Osprey Packs Farpoint 55 Travel Backpack

I’ll admit that I was hesitant when it came to purchasing a travel bag. I did endless amounts of research, went to stores to see them in person, and then did even more research. Well, I chose right. I LOVED this bag. It came with me on a three week tour of Europe where I put it through the ringer.I flew out on TAP Portugal who would not let me take it as a carry on. When full it was a little large for their taste but the zip off day pack was key. I was able to dethatch it and keep all of my important items with me for the flight while I converted the main bag into luggage mode and sent it on its way. The zip on cover for the straps was important to me because I have in the past had luggage get snagged during transit. On one occasion it was a snowboard bag and almost the entire strap had been ripped from the bag. With the Farpoint’s cover, I was comfortable in knowing that I was in the clear.Once I arrived in Europe, it took only seconds to reattach the day pack and be on my way. Over the course of my trip, the items that I accumulated filled this bag to bursting. I had to kneel on it to get it closed on my final day. I put a lot of stress on the zippers but they are heavy quality.Pros:Front panel access. You don’t realize how important this is until you lack it. My travel companions didn’t have it and watching them try to find something in their bag was a sight.Osprey Packs Farpoint 55 Travel Backpack, Volcanic Grey, Medium/LargeSide carry handle. Was nice when you wanted to give the shoulders/hips a rest or just didn’t have the time or need to fully wear the bag.Very comfortable. The bag sat perfectly on my hips and I was able to walk long distances with no discomfort.Locking zippers. People have sticky fingers. Sure, they could always cut the bag but the large percentage of thieves are looking for the quick and discrete score. Being able to put a lock on both bags gave me good piece of mind.Warranty. Osprey calls it the All Mighty Guarantee: Any Reason, Any Product, Any Era. This is huge. I beat the hell out of my bag(not intentionally) and it held up but knowing that it would be replaced free of charge if it ripped or a zipper burst puts the mind at ease. It also shows the faith that they put in their product.Cons:Color. Volcanic grey was my favorite of the available colors but I wasn’t in love with it. There should have been more color options. I’d have preferred a true black.Size. It was BARELY too large to be used as my carry on. I always sleep easier on the plane when I have all of my stuff with me.Outer net pockets. They were a touch small. When my bag was filled to the brim, especially during the end of the trip, there was very little that I could fit inside of them.

My wife and I each used this backpack on a two week trip to Scandanavia and Iceland. The backpacks passed the test and are great!The best feature of these backpacks is that they're front-loading. I have an older top-loading backpacking pack that I used to use for international travel and it was such a pain to dig through my stuff from the top. With the Farpoint 55, you can lay it down like a suitcase and get to your stuff easily and quickly. I wanted a L/XL pack, but went with a S/M and it's surprisingly spacious. I overpacked and in the main pack I was able to fit 8 shirts, four pants, two shorts, a sweater, a pair of shoes and flip flops, one sweatpants, one baseball cap, one beanie, my toiletries, many pairs of socks and underwear, and some small electronics. I used packing cubes to keep things organized. In the small daypack, I fit my DSLR in its carrier, along with smaller items like an iPad mini, sunglasses, magazines and a book.I tended to wear my daypack on my front instead of attaching it to the main pack just to maintain a good weight balance. The daypack stayed on my shoulders well when I wore it in front. When I did attach the daypack to the main pack, I felt really off-balance, but that's probably because I overpacked. I never felt too much pressure on my shoulders when walking with the packs. I just tightened the straps to be really secure on my waist, chest, and shoulders, and the different pressure points helped hold up the weight. My wife and I did a few 20-30 minute walks while wearing the packs and it wasn't bad at all (disclaimer: we are in really good physical condition).We were able to take these packs as carry-ons on all our flights. We flew Virgin America, Icelandair, and Norwegian Air, and the packs fit just fine on all planes. They won't fit in smaller regional planes though, but as long as the plane is an A320 or 737 at the least, you won't have a problem. Not one airline official or flight attendant stopped us to question the size of our packs.I agree with some of the other reviewers that the exterior pouches on the daypack need a lot of improvement. The "elastic" at the top of the pouches don't hold things in well. My wife wanted better waist straps for support since she also used to use a backpacking pack for traveling, but after tightening all of her straps she didn't have much of a problem. As for quality, so far I haven't noticed any threading coming apart, and the zippers have been fine.Overall I was really satisfied with the Farpoint 55. The price has even gone down about $25 since I bought them a few months ago. I'll be taking it on two more trips this summer and if anything changes, I'll post an update.

I used this on a month long trip to Chile where I primarily stayed in hostels. I also used it for three weeks when I was sent to another state for work. I got it onto planes no problem by removing the little zip-off backpack part. At home I use the zip-off backpack constantly as my main day pack for hiking. Overall this backpack is great.There were some potential downsides which are worth mentioning since there are other Osprey backpacks that might fit your needs better. First, there were some times in airports where I wished this backpack had some wheels, because it was quite heavy, and sometimes I didn't feel like putting on the backpack to walk somewhere. Second, it lacks pockets on the waist strap that you find on some other models. There were some times where I was walking long distances and I wished I had some waist strap pockets like I saw on the backpacks of some other travelers. Third, there is not a ton of padding on the shoulders. It's still quite comfortable and fine for city travel, but some other packs I've tried had more padding for long-distance treks.This is certainly a nice backpack. Mine still basically looks new and nothing has broken or worn out. Its features seem specifically made for hostel backpacking, mostly through cities. It could be used for outdoor trekking but I think other Osprey backpacks might serve the outdoor traveler a bit more. It gets five stars because it's a great backpack, but make sure you know what you're buying and maybe consider other packs if you're focusing more on outdoor trekking.