Best Water Bottle for a Long Camping Trip

Q: I am going on a long camping trip. What is the best water bottle to bring?
— Andrew, Yorktown, Virginia

A: If you’re car camping with a dayhike or two on the schedule, take a look at CamelBak Chute Mag bottles ($15, holds 32 oz., scoutshop.org) or Nalgene bottles ($12, holds 32 oz., scoutshop.org). Both are durable and available in different colors and Scout designs at the Scout Shop.

If you’re venturing into the backcountry with no access to potable water, these bottles will still work fine, but you’ll want to use a filter or purification tablets to avoid getting sick from microscopic contaminants in the water you find. One top option — which is also available at the Scout Shop — is the Sawyer Mini Water Filtration System ($25, scoutshop.org).

You can invest in bottles with convenient built-in filtration systems, like LifeStraw Go ($40, lifestraw.com) or the GRAYL GEOPRESS Purifier ($90, grayl.com). LifeStraw uses a straw filter, while GRAYL uses a cartridge filter that you press water through.