travelingjen/ travel bag question

[natsnow]

Hey - I was looking at your blog posts again as I'm planning my trip to Italy.

What kind of bag did you carry, if any? I see your husband (man-friend?) had a backpack. My H wants to carry a backpack too, but after reading those Rick Steves guide book, it makes me paranoid about theft. It seems like someone could get into a backpack without you even noticing.

I was going to get a cross-body purse that is big enough to carry some water and stuff in.

Any recommendations for bags?

[travelingjen]

Hi there!

For that particular trip to Italy the only bag we used was my fiance's backpack. If you are worried about theft I would recommend purchasing small luggage locks for piece of mind.

On prior trips I have also used PacSafe anti-theft cross-body purses/bags. There are a ton of bags available to look at on ebags.com under day travel handbags. When I throw in my guidebook, water bottle, and whatever else I find that even a cross-body purse tends to hurt my shoulders at the end of a long sightseeing day. The backpack seemed to work a lot better since the weight is evenly distributed. We didn't have any issues with theft although when we took public transportation he always took his backpack off and held it.

Hope that helps! :-)

[basilosaurus]

Interloper here:

I travel with backpacks as my main luggage. However, I put anything important in a cross body bag, or else I bury it deep in the backpack, near to my body.

I recently purchased this cross body day bag, and I freaking love it. www.6pm.com/product/8012524/color/264602 It seems strong enough to not be sliced, and there are so many secret pockets that I even lost money to myself. I seriously didn't find my cash stash until 3 weeks after I got home.

I do tend to ache from a single shoulder bag, but this one was easy to switch shoulders. Plus, in the colors we got, H was happy to wear it.