If there’s one piece of gear we’ve come to appreciate most in the last couple of years, it’s the not-so-humble duffel bag. Versatile, durable, and endlessly useful, duffels have become essential companions for travelers and outdoor enthusiasts alike. In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at four rad, more sustainable duffel bags that are designed for travel and adventure.
Ever wanted to travel with your bike to a cool mountain bike (or gravel bike, or road bike) destination, but didn’t because you looked at the cost of renting a decent steed for the week and had a low-grade heart attack? Fortunately, road trips aren’t the only option if you want to travel with a bike: you can absolutely fly with a bike, too. Yes, fly with your bike. As in, check it as luggage when you’re jetting from one destination to another on a commercial airline. Exciting stuff, right? So we’re gonna break down how to do it, what to expect, and then compare two excellent bike travel bags so you can take your bike with you the next time you fly to a place with gnarly single track to shred!
I freaking love a good travel bag. Especially one that prioritizes organization. I travel too often to use luggage that doesn’t keep all my stuff together and in its place. So when I got a look at the Matador SEG28 travel backpack, I had to try it. Here’s what I thought.
Any trip that involves squatting next to a body of water for an extended period of time is a good trip in my book. 😂 No, I wasn’t digging a cat hole next to a river (you know that’s not Leave no Trace)! I was scooping up water to press through a teeny tiny filter next to a creek in Mondim de Basto, Portugal. Why? Uh, for science, that’s why! Because I was on a trip with Exodus Travels that led a small group of journalists from Porto to the Douro Valley to Mondim de Basto to hike, stay in ancient estates transformed into hotels, eat at locally owned restaurants, explore picturesque wineries built into steep, terraced hillsides, and do science. Namely, collecting water in a bag, forcing it through a super fine filter, and shipping that filter off to a lab somewhere, all in the name of studying biodiversity. Yep, at the risk of sounding like a complete nerd, I was geeking out about participating in a different aspect of sustainable travel: using my exploratory endeavors for scientific and ecological good. And you could be, too! Here’s how (and why citizen science matters when it comes to sustainable travel).
I travel light, usually with just one or two pairs of shoes, so I’m always on the lookout for the perfect pair of vegan boots for travel that can do it all: take me from the hiking trail in the morning to a cafe for lunch to a cidery at dinnertime. I want to be able to wear them mountain biking, for a hike to a rad viewpoint, and into town without people staring at my feet and grimacing in disgust. So we dug in, put our feet in boots, pounded the pavement, hit the trails, tested a few travel-friendly boots that also happen to be vegan, and found five of our faves that we think fit the descriptors “stylish” and “functional” supremely well (and are often packable, to boot–see what I did there?).
We get the question frequently: “What is sustainable travel?” Usually it is uttered after we introduce ourselves as sustainable travel bloggers. At first, the question was surprising. What do you mean “what is sustainable travel?!” You know what “sustainable” means, right? Apply that to travel! But when people kept asking, we thought maybe the concept wasn’t as straightforward as we thought. Or it’s still such a new one to most people that it did, in fact, warrant an explanation. So allow us to explain! We’ll dive into what sustainable travel is, what it isn’t, and how we can all travel more sustainably.
Want to plan more sustainable travel? Leave a lighter footprint when you jet across the country or around the world? Plan a more eco-friendly drive/hotel/experience? You can! While making more sustainable choices like flying in coach, staying in sustainable hotels, or renting a hybrid are often the best first course of action if you want to reduce your carbon footprint, you can also offset flights, stays, road trips and more to balance your carbon usage when you travel–or even tip the scales into the negatives. We’ll tell you how to do it easily–and why you should.
When we travel, we tread lightly. We want to leave every place we visit better than we found it whether we’re backpacking, road tripping, visiting national parks, or jetting around the world. And while sustainable travel encompasses lots of different things, from which tours you book to what mode of transportation you use to get there to where you lay your head at night, what you pack can set you up for a more sustainable adventure. So no matter where you’re headed, for business, pleasure, or a bit of both, here are 5 things to pack so you can travel better.
A good, reliable camp mug is a beautiful thing. Not just because they can keep your hot beverages hot and your cold beverages cold for hours and hours wherever you go, but because they help reduce waste when you use them instead of disposables at your favorite local coffee shop, gas station (road trip coffee, anyone), campsite, or to-go hot bevy. But if you really want to step up your sustainability game, forgo the cheap vessels that are gonna last for a year if you’re lucky and snag a more reliable and eco-friendly alternative that creates less waste, leaves a lighter footprint, and looks good doing it! Here are 3 camp mugs that are as sustainable as they are functional.
We love us an innovative and integrative travel packing system here at Terradrift. So you can imagine our excitement when we got our hands on a setup from the Peak Design Travel line: the 30L Travel Backpack, Packing Cubes, and Wash Pouch. In fact, it might just be the best compact travel packing system we’ve ever used. Ready to know what makes it so dang great? Read on (or watch) to find out!