My most practical travel companion to date
Before I begin this blog post, let me tell you that the brand of the tote I want to praise here does not even matter. It has been re-made, copied, plagiarised, altered, optimised, made ‘more accessible’ or whatever you want to call it so many times over by other brands known and unknown, high end and high street, that it isn’t a particularly unique product to just one brand anymore. It is out there for a variety of budgets, and whether that is a good or bad thing from a brand perspective is not for me to judge.
The point about this kind of tote and why I want to speak about it today is its practical value. And to continue with full disclosure: I own one in three different sizes, two of which regularly serve me on my travels. Why? Because they are sturdy, lightweight, foldable, and – most importantly – can be wiped down. And in addition to being incredibly practical for all these reasons, they look chic, effortless and put together.
Since the bag itself weighs so little, you can pack all the umbrellas, water bottles, blister plasters, sunscreens and whatever else you need besides your proper handbag and simply stuff it in. You cannot do the same with a leather bag. You would, first of all, ruin the leather bag.
The smaller-sized tote regularly serves me as a travel bag fitting an iPad or laptop and headphones plus other necessary carry-on items and doubles as an everyday bag when I am out and about on a city trip.
Second, the bag would have to be made of such sturdy leather as to already weigh 5kg before you even put anything into it in order to not bulge out and look unaesthetic and simply messy. Third, leather does not love the rain. The nylon of the tote does not care. Unless it is pouring down, it will also keep your items dry as it is water repelling. In all honesty, I have never been under any kind of rain strong enough to wet any items in it.
And unlike most other totes, you can zip it shut, and no one will see the mess inside, making you instantly look more put together. Bonus.
The bigger, XL version, is another travel favourite of mine because it is big enough to even replace a hand luggage trolley and still fits ‘under the seat in front of you’ which is particularly handy when you travel with a power bank you need to keep in sight and belong to my category of people, i.e. those people who would literally forget it in the seat pocket if you were to keep it visible there. This way, I slide the tote under the seat and keep it open enough to keep an eye out on whether the power bank is behaving as it should. Another plus is that I do not need to fight over limited overhead bin space. I am so over that.
On other occasions, when I tried to save money on the airfare and booked a ticket excluding checked luggage, I would bring this tote along, neatly folded into my hand luggage. On the way back, when I had done some shopping, I would use it as hand luggage and check in the trolley with which I travelled on the outbound leg of my journey.
And now the biggest plus of all: you can clean the bag so easily. Especially when you are travelling on your own and your luggage follows you anywhere, it is just the best feature of the tote that its nylon body can be wiped down with antibacterial wipes so easily. I am going to refrain from TMI content, but there are so many occasions I am relieved that I can just wipe it down after public transport, chairs, café sofas, planes or whatever have you. It gives me so much peace of mind and that should never be under-estimated on any trip.
And if you paid attention and wonder what I do with tote No. 3: It is employed as my daily lunch bag to the office.
This post is not sponsored. I am not affiliated with the brand of the item featured here, nor have I received any incentives, payments or products for free. All bags were purchased with my own money.
