From the Editor’s Desk: Bagged (Premium)

In the 25 years before the COVID-19 pandemic, I traveled extensively for work and for pleasure. And when that came to a screeching halt in March 2020, the only question I had was when we would return to normal. But as the weeks turned to months and then from months into over a year and more, it became painfully clear things would never be the same.

Pleasure travel resumed: Thanks to a U.S. ban on visitors from Europe in mid-2021, we gave up on the hoped-for return of summer home swaps, did a bit of research, and ended up in Mexico City. The rest, as they say, is history, and aside from a single trip to Paris in October 2021–a belated 30th anniversary trip my wife and I had first booked in February 2020, on the eve of the pandemic and then delayed–that’s been our sole international destination ever since.

As for work travel, my experience is common to those who were road warriors before COVID: It never really came back. And then it came back in limited form. And now, suddenly, my work travel opportunities have expanded dramatically. I’m heading to Berlin for IFA in early September, and I’ve had several other offers for travel, including some that would be sponsored by other companies.

That’s what I wanted … in 2021. But today, three years later, and four years after the chaotic COVID summer of 2020, it’s not what I want anymore. I went from missing work travel to getting used to not traveling for work. And the few times I have traveled for work over the past few years–oddly, all three flights so far have been to Seattle–were uncomfortable and oddly unfamiliar experiences. I’ve kind of lost that desire and skill.

Going to Mexico so much hasn’t helped in that regard: We’ve settled into a comfortable rhythm of always taking the same basic flights, sitting in the same seats, and having the same pain-free experience in which we can hit the ground running, with a place of our own waiting for us, full of our stuff. It’s great. But it’s not the same as before, and now I’m not sure if I want it to be the same anymore. I will be judicious in accepting or rejecting future travel requests. Berlin, for example, was a no-brainer, it’s Berlin: My wife is joining me, and we’re staying for a few additional days past the show. But other travel? We’ll see.

This past week, the two of us visited Washington D.C. This wasn’t a work trip, our friend Stephen Rose was there for work and knows how much I love it there–D.C. is my favorite city in the United States–and asked if we’d be interested in a long weekend get-together. You bet: D.C. is just a manageable 3.5 hours away by car. As noted, my favorite city in the U.S. And in addition to all the reasons I wanted to go–the city, the sites, the restaurants, plus a chance to hang out with Stephen–this would be a good chance for me to road-test a few travel-related changes I’ve made recently in a no-risk way.

It was a great weekend. We’re oddly busy this summer, so we kept it short–just three nights and two full days, plus a morning for work before heading home Monday–and then wished we had more time. This is typical for me, but especially in D.C.: I quietly evaluate every place I visit as a potential future home or return destination, and I always feel the same pangs there, where the logic of all the problems with being there–the high costs, the oddly extreme weather in both summer and winter–give way to my emotional love of the place. Like Paris, D.C. is a place I’d sacrifice a lot for. I’d like to at least spend a year there at some point.

My wife and I are true believers in the travel light philosophy. And while I know that different people have different priorities–or, at least different comfort levels and stressors–I am hard-core about this, and always optimize what I bring with me no matter the trip. But road trips introduce an interesting wrinkle: When you drive to a destination, you can bring more stuff, and there’s little reason not to. And so for this trip, I actually brought two bags, instead of my typical one. And therein lies a story.

For years, I’ve traveled with a Rick Steves Ravenna Rolling Case, and it’s perfect for my needs. This is full-sized luggage that fits in any overhead bin, no matter the size of the plane. It has an interesting hybrid soft/hard shell exterior, and can expand by 2 inches if i need more room. I love it, and I’ve owned two of them: The second one is lasting longer because I don’t travel as much as before, while my first was worn away after several years of constantly being on-the-go.

This bag, this type of bag, is not what the experts recommend. If you look at The Wirecutter or any other site that reviews luggage, you will see the same recommendation over and over again: The Travelpro Platinum Elite, a “spinner”-style bag with four wheels that comes in multiple sizes and has a lifetime warranty.

The nicety here is that you can semi-effortless roll this type of bag on flat surfaces (as in an airport), where two-wheeled rolling luggage like the Ravena is heavier in use. We own several of these bags, go figure: My wife uses one, my kids each have one, and for some reason there are two more of them at home, so I can use one too, if I want.

I don’t. I hate this bag and have no idea why anyone would want to use it. The Travelpro, like other spinners, will roll away from you if you’re not paying attention, and it happens a lot. You get so used to how well it works on flat surfaces that the smallest of obstacles–a small gap between an elevator door and the floor of the hotel, a small bump in a doorway–trigger spastic mistakes in which you often end up dropping it by mistake when it can’t clear them. And its awkward shape is difficult to pack well, and it often doesn’t fit in overhead bins when expanded. Every time I use it, I get upset with it.

The thing is, I keep needing to use it. Back in March, I left my Ravena behind in Mexico because I didn’t need to carry anything home, a nice benefit of having a second place. I was planning on getting a second one whenever Rick Steves had a sale, but when that sale arrived just two weeks after our return home, I went in a slightly different direction: I purchased a Ravena Mini Rolling Case instead.

This is, of course, a smaller version of the Ravena, and I figured it would be perfect for Mexico trips because I wouldn’t need to bring that much stuff back and forth (again, we have so much stuff there already). Ideally–and this one was really enticing, given my “travel light” thing–I could bring only this bag and leave my laptop bag behind too: The Ravena Mini has a pull-out lid compartment designed specifically for a laptop.

This was a fun dream, but I’ve never been able to use it. Since it arrived, we’ve traveled to Boston, the Finger Lakes, Seattle (for Build), and then Mexico City for most of June. And then we went to New York City for a day-long work event in July. Each time, I thought about taking the Ravena Mini–I even started packing it for New York–but each time, it was just too small. When we went to Mexico City in June, for example, I brought a bunch of extra stuff to leave there, so I came home with a nearly empty bag. But the way out, it wouldn’t have worked.

For the D.C. trip, I decided to at least get this bag out of the house. I packed the Travelpro spinner and the Ravena Mini–again, traveling by car affords this–which let me bring along extra clothes, nice for the hot D.C. summer, and some a second laptop that I’m reviewing, and without having to overpack either bag. The Ravena Mini is small enough that it fit on the top of the Travelpro, and it has a strap so it can stay there securely.

This wasn’t a great real-world trip, but it let me experience the bag, and its pull-out laptop-friendly lid. And it was pretty great. The problem is, I can’t see being able to use it again anytime soon: I’m going to Berlin in a few weeks, as noted, but I’ll need too many clothes to bring such a small bags (it’s a work trip, plus we’ll be there for almost a week), And then I’m going to Mexico City in early October, which would be ideal, except that we’re going to Dallas first because I am speaking at an event, and that will require work clothes as well. I may not get to really use this bag at all this year. For the love of God.

Related to this, I’m perhaps a bit too into luggage and other bags, and one of my big pet peeves is having to cart around a too-big laptop bag. I’m OK with the Rick Steves Velocé Shoulder Bag, I’ve owned at least three of them over the years, but the last two are more cheaply made, and the bottom expands out, which is OK for soft items, but not great for laptops and electronics. And so I’ve been searching for a thin laptop bag–one that retains its thin shape, no matter how it’s used–for years. I do use an HP Renew backpack that I like quite a bit, it’s ideal when I have to carry two laptops and additional gear. But … traveling light is always the goal. A thin laptop bag is the dream.

When The Wirecutter updated its carry-on luggage recommendations a month or so ago, I of course checked it out, knowing they would recommend the Travelpro yet again, which they did. But that got me thinking: What if Travelpro makes a laptop bag or a small carry-on I could use as a laptop bag? So I checked out their website, only to discover that they do not. Their slimmest backpack is not thin at all, and it’s expensive. But since it was in my head, I started searching, for perhaps the hundredth time, for something matching my needs. Thin, light, inexpensive, and useful. Google, first. Then Amazon.

I found a few interesting options on Amazon. And suspecting there would be some major flaw, I nonetheless ordered an hk Business Slim Backpack for about $45, though a $40 Amazon credit from a gift card eased that bill nicely.

This bag is what I was looking for: Thin, with no bulging. A good color (for me, a forest green). Tall enough to fit my biggest 15- to 16-inch laptops plus an iPad, a charger, earbuds, and some assorted doodads. And with a strap on the back so it will sit securely on my luggage when I travel. High maintenance, I know.

As with the Ravena Mini, the question was when I’d be able to field test it. But Washington D.C. afforded that opportunity: I traveled with three bags–normally a stretch for me–and the backpack and Ravena Mini both fit on the Travelpro luggage nicely, easing the trip from the car to the hotel. Just packing the backpack as I would normally for a “real” trip was instructive, and I think it’s going to work out nicely. It’s exactly what I was looking for. And though I do sometimes need two laptops–that’s my lot in life, I guess–this seems ideal for those times when I do not.

Maybe someday, I’ll travel with the Ravena Mini and the slim backpack and nothing else. That probably won’t happen in 2024, sadly. But it will be a good day, whenever it happens.

It will happen.