10 BEST Ski Bags of 2023

Traveling with skis isn’t simple. They are big, awkwardly shaped objects, you have to pay extra to check them, and the last thing you want is for your expensive skis to get damaged. A good ski bag is essential for ski travel, but there are so many out there to choose from. How do you find the best ski bags?

A good ski bag needs to be protective, most importantly. It should have good padding and structure to protect your ski gear from scratches and bumps during travel. You also want one that’s easy to carry through the airport and that has room and organization for all your ski gear.

Of course, it won’t be one size fits all. Here are the 10 best ski bags. Plus, I’ll break down where each one excels so you can find the best one for you.

Db is a Norwegian company that was founded by a professional freeskier and an engineer. They teamed up in 2009, and in 2012, their original ski bag design was a finalist for Innovation of the Year at ISPO, the largest outdoor product trade show in the world.

Since then, Db has branched out to include a full range of travel and ski gear including backpacks, luggage, surf bags, and more. They still stick to their roots though, and make some awesome gear for skiers and snowboarders.

The Db Snowroller 70L is a padded ski bag that offers fantastic protection, innovative features, and a sleek, no-nonsense design that’s easy to use. It easily fits up to two pairs of skis and poles—or one pair of skis plus your helmet, a pair of boots, all your ski clothing, and the rest of your gear for your trip.

The biggest advantage of the Snowroller is how protective it is. There is ample padding throughout the bag, and it uses Db’s innovative “Rib Cage Technology.” Essentially, that just means there are stiff plastic inserts along the sides that add extra structure and protection.

If you want the ultimate protection for your skis, a hard case is the way to go. This comes pretty close though, and it’s way more versatile.

Plus, since it’s a roller bag with sturdy wheels, it’s easy to maneuver through the airport, even when it’s loaded up with ski gear.

The Db Snowroller is fully length-adjustable, meaning you can fit it precisely to the length of your skis (up to 210 cm). It’s very easy to adjust: you just load your skis, zip it closed, fold the top over to fit your skis, and clip it into position. Simple as that! Plus, the adjustability means it works just as well as a ski or snowboard bag.

It’s also fully compressible. It rolls into a compact little package so it doesn’t take up extra room at home.

Build quality is where the Db Snowroller really stands out. This ski roller bag is tough and uses high-quality fabrics and materials. You’ll easily get years of frequent use before seeing any serious wear and tear.

Want more space? They also have a 127L Snowroller.

If you’re scraping pennies to save up for a dream ski trip, you may not have much cash to blow on a ski bag, fortunately, there are affordable options that still offer great protection for your gear.

The Athletico Mogul is a simple, functional bag that won’t break the bank. It doesn’t have all the fancy features of more expensive bags, but it does the job. Most importantly, it is fully padded with dense foam to protect your skis from damage.

This ski bag has room for one pair of skis, poles, and clothing. It comes in two different lengths depending on the size of your skis: 170 cm and 185 cm. Unfortunately, that means it won’t work for anyone riding a really long pair of boards.

The full-length zipper makes it super easy to load in your skis.

One big downside is that this is not a roller ski bag. There are no wheels, just a padded shoulder strap. That’s less convenient for airport travel, but it’s a tradeoff you make for the price.

Thule is another Scandinavian company that is best known for their car roof and hitch racks for skis, bikes, and more. Nowadays, they also sell a wide range of luggage and bags. Their products are well-built and prioritize functionality.

If your ski bag doesn’t have space for your ski boots or other gear, you’ll want to look at a dedicated boot bag to carry those awkwardly shaped items. A good boot bag should do more than just carry boots, though.

The Thule RoundTrip 45L is a highly functional boot backpack that’s designed to keep your boots, helmet, goggles, and other ski and snowboard gear safe and organized.

The heart of this backpack is the boot compartment. It’s perfectly shaped to hold snowboard or ski boots securely without wasting any space. It’s easy to access through a wide-opening zippered back panel.

Once you open the back panel, it can lay down flat on the ground. That gives you a place to stand while you change into your boots. No more stepping on the cold snow in your socks or precariously balancing on one foot.

Beyond just holding your boots, the Thule RoundTrip Ski Boot Backpack also has space for a helmet, goggles, and more. There are multiple zippered compartments to keep things organized, and the entire backpack is padded to protect your gear.

Dakine was founded in Hawaii in 1979. That may sound like a strange start for a company that makes ski bags, but Dakine actually started by making surfing gear. The company is now located at the base of Mt. Hood in Oregon. They build some of the best packs and bags for skiers, snowboarders, surfers, and other outdoor adventurers.

When you’re traveling around the world with your skis, you need a ski bag that can keep your skis secure and protected, and it has to make traveling through the airport as easy as possible.

The Dakine Fall Line is a roller ski bag that’s perfectly suited to air travel. With room for two pairs of skis plus gear, this double ski bag is ready for weekend jaunts to the mountains or epic multi-week winter adventures.

The Dakine Fall Line ski roller bag is very well-built and offers tons of padding to keep your gear safe through the horrors that checked luggage goes through.

There’s a zippered external pocket that’s great for keeping smaller items like gloves, hats, or any travel documents you need on your ski trips.

The Dakine Fall Line ski roller comes with a removable boot bag that makes it easy to store your chunky ski boots.

If you prefer having both your feet strapped to a single board, there is also a snowboard rolling bag equivalent to the Dakine Fall Line Ski Roller called the Low Roller.

For over 15 years, Evoc has been creating innovative designs for outdoor gear. From the first ski touring pack with back protection to the first dedicated travel bag for checking a bike on an airplane, they’ve made some important innovations in the pack and bag world.

If you’re looking for a rolling luggage bag to carry your skis, the Evoc Ski Roller is the perfect solution. With silent, smooth, and sturdy wheels, this snow roller outperforms most ski bags when it comes to ease of transport around the airport.

This ski roller bag is well-built with plenty of padding, durable materials, and burly wheels that can take a beating. If you do ever break them, the wheels are replaceable. That’s an easy-to-overlook advantage that could make this roller bag last a lot longer.

There isn’t much in terms of organization: no extra pockets or compartments inside the bag. If you want a padded ski bag with some more organization, you may want to check out the Dakine Boundary Ski Roller or the Thule Roundtrip Ski Bag.

If you want more space (or need a ski and snowboard bag), you should also check out the Evoc Snow Gear Roller. This bigger bag has room for multiple snowboards or up to three pairs of skis.

Backcountry started solely as an online retailer of outdoor gear. Now, they’ve built out their own brand with a wide range of capable outdoor gear ranging from outerwear to backpacks.

Most of the ski roller travel bags on this list can fit two pairs of skis, but if you want the best one that’s specifically designed as a double ski bag (with room for more gear), the Backcountry Double Ski & Snowboard Bag is a great choice.

The Backcountry Double Ski & Snowboard Bag fits two snowboards or two pairs of skis with ease. Usually, you have to choose either a ski or snowboard bag, so the versatility here is awesome for anyone who does more than one sport.

This roller ski bag has an adjustable length that lets you shrink it down to fit your ski/snowboard. It’s not quite as easy to adjust as the Db Snow Roller, but the zippered compartment is easier to access without undoing the length adjustment clips.

Unfortunately, it’s one of the more expensive options on this list, so the Backcountry Double Ski and Snowboard Bag isn’t for everyone.

Backcountry ski trips can take you farther off the beaten path than typical ski resort trips. While a roller bag is the most convenient for cruising around the airport, it quickly becomes a disadvantage if you have to carry your bag anywhere off smooth, paved surfaces.

The Thule RoundTrip combines a padded, protective ski sleeve design with a lower-profile lightweight construction and easy-to-carry shoulder strap. It’s simple, functional, and works great for carrying your skis when traveling to a backcountry ski destination.

This padded ski bag fits one pair of skis and poles. It features a unique full-length s-shaped zipper opening that makes it easy to open up wide for packing your skis and gear.

There is a dedicated pole compartment inside the bag to keep your ski poles from rattling around.

External compression straps let you cinch the whole bag down to hold everything in place. That means your skis aren’t sliding around inside, and they’re less likely to get scratched.

The Thule Roundtrip Ski Bag is pretty light on features. There aren’t any zippered organization pockets or compartments. It’s simple. Some people may prefer more features, but for many ski travelers, this fits the bill perfectly.

Sportube was started back in the ‘90s after founder Paul Hields saw firsthand how many skis and snowboards get damaged during travel. Looking for a better solution, he designed the first hard-sided ski travel case.

Unlike softside ski travel bags, the Sportube Series 2 offers fully rigid protection for your skis and equipment. It’s the most fool-proof, fail-safe solution for checking your skis on a flight or even shipping them with UPS or FedEx. It’s sized to fit two pairs of skis and poles.

As a hardside travel case, it may come as a surprise that the Sportube Series 2 is length-adjustable. It’s made of two sections that telescope inside each other, which lets you adjust the length to perfectly fit your pair of skis.

It also has two durable wheels built in that make it much easier to lug around the airport.

Admittedly, the Sportube Series 2 is going to be a bit heavier than typical ski and snowboard bags. That’s a small price to pay for amazing protection, though.

If you don’t need quite as much space as the Sportube Series 2, the Series 1 case fits 1 pair of skis. If you want to go bigger, the Series 3 ski and snowboard case fits three pairs of skis or two snowboards with boots and bindings.

If a simple ski sleeve with one big compartment won’t cut it, the Dakine Boundary Ski Roller is a full-featured ski or snowboard bag that has pockets and organization galore.

This Dakine padded ski sleeve has a removable boot bag, vented stuff sacks for ski pants and ski jackets, and two external zippered pockets to keep smaller items organized.

This padded bag has plenty of structure to protect your skis. The burly construction combined with the heavy-duty water-resistant materials makes for a travel bag that will stand the test of time.

It isn’t cheap, though, so if you don’t need all the features, you may want to look at simpler ski bags. The Dakine Fall Line ski roller bag offers a fairly simple design for $100 less.

If you want the toughest, most organized, most feature-packed ski travel bag on the market, the Dakine Boundary Ski Roller is probably the right ski bag for you.

For traveling with Nordic skis, your standard ski or snowboard rolling bag is going to be overkill in terms of size. cross-country skis just take up less space, and it isn’t necessary to have a big double ski bag designed for alpine gear.

The Fischer Eco XC is a single-ski bag designed specifically for cross-country or skate skis. It’s compact, lightweight, foldable, and simple. It’s sized to fit one pair of cross-country skis and poles without any unnecessary extra space or bulk.

There isn’t much else to mention about this simple ski sleeve. It’s durable, simple, and well-made. In the end, it just works.

The biggest downside is that it doesn’t offer great protection for your skis. If you want a more protective option, the Dakine Padded Ski Sleeve is still simple and compact, but with a bit more padding.

How to Choose the Best Ski Bag

There is no one single ski bag that’s best for everyone. While the options on this list are all great, finding the right ski bag for you depends on a variety of factors.

Here are some of the most important considerations when choosing a ski or snowboard bag:

Size

First, you’ll need to decide on the size of the ski bag you need. Most ski bags out there can fit one, two, or three pairs of skis.

In general, I recommend you buy a bag with room for two pairs of skis. That gives you options to bring two different pairs, travel with a friend, or have extra space for boots, a helmet, snow pants, and other gear.

If you want a snowboard rolling bag, most three-pair ski bags also have room for two or more snowboards for the best versatility.

Protection

One of the most important functions of a padded ski bag is protecting your skis from damage during travel. You want to look for a well-padded bag with heavy-duty construction and enough structure to protect your skis from scratches or impacts.

The best protection comes with a hard-sided bag, but that may not be for everyone. There are some great padded bags out there that offer plenty of protection.

Materials and Durability

Build quality is key when you’re carrying around a bunch of heavy gear with sharp edges and points. Look for durable, water-resistant materials that can handle some wear and tear.

I also like to look at a company’s warranty as a general indication of their quality. If they offer a really good lifetime warranty on their products, that means they stand behind what they make and trust it not to break.

Why Trust TravelFreak?

Here at TravelFreak, we only recommend products we actually like and trust. Our team is made of avid travelers and adventurers, and all our recommendations are based on our own real-world experience, not just specs or contrived “lab” tests. We test products on our own travels around the globe. The ones we don’t want to use ourselves don’t make the cut.

I’ve been skiing since I was four years old, and keeping my skis safe and protected during travel is important to me. I’ve researched dozens of different ski bags from the top brands, and the ones that made this list are the best of the best. 

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