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About OneBag.com
I have always travelled a great deal, for both business and pleasure, and — like other seasoned travellers — soon found that the lighter my burden, the more pleasant my journey. Consequently (and unsurprisingly, given my background as both an engineer and scientist), I have thought a lot about the subject, read extensively on the issues, even attended seminars on packing techniques. Most important, though, is that I've actually tried all this stuff out, experimenting with a variety of solutions in many cases. This Web site affords me an opportunity to share the resulting opinions ... and, I hope, save you from repeating my mistakes.
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daily visitors who read OneBag.com.
And yes, I know that there's a lot to read on these pages. Travelling light is a goal that presents many challenges, and it's simply my style to describe things in detail sufficient to illuminate the "why" behind the opinions. The Web already has plenty of travel sites that offer advice with no evidence as to why it should be expected to work (and, consequently, it often doesn't; there is a distressing amount of well-meant "travel folklore" that is just plain wrong).
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What This Site Isn't
The biggest mistakes ... ? Packing too heavily, relying on outdated guidebooks, not wearing a money belt, leaving home with too many hotel reservations, and taking other people's opinions too seriously.
The information to be found in these pages is not targeted at campers & back country hikers (who must additionally deal with food, tents, sleeping bags, stoves, etc.), though they may find much of it useful. They certainly shouldn't miss Ray Jardine's book.
Neither is it particularly directed at those planning extended stays at single destinations (e.g., resorts, cruise ships, Grandma's house, Cousin Bob's lakeshore cabin), especially if specialized clothing or equipment is necessary; such activities involve minimal travel, thus the issues addressed here are of less concern. Again, though, these folk will likely find plenty of useful ideas here.
And of course there are those who have made business/lifestyle choices that preclude them from travelling without lots of "stuff". And some with medical needs/restrictions that require specialized equipment. Readers in these categories can definitely discover useful ways to lighten their loads here, but they shouldn't expect to find some sort of magical secret that will enable them to join the ranks of those who truly travel light.
Why Isn't There a OneBag.com Forum?
A number of readers have suggested a companion forum for this site, and I've occasionally entertained the notion of adding one, but have thus far decided against it. As I peruse even the better of the existing travel forums (such as Lonely Planet's deservedly thriving Thorn Tree), I find that there is a significant amount of bad information intermingled with the good. This is generally not the fault of the posters, most of whom I am sure are well intentioned; it's just that far too many people are eager to dispense opinions concerning topics with which they clearly have very limited experience, and offer recommendations based solely on folklore, advertising claims, and the like. And I would not like to have people act on poor information found on One Bag, even if I were not the one who put it there!
What Happened to “The Compleat Carry-On Traveller”?
This site was originally known as The Compleat Carry-On Traveller. I discovered, however, that the emphasis on the term "carry-on" led many to believe that it was principally (or even exclusively) concerned with airline travel. This has never been true; if there is an abundance of air travel information here, it is only because of the popularity of that mode of transport among Internet users. Learning to "travel light", however, is a skill that transcends the vehicles (if any) being used.
Thus, in 2002, the site became simply One Bag, with its own domain (two, actually: OneBag.com and OneBag.ca). And since then, I've received considerably fewer queries about the word "compleat"!
And you'd be surprised (well, maybe you wouldn't) at the number of e-mails I received about "compleat". Some folks thought I'd misspelled something, some thought it was a British or Canadian thing, and some suspected a joke that had gone over their heads. None of the above, it turns out ...
"Compleat" is a real word, meaning highly proficient.
Immortalized in the title of Izaak Walton's famous book (The Compleat Angler, first published in 1653), it began life as an archaic form of "complete", but came to be used for the specific meaning above.
The common adjective "complete", on the other hand, has many meanings, only one of which is "proficient"; others include "having all parts", "concluded", "thorough", "absolute", etc.
So my use of "compleat" was simply a striving for linguistic precision. And it's not really that uncommon a word, though mostly used incorrectly (as a synonym for some other meaning of "complete").
Full Disclosure: Why Are There Advertisements On This Site?
This is a non-commercial Web site; it does not sell anything. The unbiased nature of my suggestions is, in fact, one of the principal reasons for the popularity of One Bag over the years. I do, however, have two associations with outside companies that I thought you should know about:
(1) Where appropriate, I provide links to Amazon.com for a handful of books and other items that I recommend; it's a convenient way to provide continuously updated price and availability information, and often displays pictures as well. I receive a small commission on any sales made via these links.
(2) The main pages of this site display short listings of what I hope you'll find to be fairly unobtrusive text advertisements. These ads are served by Google, from whom I receive a tiny payment each time someone clicks on one. I have no specific affiliation with the companies mentioned, and am generally not in a position to comment on the value of their particular products or services.
These payments are used to help defray operating costs (and they influence neither my opinions nor my recommendations).