Best Duffel Bags of 2024

A reliable duffel bag is a beautiful thing. But not all duffel bags are created equal, and if you’re in the market for a new one, it can be hard to parse the good from the bad (or, more likely, the good from the best).

We tested 12 of the most popular and well-regarded duffels from brands like Patagonia, Gregory, Nemo, The North Face, and more to see which features made a bag we’d want to take everywhere. We filled them with gear and took them camping, on bikepacking trips in the desert, stuffed them full of winter clothing, and dragged them to Antarctica by way of more airports than we would have liked. Then we compared them on the basis of comfort, carry options, water resistance, organization, and more, all to determine which duffels stand out among the rest. As a result, no matter what your duffel preferences, we’re confident you’ll find one you love.

And for more info, check out some of our other most popular gear guides:

• Best Travel Backpacks
• Best Backpacking Backpacks
• Best Day Packs
• Best Fanny Packs

Quick Picks for Duffel Bags

Check out this list of our top-rated duffel bags, or keep on scrolling to check out the entire list with thoughtful reviews.

Best Duffel Overall: Nemo Double Haul ($180)

Best All-Arounder: Patagonia Black Hole 55 ($169)

Best  Duffel for Protecting Gear: Gregory Alpaca Wide Mouth Duffek ($140)

Great for Road Trips: The North Face Base Camp Gear Box ($175)

Most Comfortable Backpack Carry: Osprey Transporter 65 ($180)

Best for Stinky Separation: Cotopaxi Allpa Duo ($175)

Best Mix of Light Weight and Durability: Eagle Creek Cargo Hauler 60 ($170)

Best for Air Travel: Peak Design Travel Duffel ($155)

Best Budget Duffel: REI Roadtripper 60 ($60)

Best for Laptop Carry: The North Face Base Camp Voyager ($169)

Best Waterproof Duffel: YETI Panga 75 ($350)

Best Rolling Duffel: The North Face Rolling Thunder ($270)

Duffel Bags Overall Testing Scores

How We Test & Methodology

We assessed each duffel bag based on five criteria: carry comfort, compressibility and packability, durability, weather resistance, and organization. We tested them in a range of conditions over two months, including wet and dry, dusty and rocky, hot and cold, to see how they stacked up.

Carry Comfort

While comfort can be subjective, we did our best to take into consideration what features most users would find comfortable, including how many carry options there are (are there just backpack straps like on the Osprey Transporter or pack straps, grab handles, and a shoulder strap like on the Nemo Double Haul) and how padded or comfy each is when the duffels are loaded with clothing and gear.

Compressibility and Packability

When it comes to travel, how easy it is to pack your bag and how much you can use it to compress everything inside are key. So we looked not only at how small each bag packs down – like the compact and portable REI Roadtripper – but how easy it was to load and unload each bag with the same gear, how well it all fit in similarly sized bags, and whether compressions straps helped pack it all in.

Durability

When we don’t have the luxury of time to reliably test how well a duffel will stand up to normal (and occasionally abnormal) wear and tear, a little extra abuse acts as a nice stand-in. So we didn’t baby these bags, preferring instead to toss them down stairs, chuck them into hatchbacks, drag them around campsites, and let baggage handlers have their way with them to see how well external materials stood up, zippers maintained zippiness, and stuff inside stayed safe and sound.

Weather Resistance

We can’t always have ideal weather when we travel, so it’s important to know whether the bags containing all our gear and clothing will keep those items safe and dry. To test each bag, we set them all out in the rain for a set period of time to see if the inside stayed dry. There was a wide range of results, from completely dry (Yeti Panga) to quite damp (The North Face Base Camp Voyager). We tested both interior and exterior pockets.

Organization

We can’t always have ideal weather when we travel, so it’s important to know whether the bags containing all our gear and clothing will keep those items safe and dry. Sometimes, you just want a bag to cram large bulky items into, and sometimes, you need a few organizational pockets. We assessed each bag for how well it kept things organized, tallying pockets and compartments inside and out. Some, like The North Face Gear Box, had plenty, while others, like the Patagonia Black Hole, were more streamlined. 

Why Trust CleverHiker

Gear analyst, Alisha McDarris, has spent dozens of hours testing and researching duffel bags, plus weeks traveling around the world and across the country with a duffel or two in tow. She’s used them to cart bikepacking gear 100 miles around Utah’s White Rim Road, carted them to Antarctica and around Argentina and Chile loaded with travel and backpacking gear, and stuffed them into her trunk full of cozy clothing and camping gear for adventurous road trips around Utah and the Pacific Northwest.

What’s more, years of gear testing experience for her own site, Terradrift.com, means she knows a reliable piece of gear when she sees one and knows instinctively what features make for a bag you’ll want to reach for again and again.

Analysis & Results

We rank tents based on five different metrics, including carry comfort, compressibility and packability, organization, durability, and weather resistance. Our comparative results below outline the top performers in each metric.

VALUE

When it comes to duffel bags, prices can vary greatly depending on size, features, materials, and so much more. But generally speaking, the more you pay, the higher quality bag you’re likely to get. Fortunately, there are plenty of tolerably affordable options if you still want lots of features and budget-friendly options if all you need is something simple to do the hauling.

For example, the Gregory Alpaca Wide Mouth Duffel has a great balance of price and features with its multiple carry options, padded sides, and the ability to use it as a duffel or gear hauler. It genuinely feels like getting two bags in one. It doesn’t have as many organizational options, but we loved its durability and functionality, whether using it at the campground or close to home, hauling gear or boxes of holiday cookies to friends’ parties.

Not far behind is the Peak Design Travel Duffel, which is well priced for such a sleek and air travel-friendly bag. It can, after all, fit in an overhead bin on most airplanes and has tons of organizational features perfect for those traveling with photo gear or smaller items. Plus, the bag’s high-quality materials, accents, and overall professional look make it equally suitable for business travel and outdoor adventures. Honestly, you’d be hard pressed to find a better looking bag for the price.

Finally, for those on the hunt for a budget-friendly duffel bag that can hold its own but still stand up to moderate abuse, the REI Roadtripper Duffel is an excellent option that is also easy on the wallet. It’s a great way to haul gear and makes an excellent backup bag when you pack too much on the return trip. Bonus: it’s durable enough to handle airport baggage handlers and rugged outdoor landscapes.

CARRY COMFORT

One important aspect of a duffel bag is how comfortable it is to carry, how many carry options it offers, and how much it weighs before you pack it full of gear. Especially if you’re flying when every ounce counts, and you’ll likely be hauling it over extended distances. So, if carrying comfort is important to you, here are our top picks.

The Osprey Transporter was top in the comfort category for those who plan to always carry their duffel on their backs. The backpack straps were comfortable and adjustable, plus had a sternum strap to help keep things stabilized. It’s pretty much the only way to carry this duffel, so if you prefer to have more options, take that into consideration.

When you do, take a look at the Nemo Double Haul Convertible Duffel and Tote, which offers a plethora of carry options, including comfortable backpack straps, grab handles on top, and stowable shoulder tote straps so you can toss it over a shoulder. There’s no cross-body or over-the-shoulder strap, but we didn’t find we missed it. What’s more, the pack straps never got in the way while packing, which was a plus.

Likewise, the Eagle Creek Cargo Hauler offered an easy-to-use 2-in-1 carry option we found perfectly functional and comfortable. Stowable shoulder straps wrap-snap together to function as duffel handles and can even be worn over-the-shoulder in a pinch. It was comfortable to carry in most arrangements and we liked that those options were easy to stash when checking the bag at the airport.

COMPRESSIBILITY & PACKABILITY

Duffel bags often come in sizes and capacities ranging from 40L-100L. Every bag we tested here (most were between 50L-65L) is available in at least one other size. What capacity is right for you depends on what you’ll use it for. Want to keep it compact? Stick with a 40-60L. Need to haul a lot of stuff? Look for a 65-100L. But one thing that doesn’t change is how well they pack down when not in use and whether they have any features that make it easier to pack, like compression straps or wide mouth openings.

The Osprey Transporter was one of our favorite options for easy packability thanks to a wide mouth opening that offered plenty of access to the interior, pack straps that never got in the way, and compression straps that helped keep large, bulky items like sleeping bags in check. Just cinch the straps over top, then zip up the lid easily. We also liked the separate storage pouch (as opposed to the bag stuffing into a pocket) and a couple of exterior zipper pockets for quick access to important items.

Another standout option was The North Face Base Camp Gear Box. We appreciated that it packs down almost flat (to about two inches) when not in use, which means we could stash it under a bed, along the back wall of a closet, or on a shelf. But mostly, we loved that the rigid frame and lid, plus an opening just a smidge wider than the base, made it exceedingly easy to pack. We were able to toss in packing cubes, trekking poles, backpacks, sleeping bags, and more easily, which made packing up the campsite after a few nights in the frontcountry fast and easy. The extra drop pockets inside were icing on the cake, making small accessories like head lamps easy to find.

The Patagonia Black Hole was also a competitive contender. It stuffs into its own pocket when not in use (though not without a bit of a struggle), and the wide mouth opening with few bells and whistles in the interior to complicate things made it easy to fill. It’s a popular and classic duffel option for a reason.

ORGANIZATION

Organizational options can be key depending on your packing preferences and what type of traveling you do with your duffel. If you tend to just transport bulky gear, you may not need or want many small pockets. But if you like to keep things in their place, close at hand, and easy to find, then the availability of pockets, dividers and compartments matter.

The North Face Base Camp Gear Box is a standout in that department. With six pockets inside, we found ample opportunity to separately stash everything from headlamps to bathroom kits to bike repair tools. They made it easy to locate the small stuff quickly. Plus, the large rectangular interior offered the option to utilize packing cubes or other gear boxes inside for even more storage organization.

The North Face Base Camp Voyager also shone brightly in the organizational department. It features five pockets inside and out, including a lightly padded laptop sleeve in the lid, plus a repositionable divider inside. That divider made it easy to create separate storage space inside the bag, like for shoes and clothes, but it was just as easy to remove entirely when we needed one large compartment for bigger gear or packing cubes. We especially appreciated a spacious end pocket that offered enough room to stash dirty footwear.

The Gregory Alpaca Wide Mouth was no slouch when it came to organization, either. While there is only one small zipper pocket on the outside, several zippers and drop pockets on the inside were great for wrangling small items like Air Tags, wet wipes, and bathroom kits. They made the small stuff easy to find fast, also thanks partly to semi-stiff sides that didn’t collapse on you when the bag was empty or partially empty.

DURABILITY

Most duffel bags are designed to withstand a fair amount of use and abuse, but some are more durable than others. So if you want your bag to last a good long time, plan to cart it to and around rough environments, or otherwise put it through the ringer (i.e. regular check it as luggage for air travel), you may want to opt for one of the more durable options.

The Gregory Wide Mouth Duffel stands out again as a solid option. Not least of all because every side of the bag is semi-stiff and padded, which means whatever gear you put inside will be moderately more protected than in a straight soft-sided bag. But that didn’t mean the fabric exterior was less resistant to scratches and scuffs. While the textured material picked up more dirt than bags made of sleek TPU or a similar material, testing resulted in only minor scuffs. So this duffel is a winner in our book.

The Cotopaxi Allpa was no slouch, either. In fact, after testing, dragging it across campsites, checking it as luggage, and generally abusing it via typical outdoor use, only a few scratches and scuffs stuck around. If it did pick up any dirt or mud, the sides and top were easy to simply wipe off with a damp rag (the fabric bottom takes just a smidge more effort). 

One bag that’s easy to wipe down to a like-new shine from top to bottom after all manner of dirty adventures was the Osprey Transporter. Made of the same ultra durable materials, we were never worried about dirt or mud getting stuck in more fabric-like nooks and crannies. Likewise, after plenty of testing, there was hardly a scratch or scuff anywhere on the bag. But our favorite feature might be Osprey’s All Mighty Guarantee: if the bag has a durability issue, they’ll fix it or replace it for free, so they stand behind their construction and materials.

WEATHER RESISTANCE

Planning to take your duffel kayaking, SUPing, or tossing into the back of a pickup for a long, rainy drive? Then waterproofing may be important to you if you prefer all your gear and clothing inside to stay dry. But not all duffels are created equal when it comes to weather resistance. Most will keep contents dry in a light drizzle or a brief shower, even dewy grass, but not all can handle more saturated conditions.

One that can is the Yeti Panga Dry Duffel. It guarantees it’ll keep anything contained within dry as a bone in any condition. Yes, even if it falls off your kayak and submerges in the water. That’s thanks to waterproof and robust bag materials and a chunky waterproof zipper that didn’t let in a single drop during testing in an extended rain shower. If you need to be sure your gear stays dry no matter what, this is your only option.

The Patagonia Black Hole also performed admirably when up against inclement weather. Between generous rain flaps over the zippers and a nice matte TPU finish, this bag kept most of our gear completely dry in the rain. We did find contents a bit damp along the edges where zippers allowed some moisture to get through, but overall, we were impressed.

Likewise, the Gregory Alpaca Wide Mouth Duffel kept gear drier than we thought it would. After all, unlike some of the other bags with more sleek and – what would appear – water resistant materials and coatings, this one has a more fabric-like feel on the exterior. But when we left it out in the rain for an hour, we were surprised to find only a few minor damp spots despite the top zipper being neither waterproof nor overly protected by a storm flap. Nevertheless, it turned out to be a contender for one of the more weather resistant duffels we tested.

Conclusion

Choosing the right duffel for you and the types of travel you enjoy can seem daunting, but that’s why we at CleverHiker do what we do: offer expert reviews based on thorough testing. That way, you can feel confident you’ll make the right choice every time. We live for adventurous travel and outdoor exploration and take every review seriously.