Arrivals > About This Site

I have always travelled a great deal, for both business and pleasure, and — like most seasoned travellers — found that the lighter my burden, the more pleasant my journey. Consequently (and unsurprisingly, given my engineering background), I have thought a lot about the subject, read extensively on the issues, even attended seminars on packing techniques. Most important (and unlike a lot of the well-meant travel advice you can read on the Internet), 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).

The site itself is a labour of love (and a vehicle to keep my Web site development skills intact). If you find it useful, have questions or suggestions, notice an error of any kind, or just want to say "hello", please feel free to contact me via the feedback page. I'd particularly like to hear about what may have led you here, especially if it was a recommendation in some newspaper, magazine, or radio/TV piece; I often have no other way to learn about these. Plus, I meet a lot of nice people this way!

	... Doug Dyment

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What This Site Isn't

One Bag is not a blog; think of it more as a reference guide that is forever being revised. I probably devote more time to it than most bloggers, but the output isn't an ever-increasing stream of stuff to read: rather, it consists of refinements & updates to existing topics, plus a modest addition of new material over time. A list of significant changes (i.e., those affecting content rather than presentation) made during the previous year or so can always be found here.

The information to be found in these pages is not particularly directed 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 targeted at those planning extended stays at single destinations (e.g., resorts, cruise ships, Grandma's, 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, such folk will likely find plenty of useful ideas here.

What Happened to "The Compleat Carryon Traveller"?

This site, a popular Web travel resource since 1996, was originally known as The Compleat Carryon Traveller. I discovered, however, that the emphasis on the term "carryon" 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 (OneBag.com), though several older links continue to work. And since then, I've received considerably fewer queries about the word "compleat"!

"Compleat" ... Isn't That Spelled Wrong?

You'd be surprised (well, maybe you wouldn't) at the number of e-mails I received about the original title of this Web site: The Compleat Carryon Traveler. 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 a famous book by Izaak Walton ("The Compleat Angler", first published in 1653), it began life as an archaic form of the word "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 the use of "compleat" here was simply a striving for linguistic precision. And it's not even that unusual: the last time I checked, the word appeared on well over one million Web pages (though most often used incorrectly, as a synonym for some other meaning of "complete").

Why Isn't There a OneBag 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 the better of the existing travel forums (such as Lonely Planet's 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 recommend products based solely on advertising claims. 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!

Full Disclosure: Why Are There Advertisements On This Site?

This is a non-commercial Web site; it does not sell anything, nor have I any financial incentive to recommend a particular product or company. 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 have two associations with outside companies, however, so I thought you should know about them:

(1) Where appropriate, I provide links to Amazon.com, to facilitate purchase of a few books and other items that I recommend. I receive a small commission on such sales (when purchased via these links).

(2) The main pages of this site display short listings of 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. They are my sole financial connection to anything mentioned in One Bag (and they influence neither my opinions nor my recommendations).