This blog has been quiet the past week because I’ve been checking out new travel gear at the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market in Utah, seeing what’s on the way from all the top brands in the industry. There are more than 1,000 companies there showing off everything from skis to shoes to solar lanterns, but I spent a good amount of time checking out new backpacks.

If you’re in the market for a backpack, or will be soon, I’m going to provide a good cheat sheet that will make it very easy for you to get what you need. I’ve used $90 backpacks and $400 ones, tried them on year-round journeys, 3-week vacations, and biking trips, so I’ve got a more rounded view than most reviewers.

Here’s what you need to know about the best backpacks for travelers, from the general things to remember to the advantages of specific brands.

Get a TRAVEL backpack

If you go looking at backpacks, you’ll find a lot of pretty, lightweight, comfortable packs that load from the top. They are meant for backcountry hikers, backcountry skiers, or people planning to summit a peak of 8,000 meters. That’s not you.

What you want is a pack meant for travelers. Easy to zip open, easy to find things, meant to be loaded up with lots of clothes and gadgets in different pockets. Preferably one that can be carried with a handle on the top and side if needed. If the straps can be zipped up inside a flap for checking at an airport (or looking more respectable when entering a nice hotel) even better.

Buy a pack meant to last

Yes, you can find some piece of crap no-name backpack for $75 if you look hard enough, but there’s a good chance  you’ll be looking for another one six months from now. And you may not be somewhere with a good selection, so you’ll make the same mistake again—or pay twice as much as you would have at home. If you’re really short on funds, look for a pack from Kelty (more on that later) or keep an eye on the outlet section of the online gear sites to get last year’s model for half off or more. Ideally, you want something that comes with a lifetime guarantee, or close to it. You may not need it, but that shows they believe in their durability.

Buy a rain cover or get one with a cover built in

Most backpacks are made of ripstop nylon or something similar that wards off a drizzle, but they’re not seam-sealed, so water can get through the zippers. Many good packs have a built-in rain cover, others require you to get your own. But when your bag gets thrown on top of a bus somewhere and then a rain storm comes, you’ll be very glad you had this on.

Ideally, try it on

I’m all for shopping the discount section at the likes of Sierra Trading Post, Backcountry, and REI Outlet because you can get a quality pack for half the list price sometimes, but if you’re new at this or have an odd body size/shape, you may need to try a few on in a real retail store with someone who can help. Walking for a year with a pack that doesn’t fit properly is no fun.

Be very sure you want a pack with wheels

When you hear someone rave about their backpack with wheels, ask them how they travel and what their budget is like. As I’ve mentioned before here and here, wheeled backpacks are great if you’re mostly moving between airports, hotels, and train stations via taxis. I gladly take one in those cases. They’re not so great if you have to walk a half mile down a dirt road or up 220 steps in my sometimes home of Guanajuato, Mexico though. Wheels and a handle double the weight of your pack and the way most of them are designed, the (dirty) wheels are hitting your back. This year at the OR Show though I saw some with straps on the front instead, so look for this option to avoid the wheels in back problem.

Watch the size

You can find backpacks that hold 90 liters, but unless you’re a very hefty man, you probably don’t want to carry that much once you fill it. For most people 65 or 70 liters is the max. If you’re going to mostly warm places, you should easily be able to get by for less if you’re packing the right kind of lightweight clothing and quick-dry underwear.

Who makes the best packs?

There are probably 100 companies out there making backpacks, but a lot of those you can ignore because they’re not making travel packs. Based on my 20 years of travel and testing loads of them for Practical Travel Gear, here are my “don’t have to think about it” picks for brands you can trust. Many come in versions for women.

Eagle Creek – lifetime “no matter what” warranty, sterling reputation for quality, constant innovation. Check out the Loche or Rincon models for long-term travel. If you want wheels and can wait until July, every writer and blogger I talked to at the OR show was drooling over the Morphus model pictured here.

Osprey – long one of the most popular brands for round-the-world travelers, with the widest selection, Osprey packs have a lifetime warranty, are super-light, and are well-designed. Look for the Aura, Waypoint, or Porter styles, or four different lines with wheels. The Porter is great if you already have a daypack you like as it’s only about $130.

Gregory – Another one with a lifetime warranty making durable, well-designed packs. I especially like their Savant packs that are light as a hiking pack, but open in the front in a U shape to get to your stuff.

Deuter – You don’t see this brand in the U.S. a whole lot, but this German brand is all over the backs of Europeans. I like their Transit 65 pack if you’ll make use of the detachable daypack and it’s under $200.

Kelty – The cheapo traveler’s best friend, Kelty packs are well-made and rugged, but retail for $100 or more less than many competitor’s models. Find the beloved Redwing one at close-out prices or check out the more expensive Lakota line.

What backpack have you taken around the world, across cobblestones, through crowded markets, up stairs, and down dirt paths? How did it do?

Each year I’ve participated in the Passports with Purpose charity drive, giving away some cool piece of travel gear generous readers can bid on. This year I’m proud to be aligned with the luggage company I always keep coming back to in my travels: Eagle Creek.

One lucky bidder will score a new Digi Hauler Backpack. Designed for today’s digital traveler (or if you prefer, “flashpacker”), the Digi Hauler features convertible carry options and maximum carry-on size with dedicated features for electronics, so your stuff stays in its place. The capacity is 2700 cubic inches, or 44 liters. It weighs in at less than two pounds and will work as a carry-on for most airlines: it’s 14 x 22 x 9 inches.

This versatile pack can be your one and only for a quick jaunt or business trip, carrying a full-size laptop along with all your clothes and cosmetics. Basically it’s the same capacity as one of those rollaboard suitcases, but at 1/4 the weight and the ability to pull out the straps and carry it as a backpack. I’ve been testing one of these out for Practical Travel Gear (review coming next week) and I can already tell it’s built to Eagle Creek specs and meant to last. They are confident enough to offer a lifetime warranty for a reason. It’s got lots of grab handles, great zippers with pulls, plenty of internal pockets, and reflective material.

For the winner, they will ship anywhere in the U.S. or Canada.

So go cough up ten bucks to bid on it. Not only are your odds about 100,000 times better than the Powerball lottery, but your donation goes to a very good cause regardless. In the past, Passports with Purpose has built a staffed school in Cambodia, two libraries in Zambia, and a whole damn village in India. This year they’re teaming up with Water.org to make a difference where it’s needed most in this hemisphere: Haiti. See the full details here.

While you’re bidding, there’s a different Eagle Creek backpack up for grabs from The Adventure Post, so double down to increase your chances. Perceptive Travel is in on this too, with that blog arranging a cool weekend package in Granbury, Texas. There will probably be another 100 tempting things for you to check out, from electronics to hotel stays to vacation packages. Give early and often and you could be celebrating bigtime later. If not, the worst that can happen is some Haitians will thank your for finally getting access to clean drinking water. Isn’t that better than buying more crap at the mall?

First, go donate here—check back in a day if the pickings are looking slim. This is day one to get things posted.

Second, say thanks to our sponsors who are kicking in big chunks of that 100 grand goal. I use and trust many of them and they deserve your business.

• Platinum: Expedia
• Gold: TripIt
• Silver: tbex
• Bronze: HomeAway. TravellersPoint, HostelBookers, Go with Oh

Whenever someone asks on a message board or blog about what kind of backpack to buy, some contrarian always chimes in saying you should traveled with a wheeled suitcase instead.

They’ve obviously not spent much time in developing countries.

You see, most sidewalks in much of Asia and Latin America should not even have the “walk” part in them. Those bits of (sometimes) flat concrete beside the road are spaces meant to be filled. They’re places to park a car or motorbike. Or cook food to sell and eat. Or store boxes. Or run a business. Why keep them open for such a non-productive use as walking?

If they are open to pedestrians, as they sometimes are (especially beside a wide, French-built boulevard), a consistent lack of maintenance means what’s okay for careful feet is not okay for small spinner suitcase wheels. Said wheels will get swallowed, broken, and spit out in no time unless they’re the heavy-duty skateboard/Rollerblade kind.

I’ve been laughing my way across Southeast Asia the past few weeks, watching a few flashpackers sweat and toil with their hard shell spinner suitcases, trying to struggle down sidewalks and dirt paths. Often they end up having to carry it much of the time, the wheels made useless. These travelers seem continually perplexed by the surfaces they’re having to navigate and all the obstacles they are struggling to wheel around.

Then after struggling down the platform past vendors and exposed wires at the train station, where are they going to put that suitcase? It’s too large for the overhead storage compartment and the wrong shape. It’s too thick to fit under the berth in a sleeping car. So it becomes an awkward footstool.

Meanwhile, the backpackers stroll right past them on the street, the pack never being wider than the person carrying it and since it’s on their back, they can move around cooking stoves and motorbikes with ease. A sidewalk like this one in Hanoi is just another normal path.

When they get to the train, their bag fits fine, in the compartment or under the sleeper train berth. When they get to that $20 hotel where their room is on the 5th floor (just stayed in one of those), the bag goes right up the steps with them, no heaving or straining to carry it.

So okay, if you’ll be spending all of your time in rich countries where sidewalks are really for walking, go ahead and listen to those people telling you to use a suitcase. Or if your budget allows you to take taxis and VIP buses everywhere you’re going, with bellmen in uniforms greeting you at the hotel door. I love to travel with wheeled luggage when I’m in that situation.

Otherwise, if you’re going to have to carry your suitcase half the time because there’s no surface for wheeling it, just put it on your back instead and be mobile.

Related post: How to Be an Idiot Backpacker

I just spent three solid days checking out the new travel gear that will be hitting the shelves later this year, at a trade show where all the buyers come in and figure out what’s going to be hot and should be in stock. You can catch individual reviews on Practical Travel Gear as they hit the market (and if you’re a guy, go see a little eye candy on the PTG Facebook page.)

Meanwhile, here’s the big picture view of what’s happening now and what’s on the way—plus how it’s hitting your wallet.

Commodity Prices are Way Up

The Week magazine has a section called “Boring but Important” and this is one of those subjects. It’s not just the filling of your car gas tank that has gotten more expensive. Many synthetic fabrics are petroleum-based and even those that aren’t take energy to produce. Natural fiber prices have seen similar spikes though. Fine wool prices doubled just from 2009 to 2011. Cotton prices jumped 150% in that time because of rising global temperatures and devastating droughts in places like Texas. Sooner or later, companies have to pass on those basic materials increases to the retailer and you.

But Competition is Fierce

Are you looking for a new breathable waterproof jacket, a rolling suitcase, sunglasses, a water bottle, a pair of good socks, or a pair of lightweight hiking shoes? There are anywhere from 30 to 100 companies now supplying each of those items. All of them are fighting for their corporate lives to get your attention and get shelf space in stores so you can find them.  So while prices simply have to go up for these guys to even break even, none of them has the ability to really sock it to you as a consumer. So it’s really hard to find travel gear that’s a bad value these days. Sure, you may find items that are more technical than you need or are aimed at upper-end travelers who are less price-conscious, but you can be fairly secure that if you buy a (legit) name brand item, you’re not going to get something crappy. The stakes are too high. With some companies, they’ll even guarantee anything in their line for life: Eagle Creek, Briggs & Riley, Osprey, Tilley Hats, and Gore-Tex for a start.

Everything is Getting Ridiculously Light

The technology in travel gear, apparel, and shoes has progressed so far so fast that if you have a backpack or jacket from even five years ago, there’s a good chance it weighs twice as much as what you would buy now to replace it. I’m routinely running into backpacks I can pick up with one pinky, wheeled suitcases I can pick up with a forefinger. This wheeled carry-on from Osprey at the right weighs all of four pounds.

Big companies like Columbia Sportswear, Sierra Designs, North Face, Mountain Hardwear, Outdoor Research, and Patagonia are putting out wispy thin jackets that are windproof, waterproof, and heat-reflective on the inside—but pack into a little pouch that fits in one hand. You can get down or Primaloft jackets warm enough to let you travel almost anywhere outside the Arctic or high mountains that will stuff down into your daypack. There’s almost no trade-off now between packing space and comfort. And yes ladies, it’s all getting more fashionable and slim-cut too.

Compact Suitcases for Small Living Spaces

Suitcases, backpacks, and bags have a way of taking up a lot of space in your house or apartment. If you’re fortunate enough to live in a place with lots of storage space, no biggie. If you’re in an apartment in a big city, however, every inch can count. I’m starting to see bags that fold down into much smaller footprints, something I would have drooled over when I lived in Hoboken, NJ and worked in Manhattan. The best iterations of this so far are from High Sierra (see an example on the left, only $30-$60) and Eagle Creek (on the right). Later in the year, Eagle Creek is putting out wheeled duffel bags that still fold down to a size you can stuff in the corner of a closet. Very cool.

Don’t Believe the Hype

Take a pause and go put on some Public Enemy music.

Ready now? OK, all the things I’ve outlined above are real. They’re tangible economic and market forces that influence pricing. Then there’s hype that’s driven more by fashion. A lot of what drives retail buying is what’s new, What’s New, and WHAT’S NEW?!?!

It’s fitting I mention Public Enemy because one of the huge (but baffling) trends I kept running into this year was “retro packs” and jackets. Some fashion guru apparently came out and convinced all these gear companies that Jansport had it all right 30 years ago and we just need to update those designs with some new materials. Yeah right. I used those packs and there’s a reason they’re not around anymore—they totally sucked compared to what you can buy now. You’ll be able to buy these retro packs on the clearance rack two years from now I’m sure. So wait a while before you do the time warp and you won’t pay top dollar for these.

Which leads me to my one piece of advice in all this: get last year’s model. Yeah, if your pack or jacket is from five years ago, it’s probably time for an upgrade to take advantage of the advances in technology. But in general terms, the advances from one year to the next are incremental at best. More often, they’re driven by fashion: a new set of colors, new patterns, or a different stitching pattern here or there. Outdoor Research typically puts out 40-50 new hats per year, Chaos even more than that. Do we need that many new hats to choose from? No, but if they just put out last year’s hats again, there’s nothing to talk about with buyers or the trend-happy magazines searching for a new look (or a new look that looks like an old look…)

If you go to the clearance rack at your local store, or the online outlet equivalent at Backcountry, Sierra Trading Post, REI, Moosejaw, or Campmor, you’ll find awesome stuff for 50% off. If you’re buying when it’s not the right season—-like Insect Shield hot weather gear for your Thailand trip when it’s autumn in North America and Europe—you might feel like you’ve hit the jackpot.

 

 

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If you’re getting ready for an extended trip around the world, why follow the advice of all those seasoned travelers who have done it already? Ignore those dolts blogging from the road for years and those know-nothings on the message boards at Lonely Planet and BootsnAll. Do it your way. I’m sure everything will turn out just fine.

1) Hit 36 countries in 12 months

Forget what all those long-term travelers are telling you. You’re out to see the world, dammit, not just a piece of it! Cram as much into that itinerary as you can. If you can only visit Laos for one day, so what? You’ve checked off Laos! If you stop over in Bali for two nights and hit Kuta Beach, you can say you’ve seen Indonesia. You have the passport stamp to prove it. Be sure to hit five or six continents, even if it means you spend half your trip in planes and buses. You need a trip worth bragging about. “Slow travel” is for underachievers.

2) Pack a rolling suitcase so you don’t “look like a backpacker.”

Call yourself a Flashpacker and disassociate yourself from all those scuzzy shoestring travelers by carrying a suitcase with wheels instead of a backpack. Sure, you’ll be picking it up and carrying it half the time once you leave the airport in developing countries as you encounter cobblestones, sidewalks jammed with vendors, sacred cow crap, 1/2-mile staircases, and dirt paths leading from the bus station to your hotel. But hey, sometimes it takes some sacrificing to project the right image.

3) Spend a few hours nightly on Facebook and Twitter

Don’t bother talking to locals or other people in your guesthouse to get travel advice. How can you trust these strangers? Plug in the earbuds each night and tap into that Wi-Fi signal so you can pump out status updates on everything you did that day. Otherwise people won’t remember you’re traveling and won’t be able to keep telling you, “Way to go!” with a thumbs up icon. You are special because you are traveling while they are going to their stupid job each day. So be sure to keep reminding them. That’s more important than spending time interacting and learning wherever you happen to be that week.

4) Don’t do any budgeting or cost research before you leave.

Travel is expensive, right? So it doesn’t matter where you go or how much it costs in particular destinations. If Copenhagen turns out to be really costly, you can just skip all the attractions and hang out in the city parks. If Brazil ends up costing twice as much as Peru and your budget is busted after paying $264 in visa fees to enter, just blow off Iguazzu Falls. You’ve seen the pictures on your buddy’s Facebook page. Close enough.

5) Book every hotel and hostel stay in advance.

Just showing up and finding a place to stay? Too much uncertainty. Sure, everyone will tell you you’ll spend far less that way on lodging and you can see the room before committing, but time is money baby! Book all your stays in advance so you’ll know exactly where you’ll be each night of your trip. Serendipity sucks. Besides, this gets you in the habit of going online each night in the guesthouse common area to book hotels—that way you won’t forget to do your status updates.

6) ? (Add your own advice in the comments below.)