Farewell Timbuk2
Those who know me best would say that I’m obsessive about my travel gear. I’ll advocate for one backpack travel until the cows come home. There’s no freedom like packing all your essentials in one pack, putting it on your back and starting the journey.
But I wasn’t always like this. Once upon a time, I solo “backpacked” through Vietnam and Cambodia with a suitcase that came up to my waist. Preparing for a six-week excursion that would see me visiting two countries and nine cities; getting around on sleeper trains, overnight busses, and boats, I entirely ignored that the key element of backpacking was to use an actual backpack. Instead, I shrink wrapped a full wardrobe in vacuum seal bags so I’d have different clothes for almost every day. Packing my bag to leave the first city highlighted my problem. Vacuum seal compression bags require a vacuum, which was the one thing I didn’t stash in my mammoth suitcase.
Two cities in, I picked two dresses, a pair of shorts and a handful of shirts and alternated those daily, relying on hotel laundry services. The rest of my clothes stayed unused in their plastic bags, never to taste the air of a foreign country. One particularly precarious day, fresh off a bus to a little beach town the only transportation option to get to my hotel was on the back of a taxi scooter. With my suitcase wedged between the driver and the handlebars, if my life hadn’t been hanging in the balance, I probably would have found the picture funny. Me, a dumb tourist with my massive backpacking suitcase, tucked on a scooter with a bewildered driver. After touching down on American soil, I vowed never to be an over packer again in my life.
My next foray off American soil was a birthday trip to Rome. In preparation, I bought a bag that would fundamentally change my entire travel philosophy. Enter the Timbuk2 Aviator travel backpack. This neutral gray beauty was unlike any backpack I’d seen on the road. It wasn’t some neon colored, hiking monstrosity. Instead it was 28.5 liters of functional joy.
Here’s what you need to know about the Timbuk2 brand, their bags come with a lifetime warranty. And after hauling this bag to 25 countries over 7 years, throwing it under seats on busses, into overhead bins on planes, and tucked under my feet on trains, I can say that this bag lives up to the guarantee of quality.
The seams stood up to me stuffing 12 days worth of clothes for Mexico and Cuba. The zippers handled my puffer coat and sweaters from visiting Iceland, the Netherlands, and Belgium in one trip. The rainfly protected my belongings from the Dublin downpours. The hefty straps sat comfortably on my shoulders running to catch a bus in Munich, and tucked away when Air France forced me to check the bag in Paris.
With the induction of the Peak Design Travel Backpack into my travel gear, I retire my trusty Timbuk2 Aviator. But the sentimentalist in me cannot say farewell to the backpack without praising it loudly to anyone that will listen one last time. The Aviator is no longer part of the main Timbuk2 line, but after seven faithful years as my trusty travel companion, it will always have a place in my heart.
Timbuk2 Aviator Tech Specs
If you’ve stuck with me while I waxed poetic about the blessing that is the Aviator, then it’s time for some practical tips for picking the best travel backpack. I’m not going to tell you which bag to pick, because that is deeply personal and depends on how you travel. But here are some basic things that apply to everyone.
