You are the backpack you use

Published on 6^th August 2009 in Travel.

When you’re travelling, your backpack is without a doubt the most important thing that you take with you. Depending on the type of trip you’re going on, you may have to pack it, carry it and unpack it every single day. Almost everything you have will be inside it, so if water gets in or the zip breaks, you’re in real trouble. You practically live out of your backpack when you’re travelling, so it’s worth getting a good one.

Choosing a backpack is another matter though. There are hundreds of options in various shapes and sizes, with seemingly no consensus on the best style to have. Recently a friend of mine came to me with this dilemma, so I thought I’d share a few tips of what to look for in a good backpack.

Avoid toploaders like the plague

When you think of backpacks, the first thing that comes to mind is the traditional toploader design. These are like a tall cylinder with a single flap at the top and are the most common design on the market. However, buying one of these for a backpacking trip is probably the worst decision that you can make.

The sole reason why they’re so bad is the design of the main compartment, which is where you’ll put most of your stuff. Because you can only access it from the top, it makes packing, unpacking and finding things extremely difficult.

Imagine if you want to get something at the bottom of the main compartment; you’d either have to unpack everything above it or shift all of the other items around in the pack. Because of this design flaw, toploaders are very difficult to keep organised and make finding anything a tiresome process.

Go for a ‘travel pack’ instead

The more suitable alternative to the toploader is a style of backpack commonly referred to as the ‘travel pack’. The main difference they have is the design of the main compartment. Instead of having a flap at the top, they have a zip which runs up one side, over the top of the pack and down the other side.

When you lie these packs down on their straps, you can unzip them and view the entire contents of the main compartment without moving anything inside it. This profile view allows you to find things quicker and making organising your stuff a great deal easier.

Although I’d recommend these style of packs over toploaders, there are a couple of things you should watch out for. First of all, the quality of the zip is absolutely crucial due to the pack’s design, since it keeps the whole thing together. If you’re going to buy one, make sure the main zip is very large and heavyweight; it should be more sturdy than any of the other zips on the pack.

Many of these ‘travel packs’ also come with a daypack which can be attached to the back of the main unit. However, anyone who’s tried to use them in this configuration will quickly realise that this makes you extremely unbalanced and liable to fall over backwards. Backpackers who carry separate day bags almost always wear them on their front instead.

How big a backpack do you need?

Backpacks are always categorised by capacity, measured in litres, which makes it difficult to visualise exactly how big they are. 50 litres sounds like a great deal of space, but if you saw a bag of that size, it would be surprisingly small. Generally, packs range from 45 to 95 litres, but in my experience 65 is what you should aim for. Anything more than that and the weight of your pack is going to make it impractical to carry around.

It’s all about the quality, not price

When you’re buying kit to go travelling with, a backpack is often the most expensive thing on your shopping list. It might be tempting to go for a cheaper one under £80, but believe me, it’s worth spending the extra money. Mine cost about £120 and will have seen 16 months of action after this summer without a single problem. You might take different clothes or shoes on each trip, but your backpack should be a constant which you can rely on for years to come.