I travel a fair bit.
I have tried out a lot of travel bags. My hubby might tell you that I’m a bit of a sucker for travel bags. (And gizmos. And cell phone battery packs – don’t ask how many I have. Just don’t.)
HERE is my favorite bag (not a sponsored post).
The Cool Bag is something that I originally got via Kickstarter … or Indiegogo. Which is, as you might have already guessed, my favorite place to purchase travel bags, gizmos, and cell phone battery packs. Suckah… ;-)
I do have a number of other bags that I’ve purchased and tried out via Kickstarter and Indiegogo, but I won’t mention them here, because they all failed for some reason or another.
I am back travelling again. This time, I didn’t “need to bring” the EmPack that I’ve talked about in previous posts. I bring that when I am going to be gone for a while, and need to keep up my Strength workouts. This time, I’m only gone for a couple of days, and I’ll be too busy to do anything more than a bodyweight workout or two. So I like using a bag that’s really made to be useful to the traveler.
The kicker on this trip (and my trip coming up in a few days, to the Crossfit Games) is that I didn’t pay the extra required for checked baggage. In fact, this current trip was on a tiny little plane, so many “standard” hard sided/wheeled carryons were required to be checked at the door. (Full plane, pissed off passengers.)
Not my Cool Bag. It fits in even the smallest overhead or (unless you’ve packed it to the gills), under the standard seat in front of you. (Note: It’s rated for about 30 pounds, but I’d be hard pressed to get heavier than that with clothes, a computer, and well, ya know, a few battery packs.)
So let’s get started on why I just love this bag.
Theft deterrence.
The Cool Bag’s padded, steel-cable-reinforced handle can be slipped out of a slot on the side, then you can wrap it around a stationary object, lock it back in, and lock the entire bag with the heavy-duty lock on the zipper. (You can even register your combination on their website, in case you forget it.) I remember a number of times swimming in the Bay in San Francisco where I would put the bag with my clothes, car keys, etc. against the big anchor at the side of Aquatic Park, and try to “keep an eye on it.” I mean – cummon. I know, stupid, but what’s a girl to do? With this bag, you can wrap the handle around something secure, and without a pair of bolt cutters, it’s not going to Go Walkabout.
If you’re feeling a bit sneaky at a busy beach resort, you actually could take the bag, clip it onto a recliner, and then come back after breakfast and still have your chair. While I have had a beach towel, and even a hat, moved by someone who has decided they want my chair, I’ve yet to have my entire bag moved. Because, of course, since it’s strapped and locked on, it’s just not possible.
Strap Length.
So many “shoulder” or “duffel” bags are impossible to carry, because the handles aren’t long enough to comfortably get the bag onto your shoulder. The padded handles of the Cool Bag make it super easy, and actually comfy, to carry it without wrestling. Moreover, it has a “hidden zipper” at the base of one of the outside magazine pockets on one side, so if you have a roller bag, you can open that zipper then slide the Cool Bag onto the roller bag’s handle to stack it securely on top. Finally, it has backpack straps – so if you want to go hands-free, you can put on the backpack straps and then slide the padded handles down into the compartment.
No worries – it is a carry-on.
The dimensions of the bag are small enough for even the smallest TSA carry on bag requirement. They are:
Height: 15.80 inches (40.1 cm)
Width: 19.65 inches (49.9 cm)
Depth: 7.5 inches (19 cm)
Weight: 3.15 pounds (1.44 kg)
Strap Length: 28.5 inches (72.4 cm)
Security Wire Gauge: 0.15 inches (0.38 cm)
Great colors.
The Cool Bag comes in super bright colors (I have the red). This photo is from their website; it shows the turquoise, purple, red, pink, green, orange, and black (they also have navy).
Stain Resistant, Tough Material; Pocketses.
The outside fabric is UV-resistant thick ripstop polyester, with a durable stain and water resistant coating on the front, and a urethane waterproofing on the back side. The inside is made of cut-resistant material. It has a passport pocket that is RFID proofed on the inside, plus two net cell phone pockets (so that you can see if you got a call without pulling the phone out of the pocket). The zipper is puncture resistant. The handles are soft injection-molded foam, with a security cable inside. As I mentioned, there are backpack straps that “live” in the outside pocket; you can quickly snap them onto the bag if you like. They’re form-fitting and adjustable. Finally, there are expandable bottle pockets on both ends.
The padded pocket inside can carry a small computer like a 10 inch MacBook Air; larger computers easily fit into the main compartment.
But wait, there’s more!
It’s called the Cool Bag because . . . It’s a cooler.
The inside can be used as a carry on and then, underneath . . . there’s a leak-proof, water-proof cooler. It fits seven 12-oz cans or two 750 ml wine bottles. It also comes with a wine “sleeve” to put on one bottle, so they don’t clank.
You can get to the cooler via an outside zipper pocket along the bottom, OR through the inside. So let’s say that someone were to take this to a ball game- you could load up the bottom and then keep the hidden outside zipper turned “toward you” as you get your bag checked. There is no way to see the wine/cans on the inside if someone opens the bag. Then, to get to the bottom, there is a flap and zipper from the inside to reach down in. This zipper is secured from the main compartment, to deter access to the main compartment via unzipping this zipper.
They even sell a specific slim blue ice pack that fills the length of the cooler space, or a CoolPac that you can fill with your own ice. When I take it to the beach, I actually just use a blue ice pack I keep in the freezer – because not only can I bring a couple of cans of something cold, but I can also keep my sunscreen and lipstick in there, so they don’t melt in the heat.
HERE is a video that they made that shows all the features of the bag. Again – no promo code from me – I’m just sharing because I really think it’s a fantastic travel bag. I did notice that they’re having a promo through the end of July 2019, but as I am currently typing this on July 27th, that might not be that helpful to anyone.