Travel Backpacks & Carry-On Bags
Travel backpacks were one of Walkabout's biggest product categories in the 1990s, and for good reason. A well-designed travel pack carries like a backpack but opens and organizes more like a suitcase. That makes it useful for airports, trains, buses, stairs, cobblestones, and any trip where dragging a wheeled bag becomes a nuisance. This page also covers carry-on luggage, personal-item bags, day bags, packing organizers, and travel security features.
Travel Backpacks
We always preferred travel backpacks built for travel rather than top-loading hiking packs. Look for a wide suitcase-style opening, comfortable shoulder straps that can be covered or tucked away, useful internal organization, manageable weight, and dimensions that fit the airline limits you actually plan to use.
Carry-On Luggage
Wheeled carry-ons are easier in airports and hotels, especially when most of the trip is on smooth floors. They are less convenient on stairs, cobblestones, ferries, and rough sidewalks. Check the empty weight, wheel and handle construction, zipper quality, interior layout, and airline dimensions before buying.
Recommended Travel Bags: NOBL Travel
NOBL Travel takes the organized carry-on approach about as far as it can go.
Its all-in-one carry-on combines laptop access, spinner wheels, compression storage, USB and USB-C charging ports, a cup holder, waterproof pocket, passport sleeve, and interior compartments.
It is aimed at travelers who want one structured bag with a place for nearly everything.
Personal Item Bags
The personal item is the bag you can reach without opening the overhead bin. It should fit under the seat and hold the things you cannot afford to lose or wait for: passport, medication, phone, charger, glasses, wallet, documents, and perhaps a change of clothes.
Day Bags
A day bag should disappear on your shoulder or back instead of becoming something you fight all day. Keep it light, comfortable, easy to close, and large enough for water, medication, a light layer, documents, and small electronics.
Packing Organizers
Packing cubes are not essential, but they earn their space on longer trips or trips with repeated hotel changes. Use them for clothing, cables, toiletries, laundry, or anything else that otherwise migrates around the bag.
Security Features
Travel-bag security is mostly about slowing down quick, opportunistic theft. Lockable zippers, slash-resistant panels, hidden pockets, RFID-blocking compartments, and straps that are difficult to cut or detach all help. None replaces paying attention, but ordinary bags often make theft too easy.
Blast from the Past: Walkabout Backpacks
Backpacks were a major Walkabout Travel Gear product category during the early years of online travel retail.
In the 1990s, using a backpack as your main luggage was still a relatively new idea for most travelers. Hardcore independent travelers had carried backpacks for years, but travel packs designed to replace a suitcase were only beginning to reach a wider market.
Walkabout sold travel backpacks built specifically for this purpose. They combined backpack suspension with luggage-style openings, internal organization, removable day packs, and designs made for airports, trains, buses, hotels, and extended international trips.
The first backpack we sold was an Eagle Creek Endless Journey. I still remember the purchaser's name: Mark Frobb.
The archived June 1998 Packs, Etc. page shows how important travel backpacks were to the original Walkabout site and how the backpack-as-luggage idea was being introduced to a broader group of travelers.
