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.