travel backpacks - size & features

Size of your pack

If you're buying a new pack, what size should you buy? My mum bought me a 60 Litre pack for my first school camp when I was 12 and I've been using the same one for camps, hiking and travel ever since. It's a little worse for wear and needed some patch ups for holes and re-stiching to reinforce the seams but I love using it and won't buy a new one until it totally falls apart, or is lost or stolen by someone.

From the numerous trips I have travelled and backpacked, I believe 60L is a good size. Not too small and not too large. Over the years, I have become very efficient with packing and can cram a lot into the pack. You too will be surprised with how much you can fit into a pack (just make sure there aren’t too many breakable goods!).  However, it is not that small where you can't fit enough in.

Choosing a smaller pack?

The danger of choosing a smaller pack are whether you have enough room to fit in all the things you buy along the way.  You will accumulate a lot of stuff on your travels and it will be a shame if you need to leave something behind because you don't have enough space to carry it. You also don't want to be selective about the souvenirs you can buy along your travels.

If you are concerned about the size of your pack and how heavy it may end up being, be reassured that you will become a lot more adept at carrying it. You will become more used to it and more comfortable the more you travel with it. So any worries about a pack being too big may not be justified.

You may choose to have a pack smaller than 60 litres simply because you don’t need all that space. This is completely justifiable as you always hear people recommended you to take out half the stuff you originally packed because you won't use it.  Unpacking half of your stuff will of course give you heaps of extra space.

Choosing a smaller pack will obviously be easier to carry. You will be a lot more mobile and can easily carry the smaller pack around.  But you will have to consider whether the space limitation is too restrictive.

Choosing a larger pack?

Obviously you can pack more in but will you be able to carry it? I've seen people struggle carrying full 85L travel backpacks. It's difficult to put onto your back, difficult to walk around in and you may struggle on a crowded bus or train. You may also resign yourself to catching taxis instead of walking and taking public transport - which will cost you extra money. It may not even be possible to fly via budget airlines with a full 85L pack without paying for additional baggage. These are all things to consider if you are looking to buy a backpack for your backpacking trip.

Detachable day pack

I think the essential feature for travel backpacks are that they have a detachable day pack. This again provides you with options as you can use the detachable day pack as your usual daily bag.

If you end up running out of space, you can pack extra stuff into the day pack and leave it as a permanent attachment to your backpack.  You can always buy a small day pack to carry around. 

But be careful with the detachable pack.  I'd suggest finding one which straps on (or at least has a high quality zip) because my zip was very difficult to use after about 6-7 times – it basically fell apart.

Hiking style backpack

Hiking style travel backpacks come with the large flap over the top and water proofing components.  I think they are incredibly useful and great to travel with.  My only issue lies with the fact that it has many zips and compartments to it. You might need a lot of locks to ensure people don’t steal your stuff of put things into your pack. This is a concern if you aren't particularly trusting of people, which can be hard when you are first starting to backpack on your travels.

Read about:

• why use a travel backpack?
• choose a backpack part 1
• choose a backpack part 2
• other things to take – sleeping bag, books, Ipod, digital camera
• choosing quality sleeping bags
• carry on luggage restrictions

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