Best Thermos & Insulated Bottles For Hiking & Camping

The Klean Kanteen TK Wide won our editor’s choice award, it’s versatile, tough, relatively lightweight, and above all reliable.

Makers KK claim this bottle can keep drinks hot for 14 hours and cold for 47 hours. In practice, we found those figures to be more like 10-12 hours for hot drinks and 35-40 hours for cold drinks, which is still mightily impressive. 

Although we’d opt for an out-and-out coffee thermos like the Stanley Classic for hot beverages, this one wins our best-in-class award for its sleek, sturdy design, convenient lids, and ability to keep water icy cold longer than any other insulated bottle we know of. 

This bottle comes with two practical lids. A “Twist Cap” with built-in reusable straw and a leakproof “Café Cap” with a swivel loop for easy transportation. The colored versions of this bottle also have a matte finish that provides a little extra grip for easy handling. 

This excellent value bottle is the ideal middle-of-the-road option for buyers who want good, but not necessarily exceptional, heat or cold retention. 

Makers Zojirushi don’t state how long this bottle keeps drinks hot or cold, but we found it maintained the temperature of soup for a respectable 6-8 hours and kept water icy cold for around 15 hours. These figures hardly place the Zojirushi among the top performers on our list but are more than adequate if you only plan on using your flask for day hikes.

Though it may leave a little desired in terms of insulating capacity, this bottle is a winner as regards to convenience. It’s easy to clean, weighs just 8 oz., and has a wide-mouth, flip-open lid with an air vent that allows your beverages to flow out smoothly. This thermos lid can also be dismantled to simplify cleaning.

Specs

• Volume: 16 oz.
• Lid: Flip-open
• Weight: 8 oz.

The Primus Trailbreak EX is our preferred thermos for camping thanks to its impressive insulation capacity, generous size, and large screw-on mug.

It’s capable of keeping your coffee hot for around 15 hours, cold fluids cold for over 24 hours, has a mighty 25 fl. oz. capacity, and comes with a screw-on mug that’s more bowl-sized in its dimensions.

The Trailbreak is also well-designed. It has a tapered shape that ensures it fits snugly into side pockets in your backpack, a silicone sleeve to protect your fingers from the cold (often an issue with stainless steel bottles), and comes with a duo of lids, one for easy access, one for maximum temperature retention. 

At 20.1 oz., this is the heaviest bottle on our list after the Stanley Classic. However, it’s 25 oz. capacity, user-friendly design, and excellent heat retention make it a great option for overnight trips nonetheless.

The Stanley Classic boasts an impressive heat retention time of 20 hours, making it the best thermos for hot drinks.

This 20-ounce, stainless-steel thermos is among the top performers on our list as regards both heat and cold retention. It can keep hot liquids hot for 20 hours and cold liquids cold for around 24 hours. This makes it second to none for heat retention and only beaten by the Klean Kanteen TKWide and GSI Outdoors Microlite for cold retention. 

This Stanley thermos also scores highly in terms of convenience thanks to its use of a leakproof twist-and-pour stopper, an insulated lid that doubles as a drinking cup, and streamlined dimensions that make it easy to pour one-handed. We would’ve preferred a grippier powder coating, but the bottle’s collapsible handle largely negates the need.

The Thermos Stainless King Food Jar, equipped with a convenient bowl and spoon, is our top choice for keeping food warm on the trail or at your campsite.

Weighing just 4.8 oz., this is the lightest model on our list. While this lightweight design does mean it offers less insulating capacity than some of its competitors, we found it keeps hot food hot for around 7 or 8 hours and cold stuff cold for 10 to 12 hours. Not bad for such a lightweight flask, right?

Also not bad is the inclusion of a built-in serving bowl and full-sized spoon – handy add-ons that can save you serious pack space and/or puncturing your kit with a spork. 

The mouth on this bottle is a little too wide to make it easy to drink from, however, so we’d recommend using it for food only.

Specs

• Volume: 16 oz.
• Lid: Screw-on
• Weight: 4.8 oz.

The Hydro Food Flask is our preferred choice for family camping when you require greater warm food capacity or insulation than the Thermos Food Jar can provide.

At 14.8 oz., this flask is a lot heavier than the Thermos Food Jar, but offers an added 4 fl. oz. of capacity and can keep your eats/drinks at the desired temp for significantly longer. While the Hydro Flask doesn’t include a built-in serving bowl, the opening is so wide that you can just eat straight from the jar!

Design-wise, this is the simplest model on our list. All you get is a double-walled jar with TempShield insulation, a screw-on lid with a soft grip for easy handling, and a gaping 4.3-inch-diameter space for all your eats.

Specs

• Volume: 20 oz.
• Lid: Screw-on
• Weight: 14.8 oz. 

The Thermos Stainless King Compact is an ultralight, compact thermos ideal for multi-day backpacking adventures.

This 16-ounce bottle weighs just 4.8 oz., making it the joint-lightest model in our review with the Thermos Food Jar. Like the Food Jar, it doesn’t insulate quite as well as the heavyweights on our list but is more than capable of keeping cool drinks cool for the best part of a day. We found it kept hot drinks hot for around 12 hours even when ambient temps were at or below zero. 

The design of this bottle is free of frills and sure to appeal to those who like to keep things simple. It has a tough stainless steel double-insulated body, a twist-and-pour stopper, and an insulated serving cup lid. While a handle or powder coating would have made it a little easier to handle, there is an indent in the exterior that allows you to pour your drinks one-handed.

Specs

• Volume: 16 oz.
• Lid: Twist-and-pour stopper
• Weight: 4.8 oz. 

The Healthy Human Stein is one of the world’s most popular reusable water bottles and earned our prize for best budget thermos.

The Stein costs almost half the price of the Primus Trailbreak EX Vacuum Bottle and considerably less than many other 16-ounce bottles on the market.

This insulated water bottle also has an incredibly user-friendly design. It’s streamlined enough to slide easily into a backpack, has a powder-coated exterior for easy handling, a leakproof lid, and a three-finger carry handle that can be attached to your belt or backpack with the included carabiner. 

In terms of insulating capacity, the HH Stein is a solid performer. It can keep hot drinks warm for 10-12 hours and cold drinks cold for 20-24 hours. If it had just been a little lighter and included more than a single screw-on lid, it may well have beaten the KK TKWide to our top spot.

Thanks to its high capacity, the GSI Outdoors Microlite is our preferred option for hikers with a larger appetite or those who tend to guzzle water like elephants.

This vacuum-insulated bottle has a whopping 35-ounce capacity and yet weighs a relatively modest 13 ounces thanks to its use of ultra-thin (2mm!), low-footprint steel walls. While the slenderness of these materials makes it a little less resistant to dings, it still boasts impressive insulating capacities, keeping cool fluids cool for 32 hours and hot fluids hot for 18 hours.

As you might expect from a bottle with such a high capacity, the GSI Microlite is a little on the bulky side. As such, it isn’t the best option for trips where pack space is at a premium. This is also the only bottle on our list with an integrated leash on the cap. Although this prevents loss, it can make cleaning the lid a little trickier.

Specs

• Volume: 1 liter (35 oz.)
• Lid: Twist-cap with integrated leash
• Weight: 13 oz.