Have you ever woke up on a trip without the ability to make coffee? About 100% of people who love coffee pretty much hate having to wake up without one.
To make coffee (or tea) we need just one thing: boiling water. An electric travel kettle is designed to fulfill that singular purpose: to boil water.
In order to find the best way to bring water to a boil to enjoy that much needed morning coffee on the trip we had only one question to answer:
What is the best travel kettle to buy in 2020?
We went through a mountain of electric, stove, dual voltage, collapsible travel kettles to you the Top 5 best travel kettle choices; and the No. 1 pick is – not surprisingly – Gourmia GK320.
Gourmia is the most popular brand of electric kettles. Its GK320 dual voltage model can be folded and thus requires the least amount of space, leaving you plenty of room in the backpack or suitcase. Pretty much everybody loves it because it’s, well, a perfect little travel kettle.
5 Best Travel Kettle Reviews
This is a comparison table of the best travel kettles so that you quickly get an idea of what a good kettle should look like. Of course, you’re welcome to read the individual travel kettle reviews later on:
| Travel Kettles: | Gourmia Foldable Electric Kettle | Loutytuo Ultrathin Kettle | Bonavita 0.5L Kettle | CMDREAMS Kettle | Lyty Pink Foldable Kettle |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  |
|
| Size: | 144 inches3 | 186 inches3 | 245 inches3 | 258 inches3 | 259 inches3 |
| Weight: | 0.9 pounds | 2.1 pounds | 1.3 pounds | 1.8 pounds | 1.9 pounds |
| Material: | Silicone | Silicone | Stainless Steel | Stainless Steel | Silicone |
| Voltage: | 120V and 240V | 110V and 220V | 120V and 220V | 110V | 110V and 240V |
| Quality: |  |  |  | | |
| Price: | $$$$ | $$$$ | $$$$ | $$$$ | $$$$ |
| Avg. Rating: |  | | | |  |
| Top5er status: | Best Rated | Premium | Golden Standard | Standard Steel Kettle | Most Girly |
| Availability: | Check Price |
Also, if you check this rule in the table above:
- Silicone = Foldable (Collapsible) Kettle
- Stainless Steel = Non-foldable Kettle
Let us do a review of the best travel kettles. Here at Top5er we always start with the #1 product based on average Amazon rating – cause it seems fair and smart to listen to the people:
1. Gourmia GK320 Review – Best Travel Kettle Of 2019
Gourmia dual voltage kettle for travel is both one of the smallest and light-weight kettles out there. This makes it perfect for taking it with you on a trip. But the main thing people love is the foldability.
The dual-voltage electric travel kettle can be folded inside itself – making it a small electric travel kettle. When you bring it out, it expands from 4 inches in height to about 7-8 inches in total. It kind of doubles in size:
This little kettle packs quite a lot of power as well. Even more importantly, you can plug it in 120V or 240V outlets. This means that if you go around the US, you’ll have no problems with it. Wanna go to Japan or Europe? The little Gourmia GK320 dual voltage kettle goes with you!
Wanna go for a car trip across the US?
Well, think again about this one. One drawback of Gourmia electric travel kettle is that it cannot be used in a car. But luckily you can use it at any gas station, hotel, campsite and so on.
That’s obviously very important for the majority of people buying travel pots. It should look nice, right? It’s a small and little device that brings coffee to life – it should be absolutely adorable. Fortunately, it is:
All in all, Gourmia GK320 is lives up to the reputation of being the best the small travel kettle:
2. Loutytuo Foldable Dual Voltage Travel Kettle (Premium Choice)
The Loutytuo is the most versatile high-end travel kettle. If you pick the blue-colored one, it can even be the thing in your backpack you’re most proud of. In short, it looks amazing and it is amazing:
Of course, with the dual voltage, you can use it both in the US (110 V) and in Europe/Asia (220V).
It is made out of safe food-grade protective silicone. What is more, the lid and the heating plate are made out of high-quality 304 stainless steel. The addition of steel and the beautiful design make this the best premium travel kettle.
However, the use of steel also makes the Loutytuo kettle a bit, well, heavy. It does weigh more than 2 pounds which is not ideal for a travel kettle you want to take with you hiking or backpacking.
It can be folded into such a small size that it will fit in your arm. The total volume of the folded kettle is 186 cubic inches; this is a surprisingly small volume for a kettle that can boil more than half a liter of water in one go.
All that beautiful design does come at a higher price. You can check the current price of Loutytuo kettle here:
Bonavita kettle is a classic travel pot. If you’ve seen another traveler making coffee with a portable kettle, he or she has probably used Bonavita.
Everything about travel electric kettle by Bonavita is ‘standard’. Don’t think this is the same as ‘boring’. I mean, does it look boring?
Classic electric kettle only means that it is a very reliable travel kettle with pretty much everything you would expect a solid kettle to have:
- Dual voltage.
- Stainless steel makes it durable.
- 700 W of energy is more than enough.
Honestly, if you are buying your first travel steamer and will use it in hotels, Bonavita is the smartest choice. It is a reliable choice, albeit it can be a bit boring.
It doesn’t have that ‘wow’ effect with other travelers because most of the travelers who have seen a travel kettle in action, it was the Bonviva 0.5L kettle.
4. CMDREAM Stainless Steel Kettle For Travel
The CMDREAM is not one of those crazy foldable, collapsible kettles that you have to squeeze together to make them smaller. This is a standard kettle that you already probably have at home; you can take it up, put water in it, plug in 110V and you’ll have boiling water in 3-5 minutes.
It has a capacity of 0.5 liters; however, the CMDREAM kettle is so mini not a single dimension extends beyond 7 inches. Here is how 6.5 x 6.1 x 6.5 inches kettle looks like:
With the 800W of power, this little travel kettle can boil half a liter of water in about 5 minutes. If you want just one cup, the boiling water will be ready in 3-4 minutes.
However, it has one big drawback; it only works in the US. The CMDREAM can only use 110V plugs which are the US standard. If you are travel to Europe or Asia, picking a dual voltage kettle is a better option.
If you’re traveling in the US and need some old-fashioned no-fuss travel kettle, you can get CMDREAMS kettle here:
#5 Lyty Pink Foldable Travel Kettle For Boiling Water, Coffee And Milk
The Lyty foldable travel kettle is a bit special. And it’s not just that it’s pink. It’s kind of high-tech as well.
Do you know those standard kettles that heat water? The Lyty kettle does heat water, of course. But it also has two additional settings. It can heat water for coffee (for a perfect coffee, you should heat water about 10 degrees F below the boiling temperature) and it can heat water to baby-milk temperature.
You can see the three different settings for heating up water on the bottom of the kettle:
The Lyfy weighs less than 2 pounds, is dual voltage and you can get it here:
How To Pick Best Travel Kettle?
It doesn’t really matter where we are, we want to bring that piece of home-brewed coffee with us. The best mini electric kettle shouldn’t take a lot of space and should be as light as possible. Nobody would use even the best kettles for travel in 2018 if they would take up half the suitcase, would they?
Here is a quick list of travel water kettle features we considered when choosing the best travel kettles (5 of them to be exact, this is Top5er after all):
- Size – how small travel kettle are we talking about? Most of the best small kettles can boil about 0.5L of water. The smaller it is, the better (you can always heat water twice instead of leaving home with one too few knickers). Foldable kettles are great as well.
- Weight – what is the weight of a travel pot? The suitcases and backpacks are usually heavy enough. Let’s lighten the load here with low-weight kettles.
- Material – what is the travel kettle made out of? You can have stainless steel water heaters or ones made out of silicone. Stainless steel is more durable but silicon is lighter.
- Voltage – what outlet can you plug your electric travel cauldron in? In the US, we have 120 V outlets. However, if you travel to the UK (the tea-drinking-people country) for example, they have 230 V outlets. 230 V does boil the water much quicker than 120 V in the US, but can travel electric kettle take that voltage?
Do You Need A Travel Kettle (Alternatives)
Of course, you also have to consider some alternatives to buying a kettle for travel. Here at Top5er we also encourage you to think about ‘do I really need this’.
One this is abundantly certain:
Coffee is life. (we also try to be funny on occasion)
In any case, here are some alternatives to investing in travel vessels:
- Don’t drink coffee or tea. Admittedly, this is not always possible because we’re all pretty much caffeine addicts, but wouldn’t it be nice if we wouldn’t be? Nonetheless, when hiking, additional caffeine improves focus so we don’t fall off the mountain.
- Check if your hotel has a kettle already. Some hotels also provide you with a kettle in your room – you can quickly check this by finding your hotel at Booking (check the detailed description of your hotel suite). Yes, this will make a hotel room more expensive, but if the kettle is already there, there is little point to buy a travel one. Note: Don’t invest in travel kettle for a just 1-time trip.
- Just get somebody else to bring a kettle. If you go on a trip with a bunch of people, there are chances somebody has a travel electric kettle already. Check before going with the group so you won’t bring two of them. You obviously only need one. Bonus note: If you share this Top5er list on FB or Twitter, some of your friends will get one and you won’t have to buy it yourself. Just sayin’.
Your Suggestions Of Kettles For Travel
We hope that this Top 5 list gave you enough insight into what the best kettle features are and which one is best for you.
If you have any comments or ideas about travel kettles, you’re welcome to share them in the comments.
You can share a good or bad experience (and fun ones) with this or that kettle and even talk about where did you go on your vacation (with the kettle, obviously). We want everybody to be involved in these reviews in order to share experiences and good practices about, well, all interesting things.