Just a few weeks ago I was in Bordeaux, waiting at the airport for a flight to Edinburgh via Geneva. Just an hour or so before boarding for that first leg, EasyJet first delayed and then abruptly canceled my flights. They dutifully rebooked me for the next day, but that wasn’t a good option for me: my tight schedule required me to be in Scotland early in the morning. So as I hustled to an EasyJet desk, I found an alternative flight leaving almost immediately that would get me to London Luton where — if I sprinted through customs, the security queue, and the terminal — I might manage to catch the last flight out from there to Edinburgh. Failing that, I figured I’d have time to rush into London and maybe get a sleeper on an overnight train.
Happily, I made the new flights. More happily still, I made it with all my luggage, which was only possible because I travel with One Bag, carry-on only. If I’d checked a bunch of bags in Bordeaux — or really at any point —lord knows when and where my gear would have caught up to me in Scotland.
More than that, I think I only managed to make that tight sequence of flights because my One Bag is a backpack. There’s just no way to navigate a busy terminal swiftly while trundling along with a rattling roller case.
One Bag Travel. It’s amazing.
Since I continue to get questions about how I travel this way, I’m going to post my current travel kit in case it’s of use to anyone.
First, as a proof-of-concept, here’s a video of me, taken over a month ago, unpacking my kit. This was just before I headed off for a 39-day, 11-flight trip through England, France, Switzerland, Scotland, Germany, Greece, Türkiye, and England (again).
Seriously, that’s the whole kit: 100% what I packed and how I packed it. That’s all I took on a trip that stretched from Scotland’s Isle of Skye to the edge of Asia in Istanbul, that saw me giving speeches in front of 100s of folks at the Chalke Valley History Festival, filming in front of cameras, and hiking in heat and cold.
And you know what?
I could have packed even less.
In fact, if I was making a set of rules for the One Bagging life, this might be the One Rule to Rule Them All:
LESS IS MORE
This applies to pretty much everything in One Bag Travel, because your two great adversaries are space and weight. Too much of either one and you’re screwed: your bag will be too heavy to carry or too large to qualify as a carry-on.
Since the quest to cut space and weight is never-ending, the effort to maximize space and weight can become something of an obsession. It certainly is for me! But if you’d rather not go down the rabbit hole yourself, you can simply read on for my own hard-won conclusions when it comes to kit.
As we move towards that list, I wanted to share a few basic principles that you can keep in mind to help take control of your kit. Here’s the first:
Don’t pack for just-in-case
That worst-case scenario of a summer blizzard isn’t likely to happen. Neither is that scenario in which you befriend an international spy and need a tuxedo on the yacht. So don’t bring things for either occasion. Instead, pack for the 90-percent reality.
And I’m not talking only about clothes here. Too many folks haul around a veritable cabinet of “just in case” medications, for instance. But unless you’re traveling to Nowhereville, they’ll have pharmacies aplenty. You’re not a Victorian explorer headed to the Amazon. Where you’re headed they probably take credit cards (speaking of which, see below). So sure, carry a few general medications — like pills for an upset stomach or a head cold — but only carry enough to get to the pharmacy where you can get more of what you specifically need.
Flexibility is king
On principle, a single piece of gear that can do two jobs adequately is better than two pieces of gear that each do only one job perfectly. Can there be exceptions to this? Sure. You’re making your own kit, not mine. So if you really need both fingernail and toenail clippers, go for it. But I’d urge you to consider compromising perfection if it means saving space and weight. Be honest with yourself and merciless with your kit.
This leads us to the next principle and the reason for this article:
Choose the right gear
What constitutes the right gear will depend on you, your destination, and the activities you know you will do there (not just-in-case!). My list of gear below is what I just carried, but this was a trip to Europe in summer … if I was going to Edmonton in January it would be different.
But in any case, one of the things I would advise you to consider in choosing your gear — in addition to flexibility being king! — is cost over the long-term, which is inherently a question of relative durability.
I’ll be the first to tell you that some of the gear I use is expensive. You can get travel bags that are a lot cheaper than mine. A good friend of mine certainly does. But on multiple trips together he’s had one or more of his bags fail: a broken wheel, a stripped buckle, a shattered strap, a failed seam, and so on. Replacing multiple “cheap” bags gets expensive in a hurry, not to mention the stress and time lost on the trip itself trying to fix the bag or find a replacement. Me? I’d rather pay a premium upfront to get a bag I can trust.
On the other hand, I’m fine to buy cheap charger cables. Expensive ones might last a little longer, but in my experience no cable is an enduring resource, and getting another is cheap and easy once one inevitably fails.
Boil it all down, and the right gear for One Bag travel is in that sweet spot of lowest cost over the long-term, lowest amount of volume taken, and highest flexibility to your travels.
For me, this is that kit:
THE LIST 2023
(Previous lists: 2022, 2019, 2017, and 2015)
The Main Bag
Big change from previous lists here.
I’m a firm believer in the travel backpack rather than a roller bag (see above), so I’m enormously pleased to be living in a golden age of great backpacks that are sized Just Right to fit the strict restrictions of airlines. I absolutely recommend getting one of these.
Which one might depend on your preferences in form or fashion. There are a lot to choose from, so definitely do your research. For my part, I can speak to the bags I’ve handled myself, which has led me through some big hitters in the market.
My first One Bag was a Maxpedition Fliegerduffel. Available on Amazon for around $175, the Fliegerduffel is a 42L duffel bag that can also be worn as a backpack. It works, and it helped convince me I could One Bag, but I was never very pleased with the bag. The looks were “tacticool,” and the bag wasn’t comfortable to wear or carry in any configuration. It also didn’t look remotely professional. Would not recommend this.
When I could afford it, I moved up to a Minaal Carry-on bag. The difference was night and day. The Minaal was more comfortable to carry, more flexible in use, and absolutely more professional. Mine was the first generation of the bag, and I loved and used it for years. Minaal has since improved the bag considerably: the Minaal Carry-On 3.0 starts at $349. I’ve not handled one of the new ones, but I’ve no doubt that they’re great — and the Vancouver Grey looks amazing in pictures. I recommend them with confidence.
In recent years I ran with one of two bags by Knack: their original Knack Pack Series 1 large ($270) or their newer Series 2 medium ($265) — both of which were sent to me to review with no strings attached. I was very pleased with the bags (see my video review here). The expansion joint they have is a terrific way to get added flexibility (which is king!), and there were a lot of “little” moves they made in design that were spot-on, like the bright inner liner that makes it easier to find things in the bag. If I was getting a Knack Pack today for long-haul travel, I’d be looking at the Knack Series 2 large ($295), which looks to combine everything I love about the two packs of theirs that I own. I’d get it in Alloy Gray. Like the Minaal, this is a bag I’d happily recommend.
To be clear, I was absolutely satisfied with the bags I was running. My first-generation Minaal was showing signs of wear, but it was still trucking. My Knack Packs continued to perform like champs.
Nevertheless, an incredible sale last year convinced me to try out another option that I’d seen folks swear by: Peak Design’s 45L Travel Backpack ($300). I’ve been using it for several trips now — including this massive one from which I’ve just returned — and it has met or exceeded every expectation. It’s absolutely moved to the top of my One Bag Travel selection. Why? For one thing, it’s sexy. I got it in Sage, and it has a vintage character that’s at home on the Underground while remaining clean and professional enough to look just fine in the fanciest of London hotels. It’s stunning enough that I’ve had folks compliment me on it (they ain’t talking about me, I assure you!).
And inside, the design is terrific. One of my favorite things about the Knack Bags is their expansion capabilities, which make them flexible in volume. Since Flexibility Is King, this is awesome. The Peak Design does this, too, but even more. Instead of two sizes, its design offers three. And while the Knack’s expansion opens an additional compartment to the main compartment, the Peak Design’s expansion offers its additional space in the main compartment if you want it. That’s flexibility atop flexibility.
The Peak Design also offers a whole swath of great design features, which you can get a sense of by watching their video introducing the bag.
Do I think Peak Design’s 45L Travel Backpack is perfect? It’s damn close. I’d love to see it lose a little weight, for instance. The Minaal Carry-on 3.0 weighs 1.41 kg empty, to which you need to add 0.15 kg for a padded hip belt (Peak Design, bless them, has a padded hip belt built-in). That’s a total carry weight of 1.56 kg. The Knack runs about the same. For comparison, the Peak Design is 2.05 kg. That difference is not just relatively large, but it also means that carrying the Peak Design means carrying roughly 1 lb more on your back. It’s very much noticeable.
To be fair, a lot of this extra weight comes from efforts to make a bag built like a tank. Peak Design isn’t just maximizing durability in their build, they’re also trying to maximize the protection offered to the bag’s contents: Peak Design is a company built around cameras, and those don’t respond well to being banged around.
There are some niggling alterations I’d make, too … but, honestly, the Peak Design is a brilliant choice for One Bag Travel. Despite the bit of extra weight, it’s truly the bag to beat for me right now. I’m loving it. Highly recommended.
Packing Cubes
I bought my new Peak Design bag during their Black Friday sale, and their matching Packing Cubes were also at a good price. Though I’ve got quite a few packing cubes, I picked these new ones up — and I’m so glad I did. Best cubes on the market. Not only are they well-built compression cubes (absolutely necessary), but they open on top and bottom with a liner in between. When something is dirty, you put it into the bottom of the cube: everything stays compressed in the cube as a whole, but your dirties are separated from your clean clothes. Just terrific.
Footwear
I’ve also switched up my footgear.
As my main shoe/boot I’ve run with Thursday Boots for years and love them. This particular trip, though, I needed something that quite frankly doesn’t exist: an all-day, pavement-to-peak, bog-to-bike shoe that’s durable, breathable, and waterproof … but still looks professional enough to wear giving an academic speech. The closest thing I’ve managed to date is a pair of Salomon XA Pro 3D hiking shoes. Very good shoes and they held up like champs.
I also take a pair of sandals on my trips: they pack flat and provide a lot of added flexibility for sore feet. My long-time standard for this has been XeroShoes Aqua Clouds. They’re amazingly light and thin (3mm). But I decided this trip I wanted something with a bit more padding … while still being light and packable. I love my Bedrock Cairn 3D Pro II sandals for canyoneering, but for One Bag Travel they are too heavy (8.7 oz) and thick (16mm). I also wanted something that had a nice leather look rather than being bright and sporty. Enter Shamma’s Super Browns, which are light (3.5 oz), just-right thick (7mm), gorgeous, and pack very flat.
Jackets
I continue to seek the perfect travel jacket. Last year I traveled with the new ScotteVest Tropiformer, hoping it would end the search. It did not. In truth, their now-extinct fleece (which I ran into the ground after years of use) was a far better travel companion.
So I’m back to my Eddie Bauer travel blazer, which has been a repeated favorite for me. Alas, I don’t know that this helps you: I’ve made customizations to the jacket, and I’m pretty sure Eddie Bauer doesn’t make it anymore. The blazer comes with a puffer vest that you can wear independently or snap into the blazer for a surprisingly sharp look. The documentary I just shot in England has me wearing both at once.
The blazer has water repellency, but since I was headed to Scotland and the Isle of Skye I also took a packable Eddie Bauer Packable Rainfoil. It’s a terrific jacket, and it squishes down nice and small.
Because of the variety of climates across my travels — in this case it was the Mediterranean beaches of Thessaloniki to the Scottish Highlands — I always pack in layers. So slipping under my blazer and puffer, if needed, was a thin but glorious LL Bean Airlight Knit hooded sweatshirt. Superlight but flexible. I also carried a scarf that I picked up at Stonehenge.
Hats
My trail-loved standby is a Tilley MH55. It’s a great hat that’s been through it all and seems to look better and better for it. (I wish I could say the same for myself after the trails!)
This trip, though, I wanted something that could fit under a hood if I was hiking in one of those hits-you-from-all-sides Scottish rains. So I left the Tilley behind in favor of the terrific REI Screeline Cap. It’s the best looking foldable hat I’ve ever seen and worked a charm.
Other Goodies
Previous lists will give you links to a lot of my basics, but I have added a few new pieces of kit mentioned in my video above. So consider this something of a miscellaneous grab-bag:
However you do it, be safe in your travels out there!