Massive Travel Bag Review: Minimalist Backpacks & Gear from Aer, Bond, and Wandrd
In this video Matt Ragland, a bullet‑journal productivity creator, steps away from his usual layout‑focused content to showcase the gear he relies on for light, family‑friendly travel. He begins with an in‑depth walk‑through of the Aer Travel Pack 2 (33 L), highlighting its ergonomic shoulder straps, ventilated back panel, water‑resistant Cordura construction, and a suite of interior compartments—including a removable shoe/dirty‑clothes pocket, multiple front‑loader pockets, a large laptop sleeve, and compression straps. Matt demonstrates how each pocket can be configured for everyday items (journal, GoPro, tripod, pens, cords) and for travel necessities (iPad, MacBook, water bottle). He notes a few minor annoyances, such as the dual‑zipper clamshell opening and the compression‑strap mechanism. Next, he reviews the Wandered travel journal, describing its faux‑leather cover, pre‑printed trip logs for up to twelve journeys, integrated world‑map, bucket‑list pages, and space for budgets, itineraries, and reflections. He praises the journal’s layout, large dot‑grid spacing, and tear‑out note cards, positioning it as a companion for both long‑form and short trips. Matt then introduces three pieces from Bond Travel Gear: the compact Tool Roll (a roll‑up organizer for pens, cords, and a pocket‑knife), the larger Venture Pouch (dual‑compartment with loops for pins and snacks), and the Attaché messenger bag, which nests inside the Aer pack to provide a slim daily‑carry layer and extra laptop protection. He demonstrates how each piece slots into the Aer pack, creating a modular system that keeps essential items accessible while the main bag remains uncluttered. Throughout, Matt emphasizes a minimalist packing philosophy: by thoughtfully curating gear and using dedicated organizers, travelers—especially those with kids—can reduce mental load, stay comfortable, and focus on the travel experience itself. He concludes with sincere brand acknowledgments, a recommendation to check out the featured products, and a reminder to like, subscribe, and continue using bullet‑journal methods for productivity.
Chapters
Hi everyone, my name is Matt, and welcome to another Bullet Journal productivity video. In this episode, I'm going to be showing you my favorite travel bag, pouches, and journal that I know you're gonna love for your next adventure. Now, this is a little bit different than my normal Bullet Journal productivity videos, where I'm showing you, like, plans and layouts for your week and day. We have tons of those, but I wanted to try something a little bit different, because I did an everyday carry video a couple of months ago, and it was very well received, and so I wanted to do another one, and take it a step further and show you what kind of things I'm using to travel. Now it will probably come as no surprise to you that I like to travel very light and minimally. I'm also going to be doing a full travel packing video for these bags in the next couple of months when I have a couple of trips coming up. So if you're interested in seeing that, please let me know in the comments below, especially traveling with kids. It's very interesting, like the kind of stuff that you'll still need to bring while still keeping it to a very light travel experience. Where you're not— just don't have things hanging off of you. I want to start off with the Aer Travel Pack 2, so let's go ahead and show that to you. Let's zoom out for a second. You're going to see a lot more of my office than you have previously, so I cleaned up for you, but I've got 2 kids. I'm not going to do everything. I want to show you like what this bag looks like on me first. So this is pretty full, pretty much everything in here that I would take. I'm going down to Florida to visit family. With the kiddos in about 3 or 4 weeks, and this is pretty much the size that it's going to be. Most everything that I'm going to take is already in here. So it's a 33-liter bag. I'm going to show you the ins and outs of everything, but it's a pretty good size, good for 3 or 4 days or a little bit longer if you have access to laundry, which will be staying with my parents. So the shoulder, the shoulder straps are very, very nice and comfortable. I could see carrying like a solid 20 pounds on this without much of a problem. So let's go ahead and take a look at the inside and all the organization in the Air Travel Pack 2. Like I said, it is a nice solid slim but still very spacious bag. So first off, let me just show you that right here on the end we have a very nice and spacious shoe or dirty clothes compartment. Now this does go directly into the main compartment of the bag, and so that could take up some space for you. But if you have like some slim shoes that lay kind of flat, then they still go in really easily, and you can still adjust the inner compartment based on the bulk of items that you have in here. The other thing that you can do if you aren't traveling with like that many shoes is you can just pull out this, the shoe compartment, kind of fold it up, and then it won't take up any space in the main compartment at all. So wanted to show you that. It's a really nice feature that honestly not enough travel bags have even still. This front pocket right here has pretty good depth. I would say not quite, maybe like 9 or 10 inches of depth. It doesn't have a whole lot of like volume to it, but works really well for fitting in like your Kindle or if, you know, a book or journal even. Recommended this in an email newsletter this week. Fantastic book. And I have loved it. Shout out to Austin Kleon. So those two we're going to put to the side, but they fit really well. In here. You can put all kinds of things, but it's just this one pocket. There's no extra organization in there. This next front loader pocket, and this gives you a lot more space and organization. So this pocket is a full length on the front. You see with my hand it goes all the way down here, and I already have like my bullet journal in here. I have my, like, little mini tripod and GoPro Session. I'll almost always bring this small mini tripod either for my phone or GoPro. It's really nice to use. And then you still have a lot of organizational pockets at different levels of the bag, which I really appreciate. One of my frustrations with a lot of bags when it comes to these full-length pockets is that everything tends to just get stuck down here because there's not tiered basically tiered support for your items. And so again, everything just kind of jangles around down there. This airbag does a really good job of that, especially like right here. You can see I have my headlamp in, and then a more slimline, uh, journal, a soft cover. This is from Baron Fig, fits in right here. Another set of pockets across, so you can see it's easy to fit this pocket-sized journal in here. This is the Bärenfig Confidant pocket size that you can see in my journaling videos. So make sure you check those out. Your standard pencil pen. This is the Pigma Micron 08 pen, and then these are Blackwing Palominos, which I have gotten into at Austin's suggestion and have really loved. And then, you know, a mesh expandable pocket right here, another, another pocket right here that I always keep some Baron Fig Strategist note cards in. Next, we have this zippered pocket, which again has some good, has some good depth to it. It goes to the same level as this tier of pockets right here, so about a hand's depth right here, a little bit of give to it but not a ton. Your standard keychain clip. I honestly don't use these a ton. The other part, and I think this is kind of— I didn't really notice this— you have a really deep pocket, not all the way down, but it has the same depth as this set of pockets right here. So you can see, for me, almost like half an arm length. And what I like about this, I'll show it to you in a minute, is that you could actually You can definitely fit an iPad in here, but you can also fit, if you want, this is a 13, 13.3 MacBook Pro. It's not as padded as some of the other pockets. What I like about it is that even though it doesn't have quite the padding on the front here that it does in the back where they have the laptop pocket, I do like that actually the pocket stops basically here. Instead of here, but we'll talk more about that when we get to the laptop section because I have a couple other hacks for you. But it does have that kind of depth and width. So that is the front loader organization pocket. I really love the setup and design of this. Next is the main clamshell open compartments. So there's a lot of room in this. This is where the bulk of the 33 liters is. It's my puffy jacket., and then you can see it's really, it's really easy to organize because it's just this one big compartment. So normally I have 1 to 2 travel pack cubes of any clothing that I'm carrying. Dopp kit, this one's from Topo Designs, goes right here. And then normally what I do, because I want to carry some kind of jacket, whether it's rain or warmth, or a combination of both like this one, then the reason that I like puffy jackets is because they compress so well. So this is easy to slide in there, and I actually have like a good amount of additional space here. I could easily put another day or two worth of clothes and still have it fit just fine. The other part of this main compartment that I want to show you is that it does have two pockets. That are against the main flap that clamshell open. And this one is where you could just put some— I think you could put your unmentionables here or other like various sundry items. But and then this is more for— it has a really tough mesh here. It's not your, not your normal mesh. It definitely, it has some weight. It has some, it has some texture to it. Feels, feels good actually. And this is where I put my primary cords and stuff. Now I'm going to show you a couple of Bond pouches that I like to carry and use in these as well. But if you don't have an additional like cord carry pouch, then this one is going to work really, really well for you. Let's talk about the materials of this bag just for a moment. It's really heavy-duty Cordura fabric. In fact, it was developed for military use. It's very water-resistant. These are actually very water-resistant, water-repellent zippers and casing here. And so this bag, I don't know if I would say like you could, you know, walk a mile in rainy Pacific Northwest weather and have your stuff be totally fine, but you could definitely, you could definitely go from place to place and not have to worry about your stuff at all. A couple other things in terms of the outside, like these YKK zippers are super heavy duty, and you can actually— they have little holes that you could put a small luggage lock. So they're locking zippers. The handles here are really heavy duty and beefy. I feel like I could really yank the bag around and the handle would not, would not rip off. One of the things that I also wanted to show you was this water bottle pocket. A lot of times what I don't— oh, here's the other handle. A lot of times what I'm not a fan of with these side water bottle pockets is when you don't have a bottle in them, they can look kind of flappy and just not the same kind of minimalist aesthetic that the rest of the bag can have. Well, Aer does fix this with this zipper. And so when you're not using it, zip it up, it looks fine, you can, you know, still slide some stuff in here. But when you want to put this water bottle in, make sure it's closed, then it slides in quite, quite easily. And so I really like that feature, it's very smart. I talked about the straps for just a moment, but a little, a little extra here. The shoulder straps are very comfortable. They have a nice ergonomic curve to them. The sternum strap is a nice touch. And then this vented mesh back with a little bit— you can see a little bit of the rise on the mesh— creates this like literal kind of air channel, which really helps cool your back. You won't get as super sweaty. As you might with some bags that don't have any kind of ventilation or padding. And so that's a big win, especially if you are carrying this around on a longer travel trip. There are two other pockets that I want to show you. One is right here at the top of the bag, and this is where you would put in— you put in like sunglasses or AirPods, your passport or ID for getting in and out of the airport. I wanted to save these last two pieces because these were my only gripes. With the bag. I do like the idea of these compression, compression straps. So I noticed this first on Chase Reeves' review of this bag is when these are cinched down, reduce the volume and like pop off your back like turtle bag. I call it turtle back. I call it sometimes what's kind of frustrating with it is when you're going to unzip the main compartment, it's gonna get— it can't make it pass. So I have to— and now I'm gonna open it. Wait, nope, open up wrong one. Oh, there are actually two, two places. This is a pain. So here, and I would have to undo this one if I wanted to undo the full clamshell. So that's kind of a pain. Uh, last thing, and this is with the the laptop pocket. The thing that I like about it is that this pocket is very, very large and well padded. This back portion right here has a ton of padding. Actually, there's a little bit of padding plus your entire bag worth of stuff. This pocket goes all the way down to the bottom. It's a full length. And so if your laptop is all the way in without any additional like little buffer, if you set the bag down hard or it gets dropped, your laptop is not going— is going to have very minimal protection from that. So sometimes I'll use any kind of a laptop sleeve here, or what I'm going to show you in just a minute, which is the Bond Attaché little messenger bag, or any other kind of small slimline bag that you can use to just provide a little bit of a buffer, a little bit extra cushion and protection for your precious laptop. So that, my friends, is the Aer Travel Pack 2. I love this thing. I highly recommend it. I've been bringing it on all of my trips, and even sometimes when I'm just going about in, you know, around the day, like if I'm out all day and I have to carry stuff for work and for the gym and for everything, including like a camera and different setups, then like I'll carry this bag. I've really enjoyed it. And thanks to the Aer team. Thanks also to Andy for writing me this kind personal note. I really appreciate it, and thanks for sending the bag. What I'm going to show you next is the Wandered travel journal, so give you your journal fix. And then we're going to talk about these Bond bags and pouches that I've really been enjoying and have used not just for travel but just for everyday carry and in my bags and just going out and about to coffee shops and coworking places. So let's put aside the other bags and pouches for now and look at this Wandered travel journal. Now Wandered also makes some really great photography bags that if you guys like this bag and notebook, they might send me one to review for you. So keep that in mind, give them some love in the comments. Now I really like the feel of this Wandered journal. It is a travel journal notebook.. And it has kind of that faux leather, nice and smooth and soft. And then you can also see log number, travel dates through, and destinations. And I like this because this is something I normally put on my notebooks anyway. You can see this was the one that I did last year. So I actually named my notebooks. I'll talk about this in a different video, but I named my notebooks based on parks or mountain ranges that I've been to that year. So I appreciate, I appreciate that. Let's look into the journal itself. So this is going to set up for 12 different trips over— it doesn't have to be the course of a year, but different lengths too. So up to 18 days, 9 days, 3 days. So kind of a long-term travel, week-ish, and then 3 days. Has a great Hunter S. Thompson quote here, and there are little like quotes and notations throughout the journal that I really like. If you are a big traveler, this is a fantastic notebook for you. I'll go ahead and just say that right now. Here's the table of contents. So trips log, content, rewards, bucket list, world map, all the trips, extra notes, blank paper, and then tear-out note cards. So we've got our contact information. We'll kind of flip through that. Rewards program. So for you frequent flyers and travelers, travel bucket list. I really like this quote from Susan Sontag. I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list. They have this fold-out world map so you can see everything. I really like that. It covers 3 pages. Been there, done that. Where have you already been? Other travel conversions, universal communication symbols. So you could like be carrying this and be like, hey, can you tell me where to get to the train? Or hey, I really have to find somewhere to sleep. Or Where can I get some beers? So now we're planning Trip 1. Remember, there are 12 of these trip logs. This is for the longer adventures. So shade in the place that you're going, any research, flight, hotel, transportation, activity. All of it is right here in your trip details. Checklist, notes, budget, conversion rate if need be, documents, photography, the packing list is all right here. It's really, really well done. It allows you to see like, okay, these are common things. And these, you know, the folks at Wandered, they are expert travelers themselves. So this makes a lot of sense they would have all this ready to go for you. So your itineraries, the location, again, this covers up to 18 days. So that's how many they list. And then kind of a review highlights. So experiences, things to bring, places to see next time. So just re-looking at that travel list again or that packing list and like, what are the things that I needed to miss or things that I didn't get to do? Best things I ate, new friends that I made, and then extra trip notes, travel log, thoughts and sketches, photos if you want to paste those in. And then it just keeps going on that. So you have the long adventures. There are also short adventures, but same kind of thing. So wherever you're going, the whole layout and design of it is all very similar. Something that I noticed that I think y'all would like too is they have their own like little notes. They kind of look like quotes, but pack dark-colored clothes, dirt and stains don't show up as easily so you can wear them longer without washing. Which, you know, when you're traveling, especially world traveling, the way that you smell, uh, maybe it doesn't matter quite as much. So that is the Wandered Travel Journal. I am really impressed by it. I think it's great. Again, it has different trip length, so you can record at least 12 journeys, trips in this, and I think you're really going to like it. Again, you've got extra dot grid. These are really big dots, I would say. Not the dots themselves are big, the space between them is like at least 50% more than I would say a normal like Leuchtturm or Baron Fig is. Then we've got blank pages, tear-out note cards, which I think was a nice touch. And then of course The OG viewers will know that I love a good pocket, a good inline pocket with the notebook. So that's the Wandered Travel Journal. If you are a traveler or you plan on being one, I would highly recommend this. I think it's great. They did an excellent job, and give them some love in the comments and with an order if you're interested in it. Now let's take a look at these 3 items from Bond Travel Gear. Shout out to Chris for sending these to me. The first one that I want to show you is actually the smallest one because it was the one that I brought up in my holiday buyer's guide, holiday gift guide for the Bullet Journalist. And this is called the Tool Roll. So let me show you why I like this one. I like things that just kind of have a very non-fussy enclosure or system to them. And this just having something that you literally like roll it up right here, and everything that you need could be in this roll. And so then you just roll it back up and use the hook and loop enclosure. Now let me show you a little bit of the inside of this as well. These pockets right here are definitely big enough to fit a pocket-sized notebook or journal right here. This is the Field Notes when they did their Expedition Series. This is a waterproof memo book, which I really loved getting those. Now there is 3 of those pockets. You could also kind of fit something, you know, right in here and then there is a decent sized little pocket right here, mesh pocket with some give. What you are really getting something like this for are these loops right here, which are great for putting multiple pens or styluses right here. Easy to do. There's some bigger ones here that, now I wouldn't do this if you are traveling in an airplane certainly, but you could put a decent size little pocket knife there. You could also, it's a great setup for dongles and cords for all the dongles in your life. You'll note, you may have noted that Sometimes I have a little bit of trouble getting these through the loops. And the reason for this, it's actually a really ingenious design that I haven't seen in some of these other, like, pen or tool holders. I don't know if you can really see this, but there is— you really see— yeah, see this part that's kind of shiny and reflective? This is an extremely grippy, almost like— yeah, just a really grippy coating right here. And so these things ain't falling out. Like, they're, they're not going anywhere because every single one has that, has that grippy substance, that coating right on the inside. Really easy. These things are great. I like this one a lot because it's so unfussy. And then you just roll it up, loop it in, and there you go. The next one I won't spend as much time on because it's very similar. This is the Venture Pouch., and I use this one all the time. It has 2 compartments. So this main compartment, the same gear loops or pin loops right here, so you can put multiple pins in here as I normally do. And then you can see I have the couple of cords in here as well. So that's the Venture pouch. It's a little bit bigger, as you can see, a little bulkier, whether you like that or not, than the Tool Roll. The other part of this one, it has a kind of more like a legit pouch pouch, and I'll normally take this and I'll put like extra snacks in here, little doodads and whatnot. But that's the Venture pouch. Dig it. This is the Attaché messenger bag. It's on the smaller side for a messenger bag. I've had messenger bags before that like kind of the Timbuktu setup. This one's a little bit smaller, but it actually fits really well inside of the Aer travel pack. So let me go ahead and show you that real quick because I don't know if any of you have done kind of a big but minimal bag travel in the past. It is kind of a pain to take a big bag anywhere that you want to go when you are in the city that you want to be in. Fits in here really well. You can see this thing is still very slim, very easy to slide in right here. Gives it that extra cushion and padding. There we go. So now I have my travel pack and my daily carry bag all in one convenient piece. This lays flat, which I really like. It has more of these great loops right here, so you could put a bunch of different things right here and that. It would be really easy— I don't know if I would want to put this in a loose area, but this is a backup disc. I could put that in there and I know it's gonna stay secure. As you can see, I'm holding it upside down. So more of these loops, two bigger zippered pockets right here which are a nice size, and then two deeper— you can see almost hand-sized pockets here and here, and then all this side is, is your laptop sleeve. There's a front, a front loader pocket right here, about hand size, not a whole lot of depth to it, so you could stuff some things in here. What you're going for with this attaché is something really slim, really easy to carry, light, that is going to have your essentials in it. That's why I like using it so much when with a bigger bag so that I can have a daily carry when I have a larger travel bag. I'm not schlepping that around. The reason that I love these bags and pouches and journal is because when I'm traveling, I want to think about my gear as little as possible. And so by putting some extra effort and thought and discretion into what I'm bringing, what I'm carrying with me on a trip, it allows me to more fully experience everything that I have in front of me during the trip— people, food, places, the environment, everything. So it's an important piece, and I believe something that is kind of overlooked. I know for years I would just, I would just throw whatever into a bag and travel with it. And when you got kids, there's still like an element of that. You're like, well, I think I might need this, and you just toss it in. But by giving a little extra care and attention to your packing list and to what you want to bring and what you want to experience on the trip itself, I believe you will have a much more fulfilling and fun experience at your destination. Thanks so much for watching this video. I know it's a little bit different, but I really enjoyed putting it together, and I really love bags, pouches, notebooks, as you already know. So it was fun to be able to kind of go over this and show you how I pack and the things that I carry with me while traveling. Thanks also to Aer, Bond, and Wandered for providing the gear for this video. Please check them out. I have used everything and really like it. I wouldn't do a review or talk to you about it unless they were things that I enjoyed using and will continue to use myself. So definitely check them out. They're great companies and have been really kind to me, so they are definitely— if you're in the market for any of these, I would definitely wholeheartedly recommend them to you. If you're new here, go ahead and hit like and subscribe to these videos. Most weeks we talk about bullet journal productivity and different things and methods, systems, habits that you can use to get your head out of your apps and focus on what matters in your day-to-day and the people that matter most to you. I'll see you next time. Hope you have a great day. Bye.
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