When people start to think about buying a travel luggage or any other kind of luggage, there are plenty of criteria to consider. People tend to consider things like size, color and style – they overlook an important criteria that people should consider when choosing luggage – which is how waterproof is it. In fact waterproof should be in the first priority that people should consider because we can not predict the weather. Or an accident (like the time I saw someone’s luggage fall off the dock at a cruise ship pier) that makes your luggage wet and damage all stuff inside. So you want to make sure you are buying high quality luggage that has strong waterproofing.

First of all, I need to emphasize that waterproof ability doesn’t mean that the luggage could not get wet, but it means that the materials that the luggage is made from has ability to repel the water before it will absorb inside the luggage. When getting wet, each material will present ability to wipe out the water differently. For example, leather surface have better ability to wipe out water than canvas. This is because the texture of leather has less space than canvas. However, leather luggage is expensive as well as requires regular maintenance. There is other alternative such as nylon, which has similar waterproofing capabilities as leather.

Waterproof ability also depends on design and size of the luggage. For example, smaller luggage may have less chance to be soaked than larger luggage. This is because the bigger luggage has more surface area to absorb water. Thus another reason why business luggage is smaller than vacation luggage isn’t just because of the desire to only carry luggage that can be put in overhead bins but also to increase its ability to keep dry. And remember if your bag is carrying your computer – you want to pay extra attention to its waterproofing. Clothes can always dry – but computers are ruined if they get wet. Thus you might even want to think of having an extra sleeve around your laptop if you are going to be outside in a storm.

Besides the exterior material – look at the construction of the interior. Ideally there should be a few layers between the outside and the interior to help prevent moisture from entering the luggage.

Hopefully you have learned to remember to account for how waterproof your luggage is when shopping for luggage. Remember that leather is probably the strongest waterproof material but because of its expense and care requirements you may choose to go with a nylon style bag. And that if you are carrying your laptop you might want to invest in a waterproof sleve to wrap around it even if its in your bag.