The Best Insulated Lunch Bags and Lunch Coolers of 2024

We love it when the universe aligns and the thing that kids want is also a good choice. In this case, the Pottery Barn Mackenzie Cold Pack Lunch Box is an excellent choice for a durable and easy-to-carry lunch box for kids.

After years of use with a preschooler, this kids' lunch box still stands up to repeated cleanings and is easy to open by the littlest eaters. It has a handy mesh water bottle pouch on one side and multiple zipper pockets for stowing snacks, napkins, or cutlery.

The adjustable and removable divider is also a freezable ice pack, so you can add cooling without a separate ice pack. With plenty of patterns and designs to choose from (some even glow in the dark), plus personalization available, kids can choose the lunch box that best suits their style—and there’s a handy name label on the inside so they don’t accidentally end up with the wrong lunch.

Even when using ice packs, we found that a lot of lunch boxes couldn’t keep contents cold for up to six hours. PackIt has solved this problem by turning the interior of the lunch box into an ice pack, and it works!

Just store this roomy lunch box in the freezer overnight—it collapses down for easy storage—and then it keeps food cold for far longer than it takes to get from bus line to lunch line. These lunch bags are often still cold when kids get home from school in the afternoon.

The PackIt brand products were the only lunch coolers in our testing to actually decrease the temperature of the contents inside, so you can be sure that everything is safe to eat, even on warm days. The interior material is durable and easy to clean, and the freezable lunch box comes in a wide array of colors and patterns, from plain to vibrant, so there’s something for everyone.

In our testing, the CleverMade Pacifica Pro lunch bag hit the sweet spot between roomy enough to store a grownup’s lunch and sleek enough to want to carry to work. It also hit all the marks for temperature retention and easy cleaning.

There are zipper pouches on the interior and exterior of the lid so you can tuck away utensils or small snacks so they don’t float to the bottom of the cooler. Several loops along the front make it easy to attach keys, hand sanitizer, or other items you can hang from a carabiner.

The strap extends long enough to carry cross-body, although it doesn’t have a shoulder pad for added comfort. The only downside we found to this lunch cooler is its lack of designated pocket for a water bottle.

A cooler full of melting ice is the quickest way to get a soggy sandwich for lunch. The PackIt Freezable Zuma Can Cooler features the same interior ice pack design as the PackIt Freezable Lunch Box, but in a larger size that’s perfect for grownup lunches or a day at the beach.

The cooler’s collapsible design makes it easy to store in the freezer overnight, and the interior is durable and easy to clean. The top-loading zipper closure ensures cold air stays inside, but opens wide enough to see what you’re grabbing.

The cooling-gel walls do add a bit of weight to this lunch bag, but it’s about the same as (or maybe even a little less than) you’d experience by adding ice packs to a cooler bag. We love that you don’t need ice packs so there’s extra space to pack more snacks and drinks.

This bag is also a great grocery store or farmers’ market companion if you’re transporting meat or dairy on a warm day, and it’s perfect for keeping multiple meals and drinks cold on a long road trip.

Fans of Yeti coolers with love the Daytrip, which is a durable, cleverly-designed lunch bag.

After folding it flat and freezing it overnight (and supplementing it with two additional ice packs), the Daytrip lunch bag maintained temperatures lower than 40°F for just under five hours. This Yeti has a magnetic closure mechanism at the top of the lunch bag, which helps it to seal in hot and cold temperatures.

To completely close the lunch bag, you can fold the top of the Daytrip over and latch it securely in one of a number of possible loops that make it easy to seal the Daytrip whether it's completely full or not. Both the handle and the material of the lunch bag itself are durable, and will do fine in a rough-and-tumble outdoor environment.

Additionally, the adjustable storage configuration is a really neat idea, but because the top of the bag folds over, the amount of space available may be less than you expect.

While the Daytrip lunch bag doesn't provide all-day cooling, its folding design is perfect for keeping snacks cool during beach trips and day hikes.

The L.L. Bean Expandable Lunch Box is a good investment. Its expandability means it can grow with the user, and its durability means it can be used and passed down for years.

While this lunch box is insulated, it does require an ice pack to keep contents cold. There’s a convenient mesh pouch on the inside of the lid where you can slide a slim ice pack.

We consistently paired this with one of our favorite kids lunch boxes, the Bentgo Chill—it fits perfectly and keeps lunch cold without excess ice packs.

This lunch bag has a slimmer profile than many other brands, which makes it particularly backpack-friendly. When it’s time to add extra snacks or drinks, we just unfurl the expandable zipper and gain two extra inches of height in the lunch box.