Why do you need to bring a 50l-70l bag, with all your clothes, hygiene supplies, etc for a week long trip...into an office, in a manner that is "business" appropriate?
Why do you need to bring a 50l-70l bag, with all your clothes, hygiene supplies, etc for a week long trip...into an office, in a manner that is "business" appropriate?
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
couple of things...Originally Posted by TGS
1) I'm not entirely convinced the bag will need to be that big
2) quite often meetings occur on the arrival or departure day. I don't want to schlep my heft bag into an office, and I don't want to have to go back to the hotel to retrieve a bag
3) if done right, I think I can leave the clothes and hygiene supplies behind and cinch or zipper down the larger compartment to at lease make it passable. note how the AER cinches down here https://youtu.be/YKO_2XMkz7w?t=1109
4) not really thinking week-long here. More like a two-day with a travel day on either end, or a long weekend (fly out Friday, return Monday) for personal trips
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The last few years I have been using a Patagonia MLC. A little on the big side at 45L but allows me to add stuff when traveling with the kids and gives me the room for my electric travel kettle. Awesome organization that is great to live out of with the additions of some packing cubes. If you stuff it, it won’t fit in the over head on little regional planes and the convertible backpack straps and lack of a hip belt maxs out comfort at 22 or so pounds. But If you are traveling with more weight then that with one bag travel then you are doing it wrong.
If I was looking to collect bags, I probably get a Tortuga Travel Pack as well but I am committed to the MLC until it is non functional. 150 days of traveling in the 3 or 4 years and no significant wear - not a lot for you pros out there but enough for traveling for me.
You want the Osprey Porter, not the Transporter.
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My wife and I have used this bag from mystery ranch for the last three or four years with complete satisfaction.
https://www.mysteryranch.com/mission-rover-bag
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
Take a look at the Oakley Kitchen Sink. The gf and I loved the one I got so much that we got another one for her. I think it would fit your needs nicely and I have used it as carry-on several times.
https://www.oakley.com/en-us/product...ode=92060A-013
I guess I got confused and should have realized it was a 2-day bag for personal trips when you wrote a requirement for "5-ish days" for trips that can be taken into an office. In the latter context, I can't imagine any office culture outside Wall Street that deals with a travelling agent end up having an issue or sneering at you dropping a generic backpack (outdoors type or not) in the corner while you do your business before flying out. Sort of like the topic of wearing sneakers with a suit while commuting to work....nobody actually gives a shit, it just makes sense.
The only thing worth actually thinking about for 2-day trips is the likelihood of you flying on regional jets like the ERJ-145. If so, they can't fit standard carry-on sized luggage in the overhead compartments; that includes these larger-ish backpacks with wheels.
Splitting between a 20-25l laptop backpack and a sling-bag or satchel that fits nicely under the seat may be preferable, if that's a likely possibility. Fjallraven, Amazon Basics, VertX Gamut backpack or VertX Transit sling, Nut-Sac, PacSafe, whatever.
Me personally, I haven't found a situation under 5 days that isn't covered by using a satchel/sling bag under the seat and a VertX Gamut or traditional carry-on luggage over-head. When my current satchel from a street-vendor in Spain gives way, I'll probably buy a Nut-Sac.
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
I have used a GR1 for five day international business travel since 2012. It is durable to task and the simple internal layout makes using a packing cube to hold my private stuff really easy; I then ditch the cube in the hotel room or rental car when going in to customers.
I added a GR2 for last year to make it a little easier to pull off in winter, but I still use the GR1 half the time. I understand your distaste for molle and every once in a while GR makes their packs in a slick format, but ultimately it doesn't bother me that much.
It is also really important to me that the gear I buy from GR is U.S. made, though not all their stuff is.
Like Glocks and ARs, there's usually a reason that common is common.
Here are some reviews of various packs that might help.
https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/topic...ravel-backpack
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/r...n-travel-bags/
Ebags was my first stop when I got on my one bag one world travel style kick a few years back. I bought a Motherlode, augmented it with their eBags brand packing cubes and traveled for 5 days with ease. While I did not carry a 17 inch laptop, the Motherlode series will carry one that big as the the opening/area for it is huge.
https://www.ebags.com/backpacks/travel-backpacks/
Ebags is in the midst of a style/colorway switch out and you can get said bag for 45ish to 89ish depending on color way. The motherlode series has a zip out water bottle carrier. I never used it as I prefer using a platypus style bottle as it weighs a fraction of a nalgene or other bottle and roles down to nothing in terms of taking up room.
Knowing everything I know now having taken dozens of road/flight trips with it, I now do the following
1. I would buy the "Jr" sized bag and save a few inches of linear space to maximize its ability to fit in poorly loaded overhead bins and under seats
2. I have switched to eagle creek specter packing cubes because they are lighter that the ebag ones
3. I make a travel list for every trip plugging in weather, dress code and plane size. After a few trips, you know exactly what to take and how to pack it.
Ebags latest and greatest is 175 ish, claims to fit a 18 inch laptop and is double clamshelled for a tech side and a clothes side. It also has taken some design cues from Tom Bihn (at least) re including included/integrated packing cubes/storage bags
https://www.ebags.com/backpacks/trav...vel-backpacks#
One question you need to asks yourself is how heavy is this bag going to get and how far to you have to tote it as most travel backpacks have marginal waist belts that transfer little to no weight to the hips. If you are going to really load this thing up, Osprey or some of the more boutique brand mentioned in the article below may be the way to go.
Osprey is never a bad choice as their warranty is a no BS for life and you could likely test laptop fit at any number of retailers. They are also having quite a sale as they too are changing up styles/colorways.
https://www.osprey.com/us/en/category/sale/
Finally: a recent NYT/Wirecutter article review re travel backpacks:
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/r...n-travel-bags/
Let us know what you do.
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