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Yes, I recently used ours with both - I switched it on the night before so it was cool and then put ice packs in with the food and beer. In the car it was all switched off and then I plugged it into the EHU on arrival. Everything stayed cold and the ice packs took a couple of days to melt.

We used ours both ways this weekend and it worked well.  In fact, we opted for a shop bought bag of ice as well as the packs and found that it lasted longer than ice blocks!  Another thing we did was to freeze the bacon, sausages etc. before putting them in the box (remember to take out what you need for the first day though, otherwise you'll be eating frozen sausages!)

If you pre-cool before you leave and pack in a few ice packs/bag of ice you should be fine for the weekend.  When we go for longer I'll just plug the box in for a while when we pop out for the day and get blocks re-frozen where necessary.

IMHO, you definately best of both worlds with these types of box.

I usually use a freeze bag rather than a box because of the space they take up but they don't work as good so I'm going to buy a box and make room even if it's something else that the children have around their feet.  I do freeze most things before we go and I'd also thought about the idea of pluging it in whilst out and about driving but for back up I hoped you could use ice packs.  So that's sorted a plug in cool box it is.  Now to find the best one at the best price.  Thank You for your comments.