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I have a cool box, an electric cool box and a 3-way (gas, 12v and electric) fridge to choose from and I take what suits the kind of camping I'm doing that particular weekend. If it's not high summer and I'm going for less than 4 nights I find the cool box perfectly adequate and it saves having to pay for an EHU pitch. It helps if you freeze in advance some of the milk and food that you're not going to use immediately as this helps keep the cool box cool for two or three days. It's not unknown to take frozen milk on Friday and still find crystals in it on Monday morning. You can usually refreeze ice packs on site, for a small fee. Mark your packs clearly with a waterproof marker and take a big elastic band to bind pairs together when in the freezer....saves rummaging.

Tips though....chill any food before you put it in the box. Open box as little as possible and don't leave it sitting open, also return unused portions of food asap to prevent them warming up too much.  In warmer weather I take a thin insullated carrier bag as well (the sort sold at the supermarket check outs for taking chilled food home), line the coolbox with that and as the food is used I fold the top over to eliminate dead air space round the food.

As to chilling the beer and wine...put it in a bucket or bowl part filled with water, drape a wet tea towel over it and keep it on the shady side of the tent, preferably in a breeze. Evaporation will cool the bottles down.

If you get EHU, which I recommend you do, then get an electric coolbox, one that goes in the car but get an adapter so you can plug it in to your EHU on site. Halfords sell the adapter.

Also, for your first trip, think about borrowing one, even an ordinary non electric one and freeze curry, bottle of water or your milk before hand.

I think it's too much hassle to go away for only one night. It's the same amount of work to go for one night as two (or more) so you may as well have a chill out day where you're not unpacking or packing.

Hi there

just to add my experience, if you get a cool box (non electric) get a good one i have an Igloo Maxcold coolbox and i must say it is really good, some places i have booked do not have EHU available so the electric fridge wont be any good to you then

a few tips

1. fill some thing like a cola bottle with water and use that aswell as ice blocks, the bottle stays frozen for about 3 day,

2. dont leave the lid off, last year we went with friend and their electric fridge broke so she stored her milk in our box, only prob evertime she made coffee she came over took the milk out walked back to her tent to put it in the cups and then brought it back and closed the lid, this did not help

3. if it does defrost too fast (for reasons mentioned above ) and your blocks have not re frozen again, pop to the supermarket and get a bag of ice, not only does it keep the box cold, its ideal to pop in your drinks.

Saying all that some sites do have fridges on site which you can use, but i would not recomend this all the time.

Have a great time, we are going on our first trip may day weekend,

Amanda

A fridge is the most convenient (and most costly) option. Not having EHU is not a problem because 3 way fridges run on gas and 12V DC sources too.