Doesn’t matter if you are going on a weeks long cross country roundtrip and camping along the way or spending a weekend camping at the lake. Unless you’re planning to eat only peanut butter a jelly sandwiches with a warm soda you’ll need a cooler. Coolers are essential to keep drinks cold on hot summer days and expand the meal options when you fire up the camp stove. Most important factors when it comes to selecting a good camping cooler is durability, weight, capacity and most importantly insulation/ice retention. Below are our favorite camping coolers to improve your camp cuisine.
Yeti Tundra 45
What’s better than eggs and bacon at camp while watching the sun come up over then lake? Nothing, but to enjoy that you have to store the bacon and eggs over night. You need a camp cooler. The Yeti Tundra 45 is a perfect camp cooler. Big enough to hold everything and tough enough to toss in the back of the truck. The three inches of insulation will keep ice for days and keeping food cool for multi day camping trips.
RTIC Ultra-light 52
The RTIC Ultra-light is a slightly larger version of the Yeti Tundra with a different logo. And that’s okay logos make the world go around. If you need a rotomolded cooler that’s more affordable but still has good performance the RTIC Ultralight is the cooler for you. The Ultra-light will keep ice for days while also being light enough to not throw your back out unloading the truck at camp.
ORCA 58
Have you noticed we like rotomolded coolers? When it comes to coolers for camping they need to hold food for multiple days and be durable enough to not crack should they get dropped off the back of the truck. Rotomolded coolers fit that bill. The Orca 58 works great as an extra seat around the fire. The cargo net attachment is perfect to hold bottle openers or straws right next to the refreshments. With an impressive 10 day ice retention even week long trips wont need an ice stop. For large families the 58 will work well but it may be slightly too large for couples.
Yeti Roadie 48
The Yeti Roadie is either prefect or horrible for camping and it all depends on the site. If you’re tired of having to drag a heavy cooler from the truck to the campsite providing the path is smooth the Roadie is perfect. The wheels allow one person to easily move the cooler a much longer distance than a cooler without. Biggest draw back is the wheels are smaller and can get hung on rocks or difficult to get over steps.