A well-placed survival kit can make all the difference when you’re stuck in an unexpected situation, regardless of where, when, and how it happens. While survival kits can come with vastly different contents, they all have the same purpose: to help you survive an emergency until either the situation is fixed or help arrives.
In this guide, we’ll see two main types of survival kits: infinite survival kits, which are designed to give you the tools you need to survive indefinitely in the wilderness, and temporary survival kits, which give you tools and rations to survive until help arrives. We’ll walk you through the best emergency survival kits on the market in this guide.
This emergency survival kit is an infinite survival kit with 37 full pieces. More specifically, it has 16 survival tools, 14 medical supply pieces, and six pieces of fishing gear. This survival kit is small and easy to keep in your car, backpack, suitcase, boat, or wherever else you might need it at 10.6 by 4.3 by 2.7 inches.
While this kit doesn’t come with any preserved meals like some of the others in this guide, it has a wide range of survival tools designed to help you gather your own. The survival tools you get in this guide are a tactical knife, a flashlight, a whistle, a wire saw, a multi-tool with pliers, a thermal blanket, a rain poncho, a water bottle buckle, a fire starter, carabiners, a paracord bracelet, a compass, and a tactical pen.
This kit also includes a nice little first aid kit that’ll help you treat minor injuries in case of an accident or fall. You’ll get PBT bandages and wound pads for minor cuts and scrapes, a triangular bandage that can also act as a sling, and cotton balls for cleaning and blood soaking. Finally, the first aid kit comes with tweezers, scissors, medical tape, and more.
Lastly, you’ll get two fishing hooks, two fishing lures, and two fishing line lengths to help you procure food in a wilderness situation. The kit as a whole is waterproof and made of ABS plastic.
Our favorite thing about this kit is its versatility. Not only is it great for camping, hiking, boating, and any other outdoor activities, but it’s great for stashing in your car, boat, motorcycle, RV, or even your home. The kit itself weighs less than two pounds, so it’s easy to stash just about anywhere, and it’s the only kit in this guide that’s waterproof, too.
The only thing that could be improved with this kit would be the inclusion of food or rations. However, since including these would make the kit much larger and heavier, it’s not necessarily a detriment that it doesn’t have them. Just be aware that if you’re looking for emergency rations for a survival situation, you’ll need to purchase them separately.
This emergency kit from Rescue Guard is a temporary emergency kit. As the title suggests, it’s designed to provide enough survival supplies for four people to survive for up to 72 hours. This makes it a great kit to keep in cabins, basements, or RVs for families, and it makes a great emergency kit for individuals, too. The kit will last much longer for just one person.
This kit mostly contains medical supplies and food. The 60-piece first aid kit contains supplies such as ointment, pain relievers, gauze, wound tape, gloves, and a guide to help you tend to injuries.
The kit also comes with a squeeze-powered flashlight, two ponchos, two emergency blankets, a pack of tissues, latex-free exam gloves, dust masks, four biohazard bags, two light sticks, a survival whistle and compass, a firestarter, an emergency tent, emergency rations, and water.
This survival pack also comes in an “Intermediate Survival Pack” upgrade that adds a few more items, including duct tape, multi-tool pliers, sleeping bags, and more.
The intermediate survival pack is a great starter kit that comes with virtually everything you could feasibly need in a temporary survival situation. However, be aware that the bags are hefty – even the basic kit starts at over 20 pounds. The basic kit could use a few more survival items, such as pliers or a multi-tool, but you can always add these yourself after if you’d like – the backpack it comes in is big enough for a few extra items.
Unfortunately, there are a few problems with this survival kit. Firstly, the backpack it comes in is cheaply made. It’s okay for holding your first survival kit, but it might not hold up long enough for a refill. Secondly, this kit sometimes comes with missing items, so make sure you unpack and verify everything before stowing it away.
This emergency kit from Ready America is very similar to the last kit we looked at. This is also a limited-survival kit with enough food for four people for three days. Of course, if you were using it just for yourself, it would last much longer.
This kit has some issues, but for a moderately-priced survival kit, this comes with a surprising assortment of things. One of the best items is a “power station” combination unit, which is actually a crank-powered flashlight that can also power other items. Do be aware that, while the power station can charge cell phones, the cable that comes with it is outdated.
Other items you’ll see in this safety kit include a multi-tool with pliers, a whistle, gloves, safety goggles, duct tape, rations, water, glow sticks, survival blankets, duct tape, a first aid kit, and more. However, the water comes in milk-style cartons, which can puncture or leak easily. If you purchase this kit, check that all of your water cartons are intact upon arrival (and before you take it anywhere, too).
Like the other kit we looked at, the included backpack is a bit flimsy – don’t expect the zippers on the pack to hold up to dirty conditions. It might be worth swapping out the bag for a better one if you intend to carry this with you frequently, such as if you plan to take it hiking or camping. That way, you can add more items to the kit, too – there’s not much room for more supplies in the included backpack.
This disaster bag from Redfora is unique because you can order it based on the exact size you need. The bag itself is available for anywhere from one to six people. You’ll receive a backpack for the one-person and two-person kits; for the three-person kits, you’ll get a rolling duffel bag; and for the six-person kit, you’ll get both a rolling duffel bag and a backpack to hold everything.
The backpack and the duffel bag are water-resistant (though not waterproof), and the kits come with several items that the other kits so far on this list have not included. Aside from the usual food, water, first aid kit, and multi-tool, this kit also comes with a toiletries kit, a 36-hour candle in addition to glow sticks and a crank-powered charger/flashlight, emergency heat packs, water purification tablets, rope, a sewing kit, a memo book, and more.
Do be aware that the quantity of tools does not increase based on this survival kit’s size. You’ll get more essential items, such as emergency tents, sleeping bags, food, and water, but you’ll only get one flashlight and one multi-tool per pack.
We think that the extra items they’ve added to this kit make it a great emergency bag, especially for families larger than four. However, like with the other emergency kits so far, the bags themselves can be flimsy (both the rolling duffel and the backpack). The water packets can be prone to leaking during shipping, too.
If you’re looking for a sturdy bag that can provide you with survival tools and short-term rations, this bag from EVERLIT is an excellent option to consider. EVERLIT is a veteran-owned company, so they understand what you need most in a survival situation to get out safe and sound.
While this bag is only designed to support two people for 72 hours, it has enough survival tools included in it to help make up for that. The backpack comes with a 14-in-1 survival kit that includes a multi-tool with pliers, a tactical knife, 100 feet of paracord, a fire starter, a wire saw, a multi-purpose wallet tool, and more.
The first aid kit that comes with this bag is extensive, too – the 200-piece kit comes with a tourniquet, cut and wound treatments, burn dressings, and much more. The kit itself also comes with a working radio, which none of the other kits so far have.
While this kit might have a bit less in the way of food than the other options on this list, it makes up for that by adding in a comprehensive first aid kit and extensive survival supplies. This makes it an excellent choice for those who feel comfortable hunting or scavenging for their own food.
The only thing that seems to be missing from this kit is some fishing supplies, which are present in the first survival kit we looked at. However, because fishing supplies are small and inexpensive, they should be easy to add to this kit yourself if you desire.
Refreshingly, the backpack that comes with this set is somewhat sturdy and should stand up to some repeated use, though it still can’t compare to a real pack – buy one separately if you’re concerned about its longevity. The water packets that come with it arrive in a large plastic bag, as well, so you don’t need to worry about them spilling and ruining your bag during shipping!
In our opinion, the best emergency survival kit on the market today is the EVERLIT Complete 2-Person 72-Hour Bug Out Bag. This bag comes with enough emergency food and water to get you and a friend started, and it also has plenty of survival tools for you to utilize if you run out of rations.
Why is this bag so great? It combines emergency food with survival items, meaning it helps you with both temporary and long-term survival. Because of this, this might not be the best pack for older individuals or families with young children, since these people would want access to ready-to-eat rations for as long as possible.
However, this bag will combine the best aspects of survival and preparation into one inclusive kit for most buyers.
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