All products featured on GQ are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Did you drink enough water today? If not, we’ve found the best water bottle to make sure you drink your daily recommended dose of H20 in a day with ease. Put that single-use plastic bottle down and upgrade your drinking game to a reusable water bottle. The planet will thank you. These containers are all you need to make sure you’re staying properly hydrated all day, because when you’re hydrated, you’re doing your body a favor—more so than any fancy moisturizer, frozen eye mask, or whatever cure-all snake oil someone’s trying to sell you. These bottles are also built to seal your liquids in nice and tight to avoid in annoying bag spillage and keep your water cool throughout the day. After much heavy (water) drinking, we found the best water bottles for every type of person for whatever scenario they may find themself in.
What to look for in a water bottle
Finding a good water bottle is deceptively hard. Here are just a few things to consider before you find your next drinking companion to maximize your water intake.
Size: When it comes to water bottles, size does matter. The bigger water bottle might not be better because it could be inconvenient to tote around, and if you want something for your car, you’ll want a water bottle that actually fits in your cup holder. Then again, if you get something too small, you’ll have to constantly be looking for a refill, and when water fountains are out of the way, you probably won’t stay on top of your daily water drinking.
Materials: Whether it’s plastic, glass, or metal, a water bottle has to hold up against whatever you throw at it. Glass won’t be a great option for on-the-go folks, but they do look prettier than the alternatives. Plastic is lightweight, but chances are your cold water will be room temperature before you know it. And metal is good for insulation, but it’s also heavy, and tends to skew on the pricier side.
Water bottle caps: Besides the basic screw cap, you can opt for a water bottle with a lid that suits your needs. Maybe you want a sport cap—the one that you can suck on like a baby bottle—so that you’re not fumbling around with a loose lid while you’re mid-workout. You could also get a straw cap, which for some reason just makes drinking things more fun (but is also annoying to clean).
Best Overall Water Bottle: Hydro Flask Water Bottle
Hydro Flask has been making insulated water bottles for a little over a decade now, but it wasn’t until the last couple years that they started popping up everywhere. Attribute it to the VSCO girl trend or a general uptick of people taking self-care seriously, but the fact of the matter is that Hydro Flask makes a damn good water bottle. None from its lineup of bottles is as ubiquitous as the standard-mouth, 24-ounce bottle, which is available in pretty much every color of the rainbow.
The double-wall vacuum insulation keeps cold drinks cold for 24 hours or hot liquids hot for 12 hours, which is great for taking this thing on long trips. Its powder-coated exterior makes this water bottle dishwasher safe, but on the top rack. Hand-washing is recommended to preserve the bottle’s longevity. The coating also helps you grip it without the risk of the bottle slipping from your hands. If you want, you can swap out the regular cap for various styles of caps and lids, but for everyday use, standard mouth is the way to go.
Best Budget Water Bottle: Camelbak Eddy+
For $16, the Eddy+ is hard to beat. It’s made of plastic, but half of that plastic is made of recycled materials, and it’s BPA, BPS, and BPF free. This lightweight and highly durable bottle won’t keep your water cold as long as a double-wall vacuum insulated bottle, but it’s still an excellent cheap solution for making sure you stay on top of getting your daily water fix. Even better, the Eddy+ is backed by a lifetime limited warranty so you don’t have to be too precious with it (not that it can’t take a beating). We know some people love to drink from a straw, so if that applies to you, you’ll be a big fan. We just don’t like how grimy the straw lid can get, especially if you don’t wash it regularly.
Best Water Bottle for the Outdoors: Hydro Flask Trail Series Water Bottle
If you’re taking a hike anytime soon, Hydro Flask’s Trail Series stainless steel water bottle. Each retains the brand’s exceptional double-wall vacuum insulation for temperature control, but these bottles are significantly lighter than the brand’s other options—each Trail Series bottle is 25% lighter than the same-sized non-Trail Series bottle. Even for commuting to work, this bottle won’t add any extra weight to your already-heavy work bag.
The Best Lid Design on a Water Bottle: Purist Mover
The mouth design of a water bottle can make or break it for a specific user. A mouth that’s too big will splash water in your face if you’re trying to drink while you’re moving; a mouth that’s too small will make you feel like a hamster drinking from its teeny little water dispenser. With Purist, you get a lid that can adjust its flow and allows you to drink from anywhere along the circumference. The interior of the Mover is lined with unbreakable glass, which puts a barrier of separation between water and steel so that there’s no flavor transfer for an unwanted metallic taste. The bottle is beautifully designed, and it’s double-wall vacuumed like a Hydro Flask bottle.
Best Glass Water Bottle: W&P Design Porter
Glass-constructed water bottles are tricky. They’re nice, and they don’t impart a metallic flavor into your water. But they’re also worrisome to bring out because if you drop it, well, it’s glass and it will break. But if you just really want a glass bottle, the Porter from W&P Design is the best it gets. It’s made from borosilicate glass, so while it’s not indestructible, it might survive a short drop. It’s wrapped in a soft slip-resistant silicone sleeve, because you really don’t want to drop this bottle.
Best Water Bottle for Working Out: Takeya Originals Bottle
The ideal water bottle for working out is one that you can drink from while you’re on the move. We like Takeya Originals’ water bottle best for this because of its narrow mouth opening and ease of access—just screw off the attached cap, and chug away. Its double-wall vacuum insulated, and at this point, you already know what that means. That screw cap also has a hinge-lock so that it’s not smacking you in the face while you’re trying to have a drink, and it’s this tiny ingenious feature that really sets this water bottle over the top.
7 More Water Bottles We Like
Nalgene essentially popularized reusable water bottles. You’ll find Nalgenes sold as branded merch for practically every brand, and people love to customize theirs with stickers to make them unique. The bottle is made of Tritan, a BPA-free plastic, and it has an attached screw-top lid so you never lose it. It’s not very good at keeping your cold beverages at the right temperature, so luckily it has a wide mouth to make it easy to throw in some ice cubes. We still have to give credit to Nalgene for helping so many people ditch single-use bottles.
Miir uses Thermo 3D Double Wall Vacuum Insulation Technology, which it says keeps drinks cold for ever longer than 24 hours and hot for up to 12 hours. Miir’s bottles have a striking design because of its angular lid, which can clip onto a carabiner, and we think it’s a great alternative to Hydro Flask’s bottles.
Yeti is all about insulation from its high-quality coolers to its beer can sleeves. Its Rambler series of water bottles are just as good, featuring 18/8 stainless steel, which won’t impart any nasty flavors in your water, and it won’t hold onto any previous odors or flavors. It also has an interesting Chug Cap for when you just need to get as much water into your body as quickly as you can.
Zojirushi is known more for its rice cookers than anything else, but we won’t hesitate to say the brand makes a great water bottle. It has a flip-top lid, for ease of use, which completely disassembles for a thorough cleaning. The mouthpiece has a cool design where an air vent allows liquids to flow out smoothly instead of gushing at you. The safety lock is a nice touch to ensure the cap doesn’t accidentally flip open on its own like if it’s bumping around in your back.
Klean Kanteen’s original stainless steel water bottle wasn’t that great. First, it wasn’t insulated so your beverages were never at the temperature you wanted them to be, and they also got sweaty on the outside from condensation. Its insulated water bottle is much better with its double-wall vacuum insulation and electropolished interior to reduce flavor transfer.
Swell’s water bottles were jarring when they first came out because of their design, but people clearly loved it because its look has since been adopted and copied by various brands. Its slim profile fits in car cup holders, but its mouth opening is a bit awkwardly sized and not all ice cubes will fit. It’s triple layered and vacuum insulated, and there’s a copper layer to prevent exterior condensation.
This Contigo water bottle keeps liquids chilled for up to 28 hours, which is a bolder statement than brands that say their bottles only chill for up to 24 hours. While it is an impressive feat, it shouldn’t take you a day to finish one bottle. Aside from that, this autoseal bottle does exactly that—auto seals. Press the button to sip, then release to seal, while a spout cover prevents anything from entering your bottle.