barbecue. You’ll get everything you can expect from Yeti, including superior ice retention, rotomolded and bear-proof construction, and multiple handle options for transporting, plus an interior storage basket. The large size of this hard-sided cooler also means that it can double as a bench, table or even stage. It is pricey and may be hard to move around, but it makes up for that in durability and quality.

Our team tested the Corkcicle Chillpod Go, the smaller sibling of the Corkcicle Chillpod. With a 13-quart capacity, the Go is perfectly sized to fit just what you need for a day at the beach, accommodating up to 16 cans of your favorite beverage—or four 10-inch hoagies and four to six cans of the beverage pairing of your choice. While the Chillpod Go doesn’t have a rating for ice retention, our tests showed that ice packs stayed frozen after 12 hours on a hot, sunny day (and were semi-frozen 12 hours later). The cooler has a silicone latch and gasket inside the lid that prevents cold air from escaping, adding to the insulating effect. What we found most appealing, however, was that it was an unexpectedly stylish take on a traditional cooler. The curved lines and fun color options gives it a retro flair that made this a cooler you’ll want to show off. (Also, it was sturdy enough to double as a makeshift seat for a 5-year-old.)

With padded shoulder straps, a rigid and padded back panel, an adjustable sternum strap, and a weight of under three pounds, this Hydro Flask product is essentially a hiking backpack that also happens to be a cooler. If you’re planning a hike that will take all day and you want to stop for lunch in the middle, this is the cooler for you. It’s waterproof and watertight to withstand any moisture coming from outside or inside. The cooler will even stand up on its own for when you’ve reached an overlook and want to snap a photo without your backpack cooler on, a feature that’s also helpful for loading and unloading the cooler through the narrow opening at the top.

“Our family is expanding and once we need a bigger cooler, we're going to pick up an Igloo Trailmate 70 qt cooler,” shares McDuffie. “The biggest reason is that it has wheels to help transport it. Fully packed coolers get heavy!” Indeed, this large cooler clocks in at nearly 35 pounds before you even start to fill it, so the ten-inch wheels and telescoping handle will certainly come in handy. But that’s not the only handy part about this cooler: It’s loaded with additional features perfect for the beach, such as a removable tray, self-draining cup holders, built-in bottle openers, an exterior storage pocket, an interior food basket, and two pole slots to hold a beach umbrella or fishing pole. What more could you need?

This good-looking backpack cooler from Corkcicle is spacious enough to hold snacks and drinks or a picnic lunch for a few friends. The wide top opening makes it easy to load, while the extendable side pockets mean that your large, insulated water bottle doesn’t need to take up space inside the cooler. A big front pocket offers enough room to stash your wallet, phone, and keys so you won’t need to take another bag with you to the park or the beach. While it looks a bit like a travel backpack, the Lotus isn’t built for distance, but if you’re walking a mile tops to the location where you’ll spread your blanket, it’s perfect.

Here’s a cooler with a particular set of skills: It’s more like a portable ice bucket and wine chiller with additional storage, than a standard cooler. Our team tested the lightweight insulated neoprene bag, which has a unique design featuring the central ice compartment (the aforementioned “wine chiller”) that closes with a heavy duty drawstring and very roomy exterior pockets that are just right for holding bottles of wine, rolled-up beach or picnic blankets, portable speakers, and everything else you need for an on-a-whim wine tasting under the sun or stars. Since it’s more of a cooler-adjacent product, ice retention isn’t necessarily the priority (that said, ice lasted in the central bucket for 3 hours). Instead, the benefit is being able to pop bottles or cans into the central bucket to quickly chill and put on display. The bag’s woven strap made the bag comfortable to carry, especially when worn on a bike ride (it wears like a cross-body bag). The fact that it comes in a fun assortment of colors adds to its charm, and the neoprene water-resistant exterior is very easy to clean. Overall, it was a great addition to our summer entertaining supplies—we just wish it was priced a bit more affordably.

While there are lots of cooler brands that make coolers with wheels, RovR specializes in them. And as you would expect, the quality is exceptional: The thick wheels easily traverse any terrain and the telescoping handle makes it easy to pull. RovR is so confident in the quality of their wheels that you can even purchase a kit to attach this cooler to the back of your bike and pull it along the boardwalk. The only downside is the price, which is quite high for a cooler this size and could buy you multiple camping mattresses. At least it comes with a canvas bin (normally sold for $40) that fits on top of the cooler and straps down for additional pullable storage space.

“I have a Setpower electric cooler. It has two sections that you can keep at different temperatures, so you can have one act as your fridge and one as your freezer,” says Cunningham. This portable fridge/freezer combo plugs into the cigarette lighter in your car and uses your car’s power to maintain the temperatures, which you can set anywhere between 0°F and 50°F. It also has battery protection so you don’t need to worry about draining your car’s battery. “It is kind of unnecessary, but super cool,” Cunningham says. “It can be nice if you need to keep something frozen while camping or for me, my deep freezer broke and I had it as backup while I waited for my new one.”