I am not usually a bandwagon type person, but I am hopping on now with an ice-cold beverage in one of these cups! Ha!

So, the ridiculous hype with the Yeti tumblers last year was just crazy! (the 30 oz. tumblers currently retail on Yeti.com for about $40, but I think around the holidays prices were as high as $50 or more?) I just could not imagine how or why anybody would pay that much money for a travel cup?! Crazy, crazy, crazy.

Then we moved to Southern California (which is basically like living on the sun most of the year). We carry ice water cups everywhere we go and really loved our Contigo tumblers, but they just don’t do well to keep drinks cold and fresh for very long. And I soon realized the value of those $40 cups! Ha!

Well, Walmart has a comparable tumbler to the Yeti (under their Ozark Trail store brand). And there are a ton of these “Yeti vs. Ozark” comparison videos floating around now (where folks are testing how long both tumblers can keep ice cubes frozen or drinks cold)….

…and the Walmart brand tumbler came out ahead! Every single time! And the Ozark Trail tumblers are a fraction of the price! Cheaper and better? Sign me up!

There are a few different options to choose from. These have been super hard to find in-store (you can find them in with the camping gear), so grab them online and save yourself a trip!

• Ozark Trail 20 oz. Double-Wall Vacuum-Sealed Tumbler ONLY $7.74
• Ozark Trail 12 oz. Double Wall Can Koozie Cup (to keep canned and bottled beverages cold) ONLY $7.74
• Ozark Trail 30 oz. Double-Wall Vacuum-Sealed Tumbler ONLY $9.74

You can choose the free in-store pick up option if stock is available near you, otherwise shipping is $4.97 or free on orders over $50.

My take on the Ozark cups? 

I purchased several of the Ozark Trail 30 oz. Double-Wall Vacuum-Sealed Tumblers and we all just love, love, love them and seriously use them every single day!

We call them “Crazy Cups”! They keep ice for more than a day (with no drippy ‘sweating’ on the outside) – left sitting on the kitchen counter, by the bed overnight, or even left in a blazing hot car all day! And the cups are metal so they do get hot on the outside, but the drink is ice cold and still perfect inside! (That’s crazy, right?!)

And I really love the 20 oz. tumbler for my coffee. I ‘prime’ the cup with boiling hot water first to get the cup good and hot. Literally keeps my coffee ‘too-hot-to-drink’ for several hours and then it’s the perfect temperature even way past lunchtime! I never have to reheat my morning coffee in the microwave. If I don’t get a chance to finish the cup or if I forget my cup somewhere (which let’s face it is a daily occurrence around here!) I can always count on my coffee still being hot enough to drink! (See, completely crazy, huh?)

The only downside (and it really isn’t a deal breaker with me) is that the cups are not dishwasher safe. But it seriously takes less than a minute to clean them up by hand. The lids also are not leak proof. If you carry the cup around it will slosh a bit and splash out, but you can purchase sliding lids (and even handles) on Amazon.

We love these cups so much that the other day I went through the cupboards and tossed all of our other plastic tumblers and my favorite stainless steel travel coffee mugs right in the donation box! Hmm, I may have to go back and grab another couple cups for Pops for Christmas so he can finally toss out all those nasty plastic fast food cups he’s been reusing.

Oh, and I would also recommend popping over to Amazon and grabbing a few of these Stainless Steel Drinking Straws. The opening in the lid is super narrow and it can be difficult to find straws tall enough to work.

Do you own one of these Yeti or Ozark Trail tumblers? What are your thoughts? Yeti worth the money? Ozark just as good?