Best Travel Carry-On Bags

Best Travel Carry-On Bags

If you’ve flown using a budget airline before, you’ll likely know the pain of finding a great priced flight to a perfect holiday destination, then going through the gruelling process of adding all of the extras onto the price; seat allocation, holiday insurance and hold luggage all add seemingly extortionate sums to the final price. However, one thing that is included 99% of the time with the price of the flight is hand luggage; and these costly optional extras make your precious hand luggage allocation even more valuable. Typically, travellers don’t want to be using hand luggage for clothes and shoes, but this is EXACTLY what you should do if you want to keep your travel costs down and bank account up! To get you started on this money saving journey, we’ve highlighted some of the most brilliant and best carry-on bags specifically designed for use as hand luggage. One thing we would note is, these bags will typically conform to size allocations, but the weight will be at your discretion; pack wisely and always check the weight before heading to the airport!

Tortuga Setout

Tortuga has basically been running the show for ‘traveller’ style backpacks since their conception in 2009, helped by the fact that the founders and employees all operate in a location independent basis. This means they have a unique insight into the mind of the users of their products and are able to offer products that perfectly suit the needs of the market.

The Setout is the product from Tortuga’s range that we’ve highlighted, as it hits a sweet spot in terms of travel carry-on luggage, essentially it’s not too big and not too small. It’s 45L and weights 3.3lbs (1.5KG) which sounds a lot but the weight is spread across your back and is surprisingly easy to carry! It’s front-loading, which means it opens like a suitcase and not a classic trekking backpack and works perfectly with packing cubes. The one downside is that they aren’t available for shipping in the UK, so if you have your heart set on one of these then we’d recommend using a postage forwarding service which basically means you’ll be paying (roughly) £1 = $1 when all costs are considered.

Osprey Farpoint 40

Another bag that absolutely hits the nail on the head in terms of size, the Osprey Farpoint 40 is priced lower than its Tortuga counterpart. Seen in hostels across the world, this budget-friendly option is the go-to bag for travellers that like to pack light and move often.

The bag’s main compartment design is called a ‘clamshell’ which differs to the Tortuga, and is constructed using a neon green material, which is supposed to make finding things in your bag easier. Complete with lockable zippers and fully padded harness, this bag is a serious contender but could benefit from a few more storage innovations.

Osprey Transporter 40

If you’re going to be hostel hopping around Asia or doing some bear watching in Romania, the other two bags on this list will be perfect! But if you’re looking for something rough and ready, something to just hold ‘stuff’, then this bag will be for you!

The design is simple and offers one big space for everything, with no laptop pouch or separate compartments. Although some of you may curl up in horror at this notion, this will also be highly appealing to others, and it’s that demographic that this bag serves very well indeed. That said, if you did want to use this bag for ‘classic’ travelling, then you could throw in some packing cubes to make a makeshift travel pack.

Minaal Carry-On 2.0

At the complete other end of the spectrum is this bag. Having been designed with business people and city-hopping digital nomads in mind, the bag encourages users to pack light and travel fast. Its 35L capacity means you’ll be limiting yourself to a laptop, tablet and some basic clothing, which can in truth be liberating. This bag stops the bad habit of over packing and instead rewards travellers who only bring what they truly need. With several packing cubes already installed into the design, the bag will appeal to some and not to others, especially if you’re somewhere cold!

These are some of our favourite carry-on bags, but what are yours? Let us know on Facebook and Twitter, we love hearing about the newest travel gear!

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