Looking for a Ghurka-quality travel pack.

October 3, 2012 7:45 PM

Looking for a Ghurka-quality travel pack.

Parameters:

"Travel pack" in this case means a backpack that will barely fit into the overhead compartment of a 737.

Water proof, desert proof, ice proof, lava proof, etc.

No outside pockets is preferred.

Canvas and leather ala Ghurka would be good

Also ala Ghurka it can (and probably will) cost out the wazoo but be worth it as it will last 20 years.

Unfortunately everything I've found online fails the size requirement.

Recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

posted by Tell Me No Lies to Travel & Transportation (4 answers total)

Have you looked at the Go Ruck stuff? I've never used it myself but I've heard really good things about it, and it looks like the GR2 meets your requirements.
posted by asterix at 8:06 PM on October 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

I use the Large SealLine Urban Backpack for my travel backpack. It does pretty much everything you're looking for.

Mine's been to many countries and met all the carry-on requirements, even in Europe where they actually enforce the carry-on rules :)
posted by jpeacock at 9:32 PM on October 3, 2012

I think asterix was referring to Go Ruck and GR2.
posted by blob at 10:51 PM on October 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

Seconding the Go Ruck recommendation. I have the radio ruck to haul around my work laptop, which is a 15" macbook; it replaces my earlier backpack which was a EMS backpack. The EMS one ended up with a shredded bottom and ripped seams after 4 years of use. I'm pretty rough on my commuter gear. I have pretty much zero fears that the ruck backpack is going to end up with the same problem (and they have free repairs if something does rip apart). It does have an outside front pocket, but you can pretty much ignore it as it's fairly low profile.
posted by lyra4 at 3:49 AM on October 4, 2012