Backpacks Rule

I love backpacks. I’ve have 9 at the moment, and I still find myself eyeing new ones all the time. Yet, somehow there are haters out there. Gab Nancarrow at Travel Blog put up a post yesterday calling into question the supremacy of the backpack as the supreme container for backpacking – or indeed any travel – and I feel a need to defend my beloved satchels.  So 5 reasons backpacks are better than wheely bags:

1. Backpacks are all terrain. You’ll notice in the picture above I can’t even ride my POS rented bike on this back country trail in Senegal. How was I supposed to make it down the trail with a wheely bag? This isn’t just limited to back country. Stairs, curbs, and narrow passages are much easier when your bag is on your back.
2. Backpacks have many pockets and places to clip things. I’ve never seen a piece of luggage have the type of compartmentalization that backpacks offer. Not only can you stash your camera, book, water bottle, etc in a convenient pocket, but you can put the stash your laundry that got rained on in a different place from that sacred last clean pair of underwear. Also, you can tie or clip some of that wet laundry to the outside of your bag to let it dry.
3. Backpacks get smaller. Sometimes you’re in a place for a while and need to stash your backpack, or you have two backpacks, and you need to flatten one to be stored inside the other. No problem. Other luggage doesn’t do that.


4. You can take two backpacks. Have you ever tried to take two wheely bags through the airport? It sucks. They bump into everything, fall over, etc. but, as you can see in this picture, there I am with two backpacks on enjoying myself in the Ho Chi Minh City airport.
5. Backpacks are comfortable. I can’t count the number of times I’ve ridden in a packed car with my soft backpack in my lap, that would have sucked if my backpack and wheels and hard edges that dug into my legs. I’ve even used my backpack as a pillow in a pinch. Wheely bags just won’t do that for you.

I’m sure that there are situations where wheely bags are better, I’ve just never been in one. I took a backpack with wheels to Japan back when I was just learning how to travel, and I wore it as a backpack the whole time. Backpacks are just more utilitarian, and that’s what counts.