Durable, Low Bulk, Well-Sealed, Ultralight Reusable Snack Bags
Ditch that wasteful Ziploc and choose reusable snack bags for hiking and backpacking instead. It makes sense to decant your treats into smaller portions for on-trail consumption, but it does not make sense to use single use plastic or to carry bags designed for urban use.
The preferred models we tested are inexpensive, ultralight, low-bulk, affordable, washable, form a secure seal, and are durable enough to be in service for years. For use as hiking snack bags, the best of the best also fit well into hip belt pockets and prevent food from going stale over the course of a backpacking trip. Short on time?
- Do choose Smelly Proof Bags
- Don’t choose Stasher Bags or Ziplocs
While you’re here, don’t miss our adjacent guides to Freeze Dried Meals, Backpacking Food, Stoves, Pots, Long Handle Spoons, and water bottles.
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Hiking Snack Bag Quick Picks
- Best Overall (by far): Smelly Proof
- Flex Between Town & Backcountry: Qinline
- Best “Single-Use” Compostable: Compostic
- Best for Kids: Bumkins
- Most Overrated: Stasher
Reusable Snack Bag Comparison table
Mobile users rotate device for full width table view
| Snack Size Model | Price ($) | Weight (oz) | Primary Material | Closure Strength | Air Tightness | Durability | Avg Trail Lifespan |
| Smelly Proof | 1.0 | 0.2 | Polyethylene | Medium | High | Medium | Months |
| Qinline | 1.5 | 0.6 | PEVA | Medium | High | Medium | Months |
| Compostic | 0.2 | 0.1 | Biopolymers | Low | Medium | Low | Weeks |
| Bumkins | 5.5 | 0.3 | Polyester | High | Low | High | Years |
| Stasher* | 10 | 2.1 | Silicone | Low | Medium | High | Years |
| Ziploc Classic* | 0.1 | .05 | Polyethylene | Low | Medium | Low | Weeks |
- *Included for reference, but not recommended
The Best Hiking Snack Bags
Smelly Proof
By a very wide margin, Smelly Proof makes the best reusable snack bags for hiking. And it’s not even close. They have all of the most desirable features and stats, are very affordable, and give the best performance by every measurement with virtually no downside. But best of all is the nylon-infused TRILOCK closure, which is much much stronger and longer lasting than any other Ziploc-style closures we’ve tested, though not invincible. The polyethylene bag chassis is very durable, completely air tight and available in a traditional flat, or stand-upright-base configuration. Both versions are great, but we prefer the stand-upright mainly because it adds additional volume. Smelly proof bags tend to last a full hiking season of heavy use before the Ziploc-style track delaminates from the plastic bag body. This is because the closure strength is very high, so each opening weakens the bond connecting the track to the bag.
- Price Per Bag: $1.00
- Weight: 0.2 oz
- Primary Material: Polyethylene
- Closure Strength: High
- Air Tightness: High
- Durability: High
- Trail Lifespan: Months
- Pros: Best-in-class performance by virtually every single measurement. Ultralight. Durable. Reinforced Ziploc-style seal. Keeps food fresh. Stands upright. Long lasting. Inexpensive.
- Cons: Made of plastic. Ziploc-style track eventually delaminates from bag.
Qinline
The Qinline Bag is a stand-in for any reusable snack bag made with food-grade PEVA (polyethylene vinal acetate), a PVC-alternative. There is a prolific marketplace for this style on Amazon, and for good reason – they’re affordable, well-sealed, lightweight, and highly functional. While this style is lightweight and effective, it’s still much bulkier and heavier than our preferred Smellyproof, and doesn’t fit as well into hip belt pockets.
- Price per bag: $1.5
- Weight: 0.6 oz
- Primary Material: Food-grade PEVA
- Closure Strength: Medium
- Air Tightness: High
- Durability: Medium
- Trail Lifespan: Years
- Pros: Ultralight. Affordable. Air tight. Good seal. Solid durability.
- Cons: Made of PEVA plastic. Very similar to but not as good Smelly Proof. Kind of bulky and structural.
Compostic
For those weaning off traditional Ziplocs, we recommend Compostic bags. They’re nearly identical, only made with an at-home-compostable biopolymer, instead of low density single-use polyethylene. They can be reused if washed, and easily last a full week in the backcountry. Compostic bags are made with a similar green material to what you’d find in compostable food-waste bags, only a bit heavier duty and more durable. The Ziploc-style closure is exactly what you’d expect. The end result is twice as expensive and twice as heavy as Ziploc snack bags, but in reality, that means up to $.20 from $.10 and up to .1 oz from .05 oz.
- Price per bag: $0.2
- Weight: 0.1 oz
- Primary Material: Biopolymers
- Closure Strength: Low
- Air Tightness: Medium
- Durability: Low
- Trail Lifespan: Weeks
- Pros: Compostable. Not made with plastic. Ultralight.
- Cons: Durability, closure, and air tightness are roughly equivalent to traditional Ziploc.
Bumkins
Bumkins offers a fun and unique take on the concept of a reusable snack bag. These are constructed with a TPU-coated polyester fabric instead of see-through polyethylene, and a true zipper instead of Ziploc-style closure. And as they’re designed for kids, they’re also available in tons of fun prints and are extremely user-friendly and unlikely to become damaged. The biggest downside is that they’re a bit expensive, ~$5 per bag, and not air tight, meaning crunchy snacks are prone to going stale over the course of a few days in the backcountry. We find they’re good for storing seeds, nuts, and dried fruit.
- Price per bag: $5.5
- Weight: 0.3 oz
- Primary Material: Polyester
- Closure Strength: Highest
- Air Tightness: Low
- Durability: High
- Trail Lifespan: Years
- Pros: Durable. User-friendly. Dish-washer friendly. Ultralight.
- Cons: Expensive. Not airtight, allows food to go stale liquids to leak out.
Don’t Choose Stasher Bags For Hiking
Despite being excellent for urban-use, Stasher Bags are abysmally bad for hiking purposes. For starters, they are approximately 10x heavier, 10x bulkier, and 10x more expensive than our preferred Smelly Proof bags. Like all silicone snack bags (such as OXO) they’re too heavy and the surface is too grippy to situate well into hip belt pockets. And when a fully-loaded Stasher is jostled around inside a backpack, they tend to pop open. The more full your bag, the more pressure it exerts on the Ziploc-style closure, and the more likely it is to come open. Let us reiterate – Stasher Bags are a good product for at home and urban use, but make for bad hiking snack bags and we do not recommend them.
- Price per bag: $10
- Weight: 2.1 oz
- Primary Material: Silicone
- Closure Strength: Low
- Air Tightness: Medium
- Durability: High
- Trail Lifespan: Decade
- Pros: Very durable. Very long-lasting. Good looking. Widely available. Silicone not plastic.
- Cons: Heavy. Bulky. Expensive. Friction-y. Unreliable Ziploc-style seal.
Conclusion To Reusable Snack Bags For Hiking
Thank you for reading our guide to reusable snack bags, where we hope you found your next hiking food storage solution. The key takeaways are (1) don’t use wasteful single use bags or heavy silicon bags, and (2) do use ultralight, durable, low-bulk, tight sealing bags. (3) Don’t use Ziplocs or Stasher bags. Happy trails!
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