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January 21, 2026 15 mins

Show Notes: Worldschooling Q&A – Episode 18

Worldschooling Podcast Episode Title: Episode 18: What’s the Best Backpack or Luggage for Worldschooling Families?

Hosts: Astrid & Clint, creators of The Wandering Daughter

Episode Summary: In this episode of Worldschooling Q&A, Astrid and Clint tackle a surprisingly important question for traveling families: what is the best backpack or luggage setup for full-time worldschooling with kids?

Drawing from more than four years of full-time travel across 18+ countries and six continents, they break down what actually matters when choosing travel gear that will be used constantly—often in airports, bus stations, cobblestone streets, and beyond. From durability and comfort to airline restrictions and weight considerations, this episode offers practical advice families can apply right away.

Astrid and Clint share their personal recommendations for checked luggage, carry-on backpacks, kids’ packs, and flexible day bags, along with tips on packing cubes, laundry bags, and accessories that make long-term travel smoother. They also discuss why trying backpacks in person is critical, how much kids should realistically carry, and how gear choices evolve as children grow.

If you’re planning long-term travel, slow travel, or full-time worldschooling, this episode will help you make smart, sustainable gear decisions that reduce stress and increase comfort for the whole family.

 

🎧 Ready to dive in?

 

👉 For the full worldschooling podcast show notes, resource links, and a complete episode guide, visit: https://thewanderingdaughter.com/episode-18-backpack-for-worldschooling/

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Episode Transcript

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(00:00):
My kids would complain or mydaughter would complain, I'd be like,
you know what? Everybody's got a heavybackpack, so you just need to suck it up,
deal with it, blah, blah, blah. Again.
Communication. Maybe
this is world schooling q and a. I'mAstrid, creator of the wandering daughter.

(00:20):
As a traveling family,
we've spent four years travelingfull-time to over 18 countries and six
continents. Wherever we go,
we try to learn as much as we can aboutthe countries and cultures we visit.
While we didn't coin the term, welike to call this world schooling,
using the world as ourclassroom. Each week,
my husband Clint and I will answer onequestion about world schooling and share

(00:43):
our experiences of traveling the worldwith our kids. Ready to get started?
Great. Let's dive in.
All right, so this week weare answering the question.
What's the best backpack or luggagefor traveling full time with kids?

(01:07):
Yeah, this is a great question.
If you don't think about this or ifyou're like me and you constantly think
about gear, questions likethis are always fun to answer.
And honestly, your luggage,
your backpacks are going to be one ofthe most intimate things that you have
throughout your traveling.
It's got to be the thing you loadand unload every single time.

(01:28):
It's going to be the thing you have tolug around every airport at every bus
station, sometimeswalking multiple blocks,
sometimes plowing your way through atrain to make sure you catch a train.
So.
It's not a decision to be taken lightly.
And I have a article on my websitethat kind of covers a lot of my

(01:48):
recommendations for the bestbackpack for traveling with kids,
but we can cover a few of the onesthat we currently like to use.
And these are going to vary too,depending on the age of your kids.
So this is kind of based offthe age of our kids right now,
or at least what we were traveling.
So this will vary depending onwhere you are with your family.

(02:09):
If you have really young kids, you'regoing to carry their stuff for them.
So that might change the typesof equipment you have. But yeah,
let's talk about, I guess thefirst thing, backpack that we.
Well, before we even cover the backpack,
it's like what's the criteria in youropinion for choosing a good backpack
to.

(02:30):
Yeah, I think ruggedness, thesethings are going to get beat up.
They're going to get thrownat airport terminals.
They're going to get wet, they'regoing to get trampled on. I mean,
there's all sorts ofthings that can happen.
You don't know the types of transportationthat you're going to be taking,
so they can be in all sorts ofsituations. Along with ruggedness,
I guess is portability. Whenwe first started traveling,

(02:52):
we only had Ara and I only had backpacks,
like hiking backpacks to carry,And that was fine.
But what we found is we actually wantedsomething that we could roll as well.
That's largely because we spentway more time in the airport
or on places where we'd have to roll ourbags, bus stations, things like that.

(03:13):
We didn't want to alwayshave to carry those,
but we wanted something thatalso had backpack straps in case
we had to walk around an area that waseither cobblestone or dirt or something,
it were going to be hard to roll thebackpack. So affordability is a big one.
Size of course, especiallydepending on the kids that you have.
And weight is also critical to that. So.

(03:36):
Our weight capabilities, right? Weight.
We know some families thatdo carryon only travel,
so you also kind of wantto think about that.
If you're going to bedoing carryon only travel,
what's a backpack that is going to beable to fit into most of the airlines
requirements for carry-ons?We tend to check our bags just

(04:00):
because we work remotely too.
There's certain things that we needto bring along and we just like to
travel with a few more thingsthan just the bare minimum. So
the airlines will have sizeand weight limitations to
on bags, so you have to, whenyou're choosing the right luggage,

(04:23):
think about that as well.
Yeah, you want to talk about the first,
the one that you and Icarry as our check luggage?
Yeah.
So the one that I alwaysrecommend is the Osprey
Sour, and it's the 80 liter ones. These,
they're big,
and it's kind of like just a onezipper duffel bag style thing,

(04:47):
so everything gets thrown in there.
But what we like about it is thewheels, the wheels are very sturdy.
It's like a rolling dufflebag. So the wheels are sturdy.
We've carried them up stepsand all over the place,
and they're still holding strong.
And what Clint mentioned,

(05:09):
if there was a case wherewe couldn't drag it around,
we can actually turn it into abackpack and carry it on our backs.
So.
That's what we like.
And before we go to the other backpacks,
I think the one thing you want tomention too is these are not cheap bags,
so be prepared to spend a couplehundred dollars or more per bag.
And the reason why we advocate for thatis because you need something that's

(05:31):
going to stand up. The companies like opr.
OPR is really great.
They offer free repairs to your bag orreplacements if something goes wrong.
They're based out of Denver, Colorado,so they're a great company to go with,
but these are not cheapbags, good quality equipment.
They get a ton of use, so you wantsomething that's going to stand out.

(05:53):
Now what about your carry-on?
What did you travel with as a curiosity?
Yeah, so I traveled with the wholetime We traveled the full-time,
traveled for four and a half years.I traveled with a Cotopaxi Alpa bag.
It's a 35 liter bag. It's similar,
it's kind of the full stylewhere it's like one compartment,
basically one big compartmentthat you can load.

(06:15):
It's more like a clamshell,
so it opens up like a clamshell and thenyou have two sides of it that you can
enter. And then there's also asmall front pocket you can enter,
or you can put your quickaccess type of gear,
and it does have a laptop pocketas well. So that was pretty good.
I like that bag a lot. It's very rugged.It got beat up a lot over the years,

(06:36):
but it was empty. It's fairly,it's kind of middle range.
I don't think it's totallylight or totally heavy.
They.
Had kind of a rubber shell on it, sothat kind of protects it from weather,
but that also adds more weight to it.
But it.
Is a great backpack.
We're fans of Cotopaxiin general actually,
because we just liketheir business philosophy

(06:58):
and a lot of their bagsare used or made out of
repurposed materials,
so that's score for sustainability.But I found that the
coax alpa,
I was going to get thatsame model for myself,
but I needed something that hada little bit more back structure.

(07:21):
So when we were traveling,and I still have this bag now,
but when we were travelingfrom 2018 to 2022,
the bag that I used was the ThuleLandmark, and that is a 40 liter.
And I like it because the versionthat I got was women's version.
So it's a little bitslimmer, has, I dunno,

(07:42):
structured for a woman's bodyor whatever. But it had more
structure for the back too,
so I didn't feel like itwas squishy in the back.
And then what I like is that it hadthis top pocket that had a harder shell,
so I could put my glasses inthere or things that I was,

(08:04):
I'd be afraid of gettingsquished that shell would keep
it from getting squished.
So.
That's a nice thing to have.
Yeah. What about the kids? Whatbackpacks do the kids have?
And I guess we could also talkabout what the kids did have,
but what backpacks they have right now.
So when they weretraveling, we got them the

(08:26):
Osprey Daylight Day packs. And theseare actually meant for grownups,
but they were small enoughthat the kids could carry.
That was their carry on stuff. Now thatthey're a little bit older, we still,
and we're big Osprey fanshere, as you can tell.
So now my daughter uses the Osprey Nebula,

(08:48):
which is a bigger, and it's a35, I think it's a 35, 32 liter,
32 liter one. And it hasa bunch of compartments.
Now it'll have a slot for the devices or
a laptop or something,and then another slot for,
or another big pocket for her stuff andthen side pockets and things like that.

(09:11):
And.
It fit her body really. When you'repicking things for your kids,
you want to make sure that they tryit and it feels comfortable for them.
You're going to be walking around andthey're going to be carrying this on their
back. And many timesand can attest to this,
my kids would complain or mydaughter would complain, I'd be like,

(09:33):
you know what? Everybody's got a heavybackpack, so you just need to suck it up,
deal with it, blah, blah.
Again, communication maybe.
So make sure that you get a bag thatthey're comfortable carrying and that
they're able to carry that weight for.So you don't want to get a really,
really big bag,
but something that they cancarry their fair share of the

(09:55):
stuff.
Yeah, this is a good reason. Also,
I think don't order these online orif you do order them online after
you've gone into an REI or somethingand then actually tried them in person
because it's just so critical. Imean, you can order 'em online,
try 'em as long as you can return them.But yeah, it's critical that they try.
And I didn't even mention,

(10:16):
we do have two rolling backpacks thatwe use as checked bags for the kids.
Those.
Are also OPR bags. They'remuch smaller than ours.
I think they're 30 liter bags. They'remeant for backpacks or for carryon,
but we actually use 'em as check bagsand I don't remember exactly what they're
called. We'd have to.
Yeah, I think they're actually out of.
Print or.

(10:37):
Style or something like that.They're no longer do them,
but they were the OspreyFairview and the far point.
And those ones we really loved. AndI think those were also 35 liters,
but we use those. If you can find abag that's similar to that, I mean,
even if it's just a rolling, inthat case for something that small,

(10:57):
just a rolling luggage thingwould be fine to have because
as a parent, you'd probably be able tocarry that hand, carry it if need be.
But it was helpful. We liked it.I think it gave the kids like, oh,
they've got their own thing that theycan carry and they can fill it with their
stuff. Yeah.

(11:18):
What are some other than arechecked in our carry-on bags,
what are some other bagsthat we actually travel with?
Yeah,
sometimes it's nice to have day bagsthat are a little bit more flexible or
foldable because if you'regoing to be going out doing
sightseeing and stuff, you don't wantto be carrying your carrying on bag.

(11:39):
You want to have a smaller day bag thatyou can throw your water bottles in or
jackets or something like that. Or ifyou pick up some souvenirs or something.
So the one we were traveling with was the
Akon, and it's just like abackpack with a drawstring top.
So you throw things in the top andthen you cinch it. And that was nice.

(12:03):
And it's very flexible. You can rollit up and throw it in your back.
Super light too. Wait.
Yeah. Another one that I got recentlyis also Cotopaxi is the bat dock.
This one is 16 liters,
so this has a zipper top and thenthere's a slot for a small laptop if
you want to put it. Andthen other stuff too.
We also have a wet dry bag and we go

(12:28):
snorkeling or go to thebeach, and those are perfect.
You don't have to worry aboutsand getting or getting water.
So we travel with that. Those tend to bea little bit heavier than the day bags,
but not by much. So we can still foldthose up and keep 'em in our luggage.
And then packing cubes, we'rehuge fans of packing cubes.
We use them for all sorts ofthings. We use 'em for our clothes,

(12:48):
we use them for miscellaneous stuff that'sin the suitcase, all sorts of things.
And there's tons of brands on that.
That helps keep things organized. Andyou can get 'em in different sizes,
really big ones. Or we like to getsome of the smaller ones for what you.
Clint.
Keeps cords, miscellaneouscords for stuff in one of them.

(13:09):
And then additionally,
we have just small drawstringbags that we bring with us.
And those are really light and small,but we use those for laundry bags.
So oftentimes when we'resay in Mexico or Indonesia,
we don't have access to a laundry,to laundry facilities or to.
Washer dryer.
So we'll take our clothes to alaundry service and a lot of times

(13:33):
we don't have a car if it's just acity we're in that we're walking,
we'll just have each person carry theirown dirty clothes and then we take it to
the laundry service and then just givethem the whole bag and everything.
They wash the bags and theclothes too. Then we pick it up.
So that's been helpful. I do wantto mention that a great resource,
we don't know this person, so it'snot any sort association with us,

(13:54):
but Chase Reeves is agreat YouTube channel.
He reviews all sorts ofbags and all high-end bags.
So it's a great resource if you are tryingto find a nice bag. Yeah. Yeah. Cool.
Anything else?
No, that's it.
Alright, sounds good.
Well, that's all for today.
Thank you for joining us on this episodeof World Schooling q and a with Astrid

(14:15):
and Clint.
Be sure to check out the show notes forany links we mentioned in the episode
and visit my website,
the wandering daughter.com to divedeeper into world schooling and family
travel.
If you like what you hear,
please consider supporting theWandering daughter on Patreon.
It really helps us outand keeps the show going.
You'll also get exclusive perks likeepisode transcripts, additional resources,

(14:36):
access to office hours with us and more.
You can find us on Spotify orthe podcast app of your choice.
If you're listening to this on Spotify,
you can tap the bell icon to getnotified when new episodes come out.
And if you like this episode,please give us a five star review.
It really helps new people find our show.
If you're watching this on YouTube,
don't forget to like and subscribe andtap the bell icon to get notified of new

(14:59):
episodes.
You can follow me on Instagram atWander Daughter or Follow the Wandering
Daughter on Facebook. Links tothese are also in the show notes.
If you have any world schooling questionsyou'd like us to answer for future
episodes, feel free to throwthem in the comments or send us a
message@thewanderingdaughter.comslash podcast.

(15:20):
Until next time, happy travels. Bye.
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