Possible stupid question re coolers...

[Twiga6]

If we buy a cooler in walmart, do you need ice blocks for it?
I realise this sounds daft, but when we go from monterey to Sequoia I want something to keep drinks cool, to put milk in for tea etc, or keep sandwiches in.
I've found quite a few on the walmart website but they're solid ones, so I can't bring it home.
I've found a fabric one on amazon, but I'm not going to have anywhere to chill ice blocks am I?
Can I rent one from Avis that plugs into the car?
We have a coolbox here that plugs into the car, and also in the wall socket, but its huge, no way am i taking it to Cali!
Thanks in advance

[WendyWilson]

You can just fill it with ice from ice machines - if you don't want to put the ice directly in the cooler you could put it in carrier bags inside the cooler. Ice is available everywhere 😀.

[floridasgirl]

Yes you will need ice blocks to keep things properly cool. Can you not just buy things as you need them?

[Twiga6]

Originally Posted by floridasgirl

Yes you will need ice blocks to keep things properly cool. Can you not just buy things as you need them?

See more...

Well we could but that means potentially spending lots in hotel shops, theres not a massive choice of shops in Sequoia!
I like the idea of a picnic half way between places to break up the journey, a coolbox is a good idea for this.
Id forgotten about all the ice machines though, thats useful to remember.

[Alices Aunt]

We put water bottles/can of pop in the fridge and find that these keep things cool enough during the day. Some hotels have ice makes so we fill food bags with ice as well. Or if we are lucky the hotel fridge will have an ice compartment so we then freeze water.
We usually have 2 bags. One that is for lunch and one that stays closed all day.

Walmart/target/Costco have some lovely cool bags.

[AlexE]

We are currently on a road trip on the west coast with brutal temperatures at the moment. I got a bargain cool bag £1 from The Range before leaving. We bought a pack of water from CVS in Monterey which we leave in the car and take a few bottles when we need it. Cool bag is lined with a plastic bag then bottles then a bag filled with ice from the ice machine on top. Works perfectly.

We will use this in September on the East Coast

[THE WIZARD]

Ice from the machines in hotel/garage or when we did the CA Ocean Road trip we would just buy sandwiches/fruit from where ever we last stopped to eat when we wanted to/saw a nice place to picnic, rather than the bother of the cool box - worked well for us.

[Carolynmf]

Freeze bottles of water and use them to keep everything cool.

[Puddle5]

We just returned . We bought a cooler in Walmart $16 - quite large and each day bought a fresh bag of ice. This cost $1 to $2 dollars (except in grand Canyon ($5). Ice is available everywhere. We thought it was invaluable, we always had cold water, had orange juice, milk etc in it, chocolates and fudge we bought to bring home and sandwiches, snacks, etc.

We did several very long journeys through deserts with temp up over 40C and I felt a lot happier knowing we had lots of cold drinks, etc. I was amazed how much water we drank during out time there.

On our last day we were going to get rid of it but one of the room girls at the hotel wanted it so we gave it to her

[emmabanana]

We bought a cheap polystyrene cooler in Walmart and filled it with ice when we were in California, it was worth it to have cold drinks and snacks when we were on long journeys.