As travel begins to ramp up this year, it is time to dust off your luggage and start planning your next trips. Now is a great time to take a good hard look at your current travel gear and ask yourself: “does my current baggage suit my future travel plans?” If you are unsure, allow your favorite non-rev traveler to make a case for OneBag travel: the best carry-on bag is a properly sized travel backpack.
What is “one bag” travel?
One bag travel (popularized by the r/OneBag subreddit community) refers to a philosophy that puts an emphasis on doing more with less. Instead of checking in luggage, OneBag travelers focus on reducing their packing list to fit into a single bag.
Let’s do a quick thought experiment. Think about your most recent plane trip:
- How long was your trip?
- How many bags did you pack?
- Did you have to check (or pay extra for) any of your luggage?
- Of the clothes & gadgets you packed, how many weren’t used at all on the trip?
The vast majority of travelers pack way too much stuff for their trips. While most people dismiss backpacks or duffel bags as nothing more than weekender bags, serious OneBag devotees will tell you that they have gone months on end with nothing more than a well-packed backpack.
OneBag travelers accomplish this by building a capsule wardrobe, packing lightweight items, and employing minimalist practices while on the go. All of this can be done with any type of luggage, but most OneBag travelers rely on high-quality travel backpacks for a variety of reasons.
Why should I use a backpack instead of a wheeled carry-on bag?
1) Two hands are better than one
The most compelling reason to use a backpack for your main travel bag is to free up your hands. Traveling with a rollaboard carry-on or a duffel bag means dedicating a hand to lugging around your baggage.
When I am walking around with my gear, I want both of my hands available to handle my phone and whatever beverage I happen to be carrying. After years of traveling with all types of bags, I avoid carrying a bag that requires a dedicated hand as much as possible.
2) Travel backpacks are multi-purpose
Wheeled luggage serves a single purpose: to efficiently carry as much stuff as possible between your home and your destination. This type of luggage shines when going to & from the airport.
However, things get a bit trickier if you need to carry your stuff around once you are at your destination. You wouldn’t take your rollaboard luggage with you to the coffee shop & back while on vacation, would you?
Travel backpacks fill that niche superbly. I can pack a week’s worth of clothing in a backpack for my flight & then re-pack it once I reach my destination to serve as my daypack. On a recent trip, I used my travel backpack as a beach bag one day and as my grocery bag later that evening. None of that would have been possible if I had taken my rollaboard or duffel bag on that trip. Traveling with a backpack that is the right size for your trip allows you a level of flexibility that other types of bags cannot match.
3) Travel backpacks take up less space in storage
As much as we all want to be traveling 24/7, that simply isn’t the case for most of us. One thing to consider when purchasing a new bag is how & where you will store it at home. Wheeled luggage has a large footprint with a rigid frame. Storing these bags at home means dedicating a decently sized chunk of your closet or shelving to a big empty bag.
On the other hand, backpacks of the same size are collapsible. Your large travel backpack shrinks when it is empty so you can store it more easily at home.
This is doubly important if you plan on bringing your bag with you to hostels (or other lodging with limited storage space). Unless you specifically book your lodging based on locker space, your boxy wheeled luggage might not fit in your hostel’s storage lockers.
4) Stairs will no longer be your enemy
Anyone who has traveled with a wheeled carry-on bag knows that stairs are to be avoided at all costs. Nobody wants to have to push their bag’s handle down, pick their bag up off the ground, and lug it down a flight of stairs. This leads to a never-ending search for elevators & escalators when traveling. This goes beyond just the airport: getting to & from your lodging is just as frustrating.
That limitation no longer applies when you travel with a backpack. If you have a bag strapped to your back, you don’t need to go out of your way to hunt down an elevator wherever you go.
5) Ditching wheeled carry-on bags opens up more possibilities
Wheeled luggage presents an even bigger challenge as soon as you start traveling off the beaten path. Have you ever tried dragging a rollaboard bag over cobblestone streets in Europe or on uneven sidewalks in developing cities? Wheeled bags work great on smooth floors at airports & hotels, but they are a struggle to travel with anywhere else.
Backpacks obviously have the upper hand here. Spontaneous adventures are what travel is all about, and traveling with a backpack means that you won’t be dragged down by wheeled luggage ever again (pun fully intended).
Final Thoughts
Every traveler deserves the ability to pack the right travel gear, but nobody wants to buy a specialized bag for every occasion. In our opinion, there is no better option for most travelers than a high-quality travel backpack that you can trust to last for years to come.
If you want to learn more about our favorite bags that we have traveled with over the years, head over to the Gear Reviews section of our website. What are your thoughts: do you prefer traveling with a backpack instead of a rollaboard carry-on bag?
