How to Travel with Just One Bag: Tortuga Travel Backpack Experience

 I recently went on a trip with just one bag. That's it. No laptop bag, purse, nada, zip zilch, or one bag only. And this was that bag. In this article, I will share what I learned about one-bag travel and walk you through the tool that made this possible. Let's do this. I will admit this wasn't my first rodeo with one-bag travel. I did a series of different trips with one bag travel, using separate bags for each trip. I wrote extensively about it in an article on my website called The Best Carry Backpack for One Bag Travel. The article covers the basics of one-bag travel and the specific top-rated travel backpacks I used. 

And I even shared my specific packing lists for each trip. I may create a separate article about the nuances of one-bag travel, but for now, if you'd like that information, please check out my article. I'll leave a link in the description. This article will focus on my recent one-bag trip with the Tor Tuga 40-litre travel backpack. I'll walk through the pack and its features so you can decide if you want to take this puppy on your next trip. You don't have to go all in with one bag either because I don't know about you, but one-bag travel does not float my boat for various reasons that I may or may not get into. Here are the overall Tortuga 40-litre travel backpack features in first-up size. This bag has a 40-litre capacity, with dimensions of 21.7 by 13.8. By 7.9 inches. 

Most airlines allow carry-on bags 22 by 14 by nine, which will be allowable as carry-on and fit in the overhead bin. On most US domestic flights. You might need some help on international flights and airlines, especially budget ones that sometimes have smaller carry-on size limits. Some airlines allow you to pay extra for a full-sized carry-on bag, but some don't. Either way, I encourage you to research the carry-on regulations for any airlines you fly with frequently to ensure this backpack will be a good fit for you. As a note, this backpack also comes in a smaller 30-liter size following up material. It's made of a super durable waterproof sailcloth material. It's made from recycled polyester, saving 25 water bottles from landfills for each bag. 

I don't prioritize waterproof material. Most luggage is at least water resistant anyway, and I generally thought that was enough, but I cannot tell you how thankful I was for having this particular backpack with me on this recent trip because I'll show you. So I am taking a test trip with my Tortuga 40-liter backpack, and I'm on a small plane and taking it as my only bag one-bag travel. 

Lucky for me, I also had a packable backpack in it. I took out a few things I would need on the flight, like my laptop and other items. I was everybody had to gate check their stuff because I'm on a small plane, so I became grateful that it is waterproof because then, to get on this tiny plane, we had to actually leave the airport and go outside and drop our gate check bags on on a soaking wet luggage rack so thank goodness for a waterproof and thank goodness for the packable backpack, making this one bag travel trip possible.

 Overall, the durability of this pack and the waterproof properties make it a versatile backpack not just for travel but also for outdoor adventures. For example, I would take this pack with me on a multi-day hiking trip or a long-distance hike like the Camino de Santiago. The y que que zippers are water-resistant and lockable, the buckles are solid, and this pack feels super sturdy. Next up, weight. This pack weighs 4.5 pounds or two kilograms. It's light and lighter than all rolling luggage. If I compare it to Osprey's travel backpack, that's also 40 liters. This is heavier by about one pound. I attribute this to the thickness and durability of the material of this pack. 

But frankly, I wouldn't sweat the extra pound. If you like what this pack offers, I wouldn't let it be a deal breaker. Let's look at the harness system before I show you the inside. These shoulder straps and the back of the pack are very, very thick. They have lots of foam padding for comfort. It's also fully height adjustable, and there's an entire page on the Tortuga website to help you adjust this harness system for your exact height. The sternum strap also helps balance it all, and the hip belt at the bottom can be removed if you don't want to use it. However, I will admit I removed the hip belt from my trip because I didn't think my pack was that heavy, and I didn't want to futz around with the hip strap, and I regretted it. 

Another cool feature of the hip belt is this little zippered pocket to keep a few things close at hand while the pack is on your back. And this is all on both sides of the hip belt; okay, let's walk through the inside of the pack. And we're going to start with the very front pocket. It's right here on top. There's not much to it. But you can fit sunglasses and small items. And there's a handy little key clip. The next pocket on the inside here unzips about halfway, and then you can fold it back to see what you can keep in here; you can observe there's a pocket here that goes about a tiny waist down, which might be suitable for an e-reader. There are a few little pockets here for cards and small items and another zippered pocket. 

And this does go right down to the very bottom. There are some water bottle pockets, one on each side. Now, there are some pros and cons to this water bottle pocket. First of all, it's very streamlined to the pack. And no matter the size of your water bottle, it will fit in here with a caveat that we'll get to in a minute. And it'll fit in here very snugly. The problem I have is that it's almost like the elastic that holds this water bottle pocket tight to the pack is so strong, and the water bottle pocket itself is just small enough that it does not fit my one-liter bottle gracefully; I can check it but only just and only if I don't have enough stuff so much stuff on the inside that it pushes out on the water bottle pocket. 

If you have a water bottle that is 500 mil or 750 mil, you might have a better time with these pockets than I did. I'll get to the middle main compartment in a second. But before that, I will show you the laptop compartment right near the back. I love it when the laptop compartment is near the back; it's the most secure. And here we have now the zippers.

As you can see, I only go down a quarter of the way down the pack. This is a challenge for me in accessing this pocket because this pocket goes right down to the very bottom, but you have to dig to get to the bottom. There are also padded laptop sleeves, a padded laptop, and a tablet sleeve. 

And then there's a zippered compartment here. But if you want to keep much, and as you should probably keep a few things at the bottom of the pack to keep all your tech gear together and weighed out in the right way, it is going to be a little bit difficult to get to the bottom of this particular pocket. If I felt that the back pocket didn't open enough, the main compartment was the opposite. It is a Calam Sheils clamshell-style opening, in which you can keep a ton of stuff. There are little organizational elements here; there's just the mesh side zippered pocket.

 And then the main pocket here. So, generally speaking, if you're going to use this, this pocket because it's as hollow as it is. I like to use some of Orca's organizational components, like packing cubes, to keep things together. Now, the one beef I have with this and using this pack regularly is that I saved a bunch of stuff in the front pocket of this pack. And I, of course, have my tech in the back pocket. Opening this pack up clamshell style means I was also having to lift all the stuff that was in this part and move it over, which sometimes, you know, got everything in here mixed up. We're more messy. Opening and closing it regularly felt more awkward as I was on the trip. I took this because I was moving around a little bit and needed to open and close my pack reasonably regularly.

 One easy way around that would be not to use clamshell style; you could easily open it up as much as you want. Then, work with it by putting things in and organizing it this way. Here are a few quick notes about general one-bag travel. First of all, so we can all get on the same page. One-bag travel is as it sounds: traveling with just one bag, no personal laptop bag, no personal item bag, nothing. It's not my preference, but I tend to go away for long periods. And I also bring a lot of tech gear with me. One-bag travel, on the whole, is impractical for my personal needs. But it could work out great for you if you're going away for a shorter period or don't have as much tech gear as I do. 

I took this on a week-long trip to a conference, and it did the trick earlier in this article, in the clip where I was on the airplane. I mentioned that I brought a packable backpack with me. A packable backpack like this one is a 100% essential piece of travel gear no matter what kind of luggage you get with you, but if you are traveling with just one bag like this backpack, a packable backpack is even more essential when I was told that all passengers had to gate check their bags. I would have been wholly screwed without the packable backpack because I had to take out my electronics, Medication, my fragile items that couldn't go into the cargo hold in this pack. 

And I only had somewhere if I had my packable backpack. To put it all, I bestow the glories of packable backpacks in another article, which I will link to in the description if you're interested in learning more about packable backpacks, but even beyond the travel day itself, once you arrive at your destination, this backpack is entirely too large to serve as a day pack for more minor excursions around town. So, regardless, you'll need a smaller bag that you can use at your destination, and a packable backpack is excellent.

Now, on the whole, I have a weak confession to make. I'm not a big fan of travel backpacks; my back is not a fan of travel backpacks. On the whole, if I have a choice between rolling and carrying, I will always choose rolling luggage; I should have brought the hip belt with me on the trip that I took this pack with because I'm sure that would have helped. I will also admit that there will still be trips in the future that I will choose to bring this bag on, specifically trips with some outdoor adventure component where rolling luggage would be inappropriate or even impossible to bring along; the ruggedness and the waterproof qualities of this backpack would be valuable.

Tortuga sent me this backpack for free to review, but I was not obligated to create this article, and all opinions are my own. If you are interested in buying this pack, and if you click the link in the description, I will earn a small commission for anything you purchase from Tortuga. This doesn't affect your price at all, but it does help me support this channel. Thank you in advance for your support. In the meantime, I'm Nora Dunn, a.k .a. professional hobo, and I'll catch up with you next time.