Backpacks - are they really necessary?
Posted Sunday, October 19, 2008, 7:25 PM by Lonely Planet
On my first backpacking trip through Europe at the age of 20, I met a girl in Ios who travelled with a bright purple carry-along suitcase. She looked ridiculous, but I was secretly envious of the ease with which she travelled. Ever since I've wondered, is backpacking an activity that actually requires a backpack?
Of course, if you're trekking to Everest Base Camp, it's an essential item. But for an island-hopping holiday through the Cyclades or a journey from one urban environment to another? It could be more trouble than it's worth. (If you think you've experienced Parisian wrath, try squeezing into a heaving metro carriage with a pack strapped to your back.)
Despite these musings, I still dutifully pull out my backpack every time I travel. Why? I'm not quite sure. It's almost automatic: I'm going backpacking, I'll take my backpack. Next time though, I might take a moment to think about where I'm going and how much actual on-the-road travelling I'll be doing before I start packing. If I do, I might find the convenience of a suitcase on wheels wins out.
What about you?
- Gab Nancarrow
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33 Comments:
Same with me, I always use my backpack (which is not that big) because I'm a bit worried that I will get tired of carrying a suitcase. What kind of suitcase did your friend use?
Maybe it's a matter of exploring the options out there :)
I've used a suitcase with wheels for trips months long in third world countries using public transportation. My back is better suited to wheels than 30 or 40 lbs. on my back. Yes I've had to drag the suitcase occasionally through mud and dirt, but I've gotten there.
I partially got the idea from business travel. Iused to carry my clothes bag and suitcase and not check in either, but one time I was traveling with the marketing guy and he checked his bag. I asked why and he said it was too tough on his back.
When packing my bags before leaving Australia I didn't think twice about taking a backpack for six months of travelling through the US and Europe.
Now five months into the trip I am travelling with two friends who have small pull along cases. Travel days are never fun when there are long walks to hostels and trains and I am watching my friends cruise along pain free whilst I struggle with 18kg on my back...next time I will be investing in a compact suitcase for sure!
Although in some ways that is sort of cheating, perhaps struggling with a backpack is all just part of the 'backpacking' experience!
Justine
I've got a a backpack with wheels that I've taken on a couple of trips. I never used the wheels. Backpacking is just easier in a world with stairs, rough surfaces, and motobikes/bicycles.
I always use my backpack, many a time I've been able to spped pass someone trying to control one of those suitcases on wheels
I use backpacks even when not "backpacking". I like keeping my hands free. Also being nearly six-and-a-half feet tall I can carry a large backpack with little effort. The equivalent suitcase would be cumbersome.
This reminds me of my college days. I had a friend who had literally never been outside of the Tampa Bay area in his life. He drove up to Atlanta to visit and from there we continued on to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He didn't own a backpack and instead brought a large, old Samsonite suitcase. It looked like something my grandparents would have used. We went hiking and he insisted on bringing the suitcase. This was late winter/early spring there was still ice on the trail. Picture the scene in your mind, it was that bad.
My backpack doesn't have a frame, so it is much more adjustable for fitting into lockers. It can also serve double duty as a day pack for my guide book and water.
I don't remember the year early 90's I'm sure, me and my girlfriend flew to Portugal for a bodyboard contest, afterwards we dumped our boards purchased those old style luggage carts and strolled though Europe. It was classic watching all the backpackers struggling while we pulled our belongings behind us on WHEELS!
I went backpacking a few years ago in SE Asia - or at least my two friends did. I brought along a small rucksack, like the type you might bring stuff to the gym in. I was plenty smug a lot of the time, with my light load compared to their heavy bags, but in the end I caved in and bought a backpack in Vietnam, and some more clothes! It was too much hassle: not having enough stuff, constantly shopping for goods and then jettisoning them, constantly washing my clothes. I agree they're not suitable for every trip, but they are designed to be carried and you don't have to fill them either.
Anyway, those wheely bags are a menace and usually break after tow or three days.
I have a convertable packback/ luggage thing. It can be rolled along very nicely with straps tucked in, or I pull out the straps and wear it as a backpack.
I think I should call myself a reformed backpacker. For years I travelled with a MEC travel backpack and have even got my kids using them. They can go carryon and look like a softsided bag when zipped up. Loved it. Even tho we never "climbed", I always appreciated the ability to pull out the straps and use as a backpack whenever longer walks were needed or stairs, or hopping trains in a hurry. However, I am now almost 50 and just returned from a 3 week trip to Central Europe and I (gasp) tried MEC's new carryon roll-on convertible backpack. Wow - airports and their long distances to gates are now a breeze and I still had the use of the backpack in Cesky Krumlov's cobbled streets and stairs. I think I've found a new love. Best of both worlds I could say. PS My friend just had a roll on (carryon size) and complained bitterly about stairs everywhere we encountered them. I refrained from saying I told you so.
I've traveled with suitcase carriers and it's brutal pulling it anytime we have to walk for more than a few steps, especially on a bumpy or busy street.
The holy grail is the suitcase/backpack combo.
With the way air travel is now days it is way easier to use a back back when you can!
I'm for my third time in India with my suitcase :)
Glad I don't carry all my stuff on my back as I still have to carry my laptop-bag (for work), my handbag and a Tube (work related)
As i don't move from one place to another every day I'm very happy!
I did take buses, rikshaws trains etc... no problem
just know where you are going to makes it easy. I don't hang around with all my luggage
Hey, im of to Oz in (Nov) for 3 months.
with a wheeled suitcase,
and back packing!
is this not entirely correct.
from an aged pommy Female (51) blonde
When I travel, I decide if I can get away with a smaller (3100cu. in.) front loading backpack. I find it much easier to get around airports, stations, and definitely the roads to my hotel with a backpack this size. If I need more space, I opt for a rolling suitcase. A rolling suitcase and a fullsize ~5000 cu. in. backpack are about the same hassle to transport, and the suitcase is so much easier to pack, secure/lock, and put though a baggage check.
I say be flexible. Don't be a snob. If the situation warrants a wheeled suitcase, then use it.
My wife and I spent 3 weeks in Vietnam this past September and she used an Eagle Creek backpack that had rollers and an extending handle at the top. Not once during the 3 weeks did she find it necessary to actually put it on her back, she just rolled it around. Of course, she did not look the part of the "hardened backpacker," but who cares when you don't have to lug your stuff around. Backpack makers seem to be making lots of hybrid backpack-suitcases these days, so a traveler does not need to choose one or the other.
I use to always bring a back pack then one time when I was going to Peru I could not find it and brought a wheeled suitcase and have never looked back. The suit case fits almost everywhere better then a back pack and you can keep things more organized then in a back pack. The only problem I have had is trying to walk down a beach I felt a little foolish with itJ
I ditched my large heavy backpack after my trip around the world!
My vote is to get a lightweight, comfortable carry-on (within airline FAA- 45 linear inch max). Avoid wheelies for stairs on public transport and old hotels. This way the airline won't lose your bag either.
I have been doing this for 3 years now AND even get around the silly liquid laws!
I agree with the backpack. I think it really depends though on where you are traveling. I recently traveled to Madrid, with my suitcase, and I regretted it. It was a pain going through the metro, and the cobbled streets. However, I am a big fan of the backpack, because even though it can be a bit cumbersome on the metro, or on buses, it's easier to carry than a suitcase up three flights of stairs.
I have a 60litre pack that I can zip the straps away and use as a suitcase, which these days I do most of the time. It's easier, like you said, for getting on and off public transport and taxis. If I'm walking a long way I unzip the straps and backpack it. My friend Rishi recently went one better and bought a bag that does all that plus works as a stroller with small wheels and a handle. Its not ideal for Everest base camp but good for Indian train journeys and it is pretty cool and solid enough to keep clothes kinda fresh.
OR... you could acquire a backpack...with wheels!
they are highly wonderful.
When I was younger I think a backpack would have been great for traveling rather than the eight suitcases I needed for me and my family.
Now I am much older and wiser I believe all the traveling I do now will be with, other than the comfortable clothes I will wear, only a credit card.
I am sure it will save me many a hold up and I can buy what I need overseas, including cases if I wish to bring anything back home.
my husband and I went to europe for one month as backpackers but we found very useful a small suitcase with the necessary clothing and personal things.
While we saw all those people carrrying huge backpacks, we saw also that they had problems in trains, planes and buses because the luggage was huge and did not fit into the left luggage or lockers in hostels.
I too prefer backpack, because it enables free hands. Suitcase won't move anywhere without your hands:)
I always use my backpack because of convenience. It is easier to carry and squishable. I friend and I had to use the metro in Moscow. I had a nice squishable backpack she a non-squishy suitcase. I was very happy that my Russian is not very good. Probably could have learnt a few new cursewords. It was easier for me especially on the long way to the hotel and afterwards waiting for 12 ours in SVO. A lot easier to sleep on a backpack than a suitcase.
On last year's trip to Mexico we did so much shopping that we had to give up using backpacks and buy a set of three suitcases. Amazingly, carrying as much luggage as Posh and Becks was actually easier than attempting to get about with two rucksacks.
Unless you're walking or hiking with it, a suitcase is fine, especially when travelling between towns and cities. It's way easier to find things, too, as you just flip open the lid rather than unpack the entire thing.
After backpacking for a year, I wanted to burn my backpack... it's so practical in South America but heaving around a backpack in an urban situation - too much hard work. Now I try to take the smallest suitcase I can. Admittedly I'm now just doing month long trips but I aim to fit everthing into a carry-on size case. Having said that, I'm planning a trip to central america next year and might have to revert to the trusty backpack ;) But I'll certainly pack much less than my previous backpacking experience. Sally
If you've been to europe you know how many stairs there are. Try lugging that case up and down a few. I guarantee you'll wish you had a back pack.If your still in doubt get a backpack that has wheels and a handle. I believe blackwolf have them.
I went travelling for a year with a two and a half year old,(obviously he didn't stay two and half for the whole year), and a backpack certainly left my arms free to do the daddy things, and I think it made me look cooler.
But now he is eight, and I have a pull along that has rucksack handles hidden away. I have never used the rucksack handles. I don't give a rats bottom if I look cool.
I found a perfect backpack through ems.com that unzips like a suitcase and has liners to separate things. I took a 4 month trip through 17 countries (wouldn't recommend this much in so little time but I wouldn't go back and change it either). the straps zipped up for air transport and didn't leave any free straps to get caught in conveyor belts. My travel partners had rolling duffels and ended up loosing wheels after all the moving we did. I used to hate having to take a backpack as well because you had to pull everything from the top.... not anymore with this one. There are a few different brands out with similar layouts
i agree wheels are the way to go ...
TRAVELLING.GOOD LUCK
HAPPY TRAVELLING
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