With all of the recent travel chaos and lost luggage stories, many folks are turning to carry on luggage as their next option for overseas travel. As I've
, there are numerous choices that will be acceptable for airline overhead bin storage (55 x 40 x 23 cms), but if you're like us, many of the places we will go require traversing many blocks of cobblestone streets, or have numerous stairs or hills that we'd encounter. So when I started looking for travel backpacks for both of us prior to our 2022 Eastern Europe trip, I did all of the usual Google searches, and came up with far too many options for backpacks. I realised that was due to the fact that everyone has different needs, and you really can't have a one-size fits all travel backpack. Or can you? If you're the kind of person that needs a backpack most of the time, and only a duffel bag occasionally, then you can stop reading now.
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| A little travel laundry kit |
Let's back up to what I think are typical needs, and that will eliminate many outliers in your search. The fact that you're reading this means that you are prepared to pack for only 6 days or so, and
do laundry along the way. You've either had trips where you came home with clothes you didn't wear, or saw folks lugging huge cases around the old town area because it was too bumpy to use the wheels. And if you're amongst the majority of folks, you're not planning on going hiking with all of your clothes and gear on your back; you just need a convenient way to get it all from the train station to your hotel or Airbnb. 15 minutes walk? No problem. Anything longer, or if it is pouring rain, you'll catch a taxi or Uber. Once you're at your destination, you've either dropped off your bags, or checked them somewhere, and you're off day-touring with
your man bag and her travel purse. If this description sounds like you, here are what I think are the basics for your carry on backpack wish list:
- Maximum dimensions 55 x 40 x 23 cms (21.5" x 15.5" x 9")
- Approx. 40 litres volume; 35 litres for her and 45 litres for him
- Weight of ~1.5 kgs (3.25 lbs.) or less
- Reasonably comfortable, tuck-away backpack straps and hip belt
- Single main storage compartment (vs. divided)
- Slightly structured/padded sides so that the pack retains its shape
- Ideally, a suitcase-style opening vs. clamshell
- Simple exterior with a rectangular-ish design
- Some simple organisation pockets for smaller item storage
What size backpack?
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| Illustration: Sarah MacReading |
Ok, so how much space do you really need? From a practical standpoint, I'd say as much as you can get away with. But while my math on the maximum carry on size should yield 50 litres, you really can't attain that, with the physical constraints of the backpack, and adding things like straps, padding etc. But for most men, your torso is going to be a pretty good fit for a 45 litre backpack, so you might as well take advantage of that. For her, you might have to drop down to a 35 litre bag, not from a weight perspective, but because the bigger backpacks won't fit as well. 80 total litres will be sufficient for
the clothing you need for spring through early fall trips; don't forget that you will be wearing your bulky items on the plane.
Why you don't need tons of features
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| You'll likely have a day bag |
Rick Steves talks about bringing just one backpack for travel, but when you see him on his shows, he always has a small backpack on his shoulder, and likely you will too. Whether it's a 15 litre daypack, or a 5 litre crossbody bag, it will hold all of your necessary items that you need easily accessible for the plane, as well as your day touring requirements (I just purchased the
Travelon Courier Tour bag pictured here). That's why I'd say that you don't need a ton of organisational capabilities for your primary piece of luggage, as most of the good stuff will be in your day bag. e.g. You don't need a USB charging port, or a water bottle pocket on your carry on backpack; it's going to be in the overhead bin or back at the hotel when you need those things. I actually bought a new, unused
eBags Motherlode Jr. bag for her, but after closer inspection, it had too many features that deterred from the basic function of packing clothes. It's a great deal for a smallish 3-4 day bag, or perfect for weekend travel; it sold quickly on FB Marketplace.
I found
this NY Times article informative, but didn’t agree with their recommended bag choices. There are tons of bags that fit the size requirements for carry on on Amazon, most are quite inexpensive. But I'd tend to steer clear of the all-in-one types, or ones that tout tons of pockets and features, but cheap out on the backpack straps and hip belt for carrying. You also don't need all sorts of handles on every side; they just get caught on things. Another thing that many of these Amazon bags lack, is any padding or structure to the bag, and so the load tends to sag, even if you've got the compression straps cinched up. Speaking of that, try to avoid compression straps that are on the outside of the main compartment zipper. e.g. I had also purchased an older, used Tatonka Flightcase 1150, but you had to undo/redo the compression straps each time you accessed the main compartment. It was still a very comfortable backpack with sturdy construction; as such, it went quickly on FB Marketplace as well.
Types of opening style
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| Cotopaxi Allpa 42 clamshell |
The other reason I sold the Flightcase, is that it was a clamshell opening; the main compartment had a secondary zipped partition, and a decent amount of the volume was used up by the front compartment that I felt lacked real world usability. Packed to capacity, it would actually be fairly easy to exceed the maximum depth for carry on as well. With bags that have only one large, main compartment with a suitcase-style opening, the space can be filled to the traveller's liking, either using packing cubes or simply folding or rolling your clothes as you best see fit.
The new Tatonka Flightcase has solved these concerns, but unfortunately being mostly sold in Europe, there weren't any of these floating around on the used market. Any of the clamshell opening bags require that you have secondary zipped mesh dividers, or else your stuff would spill out when you try to open or close it. As such, highly rated bags like the
Cotopaxi Allpa force you to divide your stuff into the two sides of the bag, minimising versatility in my opinion.
Keep it simple
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| Her RS convertible backpack |
It's hard to find a travel backpack these days that
doesn't have a dedicated space for a laptop, which I dislike, as I never need to bring one. Yes, I know that when empty, the void literally does not take up space, but there's extra padding there that you don't need. I've only encountered one backpack that does not have a laptop slot, the
Rick Steves convertible backpack. Since he designed the bag, it's no surprise that his almost meets all of my criteria for the perfect carry on backpack. I actually found one for free on Facebook, and she used it for our Croatia trip, but found it a little uncomfortable when worn for longer periods. I would have preferred some minimal padding to give the bag some structure, and the shoulder straps/waist belt could be a little more substantial. The price was definitely right, but even at full retail from his site, it's still on my list of decent packs.
Travel backpack unicorn?
The one bag that I found on the web that seemed to meet all of my requirements, was the Tortuga Setout. Again, a very simple design, with all the bells but no whistles; their highly touted, more expensive Outbreaker model has too many organisational features and pockets that you don't need, and it is almost a kilo heavier. With 45 litre and 35 litre models, the Setout would be a perfect his n' hers set. With careful packing, you can easily distribute two travellers' contents across a total of 80 litres. Unfortunately, the Setout was not as popular as their Outbreaker model, and was discontinued in 2021. They have a new model called the
Travel Backpack 40L, which looks excellent and is much like the old Setout, but at $349 USD, is very expensive. But if you're scouring FB Marketplace, and a Tortuga Setout comes up, buy it!
Good enough?
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| Illustration: Sarah MacReading |
In the end, I came across a highly-rated backpack on FB Marketplace called the
Osprey Porter 46. It ticked off the important boxes on my must-have list, namely single main compartment, bag with structure, and good straps/waist belt. I'd say that the comfort level of this backpack exceeds what we need, as you could probably walk around for hours with this and 8 kgs on your back. However, it is a front-panel loader; I would have preferred a traditional suitcase-style opening, but it has not been problematic. It does have external compression straps, but the design of the compression system gives the bag structure and can really bring down the volume; at 46 litres, this bag is technically a little larger than carry on size, but can be cinched down to meet the size requirements. For you true, one-bag travellers, this is it; with a laptop sleeve and organisation slots, it has almost everything you need. She liked mine so much, that we now have two of these!
Other backpacks to watch for
There are two other bags from Osprey to keep on your list to watch for are the
Farpoint 40 and
Fairview 40 (his n' hers) backpacks. Very similar design to the Porter 46, with very good backpack capabilities and due to their popularity, they often come up for sale on the used market. The other bag from Osprey that I might have bought if it came up for a decent price in FB Marketplace would be the
Osprey Transporter Carry-on 44. With a more rectangular profile, it doesn't give up any space that the Porter or Fairview models do with their rounded corners. The one drawback for me is the main compartment is divided into lower 2/3 and upper 1/3 areas, with zippered partitions; I don't think it would be a deal-breaker for me however, if I found a used one at a decent price.
Close, but not close enough
In the end, what I really wanted was a somewhat rectangular bag, with some structure to it, and backpack straps for the odd time we need to carry our stuff to/from the train station. The discontinued Arc'teryx Covert Carry On, beautiful in its simplicity, was almost the perfect bag, but there are too many bad reviews about how uncomfortable the backpack straps are. But as you can see, there are a ton of options out there, and you don't necessarily need to spend $250+ USD for a travel backpack. But if you come up with a list of bags that meet 80% of what you are looking for, then you know what to watch for on the used market. Both our bags worked well for us on our recent trip to Europe, so we don't need to change anything, but it's interesting to see how these bags are evolving; e.g. they seem to be less and less concerned with hiking-like features, and more along what I outlined in my use-case profile.
