There is a best travel bag
I love bags. Really. I seriously love bags. Just ask my husband. I have a bag for every item or occasion. Pool bag, beach bag, shoe bag, overnight roller suitcase, overnight bookbag, grocery bags (cold items), grocery bags (non-refrigerated items), computer bag, electronic accessory bag, diaper bag, toddler cooler snack bag, water-proof dog walking bag, business casual office bag, standard purse, oversized luggage bag, fanny pack for the gym, skateboard pads bag, wetsuit bag. I have texted pictures of bags to my husband from a thrift store with the message, “Do we need this?”, in which he has replied, “Are you serious?” when in fact I was because the said bag was an oversized fanny back and not a small fanny pack that I was sure would be great for our U-Locks while we rode our bikes and didn’t want to have a sweaty back from a standard JanSport backpack. It all makes perfect sense to have a bag for everything.
But in my great love for bags, I have had a lot of mishaps with travel bags. When I went on my first international trip to Guatemala in 2006, I packed a black military surplus bookbag that seemed to have a thousand straps to nowhere hanging from it. I stuffed a few changes of clothes in the bottomless pit of a bag and carried my wallet and passport in a fanny pack around my waist. That fanny pack was stolen. Not good. Don’t have that happen if you can help it. When I started traveling professionally for work in 2014, I had thrifted an absolutely enormous, bright red, tattered roller suitcase to fit various outfits, camera equipment, and nonperishable food items (I really don’t want to get sick while traveling) When I arrived at the airport, I could tell my co-worker, Luis, was mortified by my packing choice, watching me struggle to keep the suitcase steady behind me on the first leg of a two-week multi-city tour of Bolivia. When visiting a friend in Australia, he asked me not to take my gigantic purse that could have easily fit a 40 lb. dog inside of it with us while we went bar hopping because he couldn’t understand how I could possibly need to carry around so much stuff when everything he required fit in his pants pockets.
I feel like it took me quite a few years, and a LOT of countries under my belt, to come to the realization that investing in a good travel bag makes all the difference in the world. My goal was simple once I started researching bags – I wanted a lightweight carry-on-size bag, and I wanted it to be all black because I don’t want to stand out and look like a tourist in a foreign country more than I already do. I also wanted it to have a lot of good compartments and be able to be locked when I left it unattended in a hotel room. The bag I found: The Tortuga Expandable Backpack. At the unbelievably affordable price of $250, I purchased the bag with little hesitation after finding it hit all my marks, and was packing it within a few days to head to Colombia to dig wells in the Amazon for two weeks. The comfort straps felt great on my shoulders, and even stuffed to the brim, the back never felt overstuffed or silly. It easily slid into the overhead compartment of the airplane, and honestly, it just looked cool.
I can’t overemphasize my bag obsession and how many I own. They all have value and importance to me, but the most valuable one is my Tortuga backpack, because it reminds me of all my travel experiences and how there is nothing like a great bag – the best bag – to be your steady companion on your adventures.
