5 Waterproof Luggage Options Designed To Keep Your Tech Safe

In this day and age, there are so many types of smart bags and luggage options meant to make traveling easier. The crowded market of tech improved travel gadgets offers features like GPS tracking, built-in scales, and even zipperless entry. But with all of the technological advancements on the bags themselves, we can't forget the most important part: the items you've packed inside that the bags are meant to contain and protect. 

It's critical to think about waterproofing your go-to luggage so that the gear inside of them stays functional — even if the "gear" is just a laptop and charger. Nobody wants to spend a long flight with water damaged AirPods just because it was pouring rain that morning, or to show up at work with a dead computer after commuting in harsh weather. And, if you're someone who's invested money into gear like professional cameras, expensive tablets, or even gaming systems, the risk of water damage is even higher. 

Instead of only looking for luggage with all of the bells and whistles, we're going back to the basics to ensure that bags are water-resistant and moisture-wicking so you don't need to fear precipitation on your journey. Here, we've compiled a list of the best waterproof travel bags (and plenty of them also have other brag-worthy amenities, so you can get the best of both worlds.) In order to be included, the bags had to claim water resistance, and had to be user or SlashGear tested and reviewed. 

Portland Gear is adding style to the world of waterproof items — and is aptly based out of the rainy Pacific Northwest, where waterproofing is all the more important. The Cascade Backpack, which retails for $98 and comes in nine different colors, as well as a smaller compact size, is fully waterproof. It's similar to the outdoors-ready roll-up backpacking bags, but made into a stylish everyday item so you won't look like you're in the middle of a long trek through the wilderness. Even the water bottle sleeves are water-ready, as they're laser-perforated so they release water in the event of a spill. 

Plus, the backpack doubles as a full carry-on for your travel days thanks to its whopping 21 liters of storage. I personally own this backpack, and managed to travel to a friend's wedding with four days' worth of items, including a suit, packed into just this backpack. I love that the bag stands upright and unzips in a way that allows you to see and reach everything in the bag at once. Plus, the many compartments for laptops and valuables makes it easy to store everything I need in an organized, handy way. If you're more of a duffle person, you can also opt for the company's waterproof Cascade Duffle Bag.

On the other end of the size spectrum, the Gonex duffle bag has 100 liters of storage and is 33 inches long. This bag retails for $155.99, which isn't much for how large and protective it is. You can choose between three color options: olive green, black, and navy blue, and the same colors are available in smaller sizes (25 inches and 16 inches) if you'd prefer carry ons over checked luggage. The Gonex duffle has two components: the hard side and the soft side. The larger of the two is the hard side, which is 8 inches deep — enough to hold plenty of laptops, monitors, camera supplies, speakers, etc. The soft side is 7.9 inches deep when fully packed, and should be where you store less fragile items like clothing and shoes. 

Over 1,500 Amazon buyers have left a five-star review for this Gonex choice, praising the bag for its spaciousness and high-quality material. "It's lightweight but the material feels tough. You can pack the thing to the brim and fit a lot before hitting typical travel weight limits," one reviewer said, adding, "It's a TALL bag, which was a big selling point for me as when I travel with film gear I can fit light stands inside." Others noted the usefulness of the water resistance. One shopper reported, "The water repellant exterior kept my bag dry when others on the flight were clearly soaked through from sitting out in the open on the tarmac." 

Similar to the Gonex duffel, the Olympia U.S.A. 22-Inch Water Resistant Rolling Duffel Bag has a soft, waterproof shell with convenient pockets and hardy material. Retailing for $54, it's definitely on the more affordable side, and you can scale up with 26, 29, and 33-inch options if the smaller carry on isn't your style. The bag has eight pockets to make it easy to store and organize your items. For travelers who bring tech around, the pockets could mean having convenient spaces to keep chargers, plugs, camera lenses, and more. If you're not into the simple black look, you can opt for the six other colors, which include hot pin, red, and royal blue. And, of course, the bag promises to be water resistant for travel confidence. 

Olympia's beloved duffel has over 11,000 reviews on Amazon and nets out to 4.4 stars. Happy customers wrote that they loved how much space the bag offered and felt like the quality was great for the price point. "This bag was perfect. It's very good quality, a decent size, lots of zippered compartments. Durable fabric, and the zipper is substantial," one reviewer said. The reviews also corroborate the water resistance: "I use it for camping and can pack clothes, towels, pillows and chargers and still have room left over. It kept all my clothes dry while we had heavy rain for 2 days," one five-star reviewer said. 

We'd be remiss not to include one of the biggest trends in luggage of late: matching sets. Amazon has plenty of color-coordinated sets of luggage for the price you'd expect to pay for one bag — this Cosbarn 5-piece luggage set is just $105.95. The set is composed of three durable rolling suitcases (that includes a 28-inch large suitcase, 24-inch medium luggage, and 20-inch carry on) as well as a water resistant duo of a duffel bag and a toiletry bag. The hard suitcases are not water resistant, as is the case with many hard suitcases because they aren't made with the resistant fabric. The duffel bag is expandable, so you can add more inches of storage, and comes with a strap that attaches it to the suitcase handles for easy traveling. It's also one of the trendier options: you can snag this set in navy, beige, light blue, black, and even rose gold. 

"This luggage set is classy-looking priced very reasonable and the material is durable," said one of the over 400 five-star reviews. "The camel colored detail gives the luggage an expensive look and the hard casing assures long lasting durability as well as lots of room!" Other reviewers praised how high quality the set is for its low price tag, with one person writing, "Excellent value for the money. Just returned from a vacation and it survived the air travel without any sign of use or abuse." 

The MIER Water Resistant Backpack is a heavy-duty duffle that can be carried by hand or on your back with the large backpack straps. It comes in three sizes: 40, 60, and 90 liters — even the smallest size has a massive amount of storage but is suitable for carry on sizing. There are four internal mesh pockets to conveniently keep your items organized, and a water resistant ID pocket on the back to help you keep a license handy for TSA checks. The material is both tear and water-resistant tarpaulin, and comes with strong double bottom and reinforced stitches to provide long-lasting durability against daily activities.

Over a thousand five-star reviews have established the MIER heavy duty bag as a durable, convenient, and affordable piece of gear. "This bag was perfect. It got manhandled and abused and came out unscathed. It's got a very durable, water resistant exterior and strong zippers," one reviewer reported, noting that they took the bag on a two-week Safari trip. Other reviewers praised the amount of space available in the bags: "The storage capacity kind of blew our minds – we were able to fit so much!" And, if you're worried about opting for a super-large backpack, fear not. Users praised the sternum straps, which helped spread out the weight of the load, "The backpack straps are comfortable and make it easy to carry, even when the bag is fully loaded," one buyer wrote. 

In order to deliver on the promise to make a list of bags that can protect your tech through harsh weather, there are a few components we considered. First of all, we only listed bags that are either waterproof or water-repellant, meaning the material won't absorb or hold water, and they zip up in a way that won't let any water inside. 

We also ensured that rolling or checked luggage was tech safe by having enough of a hard shell that the tech would be protected from other elements or rough TSA handling. Size was also a consideration here, ensuring that larger laptops (15 inches or more) and gear could fit into the baggage. That means we only included pieces with at least 20 liters of storage. 

Last but not least, we looked into user experience to ensure that each selection was well reviewed. The pieces here are either things SlashGear tested, or have at least 100 reviews that net out at higher than four stars.