All Day Carry Travel Backpack

Just took this on one trip so far. My overall impressions are positive, but I think there are some issues that you should be aware of before purchasing this bag.

Pros:
-Lightweight for its capacity
-Mostly great materials
-Organization is pretty good - lots of options, but not overdone
-Pretty extensive customization options
-Quick comfortable to carry and easy to get the fit right

Cons:
- The material and zipper used to tuck away the shoulder straps appears to be very flimsy, and I predict will fail rather quickly
- Hip belt does not tuck away (this makes it harder to stow away in the overhead bins, or pack up as a checked bag)
- Laptop "compartment" has no padding, and takes up space in the main compartment. This makes is hard to access the laptop easily (especially if you use the internal compression straps to secure stuff in the main compartment)

So, overall pretty decent. But I hope that they will fix the issues in the future iterations of the bag. I've decide to keep the bag and work around the issues, but please think of how much you're willing to deal with and what compromises you're willing to make before purchasing this bag (for example, the Peak Design bag is *much* cleaner in terms of putting away straps, etc., has a better laptop compartment, but is significantly heavier).

I really wanted to like this backpack when I first heard of it and hoped that the 35L would be the right one for me. Unfortunately the main compartment is too shallow, so I’ve purchased the 45L and will return the 35L.

As other reviews have mentioned, there’s a few smaller issues like the zippers struggling to with the corners, narrow openings (especially the laptop compartment), and the the zipper catching on the hydration sleeve mount. But the big one for me is that the main compartment is too shallow (3.75”) for me.

Looking at the 35L and 45L it seems the different volume comes from reducing the depth of the main compartment from 5.75” to 3.75” (my measurement). While the depth of the laptop sleeve pocket remains the same. This limits what I can fit in there and doesn’t work for me. Especially because the laptop sleeve has a narrow opening that limits its usability. So I have one compartment that’s not deep enough and the other with restricted access. IMHO the laptop sleeve should be smaller while the main compartment remains the same size.

Hope this helps other prospective buyers.

Very happy with the fit of this pack with the vest. Feels very secure and doesn’t bounce around while navigating tortuous terrain. Lots of big and little pockets, not sure yet what I will put in them all. The vest straps do fit, but quite tight behind the zippers. Staff went above and beyond, very patient and thorough when I went to the shop. Will be using this generously sized pack on five week Camino.

I’ve used a lot of different ultralight backpacks over my years of wilderness long trail hiking, and frankly, I love them all. And I’ve used these same backpacks when walking Camino routes in Spain and Portugal, and a number of other hut to hut, and albergue to albergue routes elsewhere in the world. But this summer my wife, Katie, and I walked several weeks on the Island Trail, on Prince Edward Island in Canada, with Six Moon Design’s new Travel Pack, and then used it as luggage for several months more of non backpacking travel, and we’re sold. The suspension is terrific, as comfortable, and well balanced as any of the fine ultralight backpacks we’d carried in the past, with lots of cushioning and form fitting built in, yet at the end of the day, the whole thing opens like a fine piece of luggage, and we had instant access to whatever we needed without emptying the whole bag. It has so many compartments we got used to organizing our gear and clothing just as we had when using a traditional suitcase, except that this was a soft piece of luggage, with more little organizational spots, than I’d ever had in a suitcase, and certainly not in any of the backpacks I’d used. We used the organizing bags that Six Moon sells, as they fit perfectly into the main compartment, help organizationally, and also provide structure to the pack when carried.

Toward the end of summer on car travels, I’ve been using it with the straps zipped into their pockets, and it’s side handle for carry, as it’s simply more comfortable in hand than my usual suitcase. But it’s got the added bonus of being able to become a super comfortable day or overnight backpack with a quick zip release of those shoulder straps. Katie has her pack outfitted with the S shoulder straps designed for women, and it’s been as comfortable for her as mine is for me with the standard straps. Katie’s favorite part of the suspension is the hip belt, which is wider than usual, and carries the weight better than any backpack she’s used before. It’s wide, yet flexible. Six Moon has really added to our stable of gear with this new luggage/backpack. Thanks!

Overall I’m pretty happy with this bag and have been using it for over 2 months since getting it in the initial release. I’ve taken it for city and backpacking so can attest to both use cases:

The good:
- Excellent carry comfort! It’s definitely able to take very heavy loads and still feel very reasonable on my back. If you’re female then get the S-straps. I always had a laptop in the back panel but never felt the edges digging into my back which has been an issue with other bags before
- Material is water proof/resistant which gives me added assurance that it’s ok to take out on a rainy day with important gear inside
- Front stretchy pocket, top pocket and side water bottle / long gear bottle are really well designed and offer great expandability for dirty clothes, fast grab items and wide Nalgenes

Needs improvement:
- Laptop pocket in the back panel has many issues. The opening is just barely big enough to squeeze a MacBook 16” and it feels like I’m struggling every time. Due to the lightweight configuration there’s every little padding and the frame of the bag interferes with inserting and removing the laptop when the bag is fully loaded. The frame juts out into the pocket and causes the laptop to get stuck.
- Front pocket full length is just awkward. It’s a bit too long and narrow that I haven’t found a good use case for what to put into it without things getting lost. Personally I think it would’ve been better to make this a full open pocket with more organization so that you can see everything inside. Or just remove it altogether and give more storage to the main pocket and add an external top pocket for a bit more organization.
- Main pocket is a bit too floppy. I get that this comes at the cost of weight savings but it just collapses on itself when the front section of the bag is loaded and you have to really jigsaw things into place. It really feels like a UL backpacking bag than a travel bag in this instance.
- The bag is too angular that sometimes the zippers will get caught on corners. It’s something that has improved since use but could be better.