For those of us who love to travel and explore, a bag is a must-have gear. These bags contain our essential and important items while travelling and of course we want them to be sturdy and reliable. Here is a review of some of the best sturdy bags to take on your next travel adventure.
Peak Design Travel Backpack
Specifications
- Material: Nylon and polyester
- Dimensions: 21” x 15” x 5.75”
- Volume: 45 L
Why should you buy this?
This is a durable, weather-proof bag which provides top, side, rear, and bottom access to its compartments. It comes with a modular internal carry design. This means that you can merge and split compartments according to your needs. This is great as a camera bag. It has a lot of compartments which will accommodate and secure your equipment. It can also fit your laptop in the sleeve (up to 16”). It comes in black and sage green colours.
Why should you avoid this?
You can compress this bag to 35 L. Even in this size, this might be too big for everyday use and might be more suitable as a carry-on travel backpack. At almost $300, the price is also a bit steep.
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Nomatic Travel Bag
Specifications
- Material: Water repellent tarpaulin
- Dimensions: 21” x 14”x 9”
- Volume: 40 L
Why should you buy this?
This bag can be converted into a backpack or a duffel bag. It has a sleek and modern design on top of that large capacity. The material used for it is weather-resistant. It also comes with a laundry bag and has over 15 different compartments for your stuff including a laptop compartment. It is TSA compliant and comes with a TSA-approved lock and RFID pockets. All in all, this bag is perfect for long trips. It has more than 20 features for your convenience.
Why should you avoid this?
The water bottle pocket is narrow. The laundry bag it comes with is also thin. The smell of your dirty clothes might end up ruining your clean ones. You can easily buy a more reliable laundry bag though. At $269.99 price tag, this bag is also a bit expensive.
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Aer Travel Pack 2.0
Specifications
- Material: Nylon
- Dimensions: 21” x 13.5” x 8.5”
- Volume: 33 L
Why should you buy this?
This carry-on sized bag is made to withstand your adventures. It has durable and high-quality materials. Loads of organizational pockets in this bag will keep everything sorted. The zippers are water-resistant. There is also a compartment for your laptop. Not to mention, it is minimalistic and stylish.
Why should you avoid this?
If you need your laptop well-secured (most of us do), the lack of a hammock for the laptop compartment may be a downer. If you are a hiker, skip this since it will be difficult to carry around.
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Patagonia Black Hole MLC
Specifications
- Material: Polyester
- Dimensions: 17.7” x 9.4” x 5.9”
- Volume: 45 L
Why should you buy this?
If you’re about capacity, this is the one for you. It houses a massive 45 L capacity. It is also soft-shelled, perfect for overhead cabins. You can wear this as a shoulder bag or a backpack. It has a clamshell opening which is nice for quick access. If you’re carrying around papers and documents, the padded back panel is perfect in keeping them safe. It also has a padded laptop compartment that can fit up to 15-inch laptops.
Why should you avoid this?
At $199, we’re wondering why the shoulder straps are that thin. This will be uncomfortable if you carry it long enough. Also, despite being a capacity beast, we feel that it lacks some compartments for quite small items.
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Tortuga SetOut
Specifications
- Material: Polyester
- Dimensions: 21.5” x 13.5” x 7.5”
- Volume: 45 L
Why should you buy this?
This backpack is robust but light. Its carry-on size is ideal for your next flight. It comes with a padded hip-belt for increased comfort. The front-loading configuration is good if you don’t want the hassle of rummaging deep into your luggage to find your stuff. It has compartments specialized for digital storage. Tortuga was also generous in giving this organization pockets.
Why should you avoid this?
If you are a hiker, scratch this one out in your consideration. This will drag you down in your climb. Another thing is that this bag tends to sag and become quite bulky when fully loaded.
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Osprey Farpoint 40L
Specifications
- Material: Nylon
- Dimensions: 21” x 14” x 9”
- Volume: 40 L
Why should you buy this?
If you are a digital nomad, get this. This stylish bag is great for those who travel light. It is made of durable and light materials and is also compact. At full capacity, it retains is aesthetic and comfort. All the harness, straps, and the hip-belt can be zipped so everything stays dongle-free. A side strap can also be attached so the backpack can be used as a messenger bag. The zippers are equipped with lockable sliders for added security.
Why should you avoid this?
Again, this is for light travellers. If you will carry around loads of equipment, you might want to upgrade to the 50 L or 80 L versions.
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Eagle Creek Global Companion
Specifications
- Material: 600D Helix Polyester
- Dimensions: 13.75” x 21.5” x 8”
- Volume: 40 L
Why should you buy this?
This bag is made for rough handling, being equipped with durable materials. The shoulder pads are thick and mesh-padded for comfort. The harness system is stable, making it perfect for walking around. The shoulder straps also come with a built-in safety whistle which comes pretty handy in cases of emergency. It has a lot of pockets and easy to access compartments for your small items. This bag can fit up to 17” laptops in the zipper-shut compartment. It also has a built-in rain cover located at the bottom of the bag which is very handy when you’re trekking under a heavy downpour.
Why should you avoid this
The book-style opening of the main compartments can be a bit hard to manage if you need to quickly get some items inside.
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eBags TLS Mother Lode Weekender Convertible
Specifications
- Material: 840D & 900D Twisted Polyester
- Dimensions: 21.5″ x 5.5″ x 13”
Why should you buy this?
This carry-on backpack was designed for organization. There are lots of pockets to keep all our belongings in their rightful places with front, top, and side access. It is also made for durability, with its high-quality polyester material. It is great for city travellers since this can be used as a backpack or a messenger bag. For those with a huge laptop, the dedicated sling can handle up 19” laptops.
Why should you avoid this?
It comes in other colours such as red, turquoise, indigo, etc. but we feel that black is the only nice option.
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Swiss Gear Bungee Backpack
Specifications
- Material: 900D Polyester
- Dimensions: 17.75” x 13” x 17”
- Volume: 27 L
Why should you buy this?
It is affordable yet reliable. This bag is perfect for a weekend getaway. It can hold a decent amount of clothes. It also has big compartments inside to keep things organized, water bottle pocket on the side and front straps. It has a sleeve which can fit up to 17” laptops. The zippers slide greatly, too.
Why should you avoid this?
If you are packing in weeks of clothing, this is definitely not the bag. The water bottle is borderline functional. It is way too short. SwissGear could have easily given that pocket some height and this would be perfect.
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ZOMAKE Waterproof Ultra Lightweight Packable Backpack
Specifications
- Material: Nylon
- Dimensions: 16.5” x 7.1” x 11.8”
- Volume: 20 L
Why should you buy this?
This extremely affordable bag is great for overnight trips. It can be compressed to make it compact. In the expanded form, it has a decent capacity at 20 L. The nylon material is waterproof. It also has a good amount of pockets so everything stays in place. It may be the lowest-priced in this list, but it isn’t bad at all.
Why should you avoid this?
This bag is for ultralight travels. This is a secondary bag to carry around during the day in conjunction with a much larger bag to handle all your stuff.
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