The Best Crossbody Bags for Travel: What to Carry in Airports, Trains and City Breaks

The best crossbody bag for travel is a small, zipped leather bag that you can wear across your body and in front of you, with just enough room for a passport, phone, cards and glasses. For most trips that is our Original or City. For long airport days a Bum Bag worn across the chest keeps everything in sight, and for a weekend away the Weekend Bag holdall takes the rest. Here is how to choose between them.

Security first: zip top, worn in front

Whatever you choose, it should close with a zip and sit where you can see it. On a busy platform or in a crowded market, a crossbody worn at the front of the body, with your hand resting on it, is about as secure as a bag gets. An open-top tote on the shoulder is the opposite.

Most of our crossbody bags zip closed (the Wilmington has a magnetic fold and the Lambeth a drawstring), and all are lined. The Original has three compartments, so a passport can live in one and your phone in another. The City has two external zip compartments, which makes it easy to keep tickets separate from everything else.

Bum bag or crossbody?

The Bum Bag (33 x 12 x 11cm) has a nylon adjustable strap and can be worn on the waist, the hip or across the chest. For airports it is hard to beat. Worn across the chest it leaves both hands free for luggage, it is quick to take off at security, and your passport is always in front of you. In the US it is called a belt bag or fanny pack. It is £84.95 and you can see it in the bum bag collection.

The crossbody wins once you arrive. It looks better over a coat or a dress, it swaps to a shorter strap for dinner, and it holds a little more. A sensible pairing is both: the Bum Bag for the journey and a Mini or Original for the days out. Our lightweight crossbody bags are the ones to look at if weight matters most.

City breaks: what size?

For a city break in Europe you want a bag that holds a phone, a passport, a slim purse, sunglasses and a folded map, and nothing much else. The Original (20 x 16 x 8cm) and City (23 x 16.5 x 7cm) do this well. If you are the kind of traveller who carries a water bottle and a small umbrella, step up to the Original Plus or City Plus.

A Mini is enough for the evenings. Phone, cards, room key, lipstick. It is also small enough to lie flat in your luggage, so taking two bags costs you almost no space.

Trains and long days

On a train you will want the bag on your lap or across your body rather than on the rack, and a strap that lets it sit comfortably while you are seated. The Original strap adjusts to 125cm and the Original Plus to 142cm, which is enough to wear long over a winter coat. Every bag comes with two free straps of your choice, so you can pick a wide fabric strap for comfort on the long days and a chain or leather strap for the evenings.

The small things that make travel easier

• A passport holder keeps the passport, boarding pass and a card together in one slim case, and stops the passport corners getting bent in the bag.
• A luggage tag in a colour you will spot on the carousel.
• A coin purse for the currency you only use on holiday, so it does not get mixed in with your everyday cards. See the coin purses.
• A spare strap. Straps swap in seconds, so one bag can be worn three ways on one trip.

The Weekend Bag for a night or two away

For a two or three night trip, the Weekend Bag is a leather holdall measuring 49.5 x 32 x 21cm, made in the same full-grain leather as the crossbody bags. It is sized for a weekend away, with the crossbody tucked in on top. Check your airline's cabin size limits before travelling, as they vary. You will find it in our weekend and travel bags collection alongside the passport holders and luggage tags.

A note on leather and weather

Full-grain leather copes well with normal travel. A light shower will not harm it. If it does get properly wet, let it dry naturally away from a radiator and it will be fine. The easy-clean lining means a leaked sun cream is a wipe rather than a disaster.

Every bag we make comes with two free straps and a keyring, together worth £63 in the UK and $77 in the US, and is covered by our 365-day warranty and 30-day returns. We ship worldwide, with free UK delivery over £70 and free US shipping over $100 with no duties to pay, so the bag can be waiting for you before you go.