Eagle Creek Gear Warrior 29 Review

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Pros of the Warrior 29

• 29 inch stays lightweight while having optimal space.
• All handles are firmly anchored and easy to grab quickly, yet comfortable to carry
• Blue color stands out easily among other bags
• Easy to use cinch straps are provide in excellent locations

Cons of the Warrior 29

• Doesn’t balance well on it’s legs if the front pocket is loaded too full
• Top stash pocket could be slightly bigger

The Eagle Creek Gear Warrior 29

Luggage is a tough thing to spend money on. If you fork over a fistful of cash for the wrong bag, you’ll cuss yourself out every time you see the thing pop up on the conveyor belt at the airport. Crappy luggage is pain to get in the trunk, out of the trunk, when you’re walking across the stupidly big air port terminal, when you’re trying to catch a taxi in the rain… you name it. If you buy cheap stuff, it’ll plague you whenever you travel. This is why I suggest you buy the Eagle Creek Gear Warrior 29. It’s simple, but smartly designed with the avid traveler in mind. It’s got pockets, but not too many – grab handles where you want them, and a rugged telescoping handle on the top that will stand up to abuse. Trust me – I recently just took the Eagle Creek Gear Warrior on an international trip to Central America, where I put it through it’s paces getting out to a Jungle Bungalow on a remote island in the Pacific.

To begin with, the Eagle Creek Gear Warrior 29 is a great mid range size. It’s not so huge that you’re in danger of overstuffing it and going over most airlines 50lb weight limit, but it’s not small, either. I comfortably fit a week’s worth of beach wear and workout attire (including a couple extra pairs of running shoes – I work for a gear testing company, after all) in it, and still had room for the odd assortment of towels, sunscreens, bug sprays – whatever you think you’d need. Since it’s not a rigid construction, the Eagle Creek Gear Warrior is pretty lightweight to begin with, which does make it nice for when you really want to cram it full. I didn’t need to, but if you do cram it full, the exterior (and interior) cinch straps quickly secure your clothing and gear, maybe it way less awkward to move around. If you’re the sort that wants to lock your luggage, all of the zipper pulls have lock rings – just make sure to use some TSA compliant locks so they don’t cut your bag open and quickly ruin your trip.

Wheeling it around is easy, as well. I actually threw another 25 lb. bag up on top of it and schlepped it around that way whenever I was rolling it – when I did this, I threw the strap over the telescoping pull handle, and used the secure bungee strap that’s located in the top, which help everything in place. The wheels are pretty heavy duty, too – they rolled easily over all hard surfaces, and even did pretty well on some rutted gravel/jungle roads. I really like the fact that the straps on the outside could be lengthened to secure extra gear, ’cause after hauling all my gear down that road for awhile, I definitely stripped out of the rain jacket and other rain gear without hardly even stopping.

In short – it meets all your traveling needs, but it doesn’t have backpack straps, Eagle Creek makes other offerings for that; this is for wheeling around, and for that it’s awesome. Toss it around, grab it by the handles, and combine it with other bags – the Eagle Creek Gear Warrior 29 took everything I threw it. Even my super stinky jungle sweat dirty clothes, which I stashed in the outside compartment – It’s *almost* as big as the inside. Eventually, I had to switch and put the dirty on the inside, but when I did this I just aired it out a bit – stink gone. Buy the Eagle Creek Gear Warrior for all your long excursions – it’s rugged construction and feature set will make sure to get you and your gear where you need to go. Head on over to rei.com or amazon.com/eaglecreek to check it out for yourself.