The best hiking water bottles: stay hydrated at camp and on the trails

The best hiking bottles are a durable solution to your hydration needs on the backcountry trails. Unlike many soft flasks and bladders, most hiking bottles don't alter the taste of their contents, making them much more palatable for the discerning adventurer.

Some of the best hiking bottles feature filters that protect against bacteria and microplastics, while others have insulating qualities and will maintain the temperature of your beverage. Crucially, all enable you to stay hydrated when exploring the great outdoors.

It should go without saying these days, but a quality water bottle is also great for the environment. Carrying one bottle around in your hiking backpack is much kinder to the planet than buying multiple plastic bottles. A quality bottle's durability means that you won't have to replace it for many years.

The quick list

The best hiking water bottles

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Best bottles with filtration

The Lifestraw Peak Series Collapsible Squeeze 1L Water Bottle with Filter comprises a soft water bottle with a Lifestraw membrane microfilter that inserts into the bottle with a drinking spout. This lightweight and easy-to-use combo takes all the hassle out of sourcing safe drinking water in the wild during fast and light adventures.

When you’re ready for a refill, you can unscrew the top, fill the bottle with water from a stream or lake, then drink directly through the filter and avoid bacteria, parasites, microplastics, silt and sand. You can also remove the filter from the bottle and drink directly from a stream, using the filter like a straw, or carry extra bottles and squeeze the water into them. The lightweight, sleek, cylindrical soft bottle design compresses as you drink and easily packs into your backpack pockets. Make sure you follow the instructions for regular maintenance of the filter to prolong the life of this high quality hydration system.

Read our full Lifestraw Peak Series Collapsible Squeeze 1L Water Bottle with Filter review

A microdisc filter in the lid of this German-designed bottle turns tap water into filtered water as you drink. It’s not a solution for backcountry water purification, but it can improve the taste of your tap H20. The pull-out mouth piece makes the bottle easy to operate with one hand, although you’ll need two hands if you decide to keep the protective cap in place. Each filter lasts for about four weeks, and a pack of six extra discs costs $20 (US) / £28.60 (UK) from Brita. A neck loop offers an alternative carrying option, and the lid and mouth piece dismantle for cleaning (it’s also dishwasher safe). The bottle is made from BPA-free plastic, and it’s squeezy to accelerate water flow.

Best bottles for general use

Yeti’s reputation for building robust, practically bulletproof drinkware continues with the Rambler 20oz bottle with chug cap. Made with stainless steel, this double-wall vacuum water bottle keeps your drinks hot or cold, though we found it didn’t keep our tea hot overnight and prefer it for keeping beverages icy. The screw lid has a convenient carrying handle (though if you drop it, it probably won’t dent), and under the lid is a screw on plastic chug cap, which is basically a drinking spout which makes it easy to drink out of this without dumping water on your face.

When you want to fill it or clean it, just remove the chug cap and the wide mouth gives you plenty of access. It’s also dishwasher safe, which is a huge plus. It doesn’t sweat when it’s full of cold liquid, and doesn’t leak when it’s rolling around in your backpack.

This is a heavy and bulky piece of gear compared to other hiking water bottles, so we prefer it for car camping and picnics, and it doesn’t come cheap, but if you’re looking for something that will last a lifetime of adventures, this is your bottle.

Read our full Yeti Rambler 26oz Bottle with Chug Cap review

Designed for everyday use, the Chute has a robust handle on its lid for ease of carrying, which makes it simply to attach to a pack with a karabiner if you don’t want to store the bottle in a pocket. The bottle itself is a stiff (unsqueezable) plastic that is free from BPA, BPS and BPF, and comes in an impressively wide range of colours. When you do want to drink, the magnetic cap attaches to the side of the bottle, out of the way, and there’s a satisfying flow of water. Drink over it’s important to screw the cap back on fully to avoid leaks. After use the bottle can be cleaned in a dishwasher without the plastic becoming brittle. Dismantling the mouthpiece for a deep clean is a little fiddly, but rarely needs doing if you only drink water.

If any plastic bottle can enjoy iconic status it’s the Nalgene Wide Mouth, which has become something of a design classic. Excellent longevity and a leak-proof construction have made it a favourite of walkers for years, while a kaleidoscopic choice of colours means there’s an option to suit whatever you wear or carry. The bottle itself is BPA- and BPS-free, doesn’t taint the taste of water, and is easy to clean, whether by hand or in the dishwasher. The volume scale along the side makes it straightforward to track how much you have drunk, while the wide mouth makes it easy to use as a useful storage capsule for other kit on flights, and for dunking a purification straw when drinking ‘wild’ water. Paying extra for the ‘Easy Sipper’ lid makes drinking directly from the bottle a tidier affair.

This stainless steel hiking water bottle is large enough to carry a whole day’s water on the trail, and its wide mouth makes it easy to refill along the way on hot days and easy to clean when you get home. Vacuum insulation keeps icy beverages cold for 24 hours without forming condensation, while your tea will stay hot for six to eight hours, and the stainless steel leaves no metallic taste and doesn’t hold onto the taste of juice, coffee and sports drinks.

The screw-on lid comes with a convenient carrying handle, making it easier to tote around with you when you’re on the go, which is a good thing because this bottle is bulky and heavy when full. It’s one of the pricier water bottles out there, but great for those of you who like having a veritable reservoir on hand on the trails or at your desk.

Read our full Hydro Flask 32oz Vacuum Insulated Stainless Steel Water Bottle review

Drop it, bash it, drive over it… every scratch, dent and ding only seems to enhance the everlasting appeal of the classic Sigg water bottle. There’s even one on display in New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The aluminium bottle is light and utterly secure – you can even fill it with fizzy drinks and they won’t bubble out. The interior lining in no way taints the taste of water, and the finger-space lid makes it easy to carry or hang off a pack. It is, however, a two-handed business to unscrew the cap, and experience suggests that cap and bottle are easily separated in busy kitchens. An alternative ‘Active Spout’ is available for walkers who want to drink on the go. The only issue is cleaning the bottle, especially if you fill it with a sugary drink, although Sigg does sell Bottle Clean tablets.

Read our full Sigg Traveller 600ml/20oz review

As at home on the trail, desk or in the gym, the Sigg Total Clear is every inch the modern water bottle. It may offer one-handed opening, handy for drinking on the go, but its spout uses a smart belt and braces approach to avoid leaks. A thumb press releases a catch, which in turn releases the drinking spout, so there should be no chance of inadvertent spillages. The bottle is made from neutral-tasting, BPA-free plastic, it’s dishwasher safe, and its wide mouth makes it easy to fill (including with ice cubes) and to clean. The top also acts as an effective hook – carry the bottle with a couple of fingers on the trail, or karabiner it to your rucksack.

The Tritan in the Lifeventure’s name refers to the top-of-the-range Tritan plastic used in its construction. It’s the same impact-resistant, taint- and odour-resistant material used by most of the premium bottle manufacturers, and comes at a great price from Lifeventure. The outside of the bottle has a tactile, rubberised finish, so it shouldn’t slip through sweaty hands, and the flip-top cover over the spout makes one-handed use easy, before clicking back in place to create a leak-proof seal. A volume calibration scale up the side helps you track how much you have drunk or how much to dilute energy powders, and the 650ml capacity offers a useful 30% extra volume over half-liter bottles while fitting easily into the same rucksack pockets.

How to choose a water bottle

Volume

It may sound daft, but how much liquid a bottle can hold is really important. Viewed in isolation bottles all tend to look a similar size, but there is a significant difference between 0.5-, 0.75- and 1-liter volumes. The smaller bottles are easy to use one-handed and slip easily into the side pockets of a rucksack, while bigger bottles allow for longer adventures.

Material

Stainless steel bottles should last forever, even if you have to replace lost or damaged caps. But they are a bit heavier and they will rattle terribly in a cage on a bike. Plastic bottles have amazing longevity these days, impart no taint or flavour to the drink, and are light and easy to handle.

Lid

A wide mouth makes it much easier to fill a bottle with ice cubes, and means an insulated bottle can also be used as a canister for hot food. Narrower tops are neater for drinking. Most bottle manufacturers offer a range of different lids for the same bottle – screw top, pop-up spout, straw etc.

BPA etc

There’s a growing awareness that some plastics contain chemical components that are best to avoid for health reasons. Most premium plastic bottles are free of BPA, BPS and BPF (bisphenol A, S and F), but it’s worth checking the label.

Insulated

Chilled drinks taste like nectar on a scorching day, but there are other ways to make water more palatable (hydration tablets, squash, fresh fruit) if you don’t want the extra bulk and cost of the insulation.

Cleaning

Wide mouth water bottles are much easier to clean, which is a particular benefit if you prefer sugared drinks. Bottles with narrower bottle tops may need a special brush to clean the bottom. Alternatively, a number of bottle manufacturers also make cleaning tablets that will give bottles a more thorough clean.