If you have an adventurous spirit, a duffel bag can be one of your most valuable pieces of gear. These brawny bags come in a variety of sizes, materials, and designs to suit everything from far-flung expeditions to weekend cabin getaways. So how do you choose the right one for your next trip? To help, we tapped the expertise of several longtime GearLab contributors: Maggie Nichols, Miya Tsudome, Nick Bruckbauer, and Hale Milano. They have all traveled the world and spent months living out of their duffel bags. They’ve snorkeled in Thailand and the Maldives, hiked in Nepal and Alaska, and climbed 14ers all over the country. And they’ve all hauled their gear in some of the toughest duffels money can buy.

We wrangled 25 of the best comprehensive duffel bag guide on the market and put them through real-world testing over six months on dusty international overland adventures in Africa and remote climbing expeditions in Mexico. We looked for durability, ease of transport and travel, organizational features, and weather resistance. Only the best of the best made it into our comprehensive guide.

To make it into our list, a duffel had to be tough enough to protect and transport hefty loads of technical gear like climbing and skiing equipment and scuba diving gear. It also had to be light enough to justify carrying for long trips and fit into airline baggage weight limits. And it had to have thoughtful features to keep your gear organized and easy to access on the road.

The best duffels are typically crafted from durable, weather-resistant fabrics that offer plenty of space for your gear. Often, the fabric’s denier—which is a measure of how thick each thread is—is a good indicator of a bag’s strength and durability. The Black Hole from Patagonia, for example, is built from a durable 900-denier ripstop nylon with a TPU film laminate that adds some water resistance.

Other design touches that set the best duffels apart include a variety of carry options that let you lug them in comfort and on all kinds of terrain. From simple side handles to a removable backpack harness that stows into a pocket, manufacturers try to strike the balance between streamlined looks and comfortable transport.