The Viral Travel Backpack: Worth it?
June 15, 2023
If you have been anywhere on social media these days, then you know the #1 summer travel essential stealing the spotlight– The Travel Backpack. As a frequent flyer and traveler, I had to see if the backpack was all it was said to be. With an upcoming quick 5-day trip on the horizon, I placed an order for 3 of the most popular travel backpacks to choose one for the occasion.
What is it?
If you are lucky enough not to have the backpack all over your for you page, then you might not think “Why am I wasting my time reading an amazing blog post about a backpack?” So let me paint the picture for you:
Travel has gotten more expensive by the DAY. So, you, being the independent, intelligent, and beautiful person that you think to book a budget airline, you know the one where you may or may not be charged to ride the lifeboat in the event of a water landing. Yeah, that one.
It’s only going to be a short trip, so you skip buying the checked bag or carry-on item for a measly $75 and decide to make do with a personal item, your trusty college backpack. You stuff your life into that backpack, fly no problem to your destination, and are finally ready to lie down after a long day.
Then you realize you packed your PJs at the bottom of the bag, so there you are, late at night, dumping everything out onto a bed you are about to sleep in just to find your PJs waaaay at the bottom of your trusty backpack.
I have fallen into that exact situation one too many times. Once I saw this backpack and how it worked, I knew it was going to be love on first trip. This is not just any backpack—it opens like a suitcase. Completely eliminating the deep dive to the bottom of the backpack for a fresh pair of socks while unfolding everything on your way down.
As mentioned previously, I ordered 3 of the backpacks to choose from for my trip home with the criteria that they needed to fit my 15-inch MacBook Pro that I needed for remote work. Two of the bags were from the same brand in varied sizes and the other was the same size as one of the others but had a different pocket setup. I ended up going with the largest of the 3 since Pennsylvania and Delaware were nowhere close to reaching our 90-degree Texas weather and I was likely to need layers!
Spoiler Alert: I loved traveling with this bag! Even with the slight hiccup (more on that later). Let’s start by talking about why I loved traveling with this bag so much.
Carry-On Functionality
I know I have already mentioned it but let me say it one more time to really drive this home. It functions like a carry-on suitcase! It completely folds in half to zip close and has the same elastic strap closure inside that a suitcase has. It also has a waterproof pocket for toiletries and another small pocket for makeup or other small essentials.
Plenty of Storage
When it comes to storage capacity, this backpack does not disappoint. I stuffed 5-days’ worth of clothes into the clothing compartment and had room for a pair of sneakers.
Fit for Tech
Fortunately, and unfortunately, most of the time I am traveling, I am working. So having a place dedicated to my laptop was essential. This pocket easily fits my laptop and iPad. It also helped that the tech sleeve is separate from the rest of the back for ease of access during security and on the plane for entertainment.
Sizes and Colors
The last wonderful thing about these bags is they come in multiple sizes and colors. I choose the largest option due to the weather difference, but if you are just going to the beach and only need a few things to travel with, the smaller sizes would work perfectly. They also had a wide range of colors to pick from!
Sounds great, right!? Well, we need to talk about the hiccup I had while using this almost perfect bag.
It can be heavy…
The bag is the size of my torso, so fully loaded with clothes, it can be pretty heavy and challenging to carry for extended periods of time.
Quality
In full transparency, the backpack is good enough to be used for car and plane travel. I would not use this back for backpacking or for anything where the bag is going to be “put to the test.” The fabric is water-wicking, but it does not feel as durable as my NorthFace backpacks do. To be fair, the bag was less than $60; that’s about half the cost of my NorthFace bag.
The hiccup.
On many of my trips, including this one, we were flying with our favorite budget airlines—Spirit and Frontier. If you have ever flown these airlines, then you know that your personal item has to fit in a metal container, or they will charge for a carry-on. I had this backpack way overloaded, so it was not a surprise to me that I was asked to size my bag—It didn’t fit.
There was no way I was going to pay $75 for a carry-on; I might as well have flown American. So, my fiancé and I started removing things from the bag until it fit. And yes, I did put the items back in the bag once we were on the plane. This scenario happened both to and from our destination, but both times I avoided paying the extra money. Unfortunately, I was singled out in this scenario because there were others with large bags being left on no problem, but this is a gamble you make when you overstuff the largest size of the travel backpack.
Even with this unfortunate scenario, I already have two trips planned to do it all again. So yes, I highly recommend this viral Travel Backpack. Its functionality is amazing and serves all my needs for my quick trips.
Happy Travels!