Bags I Use
Approach to Choosing What Bag to Use
When it comes to trips, I fully believe that packing and the bags you use to travel with can make or break a trip. While on a trip with the wrong bag, it can be a huge pain in the ass. This could be something as burdensome as overly large that you have to lug around for a lot of short stops going from train station to train station during a long, multi-city trip. It could be only bringing a small bag and packing very little on a trip where you are not going to be on the move and now needing to do laundry frequently or spend a lot of time on laundry. Either way, having the right bag, or bags, can have a lot of influence on trip happiness.
Picking Out a Bag to Use
I generally think that picking out the right bag to use is an important step in trip planning. Having the wrong bag can be a huge pain in the ass. Having the right bag can make travel easier.
I will never not sneer at the time when we picked someone up at an airport with a heavy-ass, oversized roller bag that we jokingly commented must be full of shoes only to have it actually be a giant bag of shoes for a four day trip to camp near Kamloops, British Columbia. I have ire to this day about that cursed bag. It was unneeded and an example of burdensome overpacking.
Picking out the bag or bags to use has a few factors I consider. Typically, each trip is different and has its own considerations to take in.
Checking Bags
First, I will start by saying that I hate checking bags. There has been little as annoying to me as getting somewhere and having to wait around for half an hour to pick up a bag from the luggage carousel because the airport is busy or there are not a lot of people unloading the bags. I probably hate the shoe bag more than waiting on checked bags, but not by a lot.
For me, I just got somewhere neat, I want to go check it out as soon as I can. If I have to wait on checked bags, I am now sitting an airport wanting to leave while waiting with a bunch of other people trying to get their bag as quickly as possible. When traveling with people who do check bags, I am happy to wait for them away from the carousel but will go out of my way to avoid checking bags.
One more thing, by refusing to check bags, I never really risk having my luggage fail to show up and needing to scramble for clean clothes and toiletries. Dealing with a lost bag or scrambling to replace things after a flight landing late at night seems like a nightmare that I do not have to partake in.
Short Trips
For shorter trips, it always seems to me that a single bag is the way to go. Less to carry and given my bias for never checking bags, it makes flights a bit more comfortable. If I can get away from having to work on a trip, this is easily done with a single bag. If I do need to work, I will see what I can do to consolidate down to one bag, but it is not always doable.
In the situation that I have to work and need two bags, I will bring two bags and consider what each should be. Typically when having to take two bags, this is a roller bag and a laptop bag. This has been my norm for trips I have to work on. Laptop and support gear go in the laptop bag, most everything else goes in the roller bag.
Longer Trips
On trips where I will be gone for a week or more. It depends on how mobile I need to be.
On trips where I am going somewhere and parking my ass in a single spot for a while, a roller bag and back pack will suffice. The backpack for things like a laptop or to use as a day bag while out. The roller bag for clothes and whatnot. This is easily done when getting somewhere and catching a ride to where I am staying, not so much when having to take public transportation and walking long distances.
In those situations, I will take two bags as well but avoid a roller bag. This typically is a backpack and a shoulder duffle bag. For ease of mobility, this is my preferred way to pack. I can put the backpack on and the shoulder bag and have my hands largely free without worrying about dragging a roller for twenty plus minutes as I walk somewhere.
Car versus Flying
This does play into what bag I pick to a degree. On road trips, ease of getting and out of the bag is considered. On flights, having a roller bag to get through the airport is nice, but not always necessary. A backpack on a short trip has its own conveniences over a roller bag in some situations.
Bags I Use
I have a few bags that I cycle through. Again, it is all depending on the type of trip I am going on. For me, each has their own preferred usage.
I have had a variety of bags and even a few larger, check-only bags. For this post though, I will cover what I typically use.
Roller Bag
The first bag, which is my typical go to bag, is a carry on sized hard shell bag from Away Travel. I dig this bag a lot. It is a roller bag that has held up to years of abuse and treated me well. I have toted it along cobble stone roads and up and down stairs for years without issue. It has a lot of volume to keep things in and the bag itself looks good and holds up. It has a combination lock that is TSA approved and helps keep peace of mind when I am late to board and have to stash my bag in an overhead bin that is not directly above me. The one thing it has that I found completely unneeded was a lithium battery charger, I ditched that shit because I like the one I use a lot more.
I bring this bag a lot on weekend trips where I am flying and on longer trips where I am tending to spend four to five days in one place before moving onto another city. Something I started to do once I started recognizing other Away bags was to slap a few stickers on the outside to help distinguish mine from others. It is also easy to stow my laptop in, if I want to bring it, as well. However, I don’t feel as good about doing that as I do keeping it in a separate laptop bag.
Laptop Bag
The next bag I use is a laptop bag from Swiss Gear. It is internally padded and I can easily fit my work laptop and a personal laptop in it if I want. The bag easily stows under the seat in front of me on a flight and I feel safe with an occasional foot bump or turbulent bounce. It has space for what I need for a one or two day trip and the other stuff I carry if need be, but gets kind of tight at that point.
I generally partner this bag with the Away bag on trips I have to work remotely for and spread things out between both. I do use it as a daily bag for work as well and ferrying my laptop to in and out of the office.
Backpack
I have a top-loading, drawstring backpack from Burton that I picked up on a trip to Amsterdam. I needed something to bring some stuff home and ducked into a skate shop and picked it up for around fifty Euros. I kind of thought of it as yet another bag I was collecting and not something I would use very often, but have found that is not the case.
This bag is a go to for me on longer trips where I am moving around a lot and do not want to carry a roller bag with me or on short trips that I want to pack light for. It has a pretty good volume for stashing clothes in. Also, the foldover flap has a pocket that I can stash a battery pack, spare cash and coinage, a passport, slap stickers, or anything I want easy access to. It buckles at the flap and straps down to hug tighter on your back.
Shoulder Strap Bag
I picked up a neat shoulder strap bag from Chums while on a trip in Tokyo. It was used for stuff I bought there that I wanted to take home and to provide some relief on my overpacked roller bag. It is a typical duffel-style bag with a zipper that spans the length of the bag, an external side pocket, and some pockets at the end of the bag. It has an internal zipper pocket that is sewn onto the seam and immediately accessible provided the bag is not over packed.
I do not use this bag a lot other than as an occasional day bag or on trips where mobility is needed and the roller bag is not ideal. Using it as a go bag on a car trip works well for me too. It is easier to get in and out of than the top-loading bag I have and makes it my pick for car trips where I only really need to bring it in and out of where I am staying.
When walking with it, it can get heavy and cut into my shoulder, which sucks, and moving it around from shoulder to shoulder works for a bit but sucks. I strongly prefer a back pack if I need to pick a single bag, but this is way better than lugging around a hand held suitcase or wearing a back pack on my back and one on my chest as well.
Final Thoughts
Again, I think picking a bag can help to make or break a trip. I put a decent amount of energy into making choices on what I am packing and how. I will certainly pack an extra bag at times when I am going somewhere and expect to be coming home with things I pick up on the trip. Figuring out what bags I like has been a decent amount of trial and error for me.
I have several other bags that I have used but generally do not use any more including the ones I had to check while hating to check bags. I will likely go over them in the future. You can laugh at my unwillingness to let them go at that point.