How to Choose the Best Travel Bag for Your Trip

When planning a trip, the importance of picking the right travel bag cannot be overstated. The bag you choose directly can have a direct impact on your overall travel experience through the level of comfort and convenience it provides you. Short city breaks or month long hiking trips place a totally different set of requirements on both your gear and your bag itself so it’s essential to know what to look for.

Finding the right travel bag that caters specifically to your needs can significantly enhance your next adventure. One that’s organised and easily accessible can help you navigate various travel situations with speed and minimal hassle. Knowing your bag is in order can make stressful situations like airport security a breeze, allowing you to focus on enjoying the journey.

As travel preferences evolve, a growing number of people are gravitating towards minimalist travel and there’s now a very active active subreddit dedicated to the one bag approach. This coupled with the popularity of the digital nomad lifestyle has lead to a transformation in people’s travel gear choices. Sleek, versatile and functional bags have gained popularity, offering a simple and more flexible way of travelling.

We cannot recommend adopting the one bag approach enough on your next big adventure. It comes with a huge number of benefits like cutting down on luggage costs, saving time not waiting at baggage reclaim and removing the risk of your bag going missing. For the purpose of this guide, we’re going to assume you are flying with carry-on baggage only.

Read on to see what the most important features to consider are when choosing a bag for your next trip, as well as couple of our favourites.

Selecting the Right Size for Your Needs

Perhaps the most important to thing to consider when choosing your travel bag is the size. This will largely be determined by the length of your trip and the gear that it involves. It’s also worth checking out the size and weight limit of the airline(s) you’re flying to make sure you don’t take a bag that’s too large or packed too heavy.

If you’re heading out on a weekend getaway to somewhere warm for example, then a small duffle bag or holdall will probably do just fine. On the other hand, a longer trip across multiple destinations with varying climates is going to require something a bit larger with a few features like a dedicated travel backpack.

Rolling suitcases take the strain off your back and shoulders but also come with their own limitations. Those handles and wheels all count towards your weight limit and they can be a real pain to manoeuvre across uneven surfaces. Bags that can pack down smaller or have expandable features can be a real life saver here, giving you extra flexibility should you need it.

Ultimately, when choosing our bags, we opted for dedicated travel backpacks that were pretty close to the size limits of most major airlines. These were lightweight but had a ton of space to make sure that we could use them for almost any kind of adventure.

Prioritising Comfort and Ergonomic Features

After making sure that your bag is the right size, the next most important to focus on is comfort. If your bag is uncomfortable to wear and difficult to move around, it has potential to make your travel experience miserable.

Features like padded shoulders, chest straps and back support massively improve the ergonomics of your bag and make carry it a much more pleasant experience. Make sure that all the straps and harnesses are adjustable and set up correctly for your body shape to maximise the comfort you’re getting. Adventure focused travel bags can also come with handy features like ventilation systems to keep you cool and minimise sweating during extended wear.

You can also help yourself out by evenly distributing the weight around your bag when packing it, making sure that you’re placing excessive strain on one part of your body when carrying it.

Choosing Durable and Weather-Resistant Materials

The material that your bag is constructed is also a key consideration when choosing your travel bag. If you’re heading to a wet climate for example that you’ll want to make sure it’s waterproof so your belongings aren’t damaged by the elements. Similarly, if you’re heading off on an outdoor focused adventure and your bag is going to be in for a rough ride, you’ll want to make sure that it’s durable to avoid any damage to the bag or it’s contents.

With the growing climate crisis, you may also want to consider how sustainable and eco-friendly your bag in order to minimise the environmental impact of your travels. For example, the products in Patagonia’s black hole line are made from recycled materials that are incredibly durable and water resistant. Patagonia as a company are very vocal about conservation and sustainability so we’d highly recommend supporting them. If you want to even be more environmentally conscious, you could purchase a bag via their Worn Wear program that repurposes used gear.

Structure and Organisation: Compartments and Cubes

Your bag’s structure and organisational tools can make your travelling experience flow smoothly. Easily accessible pockets for storing travel essentials can help you navigate airports and flights without having to root through your bag to find things like passports, visas or liquids.

Some bags also come with handy compression straps that not only secure your belongings and minimise wrinkles in your clothing, but also help to reduce the overall size of your bag, allowing you to pack more into smaller spaces.

Removable dividers and modular compartments let you customise your bag to suit your gear and needs, meaning the same bag can be taken on a variety of different trip types. Also look for extra features that make packing easier. For example, bags with laptop sleeves save weight and space by removing the need for your own one. Bags with external loops also allow you to clip on gear to be carried externally for easy access.

Versatility and Adaptability

Your bag becomes a lot more useful to you if it’s versatile and can be used in a variety of different situations.

We’ve already touched on customisable storage above but bags that offer multiple ways to carry them can be a huge bonus when travelling. For example a roller bag that has foldable backpack straps can help you carry it across uneven surfaces in a pinch. Similarly, a backpack that transforms into a tote for beach days means you don’t need to carry both.

Choosing a bag that works for both all types of adventures is ultimately going to save you money by removing the need to purchase multiple different bags.

Ensuring Bag Security

How secure your bag is is something you may also want to pay attention to, especially when travelling to destinations you’re unfamiliar with. Lockable bags and cases can help to deter opportunistic thieves and give you peace of mind when travelling.

Some more high-tech bags will also come with RFID blocking pouches for your cards to prevent electronic pickpocketing.

Our Picks

Mike – Patagonia Black Hole MLC 45L

After working my way through all of the considerations listed above, there was a clear winner for me. This bag is one of the largest you can buy whilst still adhering to various airline sizing policies but is still very lightweight, allowing the vast majority of the weight limit to go towards your belongings rather than the bag itself. It has a huge variety of compartments for items such as laptops, electronics and travel documents as well as a ton of handy features like a detachable shoulder strap and an integrated luggage tag.

One valid criticism this bag occasionally receives is that the main compartment lacks any real structure or organisation and therefore your items can shift around if not secured. I addressed this by packing everything inside these Cipway Compression Packing Cubes to get all my items neatly organised and in place.

Camilla – North Face Base Camp Voyager Duffel 42L

Ultimately, I chose the this North Face bag because of it’s thoughtful design and features that suited my needs. The multiple compartments and dividers allowed me to neatly organise all my things for easy access while on the go. I loved the flexibility of backpack straps for longer journeys paired with convenient carrying handles for quick trips. The 42L capacity provided space for all my essentials without becoming too bulky or heavy and still adhering to carry on luggage regulations. While the practical features sold me on this bag, I can’t deny the trendy tandoori red colour sealed the deal by adding a pop of personality.

Need Help Packing? Make sure to check out our handy printable packing checklist PDF.