Planning a trip: Gear

After planning a trip to London, I knew I had to get some new gear so I could be more prepared. I am still using a small Jansport bag, which I am sure was purchased on a trip in America in 2000! It's not big enough to store clothes for multiple days, and only one of the zippers works. So, I needed… A New Bag I started off by doing a quick search and reading some recent top ten lists. These summaries gave me some idea of sizes, options, functionality, and cost. I then asked for personal recommendations in a Slack channel, where I received plenty of good suggestions. It was interesting to see which brands and bags appeared in other research. From the channel, two people recommended Bellroy backpacks. Dave Hicking has the Tom Bihn Smart Alec 2.0 and took the v1.0 around the world. Someone recommended the Aer backpacks, and Taylor Drayson said he is a "massive Peak Design fan" and has the Everyday Backpack. Osprey was a brand that came up on multiple lists and has a large range of options…