A huge part of planning for a family camping trip is lots of food, especially if you’re bringing the kids along. And to make sure that everyone’s well-fed, it’s essential that you bring the right size and kind of cooler for your camping food needs.
Here’s how to choose the right-sized cooler for your family:
- Know your cooler options.
- Determine the duration of your trip.
- Figure out what food items you want to bring.
- Choose according to the size of your family.
- Know what will fit in your car.
- Choose what’s convenient.
- Match your budget.
In the rest of this article, we will discuss all these 7 tips in detail to help you choose the right cooler for the whole family.
1. Know Your Cooler Options
Coolers come in several options, and understanding what they are is a good start to making sure that you get what will suit your needs the most. They generally vary in size, material, and capacity. Let’s take a closer look at each.
Cooler Sizes and Capacity
Coolers come in small, medium, large, extra-large, or commercial sizes. If you are a family of three or four, your safest bet would be to go with a medium-sized cooler. Remember that when you’re packing food in a cooler, up to 40% of its total internal space will be eaten up by your ice blocks, which is the entire floor of your cooler.
To give you a better idea of just how much each cooler size can hold, here’s a quick guide:
| Small | Up to 25 quarts (23.65 L) |
| Medium | Up to 45 quarts (42.58 L) |
| Large | Up to 70 quarts (66.24 L) |
| Extra large | Up to 100 quarts (94.63 L) |
Material
But aside from the size and capacity of the cooler, it’s important to take the material into consideration as well. What your cooler is made of will affect how heavy or light it will be and how comfortably you will be able to carry it with you, especially if you’re planning to move around a lot.
Most coolers are made of plastic because it’s cheap yet durable. Plastic coolers are also quite lightweight, which is why if you want a bigger cooler, it’s best to go with plastic. If you want something with better insulation, metal coolers can do that for you.
The only downside, though, is that metal coolers tend to be heavy, even the small ones.
For short-term storage, styrofoam coolers are an option. However, they are generally small, capable of holding up to 20 quarts (18.93 L) at most. But should you need additional and temporary space, they can come in handy for those extra ice blocks.
For big-family or week-long camping, electric coolers are a great option, as they are spacious and function exactly like a portable refrigerator. So if your campsite has electricity, you can enjoy a cold drink every time you want one.
2. Determine the Duration of Your Trip
One of the biggest factors to consider when deciding on the size of a cooler is the duration of your camping trip. Most camping trips last for 2 to 3 days, especially if the campsite is a long way from home, and your food needs to stay fresh for the same length of time.
Weekend Trip (1-3 Days): A cooler that is 20-40 quarts should suffice for a small family.
Extended Trip (4-7 Days): A larger cooler, typically between 50-70 quarts, is more suitable for longer adventures.
Longer Trips (Over a Week): For extended camping, consider coolers that are 80 quarts or larger.
The capacity or size of your cooler is essential to making that happen.
A small cooler will be capable of keeping ice frozen for up to 24 hours, which is great if you’re only going on an overnight trip or using it as extra storage.
But if you’re going to be away for 2 to 5 days, you’ll need at least a medium-sized cooler, which can keep food fresh for up to 5 days with the right conditions and enough preparation. The space inside your cooler is essential because the longer you’re going to be away, the more ice you’ll need to pack.
Tips on Keeping Food Fresh on Long Trips
Aside from choosing the appropriate size for a cooler, there are other things that you can do that will help a great deal in extending the freshness of the food that you take with you on a long camping trip.
- Use dry ice. Dry ice can stay frozen much longer than regular ice.
- Insulate the outside of the cooler. This will help maintain the temperature much longer, especially if you’re in a warm campsite. To do this, simply wrap your cooler in a sleeping bag or blanket and keep it away from direct sunlight.
- Pack large ice blocks. Smaller ice cubes are not ideal for long trips, because they melt faster. Make sure to organize and pack these densely in the cooler to maximize space.
- Refrain from opening the cooler too often. Opening your cooler too often will let in too much heat.
- Chill food items before packing. Before organizing items inside your cooler, make sure that food that can be chilled, such as drinks, is chilled prior to packing. This will help keep the temperature low inside the cooler for much longer.
- Line the inside of your cooler with aluminum foil. This will help trap cool temperatures in, making your ice melt much slower and your food fresh for longer.
- Leave little to no unoccupied space inside. As much as possible, organize your food items and ice blocks so that there’s no space in between items or on top. If there are any small, unoccupied spaces, put what ice packs can fit. What’s important is the cooler is tightly packed when you close it.
3. Figure Out What Food Items You Want To Bring
The next thing to consider is what food items you’re planning on bringing. Shelf-stable food and drinks are different than perishables.
Food and Drinks: If you need to store both food and drinks, consider a larger cooler or an additional smaller cooler for beverages.
Perishable Items: For trips where you’ll have many perishable items, a cooler with better insulation and larger capacity is essential.
Are you planning to layout elaborate meals every day, or would you be having quick eats instead? If you have a child that’s a fussy eater, you might need extra cooler space than you would if you were camping with adults that won’t complain about having cold sandwiches every day.
Ideally, you should bring foods that have a long shelf life and won’t need to be stored in a cooler, such as powdered milk, cereal, bread, and canned goods. But on a camping trip where you’re planning on catching fish, for example, you’ll need to make sure you have ample cooler capacity to keep your catch fresh.
On a trip where you’ll be storing meats for a camping trip that should last 2 to 3 days, you’ll need at least a medium-sized cooler, packed with ice blocks that fit nicely underneath and above your meats.
Also, for items that tend to go bad easily, dry ice will be your best friend.
It melts much slower, so as long as your cooler is packed densely with them, you should be able to consume your meats up to 2 days after storage without worrying that they have gone bad.
In addition, if you are planning on storing meats, do so in a different cooler. You don’t want to mix raw meat with other food items, like fruits and vegetables. So when planning how big your cooler should be or how many to bring, consider your meal plan first.
You will typically need at least two coolers on a camping trip that will last 2 days or more.
4. Choose According to the Size of Your Family
How big your family is will also play a part in the size of your chosen cooler. Whether or not there is a baby in the family also matters. In addition, if you store breastmilk, you’ll need to give considerable space for it.
Babies require several feedings in a day, so don’t underestimate the amount of milk you’ll need to take with you.
A family of 3 or 4 can manage on a medium-sized cooler for an overnight or 2-day camping trip. A bigger family of 5 to 6, on the other hand, may need a large cooler, especially for a longer trip. You can use small coolers, but those can mostly only carry a few cans of drinks or extra ice blocks in case of an emergency.
If your car can accommodate it, you can bring a large cooler to store most of your food items plus a medium-sized or small cooler that you can carry if you’re going hiking on a particular day and planning to lunch away from the campsite.
However, if you are a considerably big family and you’re planning to go camping for a week, you might want to consider using an electric cooler instead. These typically accommodate up to 50 liters, and you don’t have to worry about your food going bad.
- Small Family (2-3 People): A 40-50 quart cooler should be adequate for a weekend trip.
- Medium Family (4-5 People): Opt for a 50-70 quart cooler for trips lasting a few days.
- Large Family (6+ People): A cooler of 70 quarts or more may be necessary, especially for longer trips.
5. Know What Will Fit in Your Car
Another important consideration is car space. If you’re going camping with your family, expect to pack a lot of stuff. From tents to sleeping bags to blankets to food, all of that will take up space. And an incredibly bulky cooler won’t help make it easier to fit everything in.
Carrying Ease: If you’ll be transporting the cooler frequently, consider one with wheels and sturdy handles.
Space in Vehicle: Ensure the cooler fits comfortably in your vehicle along with other camping gear.
So if you’re a big family, consider bringing along at most a 60-quart (56.78 L) cooler. With this, you get to have enough space for food items good for a family of up to 5 people.
It can be a bit large, but not too large that you’ll have problems fitting it in your car’s trunk.
One tip to save space: If you are camping with a big family, create a meal plan that will require more tinned goods and dry food instead of fresh meats. Dry goods will save you so much space and are so much easier to bring along because you don’t have to keep worrying about shelf life.
If you need to bring more than one cooler, bring two medium-sized coolers instead. A small cooler may be too small for a family camping trip, and you’ll only end up wasting space on it. At best, it will be able to only carry ice and a few drinks.
Plus, after a day, what ice you put in it will have melted and become completely useless as far as storing food is concerned.
6. Choose What’s Convenient
When choosing a cooler, make sure that you are taking your camping activities into consideration. Will you need to take your cooler hiking? Will you be lunching away from your car or near it? Are you going to move from one campsite to another?
These will help you figure out what kind and size cooler will work best for you. If you will need to take your cooler hiking, for example, choose one that you can comfortably carry at full capacity, depending on the length of your hike.
A 30-quart (28.39 L) cooler will perhaps be the most appropriate in that case. It’s not too heavy to carry on a short hike and spacious enough to fit what food you need to prepare.
However, if you’re going to camp near your car, you can afford to have a larger cooler where you can stock all the food you’ll need for the whole duration of your camping trip. Having a medium to large cooler will also be more convenient if you are going to be stationary most of the time.
7. Match Your Budget
Last but not least, you need to work within your budget. Good-quality coolers can be expensive, especially when you’re looking for something within the medium to the large size range.
You’ll typically spend anywhere from $200 to $350 on a medium-sized cooler.
You’ll be able to find coolers for $100 or less, but they are mostly pretty small. If you’re on a really tight budget, prepare to set aside at least $200 for a good medium cooler. If you want something with better insulation, though, you may have to spend more.
As much as we all want to save a few bucks, it’s always best to invest in something that will last a long time and that will be of better use. So before deciding to go for the cheapest option, check for durability, insulation, and capacity.
A really good cooler may be a bit expensive right now, but if you could use it for years and years to come, you’ll actually end up saving instead of losing money on it.
Final Thoughts
A cooler is a camping must-have. It may seem like a really minor detail, but it can actually make or break your camping trip. So before jumping on the first option available at the store, we hope these tips on how to choose the right size, and kind, of cooler, helps you make a choice that will make your camping trip not just a good one but a great one.