Advnture Verdict
At first the Yeti Camino seems like an oddity - a bag made from hard as nails waterproof materials, but with an entirely open top that's not going to stop anything getting wet. But that's not what it's for. The Camino is designed for hauling heavy mucky kit, and keeping it away from everything else. You can stack it with firewood, load it with sodden wetsuits, or stuff it with a picnic and chuck it on a muddy riverbank or sandy beach in the confidence that you can just hose it down later and it'll be as good as new again
Pros
- +
Tough as nails construction
- +
Welded flat bottom is fully waterproof
- +
Well padded shoulder straps
- +
Easy to load and unload
- +
Wipe clean shell
- +
Lots of colors to choose from
Cons
- -
Already fairly heavy when empty
- -
Not fully waterproof as the top doesn’t zip or roll shut
- -
No drainage valve
You can trust Advnture Our expert reviewers spend days testing and comparing gear so you know how it will perform out in the real world. Find out more about how we test and compare products.
Meet the reviewer
Rosee Woodland developed a taste for adventure at a young age, growing up in a home where camping was the default holiday, and good weather was a vacation bonus rather than a necessity. After bike-packing the length of France in her mid teens with her family, she started to undertake solo forays in her 20s, usually without the benefit of much technical gear at all. Happily, the years she later spent as a mountain biking journalist eventually gave her an appreciation of decent kit! These days she loves a water-based adventure, and is an outdoor swim coach, and a keen free diver. She has a soft spot for Northern Ireland's Mourne mountains, and can also be found hiking and kayaking in Pembrokeshire and the South West of the UK.
Yeti Camino 35L carry-all: first impressions
• List price: £150 (UK)
• Materials: Thick Skin shell (synthetic); EVA molded rubber base
• Weight (empty): 1.4kg / 3.08lb
• Sizes available: 20L, 35L, 50L
• Colors: Crossover / Big wave blue / Agave teal / King Crab / Black / Storm grey / Navy / Bimini pink / Harvest red
• Best use: Wild swimming, sailing, camping
The Yeti Camino is a tough as nails bag that does double duty to protect your kit in wet environments, and also keeps sodden gear from leaking everywhere, thanks to its excellent waterproofing. It would be a push to call it a dry bag, but it's a great bag to use in wet environments.
It comes in three sizes; 35L (the one we tested here), the smaller 20L and the very large 50L version.
Firm sides and a flat bottom mean that this tote will just stand up on its own, so you can leave it upright in a car boot or on a boat deck, safe in the knowledge that anything in it won’t get wet (unless a wave comes over the side!)
The 35L is perfect for a swim wetsuit, towel, water shoes, post-swim flask, and changing robe (as long as it’s not too bulky). And it’s actually big enough that in theory you can stand in the bottom of it, strip off your wild swimming gear and dump it straight in, saving the need to bring a separate changing mat or extra towel to stand on. In practice, this was a little fiddlier than it sounds with my UK size 8 feet, but is worth considering in a pinch, especially if you’re in a muddy or sandy environment and don’t want to get your feet dirty - or any dirtier than they already are, anyway.
Yeti Camino 35L carry-all: in the field
Weighing in at 1.4kg / 3.08lb, this isn’t a light bag, and the lack of backpack straps means it’s best suited to lugging kit between a camper van and the beach, or stowing on board your rich mate’s yacht, rather than hiking to a remote wild swimming spot. But it does what it’s designed for perfectly and, while it’s not cheap, it's so tough we think it should last a lifetime.
If you need a small waterproof compartment for your valuables, Yeti recommend their Sidekick Dry Gear Case, which you can attach to the Camino using the Hitchpoint webbing loops and Velcro pad on one side, although it’ll set you back an extra £50.
Waterproofing
The bottom of the bag has a ThickSkin Shell welded-rubber construction that is completely waterproof, so you can just tip out any water when you get home, although we’d have welcomed a draining valve as well.
The open top and lack of insulation means it’s not suitable as a cooler, but it’s so capacious and strong that you’ll find plenty of other uses for it.
The rigid sides are double walled, meaning that water will struggle to get through and it dries impressively quickly.
There are two generous water resistant inner pockets, two large inner pull-out dividers, and plenty of webbing Hitchpoint loops on each side of the bag, creating an obvious place to clip on carabiners, or even tie on a waste sack if you’re doing a beach clean up before indulging in a picnic (you could definitely get a picnic blanket in it, with plenty of room left for a big lunch). You can also close the top with a small slide through clip. This felt a little stiff at first, and might be tricky with cold wet hands, but it’s a minor quibble.
Harness and handles
We like the reinforced horizontal Crossbar grab handles that sit parallel to the top of the bag, which allow you to hold it with one hand, as well as loop it over your shoulder using the longer heavy duty webbing straps. These straps are multi-layered and padded where they sit on the shoulder, adding some comfort where they might otherwise dig in and cause extra discomfort when carrying heavier items.
This bag has been tested to carry up to 680kg / 1,500lb of kit - not something we’d recommend you try! But it does mean you can be confident it’ll deal with anything you can throw at it, weight-wise.
So no, the Yeti Camino isn't a dry bag, and it's not cheap either. But it is a real workhorse with an extended life span, and we reckon if you see it as a cost-per-use bit of kit it'll end up seeming cheap at the price as you keep using it again and again over a (very) long time.
