Having a good travel mug in the cab with you when touring in your ‘van is, for many, an essential. Whether it’s boiling hot and you’re after a cool, refreshing sip of a favourite juice, or you’d like a warming, reviving tea or coffee, an insulated travel mug will help sustain you – and help keep your drink of choice at the temperature you want. And, as many vehicles have cupholders, being in possession of a bespoke travel mug means you’ll be able to place your drink safely and easily.

Here we are reviewing the Bodum Double Wall Travel Mug, but what are we looking for? What makes a good travel mug?

You’ll want a mug that is easy to dismantle and clean thoroughly. You don’t want to set off and find dried, leftover bits of drink from your last tour in your drink. It is, of course, useful for a mug to be dishwasher-friendly, too.

Taste is also an issue, as some plastics can give an unsavoury taste to the liquids the mugs are holding, hot drinks in particular. If the inner wall of the travel mug is made of aluminium, a superior plastic or stainless-steel, your drink should taste just as you want it.

It’s essential to have a travel mug with an easy-to-use lid, so that you can open and close it without any problems. And it is important that you get a good glug of liquid with a single tip of the mug.

You’ll also want your mug to be splash-proof and water-tight, and if it features a vacuum between the two skins, there’s a chance it will give flask-like performance, to keep your drink as hot – or cold – as you want.

Is the travel mug microwave-safe? Does it have a handle and can it be used without its lid, so it doubles as a general camping mug? These are further points to consider, to help cut the amount of kit you need to take on tour.

So, how does this product, the Bodum Double Wall Travel Mug that retails for £12, perform? Thanks to its sculpted transparent styling, Bodum’s budget entry actually looks classier than its dearer siblings, like our group test winner, the Bodum Travel Mug, which received a five-star rating. And, like that product, you can buy it in a range of colours: lime green, as seen here, or black, off-white, red or purple.

But the lower price of this Bodum Double Wall Travel Mug does bring some compromises. Its thermal properties are still pretty good, for instance, but they’re not way out in front as are those of other Bodums. From a durability point of view, this model’s plastic construction isn’t as tough as the stainless steel used in its stablemates.

On the bright side, the plastic used certainly doesn’t flavour the drink stored within. Meanwhile, although the lid is slightly fiddly to open, the unrestricted flow of fluid it permits beats everything else we tested, and makes the contoured lip on the mug’s top practically redundant.