1. What Kind Of Trip Are You Taking?
Before anything else you need to know what kind of trip you are taking. Knowing what kind of trip you are taking is essential, but obviously since you are reading this article you have already decided you are taking a backpack instead of a suitcase - so I won't get into that particular debate here. If you are camping out then you will need a bigger pack to be able to take camping gear, food, and water in addition to everything else. If you are going to be staying in hostels or hotels then you can get away with a much smaller pack since you wont need to provide your own bedding and shelter. The length of your trip can determine how much you take with you as well, or perhaps the climates you are expecting on your trip will require you to have heavier, bulkier clothes.
So really the size of your pack is completely dependent on you, your lifestyle, the length of your trip, and the kind of trip you intend on having. Only you can determine something of that nature. If you are not sure as of now what size of backpack you should take with you, go check out bloggers who take the kind of trips you intend on taking so as to get the best idea of what size of packs you should be looking at.
2. Determine What Kind Of Luggage You Want
Are you flying to your destination? If so then you need to determine for yourself whether or not you want to have it as carry on luggage or if you want to check it.
Checking it certainly has it's pros and cons. Here are a couple examples:
Pros
- You don't have to worry as much about the size of your pack and how much you can take with you.
- Once it's checked you don't have to lug it around the airport with you.
Cons
- You generally have to pay for checked baggage.
- It is out of your sight and thus could get lost by the airline.
- Straps can get caught in the conveyor belts.
My point of bringing this up at all is because if you want to have it be carry on only then there are a lot of airline dimensions and weight restrictions for carry on baggage. Be 1000% sure of what your airline's restrictions are, as they vary from one airline to the next. This information will greatly affect what packs will work best for you.
3. Try On Several Packs
I'm telling you, this is by far the best step you can take. Don't look online, don't read the blogs about specific packs. Go get physical with them. I personally went to REI and they measured my torso to tell me what size I am (this is necessary for you to find the best fitting pack), I then picked out several packs that seemed the most ideal to me, weighed them down with the sandbags they had in the store, and then walked around for awhile. This gave me a great sense of the weight distribution - holy shit most of the weight really IS on my hips instead of my shoulders!! Also physically seeing where all the pockets and zippers are will help give you an idea of what kind of organization you can have. Of course, most importantly, it will let you see just how big 30L, 55L, 75L is and how much you will be able to hold in there.
4. Look Online
Now that you know if you have any dimension limitations, what size (S/M/L) you are, the range of sizes of packs you are looking at (40L-50L, 65L-75L, etc.), and what kind of particular features are important to you, you can now go online to see all the different packs available. Knowing these things will significantly help your search and make it go by so much more quickly. No doubt the more packs you see the more features you will discover that you want, and you will be able to narrow your search accordingly.
*Side note, if you are determined to buy in a store, take a tape measure with you and measure when it is packed with sandbags so you can be sure of the dimensions if you are wanting to carry it onto a plane instead of checking it.
5. Buy Several Packs
I know this is a strange thing to tell you to do, but hear me out. There are way more packs available online than there are in stores. If you DO find your perfect pack in a store then lucky you! You can head to the next step. But for the rest of us, please keep reading.
I took to Amazon, as I do with all things, and found so many great packs. The beautiful thing about Amazon is for most of the packs they have FREE RETURNS, meaning that if you want to return that item you can print out your shipping label and drop it off at a UPS store at no cost to you. I cannot even tell you how many times I have done this with them and it has been a flawless experience every time. So go buy two or three of your top picks and compare them side by side. Put your things in there, see how they feel. How's the organization? Does this pack hold up to what you're looking for? Is it good quality? Is this pack realistic for you and your needs?
Obviously once you land on a singular pack, return the others. If none of them are quite right keep looking! You get all your money back so it's really no loss to you, and you're able to see how it will be with YOUR stuff in there instead of just sandbags for weight.
6. Pack It
Once you have found your perfect pack, your steps are not over my friend. The next step is to load that sucker up! All the things you plan on taking, go ahead and pack it. Put things where they belong, make it as realistic to you as if you are leaving the next day. This will not only give you a great idea of the amount of organization it offers, but will show you how easily accessible things are. This part of the process may take some getting used to, and I recommend continuing to play with packing it in different ways until you leave.
7. Walk With It
Once you have it packed up go take a walk - and I don't mean around the neighborhood either, go walk in the park or on a trail, for at least an hour or two. If you happen to have weather similar to your destination all the better - be sure to wear shoes and clothes that you will be wearing while there. Take your water bottle full. Take every ounce of all the things you are taking with you as if you are already there. Play with the straps throughout your walk to get the right weight distribution that is most comfortable for you. This will give you the best experience in getting more familiar with your pack, what straps adjustments feel best for you, how sweaty you get, and how it feels.
If your experience was anything like mine, I was so ready for my walk to be over by the end of it, because MAN that 24 pounds got heavy as hell after awhile. So be sure to do the walk as often as possible before your trip, that way your body will grow more accustom to it.
Also, from your walks, change up how you pack your backpack too, the way the weight is distributed throughout the pack itself can change how it feels on you.
8. You're Ready!
BAM! You are good to go! Once you go through all these steps and are perfectly happy with your backpack you are all set. Generally by the time you complete step 5 you will probably have the pack you're taking already, but steps 6 and 7 are imperative to being absolutely sure this is the right pack for you in every capacity.
I'm sure everyone likes to do things like this a bit differently, but this is the process that worked best for me and I so so wish I had been able to find an article out there with it all laid out simply like this. Hopefully this will help make your search for the right backpack a little bit more manageable and less terrifying than my experience was!
Have any questions? Just give me a holler, I'm happy to help in any way I can.
