The perfect travel bag doesn’t exist… Or does it?
What if I told you that I recently went on a trip to French Polynesia for 10 days, and brought a single purse. I took it to the pool at the Four Seasons Bora Bora (it fits a book, and can handle a splash or two). I wore it as a crossbody while trying local pineapple and casse-croute in the public market of Papeete, using one of the inner pockets to hold my Tahitian Francs and the other for leftover dollars. I climbed through the jungle surrounding a marae (outdoor temple) on Tahiti’s eastern coast, and shoved both a water bottle and big paper map inside as I pushed aside vines. When I cleaned up for dinner at The Brando, on Marlon Brando’s private island (read: fancy), I perched that same bag on my cashmere-swaddled shoulder just within reach of dangling pearl earrings. For the more than 13 hours of flights, to and from New York, that same little black bag was my personal item, holding a satin eye mask, Airpods, moisturizer, my passport, and even a linen overshirt.
What kind of bag could pull off so many outfit changes and settings, expanding like a clown car to accommodate all my creature comforts? The Baggu crescent, obviously. Yeah, that one you see on everybody’s shoulders. There’s a reason. Let me preach to you straight from the choir.
You know, you know: Baggu is a go-to brand for travelers, with relatively affordable basics that are portable, durable, and fun. We’ve been going off about them for years. Its reusable grocery bags are an essential travel item, perfect to tote souvenirs and stock up your Airbnb fridge without wasting single-use plastic (because you would never, right?). The oversize cloud bag is the perfect, spacious weekender. They even had those big packable wide-brim sun hats for a summer we’ll never forget. For a while, we were all harping on about the brand’s fanny pack as a great travel bag—but as much as many people love it, it isn’t for every situation (pack too much in and it can get bulky and uncomfortable as a crossbody).
Where the fanny pack walked, the crescent bag runs. It’s simple, with just two interior pockets. There’s a zipper (also on those inside pockets), which is essential for both cities with sticky-fingered pickpockets, and 4×4 rides through the jungle where your bag may be getting tossed and tumbled. The nylon it’s made of isn’t water-resistant, but a few drops will slide off no problem. If you do happen to spill your entire coconut water right on your lap, the bag is easy to wipe down. And unlike that fanny pack, you can load this thing up like a pack mule. Water bottles, an umbrella, phone, keys, wallet, sunscreen, cover-up—the medium size, which I firmly believe is the Goldilocks-pick of the three, does it all without making you look like the aforementioned pack mule. (The small is cute for daily life or going out, and the large is more of a tote, so they’re just in different categories of bags altogether IMO, both of which are hardly as versatile.)
