The best carry-on luggage

The Aer Travel Pack 3 is as close to a Swiss army knife of a travel bag as you can get. It is a practically indestructible backpack made of 1680 denier ballistic nylon! It’s a sophisticated briefcase with a handle! It’s a tech organizer, laptop bag, and suitcase! Although for some it may be too designed (“almost too much bag,” according to my husband), the Travel Pack has a sleek, unisex design (available in black, gray, navy, or olive) and utility that makes it usable for everything from daily work to business trips. to the international backpacker.

There’s a spacious, clamshell-style main compartment that fits shoes and about two outfits, or more with a couple of packing cubes, plus a separate laptop compartment divided for two computers. The front opens to reveal two rows of pockets reminiscent of a miniature over the door shoe organizerPerfect for pens, power cords, snacks or notebooks. There are compression straps on both sides to adjust it to a more manageable size. It should be noted that even when not compressed, the 21.5 x 13-inch profile is still small enough to store under an airplane seat. Both main compartments have zippers that can accommodate a padlock, and a loop on the bag allows it to fit sideways over a suitcase handle. The only downside is that the water bottle holder is oddly small, even when opened to its maximum capacity. It barely fits a 40-ounce ThermoFlask and the included magnetic strap doesn’t even fit half of it. As long as you’re not thirsty, this is a pretty solid bag that I think most people would be happy with. —Kat Merck

★ Alternative: I recently took Travelpro Altitude Travel Backpack ($280) on a work trip. I loved the flat, all-access top opening, which saves space in a small hotel room. I also loved that it has structure, so you can pack it like a suitcase, and it’s expandable so you can take home a large book or a souvenir t-shirt from the library if you really want to.