The 11 Best Water Bottles, According to Frequent Travelers

No matter where we travel, we never leave home without a reusable water bottle. After extensive, hands-on testing on a wide variety of bottles on the market, we’ve reviewed and found the 11 best for just about any water-related travel need. From time-tested favorites to ones with new technological advances that keep beverages colder longer, these are the best travel water bottles to pack on your next trip.

Courtesy of Hydro Flask

Hydro Flask 21 Oz. Standard Mouth Water Bottle

Best overall

• Buy now: $35, hydroflask.com
• Capacity: 21 ounces
• Weight: 0.75 pounds
• Pros: Keeps drinks cold for hours and lots of fun color options
• Cons: Prone to denting if you tend to drop things often

Bend, Oregon–based Hydro Flask has long been a favorite for outdoor enthusiasts because the brand’s bottles boast excellent insulation, feature a comfortable, flexible plastic swing handle, a seriously leakproof lid, and come in a variety of sizes and bright colors. Its newest colors are inspired by Oregon’s waterfalls (Cascade blue), flora (Trillium pink), and old growth forests (Fir green).

And Hydro Flask’s double-wall insulation will keep your drinks temperature-stabilized for a full day’s hike—24 hours for ice-cold beverages and up to 12 hours for hot ones.

The 21-ounce standard mouth bottle fits plenty of water, while also being lightweight enough to tote around all day. The standard mouth is easy to sip from without drenching yourself if you hit a bump in a car or turbulence on an airplane. For longer, more active days, we’d also recommend the 32-ounce wide-mouth bottle with a straw lid option.

And Hydro Flask’s commitment to sustainability goes beyond giving consumers an option to replace single-use plastic bottles. Through its Parks For All program, Hydro Flask has donated more than $3.7 million to nonprofit organizations supporting public parks in the United States. Plus, it has eliminated single-use plastic packaging in more than 90 percent of its products.

Courtesy of Yeti

Yeti Rambler 36 Oz. Water Bottle

Best insulated water bottle

• Buy now: $50, yeti.com
• Capacity: 36 ounces
• Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Pros: Durable and keeps drinks cold for days
• Cons: So big it doesn’t fit in cupholders and can be heavy

The 36-ounce Yeti Rambler looks impressively beefy: Its very appearance promises to preserve your drink’s original temperature no matter what—and the Rambler makes good. Want to go backpacking for a few days and find an ice-studded bottle of lemonade when you return to your car? This is your vessel. We’ve successfully transported ice cream in this bottle (after chilling it with cold water).

As with many well-insulated bottles on the market, the Rambler is made with double-walled, food-grade stainless steel. But it’s tougher and hardier than most: You can drop this bottle from a first-floor balcony and find it undented from the fall. And unlike most double-walled bottles, which require hand washing, the Rambler is dishwasher safe.

The extra-wide opening is both a pro and a con: It means the lip won’t collide with your nose, but it does allow for a possible tsunami of drink should you sip in bumpy conditions. Wider (3.8 inches) and heavier (1.5 pounds) than most comparable bottles, the body is too big for most cars’ cupholders. But the simple screw-top lid is particularly comfortable to hold, in part because it accommodates three fingers, instead of one or two as other bottles do, and the rounded plastic doesn’t dig into your skin when the bottle is heavy with water.

If you love the look of Yetis but don’t love how heavy they are, the brand’s Yonder 34-ounce BPA-free plastic bottle weighs less than half of what the Rambler does (just 0.7 pounds). Since it’s not insulated, it won’t keep your water cold long, but it’s sturdy enough to support the weight of an adult woman without even bending. (Yes, we’ve tested this.)

Courtesy of EcoVessel

EcoVessel Aspen

Best stylish insulated water bottle

• Buy now: $35, amazon.com
• Capacity: 25 ounces
• Weight: 1.56 pounds
• Pros: A sleek design that also keeps drinks cold (or hot) for hours
• Cons: Despite its streamlined looks, it’s one of the heaviest bottles on this list

The 25-ounce Aspen manages to pack impressive water-cooling properties into a streamlined shape. It slides easily into cupholders and the holsters on most totes and backpacks. But this bottle’s comparatively thin walls keep drinks cool (or hot, as you prefer) for an astonishingly long time: EcoVessel claims cold water and drinks will stay cold for 100 hours, making the EcoVessel Aspen one of the best water bottles for hot climates. We haven’t fully tested that boast but can confirm that this bottle kept water icy for a full day, even in roastingly hot weather.

Though it still features an easy-to-sip-from opening, the updated version of the Aspen bottle released in 2022 features a wider mouth so it’s easier to fit ice cubes now. Once inside, they last a long time, thanks to a three-layer construction that sandwiches copper between two layers of stainless steel. The new version also comes with a hidden handle that pops up from the lid when you need it and folds down when you don’t. It’s recyclable but also durable (with a 100-year warranty!), so you’re not likely to deal with this bottle’s end-of-life issues. Losing it is more likely—leaving some lucky finder to enjoy its sleek good looks.

Courtesy of Amazon

A5 memobottle

Best flat water bottle

• Buy now: $39, amazon.com
• Capacity: 25 ounces
• Weight: 0.37 pounds
• Pros: Space-saving and sleek design
• Cons: Doesn’t stand up easily on its own

Melbourne-based memobottle pulls design inspiration for its flat water bottles from Australian paper sizes including the A7 (six ounces), A6 (12 ounces), and A5 (25 ounces). Like paper, these bottles lie flat inside your bag or in an airplane seatback pocket. Tiana Attride, AFAR’s social media editor, is a fan of this design for practical and aesthetic reasons. “They’re stylish and fit into bags much more easily than the big, clunky water bottles you usually see,” she says.

All memobottle sizes are available in a lightweight BPA-free plastic or a sturdier stainless steel design. For travelers who tend to down a lot of water, opt for the 25-ounce plastic A5 to maximize your hydration without carrying a lot of weight. A certified B Corp, memobottle donates five months of safe drinking water access for every bottle sold via a partnership with Water.org. So far, it’s provided 33.8 million days of safe water.

Courtesy of Klean Kanteen

Klean Kanteen TKWide

Best water bottle with interchangeable lids

• Buy now: $33, kleankanteen.com
• Capacity: 16 ounces
• Weight: 0.86 pounds
• Pros: Insulated and offers five different interchangeable lids
• Cons: Stainless steel can hold on to flavors, so it can be hard to switch between coffee and water without lingering odors.

Sure, you can fill this 16-ounce bottle with water, and we do. But its five interchangeable lids make the TKWide bottle from Klean Kanteen ready for anything. We like the Café Cap, which features a small opening perfect for sipping coffee that twists closed, saving you and your bag from spills. It also has a metal swing handle that makes it easy to tote along on hikes but snaps to the side when you don’t need it. The TKWide Straw Cap comes with a 10-millimeter, stainless steel–and-silicone straw that accommodates thicker beverages, like smoothies or frozen margaritas.

The BPA-free, food-grade stainless steel bottle is insulated, keeping contents hot for up to 14 hours or iced up to 47 hours. It’s also treated with Klean Kanteen’s proprietary, chip-resistant Klean Coat finish and backed the brand’s lifetime “Strong as Steel” guarantee.

In addition to being a B Corp, Klean Kanteen announced in April 2020 that it is 100 percent carbon neutral in its manufacturing and delivery of products as well as Climate Neutral Certified.

Courtesy of Amazon

Vapur 0.7L Wide Mouth Anti-Bottle

Best collapsible water bottle

• Buy now: $10, amazon.com
• Capacity: 23 ounces
• Weight: 0.125 pounds
• Pros: This collapsible bottle is dishwasher safe, ultra-lightweight, and the most affordable option on this list.
• Cons: Can be clumsy to drink out of

The Vapur Anti-Bottle is one of the best travel water bottles for planes and an efficiency expert’s dream. When full, the water pouch holds nearly a liter of liquid, but empty, it weighs a mere 2 ounces and occupies about as much space as a wallet. The cap has a built-in carabiner for latch-and-go ease, and the body’s three-ply, BPA-free plastic is pliable enough to fold up into the clip. But don’t let the flexibility fool you—this pouch is durable enough to resist leaks, regardless of how many times it’s been rolled, twisted, or shoved in a full backpack. The Anti-Bottle can also stand on its own when full (or half full, or anything but empty, really).

Refills are a breeze with a hard plastic wide mouth at the cap’s base, and a much narrower mouthpiece protected by a flip top makes for spill-free sipping. Active adventurers will appreciate the Drinklink tube accessory that converts the Anti-Bottle into a hands-free hydration reservoir. This collapsible bottle alternative is dishwasher safe, so there’s no need to buy a special cleaning tool for the interior. It’s also freezable, meaning it can serve as an ice pack if necessary.

Courtesy of LifeStraw

LifeStraw Go Series 22 Oz. Water Filter Bottle

Best filtered water bottle

• Buy now: $45, rei.com
• Capacity: 22 ounces
• Weight: 0.54 pounds
• Pros: This filter bottle is made with BPA-free plastic and is dishwasher safe (once filter is removed)
• Cons: The filter can be hard to drink from, and it displaces liquid, so the bottle holds only 15 ounces of water at a time.

The 22-ounce LifeStraw Go Series is one of the best water bottles with a filter. It looks like a basic plastic bottle with screw-top lid, but the “straw” inside is a two-stage filter. Its hollow-fiber membrane traps bacteria, parasites, and even microplastics. Then, an activated carbon capsule neutralizes unpleasant flavors and odors. (There’s also an insulated stainless steel version of this bottle, if you want to keep your water chilled.)

Yes, you have to suck a bit harder on this mouthpiece than you would from an unfiltered straw. But you’ll hardly grow faint: The hollow-fiber technology delivers a speedier flow than most other filters.

Replacement cartridges cost $25, and since one filter treats 4,000 liters, that’s generally less than the cost of buying a similar amount of bottled water. The large, bottle-length filter also displaces a significant amount of liquid, so the 22-ounce capacity is misleading. With the filter inside, the Go holds more like 15 ounces.

The trade-off is convenience. The Go is super handy for city and country travel—especially in places where the drinking water isn’t always trustworthy. It fits tidily into bottle pockets on backpacks and in cars’ cupholders, and the BPA-free plastic is thicker and tougher than most: LifeStraw builds each bottle for a long life of service. Promoting reusable plastics is just one part of the company’s sustainability program: LifeStraw also provides clean drinking water to needy communities. With each Go purchase, the company provides one child with a year’s worth of water.

Courtesy of Katadyn

Katadyn BeFree

Best lightweight filtered water bottle

• Buy now: $45, rei.com
• Capacity: 33.8 ounces
• Weight: 0.14 pounds
• Pros: This filter bottle takes up barely any space and weighs just over two ounces, making it great for backcountry adventures.
• Cons: The filter isn’t made with carbon, so it doesn’t remove funky flavors, plus the bottle can be clumsy to hold.

When empty, this collapsible water bottle packs down to the size of an apple, yet it delivers huge benefits: Its drinking spout sits on top of a (replaceable) filter that effectively traps protozoa and other disease-causing organisms. That means you can fill the silicone flask from any suspicious source and immediately enjoy clean water wherever you are.

The hollow-fiber filter delivers a pleasingly fast flow that’s genuinely thirst-quenching during exercise. Whereas some filters (including the LifeStraw, above) limit the flow to smaller sips, the BeFree releases a big, mouth-filling gulp—which we appreciated on 14,000-foot Colorado peaks where exertion and altitude left us too breathless to work hard for small returns on water.

We’ve used the one-liter BeFree to drink from roadside streams, backcountry lakes, hillside springs, and airport bathrooms—and can report no resulting ill effects. And you can count on a cartridge to last for several trips: Each one filters 1,000 liters (says Katadyn) and replacements cost $27.

But the BeFree doesn’t filter out funky flavors. It’s designed to be ultra-light and compact, so there’s no carbon element to neutralize foul tastes or smells. The bottle’s squishy design has advantages (packability) and disadvantages (it can be clumsy to hold). Instead, the filter-as-you-sip system is perfect for trail running, backcountry trekking, long-haul flights (no need to trust the airplane’s grimy water tank!), and any trip where you’ll need plenty of water but don’t want to be burdened by surplus water weight.

Courtesy of Larq

Larq Bottle PureVis

Best self-purifying water bottle

• Buy now: $99, livelarq.com
• Capacity: 17 ounces
• Weight: 0.84 pounds
• Pros: This self-purifying bottle also offers double-wall vacuum insulation and is one of the most stylish ones out there.
• Cons: Expensive

The 17-ounce Larq Bottle is expensive, but your money buys you a lot—including a germ-free water bottle. It’s not always easy to remember to wash your water bottle while traveling, but the Larq does it for you. The bottle’s cap is fitted with an ultraviolet light that disrupts the DNA in bacteria and viruses, rendering them unable to reproduce (which is how they cause diseases). And not only does the UV light kill waterborne microorganisms, but it also does so regularly, by automatically firing the UV beam every two hours to kill germs that may have been introduced from your mouth or a questionable water source.

Unlike UV pens, the Larq doesn’t use mercury, which causes environmental problems when it’s tossed into landfills. Plus, the Larq’s UV bulb has more stamina, lasting 40 times longer than mercury-based technology (according to Larq).

The bottle also uses a rechargeable lithium polymer battery that lasts one month on a single charge. Pressing the top of the cap activates the light: Tap once for normal purification, or twice for “adventure mode,” which is useful when you suspect your water may be loaded with harmful microorganisms.

Even if you never refill it with untreated water, the Larq is an attractive bottle that uses double-walled stainless steel construction to keep beverages cold for 24 hours or hot for 12. And if it also self-cleans between proper washes? That’s priceless.

Courtesy of Purist Collective

Purist Collective Maker Mug

Best glass water bottle

• Buy now: $38, rei.com
• Capacity: 10 ounces
• Weight: 0.58 pounds
• Pros: This lightweight glass water bottle looks and insulates like a stainless steel one
• Cons: This bottle is not dishwasher safe

Glass bottles are great at repelling flavors and odors, which makes them particularly versatile: You can switch among coffee, water, and wine without any whiff of the previous beverage infiltrating the next. And unlike some plastics and metals, glass doesn’t leach chemicals into your drink. But glass is heavy. Most glass water bottles (like the silicone-wrapped ones made by Lifefactory) might be great for home but feel too burdensome for travel.

Purist Collective solves this problem by lining its high-quality, surgical-grade stainless steel bottles with an ultra-thin layer of nonporous glass. We filled the 10-ounce Maker with coffee and cream in the morning, then refilled it with water—and discerned no java aftertaste. The glass veneer is so thin that the Purist weighs just over half a pound. That’s no more than other double-walled metal bottles, so it’s easy to tote around all day.

The 10-ounce Maker comes with a leakproof scope top that rotates to let you adjust the flow and sip from anywhere around the top. The larger 18-ounce Mover and the 32-ounce Founder come with basic screw-top caps with carrying loops. Additional caps can be purchased, including a flip-top one for more active adventures.

Even better than the clean, modernist design is the give-back program: Purist Collective contributes financially to a network of social and environmental nonprofits, like Oregon’s p:ear, which assists homeless youth through art education and job training. So this good-looking bottle does good, too.

Courtesy of Thermos

Thermos 16 Oz. Funtainer Water Bottle

Best water bottle for all ages

• Buy now: $20, thermos.com
• Capacity: 16 ounces
• Weight: 0.6 pounds
• Pros: Push-button lid allows for one-handed drinking
• Cons: Not designed for hot liquids

This vacuum-insulated stainless steel water bottle keeps drinks cold for up to 12 hours and is durable enough to withstand any matter of drops or dings. Though it’s technically part of Thermos’ Funtainer kids collection, it doesn’t mean adults can’t use this water bottle, too. In fact, AFAR’s executive editor Billie Cohen says she carries one around all the time. “It’s small, but that’s enough for city walks or just my usual day-to-day. Those big bottles get heavy, so a small one is a nice change,” she says.

Beyond its fun-size packaging, Cohen says she likes that the bottle opens with a push of a button so you only need one hand to drink. “And a must for me is that the spout is totally covered so that it stays clean when I inevitably drop it on the airplane floor,” Cohen says.

This article originally appeared online in 2018; it was updated on March 28, 2024, to reflect current information.