My wife and I used this (finally) at the beach today when the weather was incredible (also finally). The beach is only about a 15 minute walk from the house and sadly I bought the wrong item on Amazon, so we didn't have any ice for the cooler. We didn't have much to bring, so there were some cheese sticks, pretzels, etc. and some sodas in there. It got a little heavy and the handle starts to sting your hand a bit, but it didn't creak or give me any impression that it was going to bend or break in any way - I'd rather have a little hand discomfort than have a cooler break on the first outing.Even without ice, the cooler stayed pretty darn cold, and even about an hour and a half later, our drinks were still pretty cool and pleasant to drink. I'm assuming that they'll be even better when I order the right thing next time and we have ice packs in there.If you're looking for a cooler to hold drinks upright, sadly, this isn't it. The few bottles of soda we brought had to be placed on their sides, so definitely no 2-liters, bottled sodas, or beers will stand upright in this cooler. Cans will be fine. The little button on the top of the lid opened the cooler easily, but I can foresee sand or something getting stuck in there and making opening the lid a little challenging, or the button giving out after many uses. So far that hasn't happened, so the 5-star rating remains. I'll update this review if anything changes, but for now, my wife and I are very pleased with this cooler and look forward to taking it out again during our beach trips this summer (and hopefully many more)!