A work week one bag travel

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Neale Donald Walsch

I’m lucky that I have a job where I can work remotely as it allows me to live in a small community where there are no tech jobs anywhere close. It does require me to travel a few weeks per year to the office but I don’t mind that much as I appreciate minor dozes of socializing occasionally.

I recently spent five nights on a trip with only a single backpack and it was a surprisingly great experience.

I’ve had these work trips for years and I didn’t put too much thought into how to travel. Like most people I simply filled a suitcase that I checked in together with a backpack that I brought on the airplane.

I didn’t quite know how much to pack so I always packed a little more than I needed. For example, if I’m away 5 nights then I brought 7 pairs of underwear (if disaster strikes twice). When I returned I always had a bunch of unused clothes, but that felt better than having to little.

Because I had so much space I could bring a lot of things; my own pillow, a handful of books, gigantic boardgames, and I still had space left to bring back lots of gifts.

I’ve had two backpacks that I used to travel with:

1. Datsusaru Battlepack Core It’s a really sturdy backpack that’s great to bring to BJJ training, but it’s very heavy and it’s not ideal as a traveling bag.
2. M-Tac Backpack Urban Line I bought this bag recently but I wasn’t too impressed. It was too small for a traveling bag and the zipper broke after just a few trips. The zipper breaking made me go online and research new traveling backpacks, which gave me the idea to try out one bag travel.

I’ve had a few suitcases that have broken down but I can’t remember the brand of. Most recently I’ve been using the Samsonite Essens 69cm that have held out great so far.

I’ve been spending five nights away 4–5 times a year on business travels. It’s not a crazy amount but also not negligible, so I figured it’s worth trying to optimize them a bit.

Enter one bag travel.

While I was reasonably comfortable during my travels there’s a few things that intrigued me about one bag travel:

1. I wouldn’t have to roll around a big suitcase.
2. The trip would be more streamlined without having to check-in and wait for the luggage during flights.
3. I wouldn’t have to worry about lost luggage (although to be fair, so far I haven’t had that happen to me).
4. No more trying to find space for my suitcase on the train, or worrying that I won’t see if someone decides to grab it and walk off the train.

In short, the actual trip would be more convenient and less worrisome…
If I could make it fit.

• Water bottle I later decided not to bring it.
• 5 pair of socks and underwear
• 3 t-shirts, 1 long-sleeve t-shirt
• 1 slightly thicker long-sleeve shirt
• Training gear for Submission Wrestling Shorts, rashguard, spats, knee pads, and mouth guard.
• 1 pair of pants
• Mobile phone charger
• A Framework 13 laptop + charger
• Laptop–headphone cable I also brought the Sony WH-1000X M3 noise canceling headphones that I wore during the trip.
• Remarkable 2
• A bag for dirty clothes
• Toothbrush & toothpaste
• Power bank
• Vitamins & medicine
• Nail clippers, tape, Whoop body holder
• Earbuds & sleep mask
• A book—the first two books in the Murderbot Diaries series.

I saw the advice that the clothes you travel with is also very important. They have a point.

• Pants with large pockets with zippers. I could use the pants the whole week if I wanted to. I saw the advice that one bag travel is dead and that 1.5 bag travel is the future, where you should bring a sling and put things like your wallet and phone there. Meh, I brought a pair of pants with bigger pockets instead.
• A Houdini hoodie. Really warm and cozy, should last the whole week.
• A thin jacket. Paired with the hoodie it provides a decent enough protection against the weather. I’m not going on a hiking trip; I’ll be moving between the office, the hotel, and restaurants. It’s also thin enough so I can fit it into the fully packed backpack.
• A cap and gloves. I’m traveling in Sweden, it’s still fairly cold here.

1. It was a bit too cold on some days. A warmer jacket, long-johns, or a nudge would’ve been good.
2. The next Murderbot book. The first was fantastic! I had to visit a local book store where I bought Lock In. Loved that too.

Before I could try out one bag travel I had to get a new backpack. I ended up with the Fyro Levo 30L backpack mostly because the creator had a bunch of cool videos about bags… As shipping was expensive I also got their packing cubes, the retractable key leash, and a 1L sling (that I didn’t use).

This isn’t a review of their stuff; there’s probably better options out there but I’m too inexperienced to say. Maybe I should’ve gotten the 36L backpack, and the sling was an unnecessary purchase, but other than that I’ve been very happy with the Fyro products.

Will it fit?

Packing cubes are amazing. This is the first time I’ve used them and now I wonder: how could I travel without them?

The Fyro cubes compress, important if you want to manage space. It would’ve been very difficult to fit all clothes in the bag without them.

One of the biggest critiques against the bag is that the pockets here are very loose as things might fall out. When the bag is fully packed this has not been my experience—almost the reverse. Fully packed, it’s a bit too tight. But empty they’re too loose.

I did fit everything I wanted to bring. Although I skipped the water bottle it would’ve fit into the water bottle holder on the side. Maybe I’ll bring it next time.

The fully packed bag weighed in at 7.3 kg.

I do love the large front compartment.

I was a bit worried that the bag wouldn’t fit under the front seat but it worked out well. I didn’t take a picture of it but it fit in the overhead compartment during the flight too.

Although the extra space of the 36L backpack would’ve been greatly appreciated I fear that it might have made the bag too large to fit under the seat. In the end I think I prefer the convenience of having the bag under the seat over the extra 6L of space.

The bag was also used to transport the laptop and other electronics between the hotel and office. I was worried that a huge bag would be a chore to bring but that’s been a non-issue. The only minor problem is that the bag doesn’t stand by itself without the packing cubes.

One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. Henry Miller

Overall I’ve really enjoyed my one bag traveling experience. I managed to fit into a single bag and the trip was a lot easier and more streamlined.

There are however some downsides that bothers me quite a bit:

• I couldn’t bring Luthier, my new favorite boardgame on the trip. My work trips have been one of the best ways to reduce my boardgame list-of-shame (bought and unplayed boardgames). Or to play my favorite games again.
• There’s not enough space to bring back gifts, such as clothes or LEGO. Then again, maybe I don’t need to always bring back gifts? Or maybe small gifts are good enough?
• I can’t go nuts in the local book stores. Last time I brought back five new fantasy and sci-fi books. This time I bought a small book that I could fit at the back above the laptop.

I haven’t yet decided if I shall continue with the one bag travel, or if I shall start checking in a suitcase again. Either way it’s been eye opening how much you can do with a regular backpack.