A soft-sided cooler with big wheels is your best bet for the beach.

Yes. You want a soft-sided cooler with large, all-terrain wheels. Hard coolers with tiny plastic wheels sink in sand and are a pain to drag.

The key is wheels that are wide and chunky—think fat bike tires, not rollerblade wheels. They roll over loose sand instead of digging in. Soft sides also mean less sand traps in crevices and they’re easier to hose off.

I’d look at the Yeti Hopper M30 or the RTIC Soft Pack with oversized wheels. Both have solid wheel designs and are tough enough to sit on. You don’t need a hard cooler unless you’re keeping ice for a week. For a day at the beach, soft works better and won’t destroy your trunk.

Forget any cooler with those tiny recessed wheels. They’ll make you hate the beach.